Abstract

VICHI, Christian  and  TOURINHO, Emmanuel Zagury. Cultural Consequences X Behavioral Consequences in Small Groups' Experimental Literature. Acta comport. [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.2, pp. 201-215. ISSN 0188-8145.

After Skinner's proposal of selection by consequences model, few concepts have been suggested to explain cultural phenomena from an epistemological explanation consistent with the behavior-analytic system, such as metacontingencies, macrocontingencies, macrobehaviors, aggregate products and cumulative products. The aim of this paper is to discuss under which conditions a particular study involves the manipulation of operant social behavior and under which conditions involves the manipulation of cultural selection. This is done by reviewing some empirical studies in the domain of experimental analysis of behavior, experimental social psychology, experimental sociology, and behavioral sociology that manipulated cultural or behavioral independent variables. Eight experimental studies are discussed, two of them with behavioral manipulation of the social interaction of participants in a group and four studies in which there were manipulation of cultural variables. The paper analyzes the variables designated as dependent and independent, in order to identify the similarities and differences between both types of manipulation (operant lineages or cultural lineages). It also raises some problems encountered in the literature and suggests possible directions for future experimental research.

Keywords : Behavioral analysis of culture; cultural selection; experiments with groups; interlocking behavioral contingencies; metacontingencies.

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