Abstract

BENVENUTI, Marcelo Frota Lobato. Contact with reality, beliefs, illusions and superstitions: Possibilities for the behavior analyst. Perspectivas [online]. 2010, vol.1, n.1, pp. 34-43. ISSN 2177-3548.

The article discusses the contributions of behavior analysis to understand the concepts of reality, contact with reality and distortions of reality. The discussion about contact and reality is concept referring to the construction of behavioral relations, especially relations identified with the construction of the concept of causality of people. Sensitivity to subsequent events is important as a prerequisite for building operant behavior; such sensitivity may be responsible for superstitious behaviors. With verbal behavior, people can also describe certain relations based in contiguity between events and environmental changes as they are relations based in contingency, which has been called superstitious rules. In conclusion, the article shows the importance of differentiating between superstitious behavior, superstitious rules and superstition, showing, however, situations in which verbal behavior can interact with superstitious behavior.

Keywords : superstitious behavior; beliefs; reality; behavior analysis.

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