Abstract

FERREIRA, Darlene Cardoso et al. The interpretation of cognitions and emotions with the concept of private events and the behavior-analytic approach to anxiety and depression. Perspectivas [online]. 2010, vol.1, n.2, pp. 70-85. ISSN 2177-3548.

Cognitions and emotions constitute a basic issue in every explanatory system in psychology. In behavior analysis, cognitions and emotions are viewed as behavioral phenomena, and are approached with the concept of private events. According to Skinner, private events are stimuli and responses which are inaccessible to direct public observation. This paper reviews the Skinnerian approach to private events, some controversies and limits in the use of the concept, and illustrates its use in the analysis of depression and anxiety. The paper is specially committed to a behavior-analytic literature which emphasizes that cognitions and emotions are behavioral relations, with variable degrees of complexity, of which some terms are private stimuli or covert responses. The paper points out some implications to the practice of behavior-analytic therapists, and the need to develop technologies directed to intervention, based on behavior analysts' academic and professional competences.

Keywords : private events; behavior-analytic therapy; anxiety; depression.

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