Introduction to Molar Behavior Analysis

Abstract

Traditional molecular mechanics re1ied on discrete events and contiguity to try to explain behavior in terms of immediate causes_ The molecular concepts of reflex and association eventually proved inadequate and were replaced by ones less reliant on immediate causes. Thorndike's law of effect represents a step in this direction, because it emphasized a response's past consequences, a factor that transcended momentary events. Skinner further departed from relianee on con­tiguity by introducing the ideas of operant behavior and stimulus control. Instead of S-R connection, he proposed that the unit of behavior is a population of responses and that a discriminative stimulus defines the context in which this population oc­curso He proposed to explain novel and complex behavior by a history of selection by consequences, in analogy to biological evolution. For a dependent variable, he proposed response rate, a molar variable in the sense that it can be measured only ayer sorne interval of time. Molar benavior analysis takes the further step of defin­ing environmental variables as similarly molar. Behavior is thought of as under the control of relations that extend through time. Together, behavior and environment constitute a feedback system in which behavior flowing from the organism is fed back by the environment in a flow of consequences which affects the flow of be­havior. Such a view has more explanatory power that contiguity-based views and opens the possibility of a quantitative science. Further extensions move entirely away from discrete responses to considt:ring behavior as composed of patterns of activities that extend through time. Such patterns tend to persist, but may be changed by consequences. This conception frees molar behavior analysis from de­pendence on immediate causes and establishes it as an evolutionary science