The analysis of social behavior from Ribes and López’s Behavior theory

Abstract

Forty years after the publication of the book “Behavior theory: A field and parametric analysis” by Emilio Ribes Iñesta and Francisco López Valadez, the impact of this work is discussed, not only in the confirmation of the object of study of psychology previously proposed by J. R. Kantor (1924, 1926) but also in the proposal of a taxonomy that organized, in five levels of different quality and complexity, the behavior of organisms. To the extent that the work above recognized the logical-conceptual existence of different types of contact media as enablers of differential interactions (i.e., physicochemical, ecological, and conventional), it has clarified the analytical phenomena specific to the psychological discipline, the distinction between individual and social behavior —the latter being exclusively human— as well as the points of contact and collaboration with bordering disciplines (i.e., biology and social-historical science). From a critical perspective on operant conditioning, this paper examines how the assumptions of TC have contributed to the understanding of social behavior, culminating in the emergence and development of a multidisciplinary area of collaboration between psychology and social-historical science: sociopsychology.