Uma discussão dos usos do termo eventos privados na análise do comportamento à luz de proposições do pragmatismo

• Autor(a) principal: VASCONCELOS NETO, Aécio de Borba
• Data de Publicação: 2007
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFPA
• Texto Completo: http://www.repositorio.ufpa.br:8080/jspui/handle/2011/1901
• topic: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA::PSICOLOGIA EXPERIMENTAL::ESTADOS SUBJETIVOS E EMOCAO; Behaviorismo; Subjetividade; Comportamento; Eventos privados; Pragmatismo

Behavior Analysis distinguishes itself from other kinds of behaviorism by its original treatment for subjectivity. The concept of private events has been used in behavior-analytic literature as a major topic in the theme, allowing the scientist and the professional to deal with events inaccessible to public observation because of an instrumental criterion of truth. This paper aims to discuss the concept of private events from the standpoint of Pragmatism, a philosophy with which Behavior Analysis has been associated. Considering James and Rortys publications, the relevant implications of using the term private events are examined and the validity of such a concept to approach problems related to subjectivity is discussed using three analytical categories: (1) Implications of a relational verbal approach to the analysis of the issues concerning privacy; 2) Absence of a consensual view on the coherence between the concept of private events and the behavioral-analytic system; and 3) Functions of the concept of private events. We point out how is elaborated the importance of language for the definition of private world in behavior-analytic and also we point out the influence of that for a relational approach of subjectivity. We argue that behavior analysts have been using the term private events under control of phenomena with different nature and complexity, resulting in an absence of consensus about the coherence of the term with Behavior Analysis. When there is some consensus on this, there is a lack of consensus about the instrumentality of the concept. Thus, the coherence and the instrumentality of the concept of private events is conditioned to (1) which events the scientist or the professional is referring to, (2) the level of analysis (molar or molecular), and (3) the method used in the research. We found that, when there is some agreement about the coherence and the instrumentality of the concept, it is restricted to the papers dealing mainly with the context of clinical application. We conclude by stressing that the idea that the concept of private events is useful for Behavior Analysis is not fully accepted in the area, showing that more discussion on the concept of private events and the conceptual treatment of subjectivity is still needed.