The meaning for psychology of the concept of generalized-discriminated contingency

Abstract

The concept of a generalized, discriminated contingency proposed by Fuentes is a radical behaviorist concept stressing the phenomenal and operative characteristics of the psychological field, on the ground that any behavior is a generalized, discriminated contingency. This concept has ontological implications for psychology, because if behavior always has an operative and phenomenal nature, behaviors occur in contexts very different from each other: the zoological and the anthropological. Thus we propose an ontological behaviorism in wich animal behavior is related to the categories of biology (for instance natural selection, genus, species) and human behavior to the categories of the anthropological disciplines (the different cultures along human prehistory and history). As far as animal behavior is concerned, the concept of a generalized, discriminated contingency allows the creation of a Comparative Psychology that provides scientific grounds to pscychology by including it into biology. As to human behavior, the concept of a generalized, discriminated contigency allows the creation of a Psychohistory that shows how human behavior occurs in contexts with a plurality of alternative or contingent norms on generalizing discriminating.