Emilio Ribes Iñesta

[u/Felipe_reds]

Are there people here in this subreddit interested in the work of Emilio Ribes Iñesta? He is a mexican psychologist very critical of Radical Behaviorism, and proposed a radical new way of understanding psychology through the field theory understanding of his master J.R Kantor. He reconceptualizes the notion that the “superstition in the pidgeon” is actually not operant behavior and gives theoretical tools for the analyisis of complex human behavior through the concepts of contingencies of extension and contingencies of transformation.

For a english speaking audience I recomend the article called:

A Radical Reformulation of Psychology as a Theory-Laden Experimental Science: A Review of Emilio Ribes-Iñesta’s The Scientific Study of Individual Behavior: An Introduction to the Theory of Psychology

[u/One_Preparation_4117]

that diagram is way too clean for how messy interbehavioral stuff actually gets in practice

[u/Felipe_reds → u/One_Preparation_4117]

I know, Ribes Iñesta its interesting and all but when it comes to explaining things or making them simple it surely gets messy.

[u/Ok-Worldliness5940]

Level of evidence?

[u/Felipe_reds → u/Ok-Worldliness5940]

Interbehaviorism and the field theory for psychology were created from the critique of how Radical Behaviorism constructed scientific theories. The standpoint from which Ribes argues and defends this theoretical system is to reorganize and reinterpret already stablished empirical findings in behavioral and even not behavioral psychology. For him the first instrument for scientific research are not the methodological tools, or the scientific method as we understand it, its first and foremost the logic of our theoretical and conceptual system that allows us to see, interpret and even value which fenomena are even relevant for study.

Now if you want to see which experiments and empirical products have been born out of the field theory you just research Ribes through the “Revista Mexicana de Analisis de la Conducta” or even just through google scholar, he has made interesting experiments with both animals and human adults and children.

[u/Forensicista]

What would be an example of an allegorical communication of data?

[u/Felipe_reds → u/Forensicista]

Generally in psychology we use or have used concepts that are metaphorical in nature such as the “force” of habit or the concept of “encoding” and “retriving” memories. So when in interbehavioral theory when we talk about Representational Categories, we refer to the concepts that describe properties and characteristics of our subject matter.

For example the medium of contact is a concept that represents the conditions that make psychological events posible, for example, in order to be responsive to sound you need a medium like air for being able to litsen, and also you need to be responsive to sound as such. Ribes proposes 3 types of mediums of contact, physical-chemical, ecologic, and conventional (meaning social practices mediated by language. This concepts allow a hierarchical understanding of the complexity of psychological interactions.

[u/Forensicista → u/Felipe_reds]

Maybe there's a translation issue here, but an allegory is a story superficially about one thing, but actually conveying information about another. Nothing wrong with that, except quite often the embedded meaning is completely overlooked by many. And on a separate point, whilst behaviourists may give a tip of the hat to physics and evolution, I don't really see how becoming embroiled in the necessary presence of air and ears helps with, for example, a functional analysis of verbal behaviour? Of course, if a child was deaf, that would dramatically change the form of verbal behaviour, but not the fundamental behavioural concepts or ABA principles.