What Qualifies Interbehavioral Psychology as an Approach to Treatment?
J.R. Kantor
Among the most basic assumptions of the interbehavioral point of view is that to be effective in any sort of professional practice it is necessary to base one's efforts upon authentic scientific foundations. Engineers must be equipped with the necessary orientation in physics, chemistry, and geology. No physician can be highly rated who is not well prepared in the various branches of biology, such as anatomy, physiology, embryology, and bacteriology. Similarly, psychological clinicians cannot be capable or successful without competence in scientific psychology. It is a basic hypothesis of the present volume that interbehavioral psychology is an effective foundation for clinical applications. Success in the amelioration or radical improvement of deviant or unsatisfactory behavior may be expected by the application of interbehavioral principles.
What qualifies interbehavioral psychology for treating problems of unusual or unadaptable behavior, whether overreactions, inhibitions, or simply unsuitable responses in specific circumstances, is its derivation from actual observations of psychological events rather than from historical and transcendental doctrines. Interbehavioral psychology departs radically from traditional views which mythically subdivide organisms and persons into biological structures coordinated with transcendent souls, minds, or other psychic processes. In the following paragraphs are described some aspects of interbehavioral psychology favorable for clinical application.
Interbehavioral Psychology As a Natural Science
Like all authentic sciences, interbehavioral psychology consists of the unhampered analytic investigation of the interbehavior of particular organisms and the conditions under which the activities occur. In all cases, the observed interactions constitute the data or events of the particular science. Scientific events invariably comprise systems or fields. Each science is characterized by its specific type of data and the particular methods and apparatus required for understanding the events under investigation. The data of astronomy consist of the interbehavior of planets and galaxies. Physics studies action or energies as centered in various objects; chemistry investigates the interactions of numerous reagents and the compounds under specific conditions of temperature, pressure, and catalysis. The data of such sciences are inorganic.
The particular psychological fields are classified as organismic and consist of a minimum of three components: (a) an organism which interacts with (b) other organisms, objects, and events under (c) definite auspices or setting factors. Before describing the details of the psychological field components, three general outstanding characteristics of psychological fields should be indicated.
Definite field origins. Psychological events as the actions of specific organisms can be precisely dated as originating in the life cycle of biological individuals. Psychological events originate a short time before birth and end with the demise of the organisms concerned.
Psychological events are adaptations. To a great extent, psychological events are complex continuations of bioecological adaptations to simple and complex surroundings. Such contacts with the surroundings, in conjunction with various criteria, are denominated normal or abnormal. Suitable interbehaviors may be undeveloped, in decline, or absent.
Individual evolution. Another outstanding aspect of interbehavioral psychology is the individualistic evolution of performances and traits as organisms mature and maintain their physiological growth and vigor. Through contacts with particular items of their ambience, particular organisms develop their complex activities describable as affective, effective, linguistic, opinions, rationality, irrationality, and so on. We turn now to a brief presentation of the three primary components of psychological fields.
The Psychological Personality
Though human organisms are and always remain biological individuals--in short, animals--they belong to a species so advanced in evolution as to be able to create and maintain cultural institutions generally denominated by civilizations. Contact with the civilizational ambience greatly multiplies the nature and complexity of psychological events. Individuals thus are converted from ordinary hominids to personalities. This signifies that organisms not only interbehave with the specificities of nature--the earth, climate, atmosphere--but must also interbehave with things and events in numerous situations of a social, industrial, political, economic, moral, scientific, and aesthetic nature. In each situation, the person develops ways of acting in reciprocity with the development of functions by ambient things and events. The development of the organism now will consist of building up cultural interbehavior such as language, religious beliefs, moral practices, and other traits pertaining to certain civilizations. The auspices or ambience may be placed in a maturational hierarchy, the first stage of which consists of mother-child relationships. Later stages consist of interactions with family, playmates, school, community, and vocational situations. The actual interrelationships with the environment will result in the evolution of a unique personality.
In reciprocal correspondence with specific ambient things and circumstances, individuals build up responses and traits which may be represented in hierarchical order. In the earliest stages of maturation, organisms develop the elementary organic adjustments to physiological functions and infantile care. Then in succession are developed rudimentary interbehaviors with parents or caretakers. Early on, speech and language behavior characterize the cultural evolution of human traits. Complete maturity traits include polite or impolite manners, vocational enterprise and expertise, docility, criminality, femininity, masculinity, homosexuality, conventionality, and rebelliousness. In general, each individual growing up in a unique set of ambient conditions will become a unique personality subject to changes with environmental circumstances.
Personality evolution observed. Since personality evolution is a naturalistic process, it can be observed in the development of neonates. Human neonates begin as mere human evolutes. They are completely bereft of innate natures or propensities to perform psychological responses. Psychological actions and traits arise through processes of acquisition, learning, and education. These processes are basically interbehavioral adaptations to the things, persons, and events that invariably surround neonates.
For the most part, personality evolution is casual and unguided, though every family, group, or community sets up formal educational systems to influence particular types of development. Parents in cooperation with various cultural agencies will have ready blueprints for the way in which their children should behave. In compound cultures there are the notable "three R's," but for the most part, as soon as the young person can manage to do so, he or she develops on his or her own. That is, the contacts with stimulus objects, whether persons or things, are casual and the development lacks close and directed supervision. Another division of the educational process is between communal and personal traits. The communal traits of the developing organism are directed to the maintenance of certain cultural institutions, such as dialect, religion, and morality. The personal traits of education may be regarded as the basic matrix of individual differences. It is this aspect of development that results in so-called proper or improper, conforming or deviant, desirable or undesirable behavior. The undesirable behavior is the source for clinical intervention, for observation, diagnosis, and therapy.
Idiosyncratic aspects of personality evolution. Each person is a member of many human groups and each group, whether societal, political, religious, industrial, or economic, atomizes into still smaller units. Thus arise the multiplicity and intensity of individual differences. No two persons are exactly alike.
Aside from the obvious personality differences between each person's unique combination of cultural differences, there are the idiosyncratic traits in which each person develops traits that only he or she displays. Such are the unique capacities for inventions, musical composition, mathematical discovery, and other behaviors that make each person unlike any other. Such idiosyncratic traits attract the approval or disapproval of others, thereby becoming a subject of interest to clinical workers.
Stimulus Objects and Functions
The second invariable element of psychological fields consists of objects--persons, things, and circumstances. It is important to note that stimulus objects always operate on the basis of functions that are acquired through historical contacts with organisms. Each object or person acquires one or many functions. These functions pertain to use, like, dislike, ownership, and so on.
Persons take on many functions, including being liked or disliked, being pleasant or unpleasant, being clever or stupid, or being helpful or indifferent. Similarly, objects take on a variety of functions. Tables are objects on which to place things, as chairs are objects for sitting. Particular foods do or do not become good to taste or entirely inedible. In general, there are developed an infinite number of discriminative functions. Many correlate with reactions of fear and loathing, loving or hating, and numerous other affective reactions.
Auspices or Setting Factors
Since psychological organisms are at the same time organismic and inorganic entities, they and their behaviors are subject to the same conditions as the events of biology, physics, and chemistry. But in addition, psychological fields are characterized by unique circumstances. Things and persons through interbehavior with ambient objects develop functions that make psychological fields different from objects belonging to physics and biology. Response functions of organisms correlate with functions of objects established through prior interbehaviors.
Linguistic Evolution as Model of Scientific Psychology
To follow through the infantile and later development of speech and language offers an excellent model for psychological evolution. There is only one stipulation: to observe that speech is one of many types of adaptation to particular ambient circumstances. It is customary to associate speaking and the further outgrowth of language behavior with infantile vocalization. But the relationship is certainly a very remote one. The production of vocal noises basically is no more related to speech than the earliest walking behavior is a basis for going to a particular school or church. There is not yet present at this vocalization stage any circumstances for human intercourse.
As maturation proceeds, the child becomes surrounded with persons, things, and circumstances that lead to the performance of many language adjustments. Speech will develop with direct relation to the general circumstances of daily living. Comments will be made about usual or unusual happenings. Questions will be asked and answered, and various general dialogues will take place.
The language evolution model just presented not only marks the specific stages of personality development but also indicates the striking deviation of interbehavioral psychology from the conventional interpretation of speech as word utterances coupled with psychic meanings. To regard speech as verbal entities is clearly only a heritage from the time when complex linguistic adaptations were treated as things with only exegetical functions as in the interpretations of sacred textual materials.
Interbehavioral Psychology in Clinical Application
The services that a scientific psychology can offer to the work in the clinical field are many. To begin with, there are the advantages of a naturalistic approach to the problems encountered. Since clinical work concerns complaints about interbehavior, the clinician can concentrate upon the activities of integral individuals and reject guidance from traditional theoretical abstractions. He or she need not confound diagnoses and treatments with notions of internal mental states or imaginary brains, nor seek causes in nonexistent heredity.
Because psychological complaints cover an immense range, problems of normality, abnormality, deviations, or declines can be localized in the personality, in ambient conditions, and in setting factors, and then appropriately treated. Many of the complaints originate in some lack of continuity of field components. It is extremely helpful for clinical practitioners to be able to analyze complaints on a sound basis; for example, to become aware of types of complaints and their severity.
Type of complaint. In general, clinical complaints are problems of maladaptation. Behavior may be insufficient or too intense; it may affect mainly the patient, or it may affect other persons and even entire communities.
Severity of complaints. Clinical assessments are greatly influenced by the severity or intensity of the complaint or unsatisfactory situation. The deviation, loss, or decline may affect only one or a few behavior segments, or it may involve the entire personality of the patient. Again, malfunctioning may be considered as simply unusual, unadaptable, or thoroughly pathological.
Behavior may be assessed as unusual because of a mere individual difference. A child may persist in doing something that is inconvenient or undesirable. The behavior complained of may be temporary or long-lasting. But it is mildly noticeable.
Unadaptable behavior is such as to indicate a failure of orderly living. Fairly severe examples are deficiencies in learning or in social behavior conformities. Individuals may perform behavior troublesome to the family, police, and other community officials.
Pathological behaviors mark extreme personality deviations. They point to individuals who are the most serious and most troublesome. They deviate most extremely from the so-called normal personalities in their various retardations. The most serious lack the capacity to take care of themselves or develop behavior inimical to their own well-being and the safety of others.
Interbehavioral psychology may be expected to add effectively to the diagnostic analysis and the interventions of clinical practice. In addition, interbehavioral psychology as a scientific discipline may also throw light on the general problem of professional practice.
Clinical psychology and medical practice. With the burgeoning of clinical psychology as a professional branch of psychology, questions have arisen as to who should direct the analysis and treatment of behavior deviants: a psychologist or a physician? Originally, custom and law favored the latter even though it is more often the case that the psychologist is better qualified to deal with psychological problems. No doubt this situation stems from the fact that human behavior involves ecological, psychological, and sociological factors.
Although the central clinical factors are psychological, they may involve physiological problems, and thus indicate cooperative arrangements with a competent physician. Additionally, there is the claim that the psychiatrist should be the therapist in cases of behavior disorders and disturbances of societal equilibrium.
However, there are many patients who, because of birth deformities or injurious accidents, are unable to develop and perform psychological activities. But there is a great difference between deviant behavior and the destruction of biological structures and functions of individuals.
Always there remains the question of the psychological competence of practitioners. It is a rare experience to find a psychiatrist who has rejected the venerable dualism of mind and body. With an interbehavioral psychology background, both the analysis of abnormal behavior and the problems of psychology and medical practice can be cleared up.