Behavior passivity refers to the nature of behavior, all behavior, including all human behavior, of any type or level of complexity. Like all real events in nature, on this planet, in this universe, behavior is natural, that is, it comprises natural events. It is an inevitable reaction.
Consider the term “consciousness” as but one example of labels that natural sciences, like behaviorology, clarify and can then use. Words with connotations similar to this traditional term occur early in many languages across human history and geography.
In this column we get to consider another example of shaping, one in which people and pigeons actually shape each other’s behavior. This time the criteria, regarding which responses get reinforced, change after each reinforcement as the “shapee’s” behavior also shapes the “shaper’s” behavior.
Coverage of the vast verbal–behavior topic begins with some of its recent history, and then with some ancient history regarding the relation of evolution and physiology to verbal behavior. These provide a foundation for defining not only verbal behavior but also the verbal community. After that come some characteristics of verbal–behavior analysis.
A major point of research is to gather analyzable data. Researchers collect the data through recorders and displays of one sort or another that they connect to the operant experimental chambers in which the behavior of subjects occurs. They also attach computerized equipment and interfaces that not only manage the experimental conditions but also manage the recorders and displays.
So, how does the natural science of behavior make discoveries? How does it apply those discoveries to bring practical benefits to people? What experimental equipment and methods does it employ in its basic and applied research? The next several columns consider the answers to these questions in terms of the standard research equipment and procedures of both the classic behavior–research laboratory and the practical research for applied settings and interventions.
Behaviorologists separated their natural–science discipline from psychology after psychologists in general repeatedly refused numerous attempts over 50 years to nudge the non–natural discipline of psychology toward natural–science.
