Why Clinical Behavior Analysis Starts with a Different Philosophy of Science
One of the most confusing things for students entering Clinical Behavior Analysis is that psychologists often seem to disagree about almost everything.
They disagree about diagnoses. They disagree about treatment. They disagree about what should be measured. They even disagree about what counts as good evidence.
It is tempting to think these disagreements arise because people simply have different opinions. More often, however, they begin much earlier. They begin with different assumptions about what science is trying to accomplish.
Steven Hayes described these assumptions in Varieties of Scientific Contextualism (1992), drawing on the work of philosopher Stephen Pepper. Before we can understand why behavior analysts think differently about measurement, treatment, or theory, it helps to understand the philosophical ground on which those decisions are made.
Every Science Begins with a Metaphor
Hayes argues that philosophies of science can be understood as different “world hypotheses.” Each begins with a root metaphor—a basic way of understanding how the world works. That metaphor influences what questions become important, what counts as evidence, and ultimately how scientists decide whether they are making progress.
Although there are many philosophical positions, four have been particularly influential in psychology.
Formism: Naming the World
The oldest approach is formism. Its root metaphor is similarity or form. The world is understood by identifying things that belong together and giving them names. The scientific task becomes classification. This approach gave us taxonomies, categories, and much of our early scientific thinking. In psychology, it is reflected whenever we ask, “What disorder does this person have?” or “Which category does this behavior belong in?”
Naming is useful. But naming is not the same thing as understanding. Two people may both receive a diagnosis of major depressive disorder while behaving very differently and responding to entirely different interventions. Formism helps us organize observations. It does not necessarily explain why they occur.
Mechanism: The World as a Machine
Mechanism extends formism. Its metaphor is the machine. If we understand the parts and how they interact, we can explain the system. Truth becomes a matter of correspondence. Our theories are considered better to the extent that they accurately represent how reality actually works. Much of modern medicine follows this approach. Find the broken mechanism. Repair it. Psychology has inherited many mechanistic assumptions as well. We often search for underlying mechanisms, latent variables, or internal systems presumed to generate behavior. Mechanistic methods have produced tremendous advances. Hayes is careful to point out that functional contextualists borrow many of these methods. The danger is not the methods themselves.
The danger is quietly adopting the assumptions that accompany them.
Organicism: The Search for the Bigger Story
Organicism begins with a different metaphor. The world is viewed as an unfolding story. Events that appear contradictory today may eventually make sense when viewed within a larger developmental narrative. Truth is evaluated by coherence. Does this explanation fit within the broader story? Developmental psychology often leans in this direction. Individual events become meaningful because of the role they play within an evolving system. Again, this perspective offers valuable insights. But it answers a different kind of question.
Contextualism: Behavior in Context
Contextualism asks a different question altogether. Its root metaphor is the act-in-context. Rather than asking what something is, contextualism asks what it does, under what conditions it occurs, and what difference that understanding allows us to make. The truth criterion becomes successful working, or what Hayes calls workability. Importantly, something can only “work” relative to a stated goal. If our goal is to reduce panic attacks, improve relationships, increase adherence to medical treatment, or help someone live more consistently with their values, then our scientific models are judged by whether they help us move toward those outcomes.
William James is generally considered the father of contextualism; however, Skinner’s work reflected an implicit contextualist philosophy long before these distinctions were discussed explicitly.
Two Kinds of Contextualism
Hayes makes an important distinction between two forms of contextualism.
Descriptive contextualism attempts to appreciate the richness of the whole. The goal is understanding. James, Dewey, and Kantor each worked largely within this tradition. Here, coherence remains important because the scientist is attempting to capture the complexity of an event as completely as possible.
Functional contextualism asks a different question. Can this analysis improve our ability to predict and influence behavior? The goal is practical rather than descriptive. Hayes compares this to engineering. Knowing that a bridge will collapse is useful. Knowing how to build one that won’t collapse is far more useful. That shift has enormous implications for psychology.
A functional contextualist is less interested in whether a theory is elegant than whether it increases our ability to predict and influence behavior toward meaningful goals.
Why This Matters for Clinical Behavior Analysis
This philosophical foundation explains why Clinical Behavior Analysis often approaches familiar problems differently than other traditions. When behavior analysts question diagnoses, latent constructs, or statistical summaries, they are not necessarily rejecting them outright.
They are asking a different question.
What additional predictive or practical value does this way of describing behavior provide?
Sometimes the answer is “quite a lot.” Sometimes the answer is “not much.” That becomes an empirical question rather than a philosophical argument. This perspective also explains why measurement has become such an important issue for our field.
If our goal is to predict and influence behavior, then the quality of our measurement becomes central. As our technologies improve, we are no longer limited to occasional questionnaires or broad diagnostic categories. We can increasingly observe behavior unfolding across time, context, physiology, language, and daily life.
That doesn’t mean our older methods were mistakes. They represented the best measurements we had available. But science progresses by improving observation. Clinical Behavior Analysis, at its best, has always been about improving our ability to understand behavior in context.
Referecnces
Hayes, S. C. (1993). Varieties of Scientific Contextualism. Reno, NV: Context Press.
Pepper, S. C. (1942). World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence. University of California Press.
Angela Coreil, PhD, BCBA
Clinical Behavior Analyst, Methodologist & Trainer
Angela J. Coreil, PhD, is a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, clinical behavior analyst, and methodologist. Formerly director of an OCD and anxiety IOP/PHP, she integrates behavior analysis, ACT, Interpersonal Behavior Therapy, CBT, and exposure-based treatment. Her work develops practical improvements in behavioral science, and she provides consultation, professional training, workshops, and continuing education across disciplines.
Views expressed are those of Dr. Coreil or the explicitly named author, not the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.