Selection of Business Practices in the Midst of Evolving Complexity

Brazilian Public Policies for Assistance to Women in Situations of Violence: Contributions from Culturo-Behavioral Science

Brazilian public policies establish that the assistance to women in situations of violence should be carried out by networks comprising health, social assistance, public safety, and justice services. To solve intersectoral problems faced by the networks, the government suggests the creation of units of the Brazilian Woman's House (BWH) - an organization that concentrates the principal services. The objective of this study was to analyze the strategy of the BWH in the context of the networks from a culturo-behavioral science perspective. Toward this objective, national laws, statistical data, and public information related to BWH were analyzed. The analysis of the macrosystem indicates that the existence of a BWH places the services that compose it under the control of a common set of external variables, which can make the effects of legislation and funding more predictable. The organization's Total Performance System shows that reports constitute an essential aggregate product for stakeholders to exercise social control over this public policy. The process level analysis endorses the advantages of implementing BWH units. Some suggestions are made for changes in the wording of BWH legislation that might make BWH's products and the social control of this policy more likely. The recommendations presented should only be considered as a starting point for a broad discussion and future action. It is hoped that this study will support further analysis of the actual BWHs and inform reformulations of this public policy.

Research and Training in Culturo-Behavior Science

Culturo-behavior science (CBS) is a developing area and recently formalized specialization in behavior science that brings together principles and techniques from behavior analysis (e.g., Skinner, 1953), behavioral systems analysis (e.g., Brethower, 2008), cultural analysis (e.g., Glenn et al., 2016), and cultural systems analysis (Mattaini, 2020). Culturo-behavior scientists typically work within a selectionist and/or (ecological) systems perspective to advance our understanding of how cultural phenomena develop and change over time and how more effective cultures and systems can be designed (Cihon & Mattaini, 2019, 2020b). The purpose of the current article is to describe CBS, to introduce the recently formulated Association for Behavior Analysis International verified course sequence (VCS) and certificate program in CBS, and to present different pathways to training in CBS. We do this through the presentation of examples from the literature and from four universities that have adopted the CBS VCS and certificate program that are illustrative of how different programs may approach research and training in CBS.

Exploring Quality in the Applied Behavior Analysis Service Delivery Industry

As the applied behavior analysis (ABA) service industry (“the industry”) continues to rapidly expand, it faces three major problems. First, ABA service delivery quality (ASDQ) is undefined in ABA research and the industry. Second, we cannot rely exclusively on professional organizations that oversee licensure and certification to control ABA service delivery quality because they do not have control over the relevant contingencies. Third, without objective indicators of ABA service delivery quality, it is difficult for ABA organizations to distinguish the quality of their services from competitors. In this article, first we explain the need for more critical discussion of ASDQ in the field at large, briefly describe a sample of common views of quality in ABA research and the industry, and identify some of their limitations. Then we define ASDQ and present a cohesive theoretical framework which brings ASDQ within the scope of our science so that we might take a more empirical approach to understanding and strengthening ASDQ. Next, we explain how organizations can use culturo-behavioral science to understand their organization’s cultural practices in terms of cultural selection and use the evidence-based practice of ABA at the organizational level to evaluate the extent to which methods targeting change initiatives result in high ASDQ. Lastly, in a call to action we provide ABA service delivery organizations with six steps they can take now to pursue high ASDQ by applying concepts from culturo-behavioral science and total quality management.

How a Few Individuals Brought about a Cultural Cusp: From a Mexican Mural Program to a Movement

Significant cultural change often results from the interlocking behavior of a few individuals. The phenomenon is nonreplicable because a considerable portion of the major players' interactions are nonrecurring and driven by unique circumstances. Yet, these interactions can be analyzed from a behavioral science perspective. As an example, I describe how five individuals made possible the cultural cusp that created an unprecedented social revolution through public murals in Mexico. I analyze how their repertoires complemented each other, the circumstances that brought them together, and the values that united them. Their unique interactions coalesced with recurring interlocking behavioral contingencies that created the movement. The example could shed light on the understanding of other cultural phenomenon with similar properties.

A Behavioral and Biological Analysis of Aesthetics: Implications for Research and Applications

Seeking to identify the common and distinguishing attributes of effects one might call "aesthetic," I examined hundreds of examples in music, visual arts, poetry, literature, humor, performance arts, architecture, science, mathematics, games, and other disciplines. I observed that all involve quasi-emotional reactions to stimuli that are composites of multiple elements that ordinarily do not occur together and whose interaction, when appropriately potentiated, is transformative-different in kind from the effects of the separate constituent elements. Such effects, termed synergetic, can evoke surprise-tinged emotional responses. Aesthetic reactions, unlike many other kinds of emotional reactions, are never evoked by biologically urgent action-demanding events, such as threats or opportunities. The examined effects were created by various concept manipulation devices: class expansion, identification of new relations, repetition, symmetry, parsimony, and emotional displays for the audience to mirror (I identified a total of 16 such devices). The effects would occur only for individuals with the necessary priming, in circumstances that include effective potentiating factors. Synergetic stimuli that evoke aesthetic responses tend to be reinforcing, via mechanisms related to their biological utility during our evolution. I offer a theory as to how aesthetics may have evolved from its primordial pre-aesthetic roots, with examples of how consideration of those roots often explains aesthetic and related effects. The article suggests that aesthetic phenomena are a special case of a more pervasive aspect of behavior and proposes research approaches involving laboratory models and fMRI technology.