Developmental interactionism: An integrative framework for behavior therapy

Abstract

It is the thesis of this paper that recent developments in the history and philosophy of science, in learning psychology, in developmental psychology, and in behavior therapy point to developmental interactionism as an integrative approach to behavioral ontogeny that maintains a role for conditioning and learning (as events) in behavior therapy. Earlier approaches to the ontogeny of behavior — environmentalism and heredity×environment interactionism — are overviewed. Developmental interactionism is presented as a relatively recent outgrowth of several confluent movements, including heredity×environment interactionism, the integrated-field perspective, evolutional thinking, Schneirla's comparative-developmental psychology, behavioral embryology, life-span developmental psychology, retreats from reductionism, and the system approach. Developmental interactionism is a thoroughgoing developmental perspective that treats development as an interactive or transactive process in which organism and environment are both active participants. The final section addresses issues in behavior therapy from the standpoint of this new view of behavioral ontogeny. Noted are signs of the beginnings of a unified clinical behavioral science.