The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

The Importance of Theory and Philosophy: Session 273 with Carol Pilgrim and Tim Hackenberg

18 snips

Aug 30, 2024

Guest

Tim Hackenberg

Guest

Carol Pilgrim

Carol Pilgrim, a prominent psychology professor and past president of major behavior analysis organizations, joins Tim Hackenberg, known for his insights on Token Economies. Together, they emphasize the importance of integrating theory and philosophy within behavior analysis education. The conversation covers how personal experiences with philosophy shaped their careers, the need for a robust theoretical foundation to tackle practical challenges, and the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration. They also discuss the upcoming ABAI 2024 Theory and Philosophy Conference.

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ANECDOTE

Carol's Philosophy Origin Story

Carol Pilgrim discovered behavior analysis through a philosophy class, where she first encountered B.F. Skinner's work.
Her dual interest in philosophy and psychology strongly shaped her passion for the field from early on.

INSIGHT

Theory Empowers Practical Flexibility

Understanding basic behavioral principles lets you adapt and refine interventions beyond cookbook methods.
A solid theoretical foundation fosters flexible problem-solving with novel behavioral challenges.

INSIGHT

Big-T vs. Small-t Theory Explained

Distinguishing between small-t theory (organizing evidence) and big-T meta-theory (foundational assumptions) is key.
Behavior analysis shares scientific assumptions like an orderly world and empirical testability, differentiating it from other worldviews.

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I'm very much honored to be joined by Drs. Carol Pilgrim and Tim Hackenberg!

Listeners will recognize Tim from his very informative and popular episode on Token Economies. If you haven't heard that one, I highly recommend that you go back and check out Session 205, as well as read Tim's review paper in JABA on the same topic.

Dr. Carol Pilgrim is professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. It would take me several minutes to get through all of her contributions and accomplishments that she's imparted to the field.

Here are just a few: Dr. Pilgrim has served as president of its major organizations, including ABAI (as well as its Southeastern ABA chapter), the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis, and Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) of the American Psychological Association. She also served as secretary of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and as a board member of that organization (note: for more background, please see here).

As you'll hear, Tim and Carol reached out to me to talk about the upcoming conference that they are co-chairing. It's ABAI's 2024 Theory and Philosophy Conference. It's happening on October 28th and 29th. The onsite location is Chicago, and it will be available virtually too.

While we did spend some time talking about the conference, we spent the majority of the episode discussing the importance of understanding Behavior Analysis the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of Behavior Analysis at a deep level. Specifically, we touched on:

Why these topics are essential to graduate training in Behavior Analysis.
Distinguishing Theory and Philosophy from Concepts and Principles.
The distinctions between Theory and Meta-theory.
What assumptions guide the science of behavior (and science more generally).
Some examples of findings in the basic laboratory that have made their way into everyday practice. In this discussion, we also talk about this process happening in reverse too.
And of course we do get in to the details about the conference itself, including how it's organized, what role this conference serves amongst the many training opportunities that exist, and much more. In short, they make their pitch for folks to come check it out.

Lastly, one of the topics we touched on that I'd like to return to down the road is the epistemology of Behavior Analysis, and how that how knowing both how and why we know what we know, and distinguishing this from other disciplines, can help us interact more successfully with practitioners from other fields.

Lastly, for disclosure's sake, ABAI is not sponsoring this content. However, in furthering the goal of being a transparent media outlet, I am very much open to this 😉

All kidding aside, while this might seem like an, "eat your vegetables first," or, "I swear you'll use algebra someday," type of show, I hope you come away with a broader appreciation of this topic. And I'm grateful that we have folks like Carol and Tim who can organize events like these to showcase them.

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