Behavior analysis and mechanism: One is not the other.
Behavior analysis is not mechanistic—be ready to explain the difference in plain words.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The author wrote a short essay. He said behavior analysis is not the same as mechanism.
He warned readers not to let critics call our field mechanistic.
The paper is all words—no data, no participants, no experiment.
What they found
The main point is simple. Mechanism says behavior is like clockwork inside the body.
Behavior analysis says behavior is selected by the outside world.
Calling us mechanists mixes up these two views.
How this fits with other research
Abbott (2013) came twenty years later and made the same kind of move. It told readers to stop arguing about word definitions and look at how the verbal community shapes our talk.
Scibak (2025) took the same stance into a new place—voting. It said voting is just operant behavior and we can shape it like any other response.
Embregts (2000) did the same job earlier with the EO concept. It tidied up a messy idea so practitioners could use it better.
All four papers share one job: keep Skinnerian ideas clear and useful for people in the field.
Why it matters
When a parent or teacher says, "You treat my kid like a robot," you can answer with this paper. Explain that you study how the environment selects behavior, not how gears turn inside the child. This keeps your science honest and your clients on board.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Behavior analysts have been called mechanists, and behavior analysis is said to be mechanistic; that is, they are claimed to be aligned with the philosophy of mechanism. What this means is analyzed by (a) examining standard and specialized dictionary and encyclopedia definitions and descriptions of mechanism and its cognates and (b) reviewing contemporary representations of the mechanistic worldview in the literature on the philosophy of psychology. Although the term mechanism and its cognates are sometimes an honorific (e.g., "natural science"), their standard meanings, usages, and functions in society, science, psychology, and philosophy do not aptly characterize the discipline. These terms mischaracterize how behavior analysts conceptualize (a) the behavior of their subjects and the individuals with whom they work and (b) their own behavior as scientists. Discussion is interwoven throughout about the nature of terms and definitions in science.
The Behavior analyst, 1993 · doi:10.1007/BF03392606