ArticlePDF Available

Abstract

We present a framework for a pragmatic science of cultural evolution. It is now possible for behavioral science to systematically influence the further evolution of cultural practices. As this science develops, it may become possible to prevent many of the problems affecting human wellbeing. By cultural practices, we refer to everything that humans do, above and beyond instinctual or unconditioned behaviors: not only art and literature, but also agriculture, manufacturing, recreation, war making, childrearing, science—everything. We can analyze cultural practices usefully in terms of the incidence and prevalence of individual behavior and group and organization actions. An effective science of intentional cultural evolution must guide efforts to influence the incidence and prevalence of individuals' behaviors and the actions of groups and organizations. In this paper, we briefly sketch advances in scientific understanding of the influences on individual behavior. Then we describe principles that could guide efforts to influence groups and organizations. Finally, we discuss legitimate concerns about the use and misuse of a science for intentional cultural change.
Research Basic Empirical Research
A framework for intentional cultural change
Anthony Biglan
a,
n
, Dennis D. Embry
b
a
Oregon Research Institute, 1776 Millrace Drive, Eugene, OR 97403-2536, USA
b
PAXIS Institute, USA
article info
Article history:
Received 20 February 2013
Received in revised form
30 May 2013
Accepted 12 June 2013
Keywords:
Psychological exibility
Prosociality
Cultural change
Evolution
Prevention science
abstract
We present a framework for a pragmatic science of cultural evolution. It is now possible for behavioral
science to systematically inuence the further evolution of cultural practices. As this science develops, it
may become possible to prevent many of the problems affecting human wellbeing. By cultural practices,
we refer to everything that humans do, above and beyond instinctual or unconditioned behaviors: not
only art and literature, but also agriculture, manufacturing, recreation, war making, childrearing, science
everything. We can analyze cultural practices usefully in terms of the incidence and prevalence of
individual behavior and group and organization actions. An effective science of intentional cultural
evolution must guide efforts to inuence the incidence and prevalence of individuals'behaviors and the
actions of groups and organizations. In this paper, we briey sketch advances in scientic understanding
of the inuences on individual behavior. Then we describe principles that could guide efforts to inuence
groups and organizations. Finally, we discuss legitimate concerns about the use and misuse of a science
for intentional cultural change.
&2013 Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
This paper presents a framework for a pragmatic science of
cultural evolution. Behavioral science has developed to the point
that it is possible to systematically inuence the further evolution
of cultural practices (Wilson, Hayes, Biglan, & Embry, in press).
Such a science has its basis in understanding what inuences
individual behavior but is beginning to address how to affect the
incidence and prevalence of behaviors in the population and how
to inuence group and organizational practices. As this science
develops, it could become possible to prevent most of the
problems affecting human wellbeing.
By cultural practices, we refer to everything that humans do,
above and beyond instinctual or unconditioned behaviors: not
only art and literature, but also agriculture, manufacturing, recrea-
tion, war making, childrearing, scienceeverything. We can ana-
lyze cultural practices usefully in terms of the incidence and
prevalence of individual behavior and group and organization
actions (Biglan, 1995). For example, tobacco control researchers
analyze the cultural practice of cigarette smoking in terms of the
incidence of young people starting to smoke (Pierce & Gilpin,
1995); the prevalence of smoking among adolescents and adults
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008a,2008b); the
manufacturing, marketing, and lobbying practices of tobacco
companies; and the efforts of various tobacco control organiza-
tions (Biglan, 1995;Biglan & Taylor, 2000).
An effective science of intentional cultural evolution must
guide efforts to inuence the incidence and prevalence of indivi-
duals'behaviors and the actions of groups and organizations. In
this paper, we briey sketch advances in scientic understanding
of the inuences on individual behavior. Then we describe
principles that could guide efforts to inuence groups and orga-
nizations. Finally, we discuss legitimate concerns about the use
and misuse of a science for intentional cultural change.
2. A values-driven, pragmatic science
Over the past 20 years, there has been a resurgence of
pragmatic or contextualist thinking within the behavioral sciences
(e.g., Hayes, 1993;Hayes & Long, 2013;Wilson, Whiteman, &
Bordieri, 2013). The goal of functional contextualism is to identify
variables that allow the prediction and inuence of the behavior or
action of interest (Biglan & Hayes, 1996). While most of the
discussion of this framework has focused on behavior, we believe
that the framework is just as relevant to inuencing cultural
evolution (Wilson et al., in press).
The contextualist framework encourages us to be explicit about
our values and goals. We seek a science of cultural change that
contributes to improving the wellbeing of all people. We aspire to
a world that meets the basic needs of all people: they have
adequate food and shelter; they have the best health achievable
for a mortal species; they are free from avoidable harms, including
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcbs
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
2212-1447/$ - see front matter &2013 Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2013.06.001
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 541 484 2123; fax: +1 541 484 1108.
E-mail address: tony@ori.org (A. Biglan).
Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104
disease, natural disaster, toxic substances, and attack from others.
It is now possible to measure each of these outcomes. The science
we envision will monitor the prevalence of these outcomes in
populations and systematically test strategies to increase the
prevalence of these types of wellbeing.
Once you embrace a set of values, a pragmatic orientation
follows naturally. If we seek cultural change that improves well-
being, we must identify manipulable variables we can use to
inuence cultural practices. For example, it is not enough to know
that tobacco marketing entices young people to start smoking
(Biglan, 2004;National Cancer Institute, 2008). We also need to
know what would inuence tobacco companies to end such
marketing.
In seeking to change the incidence or prevalence of a behavior,
we must identify the inuences on that behavior and employ
those inuences to reach many people (Biglan & Glenn, 2013). For
example, evidence of the impact of raising the drinking age on
reducing alcohol-related car crashes among young people led to
increases in the drinking age in all U.S. states (Wagenaar, 1981).
Increasing the prevalence of peer and adult reinforcement for
prosocial behavior in classrooms and schools reduces the inci-
dence of antisocial behavior in the short-term and the lifetime
prevalence of criminal behavior and psychological disorders (e.g.,
Embry, 2002;Kellam et al., 2008). Similarly, if we are interested in
reducing corporate actions that harm the environment, we could
raise the cost of those actions through taxes, a cap and trade
system, or outright prohibition (Biglan, 2009).
3. Nurturing prosociality: a useful goal of cultural evolution
We nd it useful to characterize the necessary conditions for
human wellbeing in terms of two classes of human behavior and
four facets of nurturing environments. We base this analysis on
the extensive body of evidence that has arisen in the past 40 years
regarding the development of behavior and effective treatment
and preventive interventions. We also base these observations on
human evolutionary history and the clear-cut preference of
humans not to be harmed or coerced by other humans.
3.1. Prosociality
Prosociality refers to a constellation of behaviors, values, and
attitudes that involve cooperating with others, working for the
wellbeing of others, sacricing for others, and fostering self-
development (Kasser & Ryan, 1993;Wilson, 2007). Prosociality
has numerous benets for individualsas long as they are in
environments in which most other people are prosocial (Wilson &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2008). Compared to those who are not prosocial,
prosocial individuals have fewer behavioral problems (Caprara,
Barbaranelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, & Zimbardo, 2000;Kasser & Ryan,
1993;Sheldon & Kasser, 1998;Wilson & Csikszentmihalyi, 2008),
do better in school (Caprara et al., 2000), have more and better
friends (Clark & Ladd, 2000), and have better health (Biglan &
Hinds, 2009). Even in the business world, cooperators typically
fare better (Channer & Hope, 2001).
From an evolutionary perspective, this constellation of beha-
viors has great value for the group: cooperative groups can out-
compete groups with few prosocial members (Henrich, 2004;
Kasser, 2004;Sober & Wilson, 1998;Wilson et al., 2013). Prosocial
individuals contribute more to their communities (Wilson &
O'Brien, 2009). The benets of prosociality are apparent even at
the level of nations. Countries with a higher proportion of people
endorsing prosocial values are higher on measures of children's
wellbeing, provide better maternal leave benets, advertise less to
children, and emit less CO
2
(Kasser, 2002).
Good self-regulation appears to be foundational for prosociality
(Rothbart, 2011). Young children's ability to inhibit their rst
impulse and to regulate their emotions enables them to do things
others request and to restrain behavior that may harm or annoy
others. This ability is the product of hundreds of interactions in
which others prompt or request behavior from the child and
reinforce self-regulated behavior (e.g., Agran, Blanchard,
Wehmeyer, & Hughes, 2001). Through these socialization pro-
cesses children become better able to cooperate with others: an
important step in developing prosociality.
Empathy also appears to be foundational for prosociality.
Prosocial individuals show greater empathy toward others
(Eisenberg, Miller, Shell, McNalley, & Shea, 1991). This ability
requires that a child or adult be able to take the perspective of
others. There is growing evidence that perspective-taking is
learned and that it facilitates the ability to understand others'
emotions (McHugh & Stewart, 2012).
3.2. Antisocial behavior and related problems
A contrasting constellation of behaviors includes directly anti-
social behavior (e.g., aggression, verbal abuse, coercion, homicide,
theft, fraud) as well as behaviors that are dysfunctional for the
individual or those around them. Examples of the latter category
include risky sexual behavior, substance abuse, academic failure,
truancy, and depression. For years behavioral scientists studied
these behaviors in isolation, as if they were unrelated. However, the
evidence is overwhelming that they are inter-related (e.g., Biglan,
Brennan, Foster, Holder, & Miller, 2004). Now there is growing
reason to see them as evolutionary adaptations to threatening
environments (Ellis et al. 2011;Ellis & Bjorklund, 2012).
Boles, Biglan, and Smolkowski (2006) provide an example of
how extensive these inter-relationships have become. They report
on the co-occurrence of a variety of behavioral problems in a large
representative sample of 8th- and 11th-grade students. Among
eighth graders, a youth who engaged in antisocial behavior was
5.42 times more likely to use substances than one who did not
engage in antisocial behavior. The relative risk of risky sexual
behavior given antisocial behavior was 7.80; it was 2.62 for eating
disorders. The relative risks of these problems given antisocial
behavior were smaller for 11th graders, but all were highly
statistically signicant.
Although some risk factors are unique for some of these
problems, all share some of the most signicant risk factors. In
particular, coercive social environments and the lack of reinforce-
ment for prosocial behavior are major inuences on the develop-
ment of each of these problems. And although delinquency,
substance abuse, early sexual behavior, and depression tend to
be treated simply as abnormalities, we would argue that they are
better construed as evolutionary adaptations to stressful, threa-
tening human social contexts. It may be more useful to see them
as evolutionary-based adaptive consequences of the predatory
actions of other humans.
The role of coercive environments has been most extensively
studied in development of antisocial behavior. Patterson and
colleagues (e.g., Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992) reported on
direct observations of family interactions that found the families of
aggressive children to be marked by high levels of conict in
which the escalated aggression by family members functioned in
getting others to cease their own criticism, commands, and
attacks. At the same time, there was less reinforcement for
peaceful ways of interacting than shown in families of non-
aggressive children. Longitudinal studies of children with aggres-
sive social repertoires show that, by the time these children reach
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 9510496
elementary school, they tend to be aggressive with peers and
uncooperative with teachers, which leads to academic failure and
peer rejection (Patterson, DeBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989). By early
adolescence, these rejected children are forming deviant peer
groups. Because high levels of conict have diminished their
parents'willingness or ability to monitor and set limits on the
children's activities, these youth tend to be unsupervised. Thus the
deviant peer group becomes a training ground(Snyder et al.,
2005) for most types of problematic adolescent behavior, includ-
ing delinquency; tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; and risky
sexual behavior (Biglan et al., 2004).
Jablonka and Lamb (2005) have argued that evolution occurs at
four levels: genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic. Patter-
son's analysis of coercion is an example of behavioral evolution
when behavior is selected by its consequences. Aggressive social
behavior is reinforced by its effect in getting others to cease their
aversive behavior, even briey. The process becomes more likely in
families where positive reinforcement for prosocial behavior fails
to select prosocial behavior.
This evolutionary account at the behavioral level has recently
been supplemented by an evolutionary account that suggests that
youth living in such coercive and threatening environments are
following a developmental pathway that was once valuable for
survival in human history. Ellis et al. (2011) propose an evolu-
tionary model that suggests that the constellation of adolescent
problem behaviors are adaptations to a harsh and unpredictable
environment, particularly caused by other humans and/or events
that place humans in high competition for scarce resources. In
these circumstances, risk taking, aggressive social behavior, and
deviant peer group formation all contribute to early reproduction
(Dishion, Ha, & Véronneau, 2012), which would have had an
evolutionary advantage when human groups encountered parti-
cularly threatening conditions.
Depression may seem wholly unrelated to this group of anti-
social behaviors. Certainly depression is commonly treated as a
distinct entity (e.g., American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Yet
the empirical evidence suggests a different view: Boles et al.
(2006) reported that young people with antisocial behavior were
3.74 times more likely to report depression, those reporting risky
sexual behavior were 4.46 times more likely, eighth graders with
eating disorders were four times more likely, and those using
drugs were 3.66 times more likely to be depressed.
Analyses of the environments inuencing depression show that
it becomes more likely amid some of the same factors that
inuence development of antisocial and related problems. Based
on Patterson's work on coercive family processes, Biglan, Hops,
and Sherman (1988) observed family interactions of depressed
mothers and their families to see if a similar process was involved.
They found that the conditional probability that other family
members would behave aggressively was signicantly lower when
the mother engaged in depressive behavior. In essence, mothers'
depressive behavior was functional in reducing other family
members'aggressive behavior (Biglan et al., 1985;Hops et al.,
1987). Beach and O'Leary (1986) and O'Leary and Beach (1990)
showed that treatment of marital discord among couples with a
depressed wife led to remission of her depression. This evidence
indicates that depression is selected for its benet in coping with
an aversive environment. More recently, Allen and Badcock (2006)
have proposed an evolutionary analysis of depression. Consistent
with the coercion analysis, they argue that, in a threatening
human social environment, depression has survival value.
3.3. Nurturing environments
Recognition that the most common and costly behavioral
problems of humans stem from the same toxic environments
can organize a much more efcient and effective strategy for
improving human wellbeing. Instead of trying to treat or prevent
each problem in isolation, we can target environmental circum-
stances that contribute to all of them. Biglan, Flay, Embry, and
Sandler (2012) have recently described the key features of the
environments needed to nurture wellbeing.
3.3.1. Minimize toxic events
Nurturing environments minimize biological and psychologi-
cally toxic events. Epidemiological researchers have identied
numerous toxins that affect wellbeing. During pregnancy they
include poor maternal nutrition (Bodnar & Wisner, 2005;Brennan,
Grekin, & Mednick, 2003;Mathews, Yudkin, Smith, & Neil, 2000),
maternal smoking, alcohol use, and other drug use (Brennan et al.,
2003;Newton, 1988). In infancy and childhood, they include
abuse, neglect, and coercive interactions (Patterson et al., 1992).
Family conict continues to be a risk factor for adolescents and
adults, contributing to delinquency, depression, marital conict,
and divorce (Biglan et al., 2004).
As biological research has expanded, it has become clear that
most toxins affect both physical wellbeing and psychological
wellbeing. For example, high levels of conict increase interper-
sonal aggression and negatively affect cardiovascular health (Levi,
1983).
Evidence-based treatment and prevention interventions iden-
tied over the past 20 years involve efforts to reduce toxic events
in people's environments. For example, the Nurse Family Partner-
ship (Olds, Hill, O'Brien, Racine, & Moritz, 2003) improves devel-
opment among high-risk infants. It makes the infants'
environments more nurturing by improving their mothers'nutri-
tion, convincing those among them who smoke to quit, and
reducing mothers'abuse and neglect. Evidence-based behavioral
parenting skills programs inuence parents to replace harsh
discipline techniques with more gentle, patient, and caring meth-
ods (e.g., Dishion & Bullock, 2002;Forgatch & DeGarmo, 2007).
Marital therapies help couples reduce their angry attacks on each
other (Stanley, Bradbury, & Markman, 2000). Schoolwide Positive
Behavior Support (Sprague et al., 2001) helps schools replace
punitive discipline practices with more positive approaches. Toxic
events also include peer reinforcement for deviant behavior. Such,
often unintentional, reinforcement is a powerful predictor of
lifetime adverse child and adolescent development (Dishion,
Spracklen, Andrews, & Patterson, 1996).
Research on the effects of poverty on individual and family
wellbeing also supports the principle of minimizing toxic stimula-
tion: both poverty and economic reverses such as job loss increase
family conict and contribute to depression, childhood aggression,
and adolescent delinquency (Conger et al., 2002;Conger, Ge, Elder,
Lorenz, & Simons, 1994;Dodge, Pettit, & Bates, 1994;Gutman,
McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005;NICHD Early Child Care Research
Network, 2005). Costello, Compton, Keeler, and Angold (2003)
documented how the number of Native American children in
western North Carolina with psychological disorders declined after
their tribe (the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) opened a casino
and every family's income rose.
Some events are toxic due to an evolutionary mismatch, which
The Evolution Institute describes on its website (http://evolution-
institute.org/node/5) as follows:
Natural selection adapts organisms to their past environments
and has no ability to foresee the future. When the environment
changes, adaptations to past environments can misre in the
current environment, producing a mismatch that can be solved
only by subsequent evolution or by modifying the current
environment. Mismatches are an inevitable consequence of
evolution in changing environments. They are especially
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104 97
relevant to human affairs, since modern human environments
are so radically different from ancestral human environments.
Over the past 50 years, modern culture introduced many
sources of evolutionary mismatch, with toxic effects. For example,
the electronic media explosion created multiple toxic inuences.
First, chronic child exposure to TV violence directly increased
lifetime aggression and violence (Huesmann, Moise-Titus,
Podolski, & Eron, 2003). Second, the migration of such media to
children's bedrooms in the past 1020 years has caused sleep loss,
with adverse consequences on physical and mental health
(Dworak, Schierl, Bruns, & Strüder, 2007;Paavonen, Pennonen,
Roine, Valkonen, & Lahikainen, 2006).
Dietary changes have introduced evolutionary mismatches. For
example, humans have historically had dietary fatty acid ratios of
2-to-1 or 4-to-1 of omega-6 (n6) to omega-3 (n3) (Blasbalg,
Hibbeln, Ramsden, Majchrzak, & Rawlings, 2011). In the United
States today, that ratio is more like 25-to-1, with serious adverse
consequences for individuals and the whole population, including
higher rates of mental illness, homicide, suicide, and other
psychiatric disorders (Hibbeln, Nieminen, Blasbalg, Riggs, &
Lands, 2006). Vitamin D3 deciencies among pregnant mothers
and young children have increased (Merewood et al., 2010) due to
an increased indoor lifestyle and less consumption of fortied milk
and other sources (Fulgoni, Keast, Auestad, & Quann, 2011;Looker
et al., 2011). This is particularly adverse for people of color,
contributing to a signicant rise in diabetes and auto-immune
and infectious diseases (Dawodu & Wagner, 2012;Hill, Graham, &
Divgi, 2011;Janisse, Cakan, Ellis, & Brogan, 2011), and an increase
in some developmental disorders (Dealberto, 2011;Huotari &
Herzig, 2008;Shamberger, 2011;Tolppanen et al., 2012).
A thoroughgoing science of human wellbeing needs to incor-
porate both biological and social inuences on wellbeing. Beha-
vioral scientists have often ignored biological inuences. One will
not nd, for example, many discussions of the role of omega-3
deciency or higher levels of airborne lead interacting with the
rise of delinquency, homicide, and violence (Hibbeln, 2007;
Hibbeln, Nieminen, & Lands, 2004;Stretesky & Lynch, 2001,
2004). Yet processes such as these examples of a toxic inuence
during pregnancy and early life cause a cascade of adverse
behavioral outcomes, which in turn trigger toxic behaviors that
can affect others.
3.3.2. Promote, teach, and richly reinforce prosociality
Nurturing environments are highly reinforcing. Most evidence-
based treatment and prevention interventions encourage people
to praise, recognize, and reward others (Biglan, 2003). They also
promote more subtle forms of reinforcement, such as simply
attending to others, playing with them, listening to them, and so
on. Reinforcement is at the core of many of the behavioral
parenting skills programs that have been validated in recent years
(Biglan, 2003). These programs shift parents away from punitive
means of control while they promote myriad ways of responding
positively to what children do. Positive reinforcement of desirable
behavior is also fundamental to successful behavior management
systems in schools (Eddy, Reid, Stoolmiller, & Fetrow, 2003;
Ialongo, Poduska, Werthamer, & Kellam, 2001;Metzler, Biglan,
Rusby, & Sprague, 2001), successful marital therapy programs
(Hahlweg & Markman, 1988;Kistenmacher & Biglan, 2000), and
effective job performance systems in workplaces (Daniels, 1999;
Daniels & Daniels, 2004,2006).
Similarly, evidence-based preventive interventions in schools
teach and reinforce prosociality. For example, the Positive Action
program provides instruction to students about desirable beha-
viors (Flay & Allred, 2010). It does so through lessons and through
recognition of prosocial behavior. Positive Action has been shown
to prevent substance abuse and improve academic performance
(Snyder et al., 2010). PeaceBuilders teaches students and adults in
high-risk schools to reinforce prosocial actions among each other
with positive, written praise notesposted on the walls, shared
on the public address system, and even via mass media (Embry,
Flannery, Vazsonyi, Powell, & Atha, 1996). That simple strategy
reduced violent injuries at school (Krug, Brener, Dahlberg, Ryan, &
Powell, 1997) and signicantly increased positive behaviors while
decreasing symptoms of externalizing disorders in just a few
months (Flannery et al., 2003), especially among the most at-risk
children (Vazsonyi, Belliston, & Flannery, 2004).
In schools, reducing peer attention to negative behavior can
magnify positive reinforcement (Embry, 2002;Embry, Staatemeier,
Richardson, Lauger, & Mitich, 2003). The Good Behavior Game
studies best illustrate this: children learn to self-regulate and to
ignore negative peer behavior. The impact of this is immediate in
classrooms (Embry, 2002), with a profound impact on reducing
lifetime problematic behaviors from criminal involvement to drug
use (Kellam et al., 2008). That same strategy increases multiple
indicators of academic success, from high school graduation to
college entry (Bradshaw, Zmuda, Kellam, & Ialongo, 2009).
3.3.3. Limit opportunities for problem behavior
Environments that promote prosociality also limit opportu-
nities for antisocial behavior. One of the key components of all
effective parenting interventions teaches parents to monitor what
their children are doing when the parents are not around and to
set limits on their children being in situations where they could
experiment with problem behavior (Dishion & McMahon, 1998).
Schools that are effective in promoting prosocial behavior monitor
the level of misbehavior and ensure that effective supervision is
available in all venues (Horner & Sugai, 2000).
3.3.4. Fostering psychological exibility
Nurturing environments support the development of psycho-
logical exibility, which is the ability to act consistently with one's
values even when distressing thoughts and feelings seem to get in
the way of doing so. Recent research on mindfulness therapies,
such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes,
Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), indicates that people become better
able to live effective, values-driven lives when they receive help in
taking an accepting, nonjudgmental stance toward their own
thoughts and feelings. Over 60 randomized trials have shown
the benet of ACT for problems as diverse as smoking, epilepsy,
schizophrenia, and diabetes (Biglan, Hayes, & Pistorello, 2008).
Moreover, many treatment and prevention interventions have
in common an accepting attitude on the part of the interven-
tionist. For example, in motivational interviewing for people with
drinking problems, interventionists gently question clients about
their drinking and any problems they are experiencing, but do not
criticize. In this nonthreatening context, many people are better
able to see the problems that their drinking is causing and to
choose to change their drinking behavior (Miller, 1983). Similarly,
effective therapists and teachers accept the things their clients and
students do while gently guiding them to behave more effectively.
The benets of psychological exibility are not limited to
therapeutic situations. Increasing psychological exibility
increases adoption of innovation in businesses and organizations,
critical for their success (Bond, Hayes, & Barnes-Holmes, 2006;
Hayes, Bunting, Herbst, Bond, & Barnes-Holmes, 2006). Psycholo-
gical exibility improves leadership in businesses and organiza-
tions (Gill, in preparation;Gill & Williamson, 2010). One of the
most important ndings about psychological exibility is that it is
associated with good health (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). Given
the spiraling healthcare costs related to psychological inexibility,
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 9510498
methods for increasing psychological exibility could be vital to
our national economic success.
3.3.5. The value of these principles
The tendency of behavioral scientists to work on one or two
problems (e.g., depression or antisocial behavior) has obscured the
commonalities among these seemingly different problems. One
can work successfully on a specic problem without having to
analyze its similarity to other problems. However, identifying
crosscutting principles may extend the range of problems we
can effectively address (Kellam, Koretz, & Moscicki, 1999;Kellam &
Van Horn, 1997). More importantly, these principles open the way
to more broad-based public health interventions that affect the
prevalence of nurturing environments, not only through programs,
but through media and normative changes in society.
4. Principles for evolving benecial cultural practices
Despite extensive evidence about what inuences the devel-
opment of most psychological and behavioral problems and how
to treat or prevent them, we have not seen substantial declines in
the prevalence of most problems. In fact, the prevalence rates in
the United States appear to be increasing, especially in comparison
to other rich democracies (Copeland, Shanahan, Costello, &
Angold, 2011;Copeland, Shanahan, Worthman, Angold, &
Costello, 2012;Costello, Copeland, & Angold, 2011). This would
seem to belie our claim that signicant improvements in human
wellbeing are achievable. However, despite mounting evidence of
what is needed to ensure prosocial development, these nurturing
conditions are not sufciently widespread to produce signicant
improvements in the wellbeing of entire populations. The next
natural step in research and public health practice is to focus on
increasing the prevalence of nurturing environments in whole
populations. Instead of continuing to mount treatment and pre-
vention programs targeting distinct problems, we must re-orient
the research and practice communities to develop, evaluate, and
implement strategies to affect the quality of people's environ-
ments. Put another way, what have traditionally been independent
variables in research on psychological, behavioral, and health
problems (i.e., the environmental conditions) would become the
dependent variables.
A concerted public health movement to increase the prevalence
of nurturing environments will gradually increase the prevalence
of caring and cooperative people. As the proportion of such people
grows, it will further increase the prevalence of nurturing envir-
onments, creating a virtuous cycle. We can envision such a move-
ment in terms of six facets.
4.1. Research
Research on the inter-relationships among problems, their
common origins, and the interventions that affect them has
brought us to the current synthesis. Organizing further research
in light of the central role of environments in affecting human
wellbeing can accelerate the spread of nurturing families, schools,
workplaces, and communities.
One line of research that would be helpful would explore the
degree to which diverse problems have common origins. It will be
particularly valuable to characterize the population-attributable
risk of the most important risk factors for each of the most
common psychological, behavioral, and health problems. Most
epidemiological and etiological research has focused on the risk
factors for individual problems. Such a focus tends to obscure the
importance of common environmental risk factors. For example,
enumerating the environmental and intrapersonal (genetic,
behavioral) risk factors for antisocial behavior might show that
particular genes make a larger contribution to this behavior than,
say, poverty or coercive social interactions. However, if we exam-
ined the contribution of coercive interactions to each common
problem, we might nd coercive interactions stand out as risk
factors accounting for a signicant proportion of each and every
problem. Such research would contribute directly to advocating
for a focus on nurturing environments.
A second line of research would focus on testing methods to
increase the prevalence of nurturing environments and their
impact on multiple problems. For example, the community wide
parenting program known as Triple Phas been shown to affect the
incidence of child abuse in entire counties (e.g., Prinz, Sanders,
Shapiro, Whitaker, & Lutzker, 2009). Given the evidence cited
above of the importance of nutritional inuences on development
this line of work ought not be limited to changing behavioral and
social inuences on development.
4.2. A system for monitoring wellbeing and its context
Ultimately, every community will need a surveillance system to
track the extent to which families, schools, and workplaces
minimize punitive practices, promote and reinforce prosociality,
limit opportunities for problem behavior, and promote psycholo-
gical exibility. Such surveillance systems are core components of
public health efforts and are in growing use for tracking psycho-
logical and behavioral aspects of wellbeing. Monitoring the pre-
valence of substance use and antisocial behavior has been
advanced thanks to the efforts of Monitoring the Future, the CDC
Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and the CDC Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System. Increasingly, communities are also develop-
ing local surveillance systems (Mrazek, Biglan, & Hawkins, 2005).
Yet tracking internalizing problems (e.g., depression) has lagged
behind monitoring externalizing ones (National Research Council
& Institute of Medicine, 2009) and we are far from having an
accepted and widely used system to estimate the proportion of
families or schools providing a sufcient level of nurturance.
Indeed, it will take further research to develop standards for
identifying what constitutes adequate nurturance. The surveil-
lance system must assess critical inuences on development and
the key developmental outcomes.
The surveillance system must have a frequently publicized
scoreboard (Embry, 2004). Without such a scoreboard, it will be
difcult to rally the public. And the scoreboard recruits sustainable
funding. We have used such dashboards or scoreboards for
reducing youth violence (Embry et al., 1996), increasing engage-
ment in child safety strategies (Embry, 1984), and reducing youth
tobacco access and use (Embry & Biglan, 2009).
Some political jurisdictions have instituted surveillance systems
for nurturing environments as a matter of public policy. For example,
the Canadian province of Manitoba passed the Healthy Child
Manitoba Act (see web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/h037e.php),
which mandates reports on the wellbeing of the province's children.
Manitoba created a linked database system to correlate multiple
outcomes for children. This enables the province to condently test
policy initiatives for maximum benet for children, families, and the
community. This act and related infrastructure allows the province,
community partners, and local businesses to deploy powerful
protective strategies quickly and evaluate their outcomes, including
cost benets (see www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/).
4.3. Evidence-based programs and practices
As the evidence we have reviewed suggests, researchers have
already identied numerous programs and practices that can
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104 99
contribute to making families and schools more nurturing.
Increasingly, research focuses on the question of how to get these
interventions widely and effectively implemented. As this work
proceeds, it will need systems for tracking the robustness, delity,
and multiple impacts of disseminated interventions, since we
cannot simply assume that interventions will continue to work
after implementation (Biglan, Flay, & Foster, 2003). Some inter-
ventions may be easier to implement reliably with measurable
impact (referred to as robust). Currently, no set of principles
denes what makes practices or programs more robust, though
there are good beginning considerations. For example, practices
need social validity and acceptability (Wolf, 1978); should be
generalizable across time, people, places, and behaviors (Fox &
McEvoy, 1993;Kennedy, 2002;Stokes & Baer, 1977); and should be
cost efcient compared to alternatives (Embry, 2004;Satpathy &
Bansal, 1982).
The other issue for this category is convincing society to fund
the implementation of evidence-based programs and practices. As
we propose, this will require effective advocacy.
4.4. Organizational infrastructure
Societal change depends on organizations. When like-minded
people create organizations, they are able to garner the resources
to produce cultural change. Accordingly, if the scientic commu-
nity is to contribute to the spread of environments that nurture
most people's wellbeing, it must develop and test strategies for
altering the practices of the networks of organizations that directly
or indirectly affect human development. Currently, many founda-
tions and non-prot organizations are working to affect specic
aspects of population wellbeing. However, if our analysis of the
central importance of nurturing environments is correct, the total
benet of these efforts would be greater if organizations that focus
on individual problems (e.g., crime, alcohol or drug use, or child
abuse) band together to try to affect the prevalence of nurturing
families, schools, and workplaces. By combining resources and
targeting these outcomes, they can signicantly increase the
prevalence of nurturance in society.
On the other hand, some of the practices of for-prot organiza-
tions constitute risk factors that directly affect wellbeing or
inuence the prevalence of nurturing environments (Biglan,
2011). Examples of the former include the marketing of tobacco,
alcohol, and unhealthy food. A prominent example of corporate
practices that affect the prevalence of nurturing environments is
the effective lobbying by some business organizations for govern-
mental policies that have increased economic inequality and
poverty, thereby increasing the stress and conict in many
families, schools, and communities (Biglan, 2009, in press;Biglan
& Cody, 2013;Smith, 2012). If we as a society are to succeed in
reducing the epidemics of mental, emotional, behavioral, and
related health problems in our children, we must develop organi-
zational innovations that rein in the short-term selection by
consequences that favor corporations'marketing of obesity-
causing foods, addictive substances, private prisons, pharmaceu-
ticals, and harmful entertainment media. We will also need
policies that diminish lobbying for policies that protect the
short-term prots generated by these activities at the expense of
society's future generations.
What might be a template for organization structures to protect
the common futures of our children? We argue for thinking of
future generations as a common-pool resource (Gardner, Ostrom,
& Walker, 1990). A common-pool resource (CPR) is a type of good
consisting of a natural or human-made resource that is available to
all or many people. Traditionally examples of CPRs are a water
supply system, such as the irrigation system of rice farmers in Bali
or shing grounds. The size or characteristics of CPRs make it very
difcult to exclude potential beneciaries from obtaining benets
from their use, and CPRs are prone to over-exploitation for
private gain.
Why is it useful to think of our children as a common-pool
resource? Because to the extent that individuals and organizations
exploit children for their economic or personal gain, they harm a
fundamental resource that benets the entire society. Miller (in
Biglan et al., 2004) calculated the costs incurred by youth who
engage in multiple problem behaviors. He totaled the costs
incurred by all American youth for one year who engaged in
underage drinking, heroin or cocaine abuse, high-risk sex, youth
violence, youth smoking, high school dropout, and youth suicide.
Including continuing costs, such as the long-term care and lost
productivity of a person disabled by violence or an alcohol-related
car crash, Miller estimated that the cost would be $557.3 billion.
This way of thinking provides a clear criterion for public
policymaking. Every proposed public policy can be evaluated in
terms of its impact on the society's common pool resource, its
young people. The goal of policymaking then becomes encoura-
ging practices that increase the prevalence of successfully devel-
oping young people and decreasing practices that harm
development. Examples of the latter policies include increased
taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, prohibition on marketing
unhealthy foods to young people, and estimating the impact of
any proposed military engagement on the incidence of death,
injury, and PTSD on combatants. Examples of policies that would
encourage organizations to promote prosocial development
include funding nonprots to provide family support services in
high poverty neighborhoods and increasing the tax benets of
giving to nonprots whose practices have shown empirically to
increase the proportion of children developing successfully
(Biglan, 2009).
4.5. Policies affecting the prevalence of nurturing environments
Many government policies can directly affect nurturance. What
is needed is a systematic review of government policy that asks
how any given policy affects nurturance. Indeed, the lynchpin or
overarching policy might be that every policy adopted must be
evaluated in terms of its environmental impactnot on the
physical environment, but on the social environment. The question
would be, How will this policy affect the prevalence of nurturance
in families, schools, and workplaces?
Some policies will directly affect nurturance. They include
those affecting poverty and economic inequality (Wilkinson &
Pickett, 2009) and those that affect the use of punishment
in schools, families, and the criminal justice system (Lawrence,
1998;Skiba & Peterson, 1999). Departments of Labor and Com-
merce might examine how their policies affect the degree to
which workplaces are nurturing versus confrontational and
unsupportive.
Other policies affect what government does or does not do to
advance nurturance. These include federal policies that govern
research and practice. With respect to research, the central
importance of nurturance points to the need to reorganize
research priorities so that we move from research focused on
individual problems to research focused on social environments.
With respect to practice, there is already an increasing movement
at the federal level and in some states to require that social and
educational practices be evidence-based (e.g., the Georgia Depart-
ment of Corrections Risk Reduction Services, Iowa's mandate for
evidence-based practices in its Public Health System). Still other
policies will affect whether the necessary surveillances systems
are developed.
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104100
4.6. Media
Two aspects of media are fundamental to cultural change. First,
there is the use of media to advocate for nurturing environments.
The tobacco control movement has been very successful in
creatively communicating critical epidemiological facts in creative
ways. For example, tobacco control advocates often describe the
number of people killed by smoking in terms of two Boeing 747 s
crashing every day of the year, killing everyone on board.
As research on the inuence of nurturing environments
mounts, Surgeon General and Institute of Medicine reports can
marshal the evidence and communicate in ways that inuence
policymaking, further research, and individual behavior.
Such media advocacy can help to mobilize opinion leaders
around a shared view of what society needs. But for society to
truly transform, we need a second developmenta change in the
advertising and entertainment media that affect people directly
and alter their context. It is already well-established that media
depictions of aggression inuence aggressive behavior in young
people (Hausman, Spivak, & Prothrow-Stith, 1995) and, although
little progress has been made in reducing young people's exposure
to such media, there is some evidence they can be inoculated
against the inuence (Jeong, Cho, & Hwang, 2012).
Less is known about the degree to which marketing promotes a
general culture of experiential avoidance through ads that indicate
we must reduce every discomfort or those that heighten stress by
making social status comparisons more salient. There is evidence
that more economically unequal societies such as the U.S. have
signicantly higher rates of advertising (Wilkinson & Pickett,
2009). Research is needed to explore how heavily marketing has
exacerbated these inuences.
The more signicant development might come from the
development of popular entertainment that promotes nurturance.
As the harmfulness of smoking has become more widely under-
stood, there has been a signicant change in the way that cigarette
smoking is depicted, with smoking characters becoming ill due to
their smoking. How might popular culture be transformed to
promote nurturance?
5. Concerns about the use and misuse of a science of
intentional cultural change
Ever since Skinner (1953) wrote about using science to change
human behavior (1953), concerns have been expressed about the
dangers of such a science (e.g., Chomsky, 1971). Much of the
concern arose from the view that human behavior is determined
by the autonomous choices that humans make and that any effort
to inuence human behavior would violate people's freedom. That
concern has receded as it has become much more widely accepted
that the environment shapes human behavior. However a legit-
imate and important question remains regarding who will deter-
mine the direction of cultural evolution and what kind of culture
we choose to work toward.
We would argue that the public health framework and our
system of democracy and civil liberties provide the context for
addressing these concerns. The public health research reviewed in
this paper indicates that it is in the interest of individuals and
those around them for society to promote prosocial behavior and
prevent antisocial behavior and related problems. Such a society
will have a healthier, more productive, and, most likely, happier
population.
Yet ultimately, in a democratic society the people decide the
priorities for societal change. Whether or not we choose to make
promoting prosocial behavior a central priority of public policy
will depend on whether or not voters support politicians who
advocate and implement the policies and programs such a
decision would require.
It would be naïve in the extreme, however, to assume that
voters simply decide on such issues by freely choosing. The
political process is as amenable to scientic analysis as any other
behavioral process and it is incumbent upon us to understand the
forces that inuence which issues become matters of public policy
and what social forces inuence how the democratic process
unfolds. Elsewhere, we have described how the evolution of
corporate practices in our capitalistic system has selected public
advocacy and lobbying practices that resulted in policies that
increased poverty and economic inequality (Biglan, 2009,2011,
2013). Anyone who would fear the inuence of behavioral scien-
tists on the direction of societal change might consider how
change is currently being determined. In the end, the issue is
not whether humans inuence one another, but whether, as
individuals and groups, we have equal access to the tools of
inuence that provide for the good of many, rather than wellbeing
of only a few.
We have described how organizations could band together to
advocate for policies, programs, and practices to make environ-
ments more nurturing. Such advocacy is in the main stream of
how democratic societies guide their evolution. For behavioral
scientists and public health leaders to advocate that society focus
its resources on making our families, schools, and workplaces
more nurturing is as legitimate as the agenda of any other groups
trying to inuence public policy. And, we would argue that what
we outline here is likely to inuence society's evolution in
directions that will strengthen the best features of corporate
capitalism, while reducing practices that undermine human
wellbeing.
6. Conclusion
The human sciences have converged on an understanding of
human behavior that simplies the prescription for improving
wellbeing. Most psychological, behavioral, and health problems
stem from a common set of environmental conditions that stress
people and promote conict. The past 40 years of treatment and
prevention research have delineated family and school interven-
tions to reduce stress and conict and increase prosocial behavior
to benet individuals and those around them. Just as an organized
cultural change movement changed the smoking culture, the same
principles of cultural change can increase the prevalence of
nurturing environments through advocacy, policy, and dissemina-
tion of evidence-based programs and practices. The result can be a
society with less crime, drug abuse, conict, depression, and
academic failure than society has ever enjoyed.
Acknowledgments
The National Institute of Child Health and Development
(HD60922) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(DA028946) provided nancial support for the rst author during
his work on this manuscript. The content is solely the responsi-
bility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the ofcial
views of the NICHD, NIDA, or the National Institutes of Health.
References
Agran, M., Blanchard, C., Wehmeyer, M., & Hughes, C. (2001). Teaching students to
self-regulate their behavior: The differential effects of student-vs. teacher-
delivered reinforcement. Research in Developmental Disabilities,22,319332.
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104 10 1
Allen, N. B., & Badcock, P. B. T. (2006). Darwinian models of depression: A review of
evolutionary accounts of mood and mood disorders. Progress in Neuro-
Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry,30,815826.
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (fourth ed.). Arlington, VA: Author (text revision (DSM-IV-TR
s
).
Beach, S. R. H., & O'Leary, K. D. (1986). The treatment of depression occurring in the
context of marital discord. Behavior Therapy,17,4349.
Biglan, A. (1995). Changing cultural practices: A contextualist framework for inter-
vention research. Reno, NV: Context Press.
Biglan, A. (2003). Selection by consequences: One unifying principle for a
transdisciplinary science of prevention. Prevention Science,4,213232.
Biglan, A. (2004). Direct written testimony in the case of the U.S.A. vs. Phillip Morris et
al. U.S. Department of Justice. Available: http://www.ori.org/oht/testimony.html.
Biglan, A. (2009). The role of advocacy organizations in reducing negative
externalities. Journal of Organizational Behavioral Management,29,116.
Biglan, A. (2011). Corporate externalities: A challenge to the further success of
prevention science. Prevention Science,12,111 .
Biglan, A. (2013). Nurturing environments for societal change: A behavioral scientist's
vision for wellbeing in individuals, families, education, and policy. Oakland, CA:
New Harbinger.
Biglan, A., Brennan, P. A., Foster, S. L., Holder, H. D., & Miller, T. L. (2004). Helping
adolescents at risk: Prevention of multiple problem behaviors. New York, NY:
Guilford.
Biglan, A., & Cody, C. (2013). Integrating the human sciences to evolve effective
policies. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization,90S,S152S162.
Biglan, A., Flay, B., & Foster, S. L. (2003). The prevention of drug abuse. In: A. Biglan,
M. C. Wang, & H. J. Walberg (Eds.), Preventing youth problems (pp. 87111). New
York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
Biglan, A., Flay, B. R., Embry, D. D., & Sandler, I. (2012). Nurturing environments and
the next generation of prevention research and practice. American Psychologist,
67,257271.
Biglan, A., & Glenn, S. S. (2013). A selectionist approach to evolving systems. In G. J.
Madden, K. A. Lattal, T. Hackenberg, W. J. Dube, & G. P. Hanley (Eds.), APA
handbook of behavior analysis, Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association (in press).
Biglan, A., & Hayes, S. C. (1996). Should the behavioral sciences become more
pragmatic? The case for functional contextualism in research on human
behavior. Applied and Preventive Psychology,5,4757.
Biglan, A., Hayes, S. C., & Pistorello, J. (2008). Acceptance and commitment:
Implications for prevention science. Prevention Science,9,139152.
Biglan, A., & Hinds, E. (2009). Evolving prosocial and sustainable neighborhoods
and communities. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology,5,169196.
Biglan, A., Hops, H., & Sherman, L. (1988). Coercive family processes and maternal
depression. In: R. D. Peters, & R. J. McMahon (Eds.), Social learning and systems
approaches to marriage and the family (pp. 72103). New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel.
Biglan, A., Hops, H., Sherman, L., Friedman, L. S., Arthur, J., & Osteen, V. (1985).
Problem-solving interactions of depressed women and their husbands. Beha-
vior Therapy,16,431451.
Biglan, A., & Taylor, T. K. (2000). Why have we been more successful in reducing
tobacco use than violent crime? American Journal of Community Psychology,28,
269302.
Blasbalg, T. L., Hibbeln, J. R., Ramsden, C. E., Majchrzak, S. F., & Rawlings, R. R. (2011).
Changes in consumption of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the United
States during the 20th century. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,93,
950962, http://dx.doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.110.006643.
Bodnar, L. M., & Wisner, K. L. (2005). Nutrition and depression: Implications for
improving mental health among childbearing-aged women. Biological Psychia-
try,58,679685.
Boles, S., Biglan, A., & Smolkowski, K. (2006). Relationships among negative and
positive behaviours in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence,29,3352.
Bond, F. W., Hayes, S. C., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2006). Psychological exibility, ACT, a nd
organizational behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management,26,2554.
Bradshaw, C. P., Zmuda, J. H., Kellam, S., & Ialongo, N. (2009). Longitudinal impact of
two universal preventive interventions in rst grade on educational outcomes
in high school. Journal of Educational Psychology,101, 926937.
Brennan, P. A., Grekin, E. R., & Mednick, S. A. (2003). Prenatal and perinatal
inuences on conduct disorder and serious delinquency. In: B. B. Lahey, T.
E. Moftt, & A. Caspi (Eds.), Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency
(pp. 319341). New York, NY: Guilford.
Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Pastorelli, C., Bandura, A., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2000).
Prosocial foundations of children's academic achievement. Psychological
Science,11, 302306.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2008a). Cigarette smoking among adults
United States, 2007.Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 57 (pp. 12211226)
12211226.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2008b). Cigarette use among high school
studentsUnited States, 19912007.Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 57
(pp. 689691)689691.
Channer, P., & Hope, T. (2001). Emotional impact: Passionate leaders and corporate
transformation. London, UK: Palgrave MacMillan.
Chomsky, N. (1971). The case against B.F. Skinner. The New York Review of Books.
Clark, K. E., & Ladd, G. W. (2000). Connectedness and autonomy support in parent
child relationships: Links to children's socioemotional orientation and peer
relationships. Developmental Psychology,36, 485498.
Conger, R. D., Ge, X., Elder, G. H., Lorenz, F. O., & Simons, R. L. (1994). Economic
stress, coercive family process, and developmental problems of adolescents.
Child Development,65,541561.
Conger, R. D., Wallace, L. E., Sun, Y., Simons, R. L., McLoyd, V. C., & Brody, G. H.
(2002). Economic pressure in African American families: A replication and
extension of the Family Stress Model. Developmental Psychology,38,179193.
Copeland, W., Shanahan, L., Costello, E. J., & Angold, A. (2011). Cumulative
prevalence of psychiatric disorders by young adulthood: A prospective cohort
analysis from the Great Smoky Mountains Study. Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,50, 252261, http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.jaac.2010.12.014.
Copeland, W. E., Shanahan, L., Worthman, C., Angold, A., & Costello, E. J. (2012).
Cumulative depression episodes predict later C-Reactive protein levels: A
prospective analysis. Biological Psychiatry,71,1521, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.biopsych.2011.09.023.
Costello, E. J., Compton, S. N., Keeler, G., & Angold, A. (2003). Relationships between
poverty and psychopathology: A natural experiment. Journal of the American
Medical Association,290, 20232029.
Costello, E. J., Copeland, W., & Angold, A. (2011). Trends in psychopathology across
the adolescent years: What changes when children become adolescents, and
when adolescents become adults? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,52,
10151025, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02446.x.
Daniels, A. C. (1999). Bringing out the best in people: How to apply the astonishing
power of positive reinforcement (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Daniels, A. C., & Daniels, J. E. (2004). Performance management: Changing behavior
that drives organizational effectiveness (4th ed.). Atlanta, GA: Performance
Management Publications.
Daniels, A. C., & Daniels, J. E. (2006). Positive reinforcement: Misunderstood and
misused. T+D Magazine,60,16.
Dawodu, A., & Wagner, C. L. (2012). Prevention of vitamin D deciency in mothers
and infants worldwideA paradigm shift. Paediatrics and International Child
Health,32,313 , http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1465328111y.0000 000024.
Dealberto, M. J. (2011). Prevalence of autism according to maternal immigrant
status and ethnic origin. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica,123,339348, http://dx.
doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2010.01662.x.
Dishion, T. J., & Bullock, B. M. (2002). Parenting and adolescent problem behavior:
An ecological analysis of the nurturance hypothesis. In: J. G. Borkowski, & S.
L. Ramey (Eds.), Parenting and the child's world: Inuences on academic,
intellectual, and socialemotional development. Monographs in parenting (pp.
231249). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dishion, T. J., Ha, T., & Véronneau, M.-H. (2012). An ecological analysis of the effects
of deviant peer clustering on sexual promiscuity, problem behavior, and
childbearing from early adolescence to adulthood: An enhancement of the life
history framework. (Special Section: Beyond mental health: An evolutionary
analysis of development under risky and supportive environmental conditions).
Developmental Psychology,48, 703717.
Dishion, T. J., & McMahon, R. J. (1998). Parental monitoring and the prevention of
child and adolescent problem behavior: A conceptual and empirical foundation.
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review,1,6175.
Dishion, T. J., Spracklen, K. M., Andrews, D. W., & Patterson, G. R. (1996). Deviancy
training in male adolescents friendships. Behavior Therapy,27,373.
Dodge, K. A., Pettit, G. S., & Bates, J. E. (1994). Socialization mediators of the relation
between socioeconomic status and child conduct problems. Child Development,
65,649665.
Dworak, M., Schierl, T., Bruns, T., & Strüder, H. K. (2007). Impact of singular
excessive computer game and television exposure on sleep patterns and
memory performance of school-aged children. Pediatrics,120 ,978985, http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2007-0476.
Eddy, J., Reid, J. B., Stoolmiller, M., & Fetrow, R. A. (2003). Outcomes during middle
school for an elementary school-based preventive intervention for conduct
problems: Follow-up results from a randomized trial. Behavior Therapy,34,
535552, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7894(03)80034-5.
Eisenberg,N.,Miller,P.A.,Shell,R.,McNalley,S.,&Shea,C.(1991).Prosocialdevelopment
in adolescence: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology,27,849857.
Ellis, B. J., & Bjorklund, D. F. (2012). Beyond mental health: An evolutionary analysis
of development under risky and supportive environmental conditions. Devel-
opmental Psychology,48,591597.
Ellis, B. J., Del Guidice, M., Dishion, T. J., Figueredo, A. J., Gray, P., Griskevicius, V.,
et al. (2011). The evolutionary basis of risky adolescent behavior: Implications
for science, policy, and practice. Developmental Psychology,48, 598623.
Embry, D. D. (1984). The safe-playing program: A case study of putting research
into practice. In: S. Paine, & B. Bellamy (Eds.), Human services that work: From
innovation to standard practice (p. 624). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Co.
Embry, D. D. (2002). The Good Behavior Game: A best practice candidate as a universal
behavioral vaccine. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review,5, 273297.
Embry, D. D. (2004). Community-based prevention using simple, low-cost, evidence-
based kernels and behavior vaccines. Journal of Community Psychology,32, 575.
Embry, D. D., & Biglan, A. (2009). Reward and reminder: An environmental strategy
for population-level prevention. Available from Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Administration NREPP: SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based
Programs and Practices. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration
www.nrepp.samhsa.govAccessed 03.02.10.
Embry, D. D., Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Powell, K. E., & Atha, H. (1996).
PeaceBuilders: A theoretically driven, school-based model for early violence
prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine,12,91.
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104102
Embry, D. D., Staatemeier, G., Richardson, C., Lauger, K., & Mitich, J. (2003). The PAX
good behavior game (1st ed.). Center City, MN: Hazelden.
Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Liau, A. K., Guo, S., Powell, K. E., Atha, H., et al. (2003).
Initial behavior outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based violence
prevention program. Developmental Psychology,39, 292308.
Flay, B. R., & Allred, C. G. (2010). The Positive Action Program: Improving academics,
behavior, and character by teaching comprehensive skills for successful learn-
ing and living. In: T. Lovat, R. Toomey, & N. Clement (Eds.), International research
handbook on values education and student wellbeing (pp. 471501). New York,
NY, USA: Springer Science+Business Media.
Forgatch, M. S., & DeGarmo, D. S. (2007). Efcacy of parent training for stepfathers:
From playful spectator and polite stranger to effective stepfathering. Parenting:
Science and Practice,7,331335.
Fox, J. J., & McEvoy, M. A. (1993). Assessing and enhancing generalization and social
validity of social-skills interventions with children and adolescents. Behavior
Modication,17, 339366.
Fulgoni, V. L., 3rd, Keast, D. R., Auestad, N., & Quann, E. E. (2011). Nutrients from
dairy foods are difcult to replace in diets of Americans: Food pattern modeling
and an analyses of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
20032006. Nutrition Research,31, 759765, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
nutres.2011.09.017.
Gardner, R., Ostrom, E., & Walker, J. M. (1990). The nature of common-pool resource
problems. Rationality and Society,2,335358.
Gill, C. (2010). Don't get angry. Get psychological exibility. Press Release and Media,
January 2010.
Gill, C., & Williamson, I. (2010). The impact of psychological exibility on leadership
behavior in self managed teams. In: Paper presented at the Academy of
Management Meeting. Montreal, CA. http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/20/.
Gutman, L. M., McLoyd, V. C., & Tokoyawa, T. (2005). Financial strain, neighborhood
stress, parenting behaviors, and adolescent adjustment in urban African
American families. Journal of Research on Adolescence,15, 425449.
Hahlweg, K., & Markman, H. J. (1988). Effectiveness of behavioral marital therapy:
Empirical status of behavioral techniques in preventing and alleviating marital
distress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,56,440447.
Hausman, A. J., Spivak, H., & Prothrow-Stith, D. (1995). Evaluation of a community-
based youth violence prevention project. Journal of Adolescent Health,17,
353359.
Hayes, S. C. (1993). Analytic goals and the varieties of scientic contextualism.
Varieties of scientic contextualism (pp. 1127). Reno, NV: Context Press.
Hayes, S. C., Bunting, K., Herbst, S., Bond, F. W., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2006).
Expanding the scope of organizational behavior management: Relational Frame
Theory and the experimental analysis of complex human behavior. Journal of
Organizational Behavior Management,26,123.
Hayes, S. C., & Long, D. (2013). Contextual behavioral science, evolution, and
scientic epistemology. In: B. Roche, & S. Dymond (Eds.), Advances in Relational
Frame Theory: Research and application (pp. 526). Oakland, CA: New Harbin-
ger/Context Press.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment
therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York, NY: Guilford.
Henrich, J. (2004). Cultural group selection, coevolutionary processes and large-
scale cooperation. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,53,335.
Hibbeln, J. R. (2007). From homicide to happinessA commentary on omega-3 fatty
acids in human society. Cleave Award Lecture. Nutrition and Health,19,919 .
Hibbeln, J. R., Nieminen, L. R., Blasbalg, T. L., Riggs, J. A., & Lands, W. E. (2006).
Healthy intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids: Estimations considering worldwide
diversity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,83, 1483S1493S.
Hibbeln, J. R., Nieminen, L. R., & Lands, W. E. (2004). Increasing homicide rates and
linoleic acid consumption among ve Western countries, 19612000. Lipids,39,
12071213.
Hill, T. D., Graham, L. M., & Divgi, V. (2011). Racial disparities in pediatric asthma: A
review of the literature. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports,11 ,8590, http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11882-010-0159-2.
Hops, H., Biglan, A., Sherman, L., Arthur, J., Friedman, L., & Osteen, V. (1987). Home
observations of family interactions of depressed women. Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology,55,341346.
Horner, R. H., & Sugai, G. (2000). School-wide behavior support: An emerging
initiative. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions,2,231232.
Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C.-L., & Eron, L. D. (2003). Longitudinal
relations between children's exposure to TV violence and their aggressive and
violent behavior in young adulthood: 19771992. Developmental Psychology,39,
201221.
Huotari, A., & Herzig, K. H. (2008). Vitamin D and living in northern latitudesAn
endemic risk area for vitamin D deciency. International Journal of Circumpolar
Health,67,164178.
Ialongo, N., Poduska, J., Werthamer, L., & Kellam, S. (2001). The distal impact of two
rst-grade preventive interventions on conduct problems and disorder in early
adolescence. Journal of Emotional And Behavioral Disorders,9,146160, http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1177/106342660100900301.
Jablonka, E., & Lamb, M. J. (2005). Evolution in four dimensions: Genetic, epigenetic,
behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life.Cambridge, MA US.MITPress.
Janisse, H. C., Cakan, N., Ellis, D., & Brogan, K. (2011). Dietary vitamin D intake
among high-risk adolescents with insulin dependent diabetes. The Diabetes
Educator,37, 222226, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0145721711398534.
Jeong, S. H., Cho, H., & Hwang, Y. (2012). Media literacy interventions: A meta
analytic review. Journal of Communication,62, 454472.
Kashdan, T. B., & Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological exibility as a fundamental
aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review,30, 865878.
Kasser, T. (2002). The high price of materialism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kasser, T. (2004). The good life or the goods life? Positive psychology personal well-
being in the culture of consumption. In: P. A. Linley, & S. Joseph (Eds.), Positive
psychology in practice (pp. 5567). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Kasser, T., & Ryan, R. M. (1993). A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of
nancial success as a central life aspiration. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology,65,410422.
Kellam, S., Brown, C. H., Poduska, J., Ialongo, N., Wang, W., Toyinbo, P., et al. (2008).
Effects of a universal classroom behavior management program in rst and
second grades on young adult behavioral, psychiatric, and social outcomes.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence,95,S5S28.
Kellam, S. G., Koretz, D., & Moscicki, E. K. (1999). Core elements of developmental
epidemiologically based prevention research. Special Issue: Prevention science,
Part 1. American Journal of Community Psychology,27, 463482.
Kellam, S. G., & Van Horn, Y. V. (1997). Life course development, community
epidemiology, and preventive trials: A scientic structure for prevention
research. Special Issue: Meta-analysis of primary prevention programs. Amer-
ican Journal of Community Psychology,25,177188.
Kennedy, C. H. (2002). The maintenance of behavior change as an indicator of social
validity. Behavior Modication,26, 594604.
Kistenmacher, B., & Biglan, A. (2000). Decreasing the prevalence of marital conict:
A public health perspective for clinical research. In: M. J. Dougher (Ed.), Clinical
behavior analysis (pp. 245270). Reno, NV: Context.
Krug, E. G., Brener, N. D., Dahlberg, L. L., Ryan, G. W., & Powell, K. E. (1997). The
impact of an elementary school-based violence prevention program on visits to
the school nurse. American Journal of Preventive Medicine,13, 459463.
Lawrence, R. (1998). School crime and juvenile justice. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
Levi, L. (1983). Stress and coronary heart diseaseCauses, mechanisms, and
prevention. Activitas Nervosa Superior,25,122128.
Looker, A. C., Johnson, C. L., Lacher, D. A., Pfeiffer, C. M., Schleicher, R. L., & Sempos,
C. T. (2011). Vitamin D status: United States, 20012006. NCHS Data Brief,59,
18.
Mathews, F., Yudkin, P., Smith, R. F., & Neil, A. (2000). Nutrient intakes during
pregnancy: The inuence of smoking status and age. Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health,54,1723.
McHugh, L., & Stewart, I. (2012). The self and perspective taking: Contributions and
applications from modern behavioral science. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.
Merewood, A., Mehta, S. D., Grossman, X., Chen, T. C., Mathieu, J. S., Holick, M. F.,
et al. (2010). Widespread vitamin D deciency in urban Massachusetts new-
borns and their mothers. Pediatrics,125, 640647, http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/
peds.2009-2158.
Metzler, C. W., Biglan, A., Rusby, J. C., & Sprague, J. R. (2001). Evaluation of a
comprehensive behavior management program to improve school-wide posi-
tive behavior support. Education and Treatment of Children,24,448479.
Miller, W. R. (1983). Motivational interviewing with problem drinkers. Behavioural
Psychotherapy,11,147172 .
Mrazek, P., Biglan, A., & Hawkins, J. D. (2005). Community-monitoring systems:
Tracking and improving the well-being of America's children and adolescents. Falls
Church, VA: Society for Prevention Research.
National Cancer Institute (2008). The role of the media in promoting and reducing
tobacco use. Tobacco control monograph no. 19 (NIH Pub. no. 07-6242). Bethesda,
MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of
Health, National Cancer Institute.
National Research Council & Institute of Medicine (2009). Preventing mental,
emotional, and behavioral disorders among young people: Progress and possibi-
lities. Committee on Prevention of Mental Disorders and Substance Abuse Among
Children, Youth, and Young Adults: Research Advances and Promising Interven-
tions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Newton, R. W. (1988). Psychosocial aspects of pregnancy: The scope for interven-
tion. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology,6,2339.
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (2005). Child care and child development:
Results of the NICHD study of early child care and youth development. New York,
NY: Guilford.
O'Leary, K. D., & Beach, S. R. H. (1990). Marital therapy: A viable treatment for
depression and marital discord. American Journal of Psychiatry,147,183186.
Olds, D. L., Hill, P. L., O'Brien, R., Racine, D., & Moritz, P. (2003). Taking preventive
intervention to scale: The nursefamily partnership. Cognitive and Behavioral
Practice,10,278290.
Paavonen, E. J., Pennonen, M., Roine, M., Valkonen, S., & Lahikainen, A. R. (2006). TV
exposure associated with sleep disturbances in 5- to 6-year-old children.
Journal of Sleep Research,15,154161 .
Patterson, G. R., DeBaryshe, B. D., & Ramsey, E. (1989). A developmental perspective
on antisocial behavior. American Psychologist,44, 329335.
Patterson, G. R., Reid, J. B., & Dishion, T. J. (1992). Antisocial boys: A social
interactional approach, Vol. 4. Eugene: Castalia.
Pierce, J. P., & Gilpin, E. A. (1995). A historical analysis of tobacco marketing and the
uptake of smoking by youth in the United States: 18901977. Health Psychology,
14,500508.
Prinz, R. J., Sanders, M. R., Shapiro, C. J., Whitaker, D. J., & Lutzker, J. R. (2009).
Population-based prevention of child maltreatment: The U.S. Triple P System
Population Trial. Prevention Science,10,112 .
Rothbart, M. K. (2011). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in
development. New York, NY: Guilford.
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104 10 3
Satpathy, S. K., & Bansal, R. D. (1982). Health economicsConcepts and conceptual
problems. Health and Population; Perspectives and Issues,5,2333.
Shamberger, R. J. (2011). Autism rates associated with nutrition and the WIC
program. Journal of the American College of Nutrition,30, 348353.
Sheldon, K. M., & Kasser, T. (1998). Pursuing personal goals: Skills enable progress,
but not all progress is benecial. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,24,
131913 31.
Skiba, R., & Peterson, R. (1999). The dark side of zero tolerance: Can punishment
lead to safe schools? The Phi Delta Kappan,80,372376, 381382. Available
fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/204394.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. Oxford England: Macmillan.
Smith, H. (2012). Who stole the American dream?. New York, NY: Random House
Incorporated.
Snyder, F. J., Flay, B. R., Vuchinich, S., Acock, A., Washburn, I. J., Beets, M. W., et al.
(2010). Impact of the Positive Action program on school-level indicators of
academic achievement, absenteeism, and disciplinary outcomes: A matched-
pair, cluster randomized, controlled trial. Journal of Research on Educational
Effectiveness,3,2655.
Snyder, J., Schrepferman, L., Oeser, J., Patterson, G., Stoolmiller, M., Johnson, K., et al.
(2005). Deviancy training and association with deviant peers in young children:
Occurrence and contribution to early-onset conduct problems. Development
and Psychopathology,17,397413 .
Sober, E., & Wilson, D. S. (1998). Unto others: The evolution and psychology of
unselsh behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sprague, J., Walker, H., Golly, A., White, K., Myers, D. R., & Shannon, T. (2001).
Translating research into effective practice: The effects of a universal staff and
student intervention on indicators of discipline and school safety. Education
and Treatment of Children,24, 495511.
Stanley, S. M., Bradbury, T. N., & Markman, H. J. (2000). Structural aws in the
bridge from basic research on marriage to interventions for couples. Journal of
Marriage and the Family,62, 256264.
Stokes, T. F., & Baer, D. M. (1977). An implicit technology of generalization. Journal of
Applied Behavior Analysis,10, 349367.
Stretesky, P. B., & Lynch, M. J. (2001). The relationship between lead exposure and
homicide. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,155 ,579582.
Stretesky, P. B., & Lynch, M. J. (2004). The relationship between lead and crime.
Journal of Health and Social Behavior,45,214229.
Tolppanen, A. M., Sayers, A., Fraser, W. D., Lewis, G., Zammit, S., & Lawlor, D. A.
(2012). The association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and D2 with behavioural
problems in childhood. PLoS One,7, e40097, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.
pone.0040097.
Vazsonyi, A. T., Belliston, L. M., & Flannery, D. J. (2004). Evaluation of a school-based,
universal violence prevention program: Low-, medium-, and high-risk children.
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice,2,185206.
Wagenaar, A. C. (1981). Effects of an increase in the legal minimum drinking age.
Journal of Health Policy,2, 206225.
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2009). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes
societies stronger. London: Bloomsbury Press.
Wilson, D. S. (2007). Evolution for everyone: How Darwin's theory can change the way
we think about our lives. New York: Delacorte Press.
Wilson, D. S., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Health and the ecology of altruism. In:
S. G. Post (Ed.), The science of altruism and health. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press.
Wilson, D.S., Hayes, S.C., Biglan, A., & Embry, D.D. Evolving the future: toward a
science of intentional change. Behavioral and Brain Sciences (in press).
Wilson, D. S., & O'Brien, D. T. (2009). Evolutionary theory and cooperation in
everyday life. In: S. Levin (Ed.), Games, groups, and the common good. Berlin:
Springer.
Wilson, K. G., Whiteman, K., & Bordieri, M. (2013). The pragmatic truth criterion
and values in contextual behavioral science. In: S. Dymond, & B. Roche (Eds.),
Advances in relational frame theory & contextual behavioral science research &
application. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Press.
Wolf, M. M. (1978). Social validity: The case for subjective measurement or how
applied behavior analysis is nding its heart. Journal of Applied Behavior
Analysis,11, 203214.
A. Biglan, D.D. Embry / Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 95104104
... A mudança de hábito requer um prazo longo, aliado à educação permanente além da ampla divulgação e comunicação sobre como adotar os novos hábitos(Oeij et al, 2017). Essa ação, no entanto, não deve mais ser focada no comportamento individual(Biglan & Embry, 2013), sendo necessário a consideração do sistema social no qual as pessoas estão inseridas, incluindo valores éticos e estilo de vida. No caso da mobilidade urbana, por exemplo, as falhas do passado influenciaram na readequação de um novo plano de expansão, com abertura de participação de outros atores especialistas. ...
Article
Full-text available
A cultura da prática pode ser entendida como costumes, hábitos e rotinas, que se caracterizam por uma conduta inercial. Embora reconhecida como perspectiva significante pela literatura, essa categoria é raramente investigada nos casos falhas de projetos de Políticas públicas, envolvendo em geral questões relacionadas a temas como governança, oportunismo e recursos. O objetivo do presente estudo focalizou a relevância da cultura da prática como categoria relevante no sucesso ou insucessos de Políticas públicas voltadas para sustentabilidade. Tendo, como referencial teórico, uma das matrizes de categorias mais frequente na literatura, foram desenvolvidas investigações críticas em três projetos brasileiros, considerando reciclagem, sustentabilidade de oceanos e mobilidade urbana. A coleta de dados foi realizada a partir de fontes secundárias, verificando-se a presença de marcadores preconizados na matriz de categorias para as três situações investigadas. Nos casos observados, foram identificadas evidências de comportamentos e ações associadas à cultura da prática, a partir de uma ética da individualidade e de busca de protagonismo, dificultando a implementação de ações coletivas. A contribuição do trabalho, oferecendo implicações teóricas e gerenciais, relaciona-se à proposição de um conceito operacional de cultura, possibilitando a realização de pesquisas acadêmicas e planos gerenciais de ajustes em programas de Políticas públicas voltadas para as ODS.
... As such, values may be of use to other individuals participating in economic and political patterns. This is especially concerning when one considers how researchers within CoBS promote capitalism (e.g., Biglan & Embry, 2013, who also note the harm capitalism has done [p. 101]). ...
Article
Access the article through B&P's page: https://behavior.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BP-V52-2-Fleming-Hayes.pdf || The absurdism of Albert Camus may not be a philosophy of science, but it has more similarities with contextual behavioral science than are immediately apparent. Both emphasize the importance of suicide, both emphasize individual-world/environment relations, and both are concerned with the relation between values and freedom. But more so than just having some similarities with contextual behavioral science, Camus's absurdist philosophy-considered from a behavioral perspective-orients readers to a way of conceptualizing psychological flexibility that emphasizes how values are constrained by society and what that means for a science unafraid to dabble in cultural change. This paper aims to highlight the absurdity of practices within behavioral science, particularly those that do not integrate evaluating relations between scientific constructs, cultural change, and culturalization and are potentially harmful to non-behavioral scientists. It also offers recommendations for addressing this issue, including considering psychological flexibility in terms of more informed choice.
... As pragmatists we need not spend our time contemplating questions of a logical or metaphysical nature, a notion to which Gelino et al. (2023) recently alluded in their article criticizing the limited impact culturo-behavior science has had thus far. The overarching goal of contextual behavior science is to advance a science of intentional change (see Biglan & Embry, 2013) through the compilation of empirically demonstrated outcomes for improving the human condition. culturo-behavior science may be well poised to evolve into a pragmatic, applied science should it synthesize with contextual behavior science rather than lingering in the domains of conceptual analyses and basic research (see Gelino et al., 2023). ...
... From the perspective of philosophy, Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) represents constructivism philosophy because it is believed that human behaviour is developed as an act taking place in a context (Biglan & Embry 2013). In that perspective, learning is considered as an act taking place in experience and from various situations (Frisby 1998). ...
Article
Full-text available
This research explores the contextual approach within Christian-Jewish religious education, addressing a notable gap in existing literature and offering fresh insights into the application of the Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) model within Christian contexts. Through a qualitative literature study employing a three-step methodology, including an in-depth analysis of Deuteronomy 11:19–20, this study reveals that this biblical text provides both educational guidance and theological significance, serving as a foundational support for the CTL model in Christian-Jewish religious education. The integration of digital media into biblical sources holds promise for future research, while the central challenge lies in harmonising life experiences and empirical phenomena with biblical reflections to seamlessly integrate inquiry processes and pedagogical phases, with potential avenues for further exploration in scripture models endorsing CTL. This research provides valuable insights for educators, parents and policymakers in Indonesia and beyond, advancing educational research in contextualised teaching models within religious education.Contribution: This article demonstrates that the CTL model in the digital era has the potential to revolutionise religious education and profoundly impact learners, making it a significant scientific contribution in the context of Christian-Jewish religious education.
... With the changing socio-economic conditions and increasing unemployment rate at 8.4%, according to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Indian government, and research from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The values of employees and their professional concerns associated with the job have undergone a change (Biglan and Embry, 2013), resulting in an increasing level of stress and hassle among the employees. These stressful employees can no longer contribute toward the achievement of organizational goals. ...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose In the purview of stress–turnover relationship, the present study aims to explore the endogenous and exogenous aspects of stress and employees' turnover intentions. Further, it also intends to evaluate the mediating role of perceived employee's exploitation between stressors and employee turnover intentions. For that matter, antecedents of stressors were identified and classified into endogenous and exogenous stressors: endogenous stressors relate to the employees' negative psychological contact within an organization and exogenous stressors are various macro-economic factors which have a considerable influence on employees' workplace behavior. Design/methodology/approach For the purpose of this study, this study choses private school teachers as respondents working in the economically depressed state of India. Thus, data for the present study has been collected from 628 private school teachers of J&K (India) which were randomly selected. In order to ensure valid and reliable statistical inferences from the study, data collected has been validated using confirmatory factor analysis and hypothesis testing has been carried out through structural equation modeling. Findings It was found that both types of stressors were contributing negatively toward employee's psychological state resulting in undesirable employee organizational relationships manifested as turnover intentions among employees. Moreover, perceived employee's exploitation was found to intensify the relationship of employee turnover as a dependent variable regressed on endogenous, exogenous and occupational stress by fully mediating the stress–turnover intricacies. Research limitations/implications The implications of the study include the identification of employees' stressor needs in order to gauge the understanding of the mechanism by which employees react to their environment and develop attitudes toward their jobs. The present study includes a small sample size obtained from private educational institutions only. Therefore, there is a need to take a geographically diverse sample that is inevitable for universal inferences and validity. Originality/value Very little research has been conducted to explore endogenous, exogenous and unique stressors such as economic stress and perceived external opportunities which constitute the overall stress. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which tests the model empirically that examines the effect of stress–turnover relationship through perceived employee's exploitation in the teaching and educational sector.
... Cultivating prosociality permits a way to mediate evolutionary tendencies toward survival and fitness to promote a nurturing environment that will yield positive cultural outcomes. Prosociality refers to a group of behaviors, values and attitudes that involve cooperating with others and working for the well-being of the group, all in service of mutual fitness (Biglan & Embry, 2013). Atkins et al. (2019) piloted a formal method for prosociality that merges Contextual behavior science (CBS), multilevel selection theory, and Ostrom's Core Design Principles. ...
Article
Full-text available
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) services have been shown to have empirically validated outcomes for autistic individuals and those with other neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities (Gitimoghaddam et al. Perspectives on Behavior Science 45(3), 521–557, 2022; National Autism Center, 2015). However, there is considerable room for improvement on how those services are delivered. One much needed area of potential is to incorporate more compassionate practices within all aspects of the field including, but not limited to, the therapeutic relationship between the service provider, service recipients, and other stakeholders. Direct training approaches as well as acceptance and commitment therapy/training (ACT) and its various components have shown promising results for the incorporation of compassionate practices as it relates to the values of all involved in the therapeutic relationship (Tarbox et al., 2021). There are, however, currently limited intervention approaches in incorporating compassionate practices given the breadth of behavior analytic tools and technologies. Thus, this article seeks to offer a holistic organizational framework that is conceptually systematic while also providing guidance on how to create and cultivate a nurturing system and supportive processes for all organizational members and service recipients. This includes methodology supported by contextual behavioral science (CBS) and organizational behavior management (OBM) as well as current effective and evidence-based supervisory practices. Finally, this article concludes with potential future applications and areas for future study.
... Embora a Psicologia em geral atue no segundo nível (i.e., observando o condicionamento operante), o que queremos propor aqui é um olhar direcionado para o terceiro nível como variável independente, de forma a entender como este se relaciona com o segundo nível, para então o terapeuta clínico poder intervir com mais acurácia no comportamento operante dos clientes. Cabe salientar que outras formas de pensar o fenômeno cultural coexistem na Análise do Comportamento (Biglan & Embry, 2013;Cihon et al., 2021;Guerin, 2020; L. J. Hayes & Fryling, 2009), sendo este trabalho um recorte compreensivo de estratégias de competência cultural já utilizadas no campo das terapias comportamentais contextuais. ...
Article
As pesquisas em psicologia têm se mostrado limitadas quanto ao público que representam em relação aos pesquisadores e aos pesquisados, o que pode produzir problemáticas consequências no trabalho com indivíduos e grupos multiculturais. Este trabalho teve como objetivo revisar na literatura possíveis interfaces do trabalho clínico voltado para populações multiculturais, principalmente no que diz respeito a grupos historicamente oprimidos, e propor uma ampliação do olhar do terapeuta no contexto das Terapias Comportamentais Contextuais, especificamente a Psicoterapia Analítica Funcional (FAP) por sua característica interpessoal que leva em conta tanto o comportar-se de clientes quanto do próprio terapeuta. Para tanto é realizada uma análise do conceito de lugar de fala da díade terapêutica, levando em consideração o modelo de competência cultural ADDRESSING, o qual apresenta dimensões associadas a identidades culturais específicas interseccionais relevantes para o trabalho com a multiculturalidade. O trabalho apresenta uma proposta de um novo olhar para uma formulação de caso, para que se possa levar em conta as diferentes culturas nas quais os clientes e terapeutas estão inseridos e, fundamentalmente, melhorar o atendimento em saúde mental de populações historicamente oprimidas.
... The literature lays out three primary challenges in incorporating into practice what we know works from research. The first is developing a "culture" that supports a nurturing society (Biglan & Embry, 2013;Biglan et al., 2017;Crowley & Jones, 2017;Wilson et al., 2014). The second is identifying what should be translated. ...
Article
Major research breakthroughs over the past 30 years in the field of substance use prevention have served to: (1) enhance understanding of pharmacological effects on the central and peripheral nervous systems and the health and social consequences of use of psychoactive substances, particularly for children and adolescents; (2) delineate the processes that increase vulnerability to or protect from initiation of substance use and progression to substance use disorders (SUDs) and, based on this understanding, (3) develop effective strategies and practices to prevent the initiation and escalation of substance use. The challenge we now face as a field is to "normalize" what we have learned from this research so that it is incorporated into the work of those involved in supporting, planning, and delivering prevention programming to populations around the world, is integrated into health and social service systems, and helps to shape public policies. But we wish to go further, to incorporate these effective prevention practices into everyday life and the mind-sets of the public, particularly parents and educators. This paper reviews the advances that have been made in the field of prevention and presents a framework and recommendations to achieve these objectives generated during several meetings of prevention and implementation science researchers sponsored by the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction (ICUDDR) that guides a roadmap to achieve "normalization."
Chapter
Prosociality is a multifaceted concept referring to the many ways in which individuals care about and benefit others. Human prosociality is foundational to social harmony, happiness, and peace; it is therefore essential to understand its underpinnings, development, and cultivation. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, in-depth account of scientific, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding prosociality and its development. Its thirty chapters, written by international researchers in the field, elucidate key issues, including: the development of prosociality across infancy, childhood, adolescence, and beyond; the biological, cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms that underlie and influence prosociality; how different socialization agents and social contexts can affect children's prosociality; and intervention approaches aimed at cultivating prosociality in children and adolescents. This knowledge can benefit researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers seeking to nurture socially responsible, caring youth.
Article
A professional’s response to a client’s disclosure of intimate partner violence (IPV) is shown to significantly impact client outcomes. The quality of a professional’s response is largely influenced by that professional’s beliefs or biases surrounding IPV. This systematic review examined empirical studies conducted in North America and published between 2000 and 2020 evaluating training effects on biases held by professional groups toward victim-survivors of IPV. Search and extraction were conducted in accordance with preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses standards across seven electronic databases. A total of 17 studies met inclusion criteria. Participant groups included professionals from medical, academic, and social/community service disciplines. All included studies reported significant gains on at least one measure of bias. Upon visual inspection, we found no correlations between characteristics of training interventions and reported outcomes on measures of bias. We discuss results in terms of challenges to measuring bias and functional relationships between training interventions, measures of bias, and professional behavior. Variation presented across studies within and between disciplines in regards to training methodology and measurement of bias. Experts in the field of IPV call for a more cohesive approach. We propose the behavior analytic conceptualization of bias as a framework through which interdisciplinary efforts might be unified toward addressing IPV-related biases. Through this lens, we discuss environmental cues within professional settings that might be influencing problematic IPV-related bias. We offer preliminary recommendations for curricular enhancements. We advocate for revision of terms commonly used in IPV-related research and intervention to better reflect and honor diversity across persons experiencing IPV.
Article
Full-text available
PeaceBuilders is a universal, elementary-school-based violence prevention program that attempts to alter the climate of a school by teaching students and staff simple rules and activities aimed at improving child social competence and reducing aggressive behavior. Eight matched schools (N > 4,000 students in Grades K-5) were randomly assigned to either immediate postbaseline intervention (PBI) or to a delayed intervention 1 year later (PBD). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze results from assessments in the fall and spring of 2 consecutive school years. In Year 1, significant gains in teacher-rated social competence for students in Grades K-2, in child self-reported peace-building behavior in Grades K-5, and reductions in aggressive behavior in Grades 3-5 were found for PBI but not PBD schools.Differential effects in Year 1 were also observed for aggression and prosocial behavior. Most effects were maintained in Year 2 for PBI schools, including increases in child prosocial behavior in Grades K-2. Implications for early universal school-based prevention and challenges related to evaluating large-scale prevention trials are discussed.
Article
Tobacco control efforts have been associated with a significant reduction in the prevalence of tobacco use in the United States. Efforts to reduce the incidence of violent crime have been much less successful. This paper argues that progress on tobacco control stems from the existence of a clear, empirically based, and widely understood analysis of the tobacco problem that articulates (a) the harms associated with its use, (b) the causes of tobacco use, and (c) the programs and policies that could reduce tobacco use. This analysis has guided the development of a network of social organizations that have been advocating for policies and programs that are reducing tobacco use. In contrast, there is not a widely shared, cogent, and empirically based analysis of the problem of violent crime. As a result, efforts to combat violent crime are fragmented and it has proven difficult to generate support for preventive programs and policies. Substantial empirical progress has been made, however, on how violent crime could be prevented. That evidence is reviewed. It is argued that the articulation of this evidence is a critical first step for achieving widespread reduction in the incidence of violent crime. Communication of that evidence to audiences that matter will require that behavioral scientists become better organized to advocate for the adoption of empirically supported practices.
Article
Seriousness of purpose in seeking to avert the tragedy of school violence does not necessarily demand rigid adherence to harsh and extreme measures. There are alternatives to politically facile get-tough strategies, the authors point out.
Book
What are the basic dimensions of temperament? How does temperament influence children's relationships to their physical and social worlds and their behavior and adjustment across the lifespan? In this book, Mary Rothbart comprehensively examines the role of temperament in the development of personality and psychopathology.
Article
Ideas about heredity and evolution are undergoing a revolutionary change. New findings in molecular biology challenge the gene-centered version of Darwinian theory according to which adaptation occurs only through natural selection of chance DNA variations. In Evolution in Four Dimensions, Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb argue that there is more to heredity than genes. They trace four “dimensions” in evolution—four inheritance systems that play a role in evolution: Genetic, epigenetic (or non-DNA cellular transmission of traits), behavioral, and symbolic (transmission through language and other forms of symbolic communication). These systems, they argue, can all provide variations on which natural selection can act. Evolution in Four Dimensions offers a richer, more complex view of evolution than the gene-based, one-dimensional view held by many today. The new synthesis advanced by Jablonka and Lamb makes clear that induced and acquired changes also play a role in evolution. After discussing each of the four inheritance systems in detail, Jablonka and Lamb “put Humpty Dumpty together again” by showing how all of these systems interact. They consider how each may have originated and guided evolutionary history and they discuss the social and philosophical implications of the four-dimensional view of evolution. Each chapter ends with a dialogue in which the authors engage the contrarieties of the fictional (and skeptical) “I.M.,” or Ifcha Mistabra—Aramaic for “the opposite conjecture”—refining their arguments against I.M.’s vigorous counterarguments. The lucid and accessible text is accompanied by artist–physician Anna Zeligowski’s lively drawings, which humorously and effectively illustrate the authors’ points. © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.