Affection and social behavior in teaching planning: the role of the consequences of behavior

Abstract

Our goal in this paper is to reflect on the need for an integrated view of development of cognition and affection for academic planning. We explored, in particular, the role of consequences of student behavior, which is one of the major contributions to psychology from behavior analysis. The key issue for this integrated approach is to look at the student as an active subject, one that manipulates and transforms the surrounding environment at all times. The social relationships that are developed in this context involve interwoven behavioral units. Sometimes, individuals act over the environment, transforming it; sometimes they serve as critical aspects of the environment in which others act. Based on these considerations, this article points to the need of identifying relationships between individuals and their social environment, especially those relationships which can be described using the notion of positive social reinforcement (adding something). In this sense, social relationships should be planned based on the contributions from studies showing the role of the consequences of human behavior, especially social behavior. As a result, the text points out that the practical tool to deal with issues related to affection and cognition in teaching involves identifying and dealing with the social consequences of people’s behavior. Criticism to the concept of reinforcement for the analysis of human behavior are opposed to the notion that requires dealing with the effects of the consequences, taking into account the complexity of human behavior in social contexts.