Integrating Psychological Neurobiological Levels in Contextual Behavioral Science Steven C. Hayes, University of Nevada

The Psychological Level The study of whole organisms acting in and with a context considered historically and situationally

The Neurobiological Level The study of the nervous system of organisms in reaction to external and internal events and in relation to behavior

Defining Our Levels of Analysis If we are going to apply a pragmatic approach we need to start with an open mind about our units We define them for pragmatic purposes But as we define levels what is the relationship among them?

Contextual Behavioral Science The dangers of moving across levels without care: Hiding ignorance in concrete knowledge at other levels of analysis Moving across levels can hide ignorance. Example. We do not know what kindness is so we look to the brain to tell us

Contextual Behavioral Science The dangers of moving across levels without care: The appeal of reductionism Explain reductionism If neurobiological differences are found it is enormously tempting to begin to talk about how compassion impacts the brain. But note that the very selection of these participants was based on the poorly understood processes that the research wanted to understand, and yet the importance of these processes and their ability to be detected needed to be assumed to make sense of doing the neuroimaging study in the first place.

Contextual Behavioral Science The possibilities of research across levels of analysis: Seeing consistent processes Evolution Reinforcement Memes Organ development

Contextual Behavioral Science The possibilities of research across levels of analysis: An integrated fabric of science The importance of depth Precision score and depth

Contextual Behavioral Science Depth means that no unit that is fully adequate at the psychological level can be fully inadequate at the neurobiological level and vice versa

Contextual Behavioral Science If we claim we are modeling well understood units, the brain has to agree or our model is incorrect Example: metaphor Is A > N = C > D a model of metaphor?

Specifying the Challenges of Higher Levels of Organization “The contribution that a science of behavior makes to neurology is a rigorous and quantitative statement of the program before it.” (Skinner, 1938, p. 432)

The Vision of Contextual Neuroscience Place neurobiological evidence inside a larger effort to understand the situated actions of whole organisms, focusing on the depth of psychological processes known to be important Integration cannot be stronger that the weakest link This effort is hard but it is supportive of all participants