ABSTRACT
Ardila-Sánchez and Hayes (2023, this issue) discuss how differing philosophical assumptions might reflect on differing metacontingency terminology and debate some of the arguments presented by Sampaio and Haydu (2023). We respond by restating the urgent need to clarify the definition of cultural milieu, which is illustrated by an argument about discriminative stimuli as components of the cultural milieu. We clarify that the differences in metacontingency terminology that we did not emphasize were related to interlocking behavioral contingencies (IBCs) and cultural consequences, and not to cultural milieu and group-rule generation. We question any rigid separations of "Skinnerian” and "Kantorian views” of cultural phenomena, insisting that we focus on a unified culturo-behavior science. We elucidate that verbal responses and stimuli may participate in IBCs, cultural antecendents, or selecting environment variables;answer some questions about the latter two concepts;and clarify that the we presented a COVID-19 psychological support project not to empirically validate the concept, but to illustrate and test the conceptual coherence of the terms and theory.
ABSTRACT
The elaborated account of the metacontingency explicitly incorporated the role of antecedent events (with the concept of cultural milieu or cultural-organizational milieu) and verbal behavior (clearly related to what was termed group-rule generation). We argue that the cultural milieu encompasses two functionally distinct entities: antecedent environmental variables affecting the culturant (the organization members' activities)-what we termed cultural antecedents;and variables affecting the selecting environment or the consumer practices (members external to the organization responsible for producing cultural consequences)-what we termed selecting environment variables. Besides that, we propose that group-rule generation is not an element of a metacontingency distinct from the culturant, but that it describes verbal components of the interlocking behavioral contingencies;and that these verbal components are not present in all culturants but are especially important in more complex ones. We illustrate this conceptual analysis with reference to a COVID-19 psychological support project undertaken at a public university in Brazil and conclude by suggesting theoretical and methodological implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)