How a Few Individuals Brought about a Cultural Cusp: From a Mexican Mural Program to a Movement.

Significant cultural change often results from the interlocking behavior of a few individuals. The phenomenon is nonreplicable because a considerable portion of the major players' interactions are nonrecurring and driven by unique circumstances. Yet, these interactions can be analyzed from a behavioral science perspective. As an example, I describe how five individuals made possible the cultural cusp that created an unprecedented social revolution through public murals in Mexico. I analyze how their repertoires complemented each other, the circumstances that brought them together, and the values that united them. Their unique interactions coalesced with recurring interlocking behavioral contingencies that created the movement. The example could shed light on the understanding of other cultural phenomenon with similar properties.

What Studying Leadership Can Teach Us About the Science of Behavior.

Throughout history, individuals have changed the world in significant ways, forging new paths; demonstrating remarkable capacity to inspire others to follow; and repeatedly showing independence, resilience, consistency, and commitment to principle. However, significant cultural change is rarely accomplished single-handedly; instead, it results from the complex and dynamic interaction of groups of individuals. To illustrate how leaders participate in cultural phenomena, I describe how a few individuals helped to establish the Cold War. In this analysis, I distinguish two types of cultural phenomena: metacontingencies, involving lineages of interlocking behavioral contingencies, and cultural cusps, involving complicated, unique, and nonreplicable interrelations between individuals and circumstances. I conclude that by analyzing leaders' actions and their results, we can appreciate that cultural and behavioral phenomena are different, and although cultural phenomena are inherently complex and in many cases do not lend themselves to replication, not only should the science of behavior account for them, cultural phenomena should also constitute a major area of behavior analysis study and application.

Toward the globalization of behavior analysis.

Globalization could facilitate the long-term growth of behavior analysis, and although progress has been made, much yet needs to be done. Given the scarcity of resources, it is suggested that we draw from successes in the development of behavior analysis and establish behavioral programs around the world that embrace research, education, and practice as a focus of systematic globalization efforts. The strategy would require the implementation of cultural contingencies that support initiation and long-term program expansion. For program initiation, contingencies are needed to place pioneer behavior analysts in university units that would be unlikely to start a behavioral program otherwise. The task of these pioneers would be to build a critical mass that would multiply behavior-analytic repertoires, obtain research funding, conduct publishable research, and establish applied settings. For long-term program development, the field should expand internationally as it continues building the infrastructure needed to accelerate the demand for behavioral programs in higher education, scholarly work in behavior analysis, behavior analysts in existing jobs, and behavioral technology in the market place.