Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica
Print version ISSN 0102-7972
CHAVES, Evenice Santos and GALVAO, Olavo de Faria. Radical behaviorism and interdisciplinary research: would a new synthesis be possible in psychology?. Psicol. Reflex. Crit. [online]. 2005, vol.18, n.3, pp. 308-314. ISSN 0102-7972. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-79722005000300003.
Psychology as science is historically engaged in theoretical disputes resulting from divergent viewpoints concerning the nature of knowledge generated by different epistemological, theoretical and methodological approaches, and by the particular divisions in the subject matter made by the researchers themselves. At the present time, epistemology of the complexity calls attention to the incompleteness, characteristic of scientific knowledge, that in turn affects the conduct of researchers, creating conditions for new dialogues between differing perspectives within and between disciplines. This article proposes a renewal of the dialogue between radical behaviorism and formal critical constructivism that, by emphasizing complementary relationships and opposing polarized thinking which has permeated these disciplines, may result in a new synthesis or new general theory of meaning. A new synthesis between the two approaches would reformulate the understanding of meaning development and the role of the reinforcement in the construction and enhancement of meaning.
Keywords : Interdisciplinarity; complexity; complementarity; general theory of meaning.