Abstract

MESQUITA-POMPERMAIER, Henrique; DOS SANTOS-PIMENTEL, Naiene  and  MUCHON DE MELO, Camila. Private Events and Privacy in Radical Behaviorism: A circumstantially restricted observability issue. CES Psicol [online]. 2016, vol.9, n.2, pp.12-27. ISSN 2011-3080.  https://doi.org/10.21615/cesp.9.2.2.

The private event theory has been subject of intense debates and controversies, although it is accepted as the most common way to approach and explain subjective phenomena in Radical Behaviorism. This work is part of this discussion and seeks to disentangle the concept of private event and the notion of privacy involved in it. From the definitions and uses of the term found in the specialized literature, consideration of private event term as behavioral event with circumstantially restricted observability is proposed. In this sense, diverging from meanings as "inner", "unique" or "unobservable in principle", the notion of privacy is comprehended in terms of a circumstantially restricted observability. It is emphasized that the concept of private events may be used in the explanation of behavior since it is considered into a relational and contextual comprehension.

Keywords : Private Events; Privacy; Radical Behaviorism.

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