International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy

Consideraciones Sobre el Desarrollo de la Personalidad Desde un Marco Funcional-contextual [Some Considerations About Personality Development From a Functional-contextual Point of View]

Volume 2 Num. 2 - December 2002 - Pages 173-197

Authors:

M. Carmen Luciano Soriano, Inmaculada Gómez Becerra and Sonsoles Valdivia Salas ,

Abstract:

In this paper we present an analytic essay in a functional-contextual conceptualization based on the recent research on verbal behavior, behavior-behavior relations and derivation of psychological functions. Classical conceptualizations are viewed with predictive value although reduced implication for preventing and altering the developmental process of personality. In a functional perspective, the basic elements are defined in terms of responses classes under the control of particular contingencies of reinforcement. In this paper, we focus, in the one hand, in the early development of conditioned reinforcers to the later developmental process of values encompassed by the development of language as a symbolic behavior. On the other hand, we focus in the development of basic response classes and some of the contents of personality in the context named as self-knowledge. This analysis of personality is concerned in a ontogenetic context and so through multiple interactions in which the child is involved from his/her birth. Consequently, the development of these basic elements of personality is contextualized, necessarily, under the cultural values defining historical moments by the corresponding verbal community as a whole. However, the interest in this paper is more addressed to the individual child-adults interactions that needless to say are adjusted in one way or another to the sociocultural frame. Given that, the paper concludes with an appealing to the adults` responsability in the development of basic component of personality.

Key words:

Personality development, Functional analysis, Contextual analysis, Individual history, Preferences, Values, Language, Symbolic behavior, The development of self, Selfknowledge

Full Article

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