Teaching About Private Events in the Classroom

Abstract

The widespread misrepresentation of behavior analysis may reflect the difficulties of teaching its views on private events. This paper discusses issues concerned with the analysis of private events; it also contains exercises in self-observation that are intend for use in the classroom. Students who are actively encouraged to participate in self-observation under the guidance of a behavioral perspective may be more likely to identify misrepresentations of behavior analysis when they appear in other courses.