ABSTRACT
If behavior is regulated by highly specific stimulus variables and contingencies, then both assessment and psychotherapy need to be much less global and far more pinpointed enterprises than they usually have been. It also becomes clear why global estimates of the overall strength or frequency of broad response dispositions, as in trait-state descriptions of people as generally “hostile,” “aggressive,” “passive-dependent,” “neurotic,” or “anxious,” have turned out to have little utility beyond gross screening. Instead, a more useful type of assessment would have to deal with behavior in relation to specific contingencies and discriminative conditions. For example, it would have to specify for the “hostile” man just when and how he is hostile, and just when he shows more, and when less, of his hostile behavior. In this manner it becomes possible to go beyond mere global characterizations of another person and, instead, to discover the conditions that influence his behavior. Then, if desired, these conditions can be altered so that more advantageous behavior becomes possible for him.
