ABSTRACT
Much of the behavioural approach is said to have its roots in early operant and classical conditioning work with non-human animals, notably rats and pigeons. It is from this pioneering work that the importance of setting events and consequences came to be understood. In clinical work arising from behavioural approaches, consequences, in particular reinforcement, have assumed a massive significance. Behavioural clinicians have been caricatured as always looking for reinforcers – notwithstanding the fact that reinforcement is a relation, and not a thing (cf. Catania 1992), but that’s another story. Consider then, the following (somewhat hypothetical) scenario.
