ABSTRACT
This chapter refines and extends the Behavioral Perspective Model of purchase and consumption (BPM) and evaluates its conceptualization of consumer choice. An interpretive account of consumer behavior is developed in terms derived from a critical appraisal of contemporary behavior analysis. Behavior analysis is the area of philosophy, research, and application that encompasses the experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, operant psychology, operant conditioning, behaviorism, and Skinnerian psychology. The BPM builds on the fundamental principles of behavior analysis by recognizing the importance of environmental stimuli in the shaping and maintenance of behavior. The distinction between hedonic and informational reinforcement derives from consideration of the essential differences between human and animal behavior. Many of the contexts in which complex human social interaction takes place do not resemble the closed settings in which the animal experiments, whose results provide the basis of operant analysis, occur.
