THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METACONTINGENCY CONCEPT

Abstract

This article describes the development of the concept of metacontingency. Three further complementations of Glenn’s original proposal in 1986 are identified: 1) emphasis on the selective process of many interlocking behavioral contingencies and on the transmission of behavior patterns through time; 2) the description of different environment effects produced by a set of interlocking behavior contingencies and 3) a distinction between processes of variation and selection occurring at individual level of analysis (macrocontingencies) and processes of variation and selection occurring at cultural level of analysis (metacontingencies).Key words: selection by consequence, metacontingency, interlocking behavioral contingencies, aggregatedproduct, macrocontingency.