Hayes, S. C., & Hayes, L. J. (1989). Is behavior analysis contexualistic? Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 9, 37-40.
In a recent issue of this journal, Crabb (1988) discussed the "curious case" of behavior analysis as a contextualistic system. His informed and thoughtful article considered three central issues: units of analysis, methods, and theories of knowledge. For each, Crabb noted similarities, but also raised what appeared to be inconsistencies between behavior analysis and contextualism. Crabb demonstrated an unusual degree of understanding of behavior analysis. Nevertheless, we will argue that most of the inconsistencies identified by Crabb were resolvable and when resolved reveal behavior analysis to be a contextualistic system in Pepper's sense of the term (1942).