Affective Behavioral Disturbances: An Interbehavioral Analysis

Abstract

Background: The progress of any science, such as psychology, is achieved not only by accumulating empirical evidence but also by refining the conceptual structures that give theoretical meaning to such evidence. Objective: To analyze the concept of mental health and the logical-conceptual structure that supports it, describing its limitations and contradictions. Alternatively, based on the postulates of interbehavioral psychology, the concept of affective behavioral changes is proposed, and a classification of these changes is developed, based on the functional quality of the disturbed behavior. Method: This research is a theoretical study. Conclusions: Dualistic traditions in psychology have pathologized affective behavioral alterations as if they were diseases (mental or brain). The interbehavioral postulation outlined here is a conceptual alternative that can support theoretical and methodological developments that improve the position and contribution of psychology to theorizing and solving human problems in the field of health.