Story analysis and the literary method.

Abstract

Behavioral perspectives on stories are described and the use of stories as a method of inquiry is proposed. Two analyses of stories are discussed, Todorov's altered equilibrium approach to the description of the minimal plot and Grant's functional analysis. Todorov's altered equilibrium model brings out important correspondences between stories and behavioral steady-state approaches to research. Grant's functional analysis uses behavioral concepts, including motivating operations, escape contingencies and response-dependent outcomes to account for the appeal of stories. The altered equilibrium model permits an understanding of the story as a conflict between forces for behavioral change and resistance to change. The functional analysis approach permits an understanding of the contingency structures responsible for the audience appeal of stories. One potential consequence of an improved understanding of the nature and contingency structure of stories is the use of stories as a method of inquiry, and this methodological use of stories is advocated as a complement to standard experimental analysis. Key words: fiction, literature, stories, steady states, equilibrium states, establishing operation, motivating operation, escape conditioning ********** Traditionally defined, a story is a sequence of events in which characters encounter a problem, goal-directed efforts are made to solve the problem, and eventually the problem is resolved in some way (Winner, 1982). Stories are the basis of various forms of popular entertainment as well as serious literature, in which universal human problems are exemplified. Nonfiction stories are also the means which historians and biographers transform raw historical and personal records into a form that can be more readily understood and comprehended (Danto, 1985; Klein, 1997). Because stories are important as forms of entertainment, as a means of describing and exploring human nature, and as a mechanism for the transmission of historical data, the behavioral processes that underlie stories merit the same kind of conceptual and experimental analyses applied to other important forms of behavior. Although behavior analysts have examined various aspects of verbal behavior in imaginative literature (e.g. Skinner, 1939, 1941, 1957), the focus on literature has been either on using literary sources of examples of functional units of behavior or analyzing the operation of specific literary devices such as alliteration and metaphor. The purpose of the present paper is to describe two approaches to the analysis of the story, Todorov's (1977) altered equilibrium model of the minimal plot and Grant's (in press) functional story analysis. Both approaches demystify and dementalize the story, and bring the fields of behavior analysis and imaginative literature into closer kinship with one another. A potential consequence of this kinship is the recognition of stories as a method of inquiry and the implications and advantages of this are described. THE ALTERED EQUILIBRIUM MODEL An improvement on the traditional definition of a story defined above that meshes well with certain features of behavior analysis is Todorov's (1977) description of a story plot in terms of states of equilibrium and transition/ disequilibrium: The minimal complete plot consists in the passage from one equilibrium to another. An ideal narrative begins with a stable situation which is disturbed some power or force. There results a state of disequilibrium; the action of a directed in the opposite direction, the equilibrium is re-established; the second equilibrium is similar to the first, but the two are never identical. (p. 111) For purposes of consistency, I will refer to Todorov's definition of a minimal plot as the altered equilibrium model, to the initial state of equilibrium as baseline equilibrium, to the event that disturbs by some power or force as a disrupter event and the second altered state of equilibrium as final equilibrium. …