Contingencies of university academic production: a behaviorist discussion

Author(s)

Taísa Scarpin Guazi

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Bauru. 2017-08-22.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Faculdade de Ciências. Bauru
• Defense date: 2017-07-28
• Advisor: Kester Carrara

Abstract

In previous study, Guazi and Laurenti identified the presence of natural reinforcement in maintaining the academic behavior of senior researchers. However, current academic contingencies are in many ways at odds with the contingencies to which senior researchers were exposed early in their careers. The current academic contingencies are permeated, for example, by the (relatively recent) phenomena of academic productivism and competitiveness among researchers. In this sense, the beginner professors, who entered the academy contemporaneously, seem to constitute a generation of researchers whose profile is different. Taking these matters into consideration, this research aimed to identify the differences and similarities between the variables that control the academic behavior of senior and beginner professors. Participated in this exploratory research, six academic professors with productiveness scholarships granted by the CNPq who work in the fields of Psychology, Genetics and Physics - a senior researcher and a beginner researcher were selected from each area. The data, collected through interviews were analyzed by the Behavior Analysis interpretation method and organized to allow the analysis, separately, of the contingencies that originated and maintained the participants' academic behavior. The three senior participants in this study were white women, who completed their doctorate in the 1960s (the data collected allowed the gender variable to be considered in the analysis of the academic behavior of senior participants), and the beginner participants were three white men, who completed their doctorate between 2009 and 2012. The contingencies responsible for installing the academic behavior of the senior participants were, predominantly, contingencies of positive reinforcement, which exposed the interviewees to the liberal formation. The academic behavioral pattern of beginner participants, on the other hand, seems to have been installed through the use of rules. Currently, the academic behavior of senior participants seems to be maintained through natural positive reinforcement. On the other hand, the contingencies responsible for maintaining the academic behavior of the beginner participants, which are related to the current demands of scientific productivity, seem to distance the academic behavior of the interviewees from their natural consequences. The main differences found between the contingencies that originated and maintained the academic behavior of the senior and beginner participants seem to allude to the different contingencies to which the interviewees were exposed during basic and higher education, and the changes that Brazilian education and science have undergone in recent years decades. This study contributed to the understanding of the contemporary scientific practices, as well as allowed to elucidate the contributions of the analysis of the behavior to this theme. The interpretation of the data collected suggests the need for more studies on current academic institutional contingencies. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 15/09081-9 - Contingencies of university academic production: a behaviorist discussion
• Grantee: Taisa Scarpin Guazi
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master