Changing Cultural Practices: A Contextualist Framework ... (ISBN 1878978225)

Book Description:
Despite significant progress in the behavioral sciences, we have achieved few widespread improvements in our society. Over the past forty years, effective interventions have been developed for many problems of human behavior, but only rarely has our knowledge been translated into changes in the incidence or prevalence of problems. This volume, authored by Oregon Research Institute psychologist Anthony Biglan, provides a framework for learning how to affect the incidence and prevalence of behavior and the larger social systems that influence behavior. In the first part, the book provides a philosophical and theoretical framework for analyzing cultural practices and conducting research on how to change them. It addresses the ethical issues surrounding intentional efforts to change cultural practices. The second part applies this framework to four critically important cultural practices: (a) tobacco use, (b) childrearing, (c) sexism, and (d) environmental preservation. The third part examines how a science for changing cultural practices -- itself a set of cultural practices -- can be developed. This book is relevant for anyone who is concerned with translating what we know about individual behavior into widespread benefits for populations. It articulates a set of principles for changing cultural practices that are germane to affecting the prevalence of the entire range of behaviors that pose problems to our society -- unhealthy behaviors, antisocial behaviors, academic failure, rape, psychological difficulties, marital discord, gun ownership, and so on. The principles developed are just as relevant to increasing the prevalence of behaviors that would benefit our society, such as cooperation, support of families, effective parenting practices, academic success, the use of effective teaching practices, and the provision of health care for all citizens. Contents: -A Science of Changing Cultural Practices -Functional Contextualism: A Philosophical Framework for a Science of Cultural Practices -The Behavior of Individuals -The Analysis of Cultural Practices -Principles for Changing Cultural Practices -Ethical Principles for Changing Cultural Practices -Reducing the Prevalence of Tobacco Use -Changing Childrearing Practices in American Communities -Reducing the Sexist Practices in the United States -Changing Environmentally Harmful Practices -Methodological Considerations -Strategies for Developing a Science for the Modification of Cultural Practices