Federal University of Paraná
Fred Keller sowed the seeds of behavior analysis in Brazil in the early 1960s while working at the University of São Paulo and later at the University of Brasília. From this beginning, a team of distinguished Brazilian pioneers took upon themselves the task of deepening the roots and expanding the branches of behavior analysis in theoretical, experimental, and applied areas. The project supported by the SABA grant, "In Honor of Our Pioneers: Rescuing and Preserving the History of Behavior Analysis in Brazil Through the Autobiographies of Its Leading Figures," will allow these pioneers to tell their stories, revealing important and perhaps unknown historical details about the inception and development of behavior analysis in Brazil.
The project was conceptualized and proposed by Bruno Angelo Strapasson, who invited Robson Nascimento da Cruz (Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais) and Alexandre Dittrich (Federal University of Paraná) to participate as editors. All three authors are researchers in the history of behavior analysis and psychology.
The invitees were selected with the help of the two major Brazilian behavior analytic associations, the Brazilian Association of Behavioral Psychology and Medicine (ABPMC) and the Brazilian Association of Behavior Analysis (ACBr), beginning with those who earned undergraduate degrees in psychology in the mid-1950s. The invitees are asked to describe as accurately as possible (1) the contingencies they consider relevant to understanding their paths in behavior analysis, (2) how they contributed to the establishment of contingencies relevant to the development of behavior analysis in Brazil, and (3) the events they consider historically relevant for this development. The autobiographies will be published as chapters in a book series.
Behavior analysis has been established as a major force in Brazilian psychology; therefore, the time is ripe to preserve its history for future generations.
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