Hi, would you mind explaining what is meant by Interlocking behavioural contingencies please.
Hi Anonymous - good question!
Interlocking behavioural contingencies is the term used to describe the inter-play between multiple arrangements of antecedents, behaviours and consequences occurring together in one environment. Here, one’s behaviour can be the antecedent to another person’s response, or the consequence of one’s response can be the antecedent to another. Think of multiple 3-term contingencies happening at once and at times overlapping with each other. On a larger scale, these are referred to as metacontingencies.
The easiest example of interlocking behavioural contingencies to give is that of the relationship between parent and child. The child’s cries are the antecedent to a parent responding. The parent’s response may stop the crying by providing the child with something they needed/wanted. This reinforces the child’s cries. At the same time, the stopped cries reinforces the parent’s response(s). Whatever the parent did worked and therefore, they are likely to respond in similar ways the next time their child cries.
The relationships between teacher behaviour and student behaviour is another setting example. You see teachers arranging multiple contingencies via their seating arrangements, organization of materials, instruction delivery, praise and reward systems, error correction and feedback. These produce all kinds of responses from students - intended or unintended. Student responses are either reinforced or punished and at the same time, student responses can either reinforce or punish the teacher’s responses. The teacher may tweak their strategies slightly in order to control what’s happening in the room. This on-going interplay between teacher and student behaviour eventually shapes the culture of the classroom.
Interlocking behavioural contingencies is a more dynamic way of looking at the interplay of behaviours occurring in systems such as families, the classroom, the workplace, our government and our communities. The classic 3-term contingency in isolation is too simple to explain the interactions occurring among the people and their behaviours in each of these environments.
Hope this was a good introduction to your question.
Cheers!
~ Tricia-Lee