PSYCHOLOGYAROUIVD THE WORLD BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS IN ITALY

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of behaviorism and behavior analysis and therapy in Italy. The behaviorist tradition ís relatively young among Italian psychologists for two reasons related to the Italian cultural environment of the first half of the century. First, the idealistic viewpoint in philosophy, which claims the prirnacy of philosophy over science has dominated ltalian scholarship. Second, during the fascist age psychology was almost eliminated, despite its vigor at the beginning of the 2Oth century. Because of the cultural isolation of those years of fascism, psychology and most everything else emanating from foreign countries, especially from Anglo-Saxon ones, was banned. The year Italian behaviorism born was 1 942, when Virgilio Lazzeroní published a paper in which he claimed that behavior was an appropriate subject matter for psychological research. The trae of ltalian behaviorism has two main roots:

Pavlovian-reflexotogical-psychiatric and Skinnerian-operant-psychological. These traditions developed independently until the end of the 1 970s, when they joined together. Important milestones in the dissemination of behaviorism in Italy are marked by scientific rneetings which have seen many important members of the international behavioral community as invited guests. The first scientific association that explicitly traced its roots, or at Ieast part of them, within behaviorisrn was the Societa Italiana di Terápia Comportamentale (SITC - ltalian Society for Behavior Therapy). The association that gathered ltalian scholars who recognize behaviorism and behavior analysis as their scientific model, however, was the Associazione Italiana di Modificazione del Comportamento (Italian Association for Behavior Analysis and Modification or AIAMC). Founded in 1977, AIAMC has promoted behavior analysis and therapy in Italy through the organization of national and international meetings, four-year post-graduate courses in behavior analysis and therapy, and contacts with other national and international behavioral associations. Almost ah the major texts in behaviorism and behavior analysis have been translated into ltalian. Many of the people in the organizations already mentioned have translated these texts. Furthermore, many other titles also have been originally produced in ltaly. These latter texts cover issues related to theoretical, clinical, educational and organizational topics.