**3.4. Effects**

of the studied behavior. In some cases, particularly propensities, these may be affective morphologies, that is, affective components of some form of responding; analysis of the case will determine their function. For example, if we are studying a couple's relationship and we realize that she fights with him when she feels sad, due to reasons outside their relationship, her state of mind—sadness—in this case would have a dispositional function of making fights and arguments more likely. But if the person feels sad because her husband tells her that he does not love her anymore, then we would talk about an affective

**g.** Tendencies: according to Rodríguez [6], "this concept refers to customs, habits and forms of behavior that have been linked with specific effects in the past and for this reason have a high emission probability under certain circumstances" (p. 94). Those tendencies that make the behavior of interest more or less likely are identified. For example, those kind of behaviors referred in terms such as "irascible", that can make a problem with another person more likely, or an addiction to some drug that may interfere with

The described subcategories designate factors that make up a situation; however, not all have a dispositional function for a behavior in particular. In this methodology, it is the psycholo-

Under this heading the different functions that other people's behavior can exercise and that are significant for the person whose behavior is studied are considered. To analyze the same, the core dimension is the one of *mediating individual/mediated individuals*. The other functions

• *Mediator* is the behavior that determines (prescribes) the manner in which an interaction takes place; in other words, the contingencies for a specific relationship are predicted/prescribed with this behavior, whether, through instructions, specifying rules of behavior and establishing sanctions, among others. In ordinary language terms, we would think about

• *Mediated* is the behavior that is adjusted or regulated by the contingencies prescribed by

• Sponsor: this behavior consists of facilitating the conditions for another behavior, without the participation of the person in that interaction. Because of these properties this type of

• Propensities and/or inclinations' regulator: there are people whose behavior can modulate tastes, preferences, states of mind/moods, or emotional shocks in another person and this behavior is known as a propensities or inclinations' regulator. As in the sponsor behavior, a relevant regulator behavior does not exist in all of the interactions as in the interaction

morphology.

28 Behavior Analysis

work, if this is what is being studied.

**3.3. Other people's behavior**

the mediator's behavior.

The other dispositional functions are:

behavior has a dispositional function.

gist's task to analyze the function of the different factors.

that are conceptually contemplated are dispositional.

the behavior that *dominates* other people's behavior.

The last microcontingential analysis category is the one pertaining to effects. These refer to the consequence relationship that exists between what the user says, does, or thinks and the changes that this can have in the environment, other people's behavior, or one's own behavior [5, 7]. Depending on the type of generated change, the effects are classified in different ways:

On others or on the environment: they refer to the change that one's own behavior generates in other people's behavior or in any environmental physical-chemical property; for example, if a person yells at other people when they interrupt him/her at work, it is very likely that others stop interrupting him/her in that circumstance, as an effect of the person in question's behavior.

On himself/herself: this type of behavior only refers to the one that affects the person that emits the same, producing modifications in what he/she does, thinks, or feels. For example, when a person constantly thinks that thieves are going to break into his/her house and has nightmares and loses his/her appetite, even though this does not occur, his/her behavior has dispositional effects on himself/herself. His/her behavior affects his/her biological and emotional conditions.

Ineffective: a behavior is deemed ineffective when it does not generate changes in the environment or in the person himself/herself, such as some adjustment behaviors.

In summary, the microcontingential system consists of identifying the factors implied in an interaction, its function within the same, and later to determine the explanatory weight of the different components. Each behavior is analyzed in an individual basis, and, as far as morphology does not determine function, every factor is analyzed with functional basis.
