Repercussions of Holland (1978) on Brazilian scientific literature: an analysis of citations

Abstract

This study analyzed citations of Holland’s (1978) article, entitled “Behaviorism: part of the problem or part of the solution?”, in the Brazilian scientific community. The stud­ies that cited Holland and their positions regarding the text were characterized. In total, 67 publications were analyzed, the first being dated 1993. Starting in 2012, there was a marked frequency of publications in which Holland’s citation is central to the authors’ discussions. Most of the studies were essays, with theoretical interests and citation in only one paragraph. All of them had positions converging with those of the author and were based on behavior analysis. No applied research or immediate practical proposals directly supported by the au­thor’s ideas were identified. It was found that the specialized literature continues to endorse Holland’s discussions, while most publications did not discuss his text in detail. The recent increase in the frequency of citation of Holland appears to reflect a growing interest in the community in discussing behavior analysis and social issues. Finally, behavior analysts con­tinue to operate under contradictory conditions in a stratified society, which may be one of the reasons why Holland continues to impact the behavior-analytic community more than 40 years after its publication.