Introduction to the Volume

Abstract

This chapter addresses the role that social context plays in the application of problem behavior theory to various problems across societies and settings as diverse as the slums of Nairobi; the middle schools of Beijing, China; and the inner city neighborhoods of Chicago and Denver. It provides an exposition about the multiple environments or contexts in which an adolescent is simultaneously embedded, some distal from experience, like the physical and geographic environment, and some more proximal to experience, such as the family, school, and neighborhood. It argues that the environment or context that is most proximal to experience and, hence, to behavior is the perceived environment. The perceived environment is the environment of meaning for the adolescent and is, therefore, the environment that, in interaction with the person, is most determinative of behavior and development. Reliance on a perceived environment concept brings up the issue of subjectivity in social inquiry, and the chapter argues that both quantitative and qualitative research approaches engage subjectivity and have in common a hermeneutic or interpretive methodological stance. The latter issue is one of several concerns in the philosophy of science that undergirds problem behavior theory and that is noted in the chapter.