3.10 Interventions are Part of the Context

Why do functional contextualists focus on the context of psychological events? Well, partly because that is the only way to directly achieve their analytic goal. To change or influence another person’s psychological events (such as reduce their depression or improve their golf skills), we must manipulate some aspect of the context or environment…because we are part of that other person’s environment. Anything we could do to change or influence another person’s behavior, thoughts, attitudes, feelings, or other psychological event occurs in that person’s environment – in the context of their psychological events.