the etiology of an Al Capone. Because behaviorism emphasizes external (observable) events over internal hypothetical constructs (as in psychoanalytic theory), it lends itself well to psychobiography--we can interpret recorded behaviors and events without relying on interviews, or a subject's own interpretations or reinterpretations of historical events.
In behavior theory, the basic assumption is that almost all human behavior is learned, and the theory is directed toward explaining how it is learned and performed. Its primary principle is that behavior is controlled by its consequences. For example, to elaborate on our initial discussion of Al Capone's boyhood, we can see that there were no negative consequences to anti-societal, or criminal behavior in the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up, largely because "the disillusionments, hardships, and brutal prejudice that the Italian immigrants endured in the promised 'land of opportunity' confirmed them in their tribalism" (Kobler, 1992, p. 19), and as we have already seen, sometimes "they invested the outlaw with heroic stature" (Kobler, 1992, p. 19).
The contingent relationship between behavior and ensuing events is the heart of both behavior theory and behavior modification, which is the theory's application to behavior change. In our psychobiography of Al Capone we will look at the conditions which lead to his gangster behavior with the assumption that under different social conditions, he may very well have been a true, rather than
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