Matching Law - Role in The Development of Psychopathology

Role in The Development of Psychopathology

The matching law greatly expands psychologists' and behavior analysts' understanding of natural phenomena such as development and developmental psychopathology. Response matching has implications for developmental psychopathology research. James Snyder and colleague have found that response matching predicts the use of conflict tactics by children and parents during conflict bouts. This matching rate predicts future arrests. Even children's use of deviant talk appears to follow a matching pattern.

As revealed in a recent and comprehensive review by McDowell (2005), it is clear that whereas the generalized matching equation accurately describes concurrent-schedule data under a substantial range of conditions, Herrnstein's original equation fails to do so.

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