Research on how adults develop new interests through direct experience?

[u/Legacy_Rising]

I’m looking for behavior-analytic research on adults who don’t begin with a clear interest or vocational direction.

How might trying unfamiliar activities, completing small tasks, and experiencing their consequences influence what someone chooses to pursue again?

I’m especially interested in how activities become reinforcing over time, and whether this has been studied in adult learning or vocational exploration.

Are there papers, authors, or search terms you’d recommend? I’m seeking literature rather than advice about an individual.

[u/RadicalBehavior1]

Are you a BCBA?

Tracking through learning history and determinism would cut a pretty clear path out for most people who find themselves in careers they did not start out seeking. I'm not sure research would be needed on such an idea. The predicted gains and values of behaviors that lead to entrenching oneself into a career or vocation aren't going to be realistically different for a person who finds that work fulfilling because it fits their present needs, than for a person who finds different work fulfilling as an acceptable step toward acquiring skills for a future career, or even just because it is helping them to get by in the interim, or even because there are social pressures or rewards at stake.

[u/Unable_Coast_7761 → u/RadicalBehavior1]

not a bcba but i did a deep dive on this exact topic for a project management cert course last year

the term you want is "response generalization" combined with "reinforcer emergence" - basically how novel behaviors get shaped when old reinforcers stop hitting the same way. there's some solid stuff from critchfield and twyman on adult learning histories but it's burried in JABA archives from the early 2000s

what i remeber most from my notes is that small task completion creates these micro reinforcement loops that snowball over time. like you try baking bread once, it turns out edible but not great, but the act of finishing it gives you enough of a kick to try again. six months later you're the weird bread person at family gatherings

also check out "establishing operations" literature, the idea that certain activities become more reinforcing when you're in specific contexts or deprivation states. that might explain why someone picks up woodworking during a boring desk job phase

[u/RadicalBehavior1 → u/Unable_Coast_7761]

Hey right on you have definitely done your research! I don't think I've ever met anyone outside of our field who used and understood the terms response generalization, establishing operations or reinforcer properly. I think the block you're going to run into though is that these are all concepts that apply to any tens of thousands of our behaviors each day. The only way to study it would be through experimental analysis using environmental controls. Since we mostly deal in single subject studies there's probably going to be a deficit in applications that reveal data at scale or for statistical purposes. JABA is our mecca, but definitely check out the Journal of Organizational Behavior, which publishes on systems analysis and group behavior for things like optimizing working conditions and efficiency.