Taking into consideration studies researching positive correlations between high academic productivity and organic and psychological problems, this research, guided by the Behavior Analysis theoretical background, meant to describe some contingencies concerning academic production, giving priority to the psychological/behavioral aspects (such as feelings, emotions and thoughts) of those relations. There were three participants in this study, of exploratory intent, all three being academic professors with productiveness scholarships granted by the CNPq. The results, obtained throughout a semistructured interview, and debated accordingly to the Behavior Analysis interpretation method, allowed the identification of different contingencies taking part in the origin and maintenance of the "behavior of researching". The conditions which installed the "behavior of studying" were prevalently of aversive nature, marked by rule control and the feeling of responsibility. On the other hand, the contemporary "behavior of researching" went on to be controlled, in a major way, by that activity's natural positive consequences, emerging, from those relations, feelings of delight or pleasure regarding researching. In spite of those conditions, the study also verified a low self-esteem and some delayed aversive consequences in different aspects of the interviewee's life, derived from an exclusive dedication towards the academy. This study reasserts the need to outline alternative ways to a lecturing practice pervaded by immediate or long-term aversive consequences, creating more libertarian conditions in the profession.
Graduate school; Behavior analysis; Scientific research; Contingency analysis