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Private events are not acceptable as initiating causes of behavior, contrary to Overskeid's argument. The positing of private events as initiating causes of behavior precludes determinism by implying organisms spontaneously change their behavior as a function of a mentalistic act. Behavior analysis welcomes contributions from the fields of genetics and physiology to a complete account of behavior, but they do not replace or make irrelevant an objective analysis of behavior. Conversely, private events, although they may be part of a behavioral chain, cannot fully explain behavior and do not function as an initial cause of behavior. As the field of cognitive psychology has shown, the acceptance of private events as initiating causes of behavior has done little to clarify our understanding of human behavior and has in fact hindered progress by diverting attention away from an analysis of variables that truly affect behavior., Overskeid (1994) argues that for behavior analysis to be consistent, in both data and theory, private events (events occurring inside an individual's skin) are acceptable causes, including initiating causes, of [...]