The words 'conditional' or 'conditioning' have a different meaning in Luhmann's writings than in behavioural psychology. Conditioning refers for Luhmann to the selective temporal arrangement of relationships between elements. Systems are not simply relationships between elements, since these relationships have to be regulated, and this is where he uses the term conditioning.

DEFINE: Clarifies Luhmann's idiosyncratic use of 'conditioning' to distinguish it from behavioural psychology's meaning.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 87