Behavior of Organisms (Official B. F. Skinner Foundation Reprint Series / paperback edition)

by B.F. Skinner

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087411487X
• ISBN13: 9780874114874
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: Copley Publishing Group
• Length: 457 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

SKINNER'S FIRST BOOK

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist, social philosopher,and author. He was a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974, and perhaps the most influential behaviorist of the 20th century. His most famous books are Verbal Behavior, Beyond Freedom & Dignity and Walden Two. "Behavior of Organisms" (1938) was his first book. Here are some representative quotations from the book: "While the present system presupposes the lawfulness of behavior and recognizes the role of the environment, it does not necessarily appeal to the environment as a driving force. The function of a stimulus in establishing a discrimination, for example, has nothing of the character of a goad." (Chap. 6) "The concept of 'volition,' in its historical opposition to the 'involuntary' reflex, rests largely upon the 'spontaneous' strength to be accounted for through operations falling within the field of drive. In gaining control of these additional variables we are able to extend the term reflex (in its implications of predictability) to behavior in general." (Chap. 9) "Why should a certain part of the reactions of an organism be set aside in a special class? Why should we classify weeping in response to a bruised shin as emotional but weeping in response to a cinder in the eye as not? Most persons readily and consistently separate many of the responses of an organism into these groups but with what justification?" (Chap. 11) "The book represents nothing more than an experimental analysis of a representative sample of behavior. Let him extrapolate who will. Whether or not extrapolation is justified cannot at the present time be decided. It is possible that there are properties of human behavior which will require a different kind of treatment. But this can be ascertained only by closing in on the problem in an orderly way and by following the customary procedures of an experimental science." (Chap. 13) "If, nevertheless, the author of a book of this sort is expected to hazard a guess publicly, I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of rat and man (aside from enormous differences of complexity) lie in the field of verbal behavior." (Chap. 13)