Behavior analysis emphasizes the study of overt animal (human and nonhuman) behavior as a subject matter in its own right. This paper provides a metaphysical foundation for such an emphasis via an elucidation of a thesis that I generically call “realism about behavior,” where by “realism” I mean an assertion of mindindependent existence. The elucidation takes the form of a conceptual framework ...

One of the great psychological debates of the twentieth century involved an exchange between Tolman and Guthrie. Tolman, originally a behaviorist himself, conducted experiments with rats that lead him to develop a nascent cognitive framework during the first half of the twentieth century—a period dominated by the S-R behaviorist ideology. He suggested that rats held expectations about impending...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to identify psychosocial factors related to the onset of bipolar I disorder (BD). To do so, the Bipolar Disorder Etiology Scale (BDES), based on psychological behaviorism, was developed and validated. Using the BDES, common factors related to both major depressive disorder (MDD) and BD and specific factors related only to BD were investigated. METHOD The B...

Rooted in behavioral theory, particularly the radical or selectivist behaviorism of B.F. Skinner (1953, 1954, 1966, 1968, 1974), the direct instruction (DI) approach to teaching is now well into its third decade of influencing curriculum, instruction, and research. It is also in its third decade of controversy. Our purpose is to present the DI model with the notion that the designer can and sho...

If we accept mechanistic and non-Darwinian concepts of behavior as basic to behaviorism, we must consider both Jacques Loeb (Loeb, 1889, 1918) and John B. Watson as the pioneer behaviorists. The word "behaviorism" was coined by Watson (1913, 1914), and the movement was, at first, a method-ological revolt rather than an attempt to build a new system of psychology. At that time, psychology was st...

The goal of this chapter is to review what is known about the neural bases of cognitive development. We begin by discussing why developmental psychologists might be interested in the neural bases of behavior (with particular reference to cognitive development). Having established the value of viewing child development through the lens of the developmental neurosciences, we provide an overview o...