Behavior analysis in general and applied behavior analysis in particular requires a well developed, empirically supported, and useful approach to human language and cognition in order to fulfill its mission of providing a relatively adequate comprehensive account of complex human behavior. This article introduces a series of articles in which the…

This paper offers organizational behavior management (OBM) a behavior analytically consistent way to expand its analysis of, and methods for changing, organizational behavior. It shows how Relational Frame Theory (RFT) suggests that common, problematic, psychological processes emerge from language itself, and they produce psychological…

This paper attempts a unified explanation of such apparently non-utilitarian behaviors as curiosity, manipulation, and exploration as manifestations of "playful behaviors" on the one hand and stereotyped responses on the other. Sensorhesis names the new theory offered to explain the existence and nature of playful behavior. Play and stereotyped…

Following Walter Nord (1969), the present article contains a predictive model of individual behavior based on both operant conditioning and management literatures. The behavior of an organizational member is seen as a function of the reinforcement contingencies applied by various groups in his environment and of his cognitive assessment of such…

Focuses on currently popular behavioral models and examines their implications and limitations. Discusses behavioral methodology in relation to educational research and critiques contemporary behavioral practice. Describes ten characteristics of a behavioral interactionist perspective which, among other things, encourages learner initiative and…

This article relates systematic causality to applications in behavior theory, counseling practice, and counseling research. The paper was presented at the American Educational Research Association Convention, Chicago, 1972. (JC)

Much research in the field of moral behaviour is vitiated by the prevalence among researchers of a behaviouristic conception of motivation which ignores the importance of reasons in guiding behaviour. Its is argued that this neglect is dangerous and that researchers must take more account of them if their work is to have real relevance for moral…

When the findings of sociobiology and ethology are properly interpreted, they are surprisingly compatible with commonsense ethical values, adding to our understanding of moral and ethical principles as an essential element of human social behavior. This paper provides a brief overview of the broader scientific interpretation to illustrate this…

Studies of a biological basis of social behavior have involved biologists in emotional debate. The author outlines the controversy surrounding one sociobiologist, Edward Wilson, and questions the charge that such research should not be conducted because of its potential for abuse. Condensed from "Smithsonian" magazine, September 1980,…

Proposes an operational definition of aspiration as any goal toward which an individual invests time, effort, or money; this definition focuses on the dynamics of personal choice, retains the field theory perspective of previous research, suggests new ways of quantifying aspiration levels, and permits comparisons of previously incommensurable…

We assessed effectiveness of four education programs in providing nursing assistants with ability to produce a therapeutic milieu supportive of intact residents' activities of daily living, positive self-esteem and mood: (1) a combination of Orem's Systems of Nursing Care and Skinner's Applied Behavioral Analysis, (2) Applied Behavioral Analysis,…

Behavioral pharmacology is a maturing science that has made significant contributions to the study of drug effects on behavior, especially in the domain of drug-behavior interactions. Less appreciated is that research in behavioral pharmacology can have, and has had, implications for the experimental analysis of behavior, especially its…

According to the hedonic treadmill model, good and bad events temporarily affect happiness, but people quickly adapt back to hedonic neutrality. The theory, which has gained widespread acceptance in recent years, implies that individual and societal efforts to increase happiness are doomed to failure. The recent empirical work outlined here…