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In this text, we indicate the most fundamental books to start studying behavioral psychology.
Hello friends!
I recently received some requests to write about the best behavioral psychology books to start studying the approach to psychology also known as behaviorism. behavior, behavior.
During the psychology faculty at UFSJ, I had the opportunity to study with excellent professors, both from the so-called methodological behaviorism and radical behaviorism. So, although I don’t consider myself an expert on the approach, I think I can share with you the books I have that are the best for starting the study.
See also – Behavioral Psychology Course – Free Behaviorism
Of course, every “best” list is ultimately a subjective choice. We can praise one more work for particular reasons or leave out works that are equally important. As we have the space for comments below the text to continue talking, we will be able to add what, by chance, has been excluded.
Before we begin, it is interesting to quote the beginning of the book About behaviorism, by Skinner. In this beginning, he explains some misunderstandings of behaviorism (which he defines as the philosophy of behavioral science). For Skinner, behaviorism is unfairly criticized and all the statements below are false🇧🇷
1) Behaviorism ignores consciousness, feelings, and mental states;
2) It neglects innate gifts and argues that all behavior is acquired during the individual’s lifetime;
3) Presents behavior simply as a set of responses to stimuli, describing the person as an automaton, a robot, a puppet or a machine;
4) Does not attempt to explain cognitive processes;
5) Does not consider intentions or purposes;
6) Cannot explain creative achievements – in Art, for example, or in Music, Literature, Science or Mathematics;
7) It does not assign any role to the self or self-consciousness;
8) Is necessarily superficial and cannot deal with the depths of the mind or personality;
9) It is limited to the prediction and control of behavior and does not apprehend the being, or the essential nature of man;
10) He works with animals, particularly with white mice, but not with people, and his view of human behavior is therefore limited to those traits that human beings and animals have in common;
11) His results, obtained under the controlled conditions of a laboratory, cannot be reproduced in daily life, and what he has to say about human behavior in the wider world therefore becomes unproven metascience;
12) He is oversimplified and naive and his facts are either trivial or already well known;
13) Worships the methods of Science but is not scientific; it limits itself to emulating the Sciences;
14) His technological achievements could be obtained by using common sense;
15) If his claims are valid, they must apply to the behaviorist scientist himself and, therefore, he says only what he has been conditioned to say and which cannot be true;
16) Dehumanizes man; it is reductive and destroys man as man;
17) Is only interested in general principles and therefore neglects the uniqueness of the individual;
18) It is necessarily undemocratic because the relationship between the experimenter and the subject is one of manipulation and its results can, for that reason, be used by dictators and not by men of good will;
19) Views abstract ideas, such as morality or justice, as fictions;
20) It is indifferent to the warmth and richness of human life, and is incompatible with the creation and enjoyment of art, music, literature and with love of neighbor.
I made sure to list all 20 of these statements (false) on behaviorism because they, in a way, summarize the main criticisms that the area has suffered over time. For those who have not studied behaviorism for this or that reason, they may then become curious about how the approach deals with issues that, by mistake or prejudice, would have been removed from their scope of study.
That is, how does behaviorism understand thought? Art and the behavior of an artist? Mathematics and the behavior of a mathematician? A judge, a priest, a pastor, a rabbi, a Sufi?
From the list below, we can therefore begin to study behavioral psychology. The list is not necessarily from simplest to most complex. However, I would recommend reading more or less in this order, if the reading conditions are available:
1) Behavior Analysis, by BF Skinner and JG Holland
The book in the photo above, Behavior Analysis, by Holland and Skinner, is very interesting to start studying behavioral psychology because it is structured from the simplest to the most complex. The idea for the structure of the book came from Edward Thorndike and Arthur Gates, in Elementary Principles of Education, where they said that ideally the reader or student could only move on to the next page if he had understood and done what was on the previous page.
This proposal, therefore, was carried out by Holland and Skinner. Each page has small texts that present the contents and concepts in order of difficulty, from the simplest to the most complex. The reader will study and understand and record everything if done as explained.
So the book begins by explaining reflex behavior, moves to operant behavior (elementary concepts), then to exact contingencies, shaping behavior, intermittent reinforcement, stimulus control, deprivation, emotion, escape and avoidance behavior, emotion 2, punishment , scientific analysis and interpretation of complex cases, self-control and personality interpretation.
2) On behaviorism, by BF Skinner
About behaviorism, the book I mentioned above (the 20 false phrases) is the book that presents the basic concepts about the approach, at the same time that it places it in a broader context, starting with the causes of behavior – speaking in the first chapter about the differences between methodological and radical behaviorism – going through innate behavior, operant behavior, perception, verbal behavior, thinking, knowledge, motivation and emotion, behavior control.
3) Science and Human Behavior
This book, Science and Human Behavior, is considered a classic of the approach. The synopsis of the book says:
“Many people interested in human behavior do not feel the need for standards and criteria of proof, characteristic of an exact science; uniformities in behavior are obvious even without them. At the same time, they are reluctant to accept the conclusions that such evidence inevitably points to, if they do not feel the uniformity for themselves. But these idiosyncrasies are an expensive luxury. There is no need to defend the methods of science in their application to behavior.”
In the presentation to the Brazilian edition, Skinner writes:
“A Brazilian edition in Portuguese of my Science and human behavior is especially encouraging. As the English philosopher Francis Bacon insisted, knowledge must be useful. In this book I have tried to respect good scientific practice. I have asked the reader to reflect scientifically on human behavior, but I am equally concerned that he be constantly aware of the practical significance of behavioral facts in human affairs. Modern Brazil is moving in a direction that should underscore the importance of a useful science of behavior. This translation therefore serves an extra function in accentuating the character of the book particularly effectively”.
This book, in my opinion, is not that simple, although with previous knowledge we can follow the author’s reasoning without problems. The greatest difficulty lies in the fact that it is also a book about science in general, that is, about the epistemology of science. From the second chapter, however, the author goes straight into the science of behavior and starts to talk about the specific aspects of human behavior with several examples.
4) Walden Two, by BF Skinner
In the preface to the 1969 American edition, Skinner talks about Walden II, a work that can, in its way, be considered a novel, and, equally, an imagination about the applications of behaviorism:
“Much of the current interest in Walden II may, I think, be attributed to two reasons. First, there would be the obvious relationship with what is happening among young people today. Walden II it is not a manual for ‘hippies’, it did not start any revolution, but it defended principles that are now very much in vogue. Five of them are also found in Walden (1) by Henry David Thoreau:
1) No way of life is inevitable. Examine your own closely.
2) If you don’t like it, change it.
3) But don’t try to change it through political action. Even if you manage to gain power, you cannot use it any more wisely than your predecessors.
4) Just ask them to leave you alone, to solve your problems in your own way.
5) Simplify your needs. Learn how to be happy with less possessions.
O walden of Thoreau was, however, a Walden for one, and the problems of society call for something more than individualism. Other principles should be added:
6) Build a way of life in which people live together without fighting, in a social climate of trust instead of suspicion, of love instead of jealousy, of cooperation instead of competition.
7) Maintain this world with mild but effective ethical sanctions rather than police or military force.
8) Effectively convey the culture to new members through expert childcare and powerful educational technology.
9) Keep compulsive work to a minimum by arranging the types of incentives under which people enjoy working.
10) Do not consider any practice as immutable. Change and be ready to change again. Do not accept the eternal truth. Try it.
5) The Myth of Liberty, by BF Skinner
The Myth of Liberty is, in some ways, Skinner’s more philosophical book. The old and long philosophical and theological discussion about determination and free will (or in older language, destiny and freedom) is the theme of this work, but not only.
I think that the work also addresses the famous question about the relationship between the individual and society and, making a connection with the book Walden II, shows that it is possible to build a better society, based on the principles of behavioral psychology.
With this book we end Skinner’s book recommendations.
Verbal Behavior, by the same author, is essential for anyone who wants to study language from the point of view of behavioral psychology. However, as it is a sold-out edition, the way is to find the work in public libraries (universities that have the Faculty of Psychology usually have them in their collection), in used bookstores or in English.
6) Behavior modification. What is it and how to do it?
This is a book that I consider basic and super easy to read. The synopsis says:
