Name: Verbal Behavior
Price: 35.97 EUR
Availability: InStock
Author: B. F. Skinner
ISBN: 9781715676704

Type

Physical Book

Author

B. F. Skinner

Publisher

Blurb

Year

2021

Language

English

Pages

480

Format

Paperback

ISBN13

9781715676704

Synopsis "Verbal Behavior "

At the age of 30, B. F. Skinner found himself at a dinner sitting next to Professor Alfred North Whitehead. Never one to lose an opportunity to promote behaviorism, Skinner expounded its main tenets to the distinguished philosopher. Whitehead acknowledged that science might account for most of human behavior but he would not include verbal behavior. He ended the discussion with a challenge: "Let me see you," he said, "account for my behavior as I sit here saying, 'No black scorpion is falling upon this table.'" The next morning Skinner began this book. It took him over twenty years to complete. The book extends the laboratory-based principles of selection by consequences to account for what people say, write, gesture, and think. Skinner argues that verbal behavior requires a separate analysis because it does not operate on the environment directly, but rather through the behavior of other people in a verbal community. He illustrates his thesis with examples from literature, the arts, and the sciences, as well as from his own verbal behavior and that of his colleagues and children. Perhaps it is because this theoretical work provides a way to approach that most human of human behavior that Skinner often called Verbal Behavior his most important work.

B. F. Skinner

(Author)

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B. F. Skinner was an influential American psychologist and writer, considered one of the central figures of behaviorism. He authored fundamental works in the field of experimental psychology and learning theory, such as Science and Human Behavior (1953), Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), and About Behaviorism (1974). He also ventured into fiction with Walden Two (1948), a utopian novel based on his behaviorist ideas. All the works mentioned are confirmed as his authorship.

His production is mainly in the genre of scientific essay and psychological dissemination, with key contributions in the analysis of operant behavior. Although he was widely recognized in his lifetime for his academic work, including memberships in institutions such as the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, he did not receive literary awards. His legacy endures as one of the pillars of psychological thought of the 20th century.

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