Principles of Behavior

AUDIENCE When we wrote the first edition of this textbook (at that time titledElementary Principles of Behavior EPB), we intended it for first-year, university-level psychology courses. But an American Psychology Association committee pleasantly surprised us by also recommending it for high school psychology courses. Then we found behavior analysts using it at all levels, including graduate courses; in a variety of departments, from dentistry to social work to special education; and from community colleges to universities to in-service training programs. So we've tried to write subsequent editions with all of these audiences in mind. To assess the generality of our success, we evaluatePrinciples of Behavior (PB)in both graduate and undergraduate courses. Though grad students differ from undergrads, of course, the grad students evaluate the book at least as favorably as the undergrads. We've built more flexibility into this edition to accommodate further this variety of audiences, especially with our different levels of the enrichment section. But also, we've tried to write the essential Fundamentals sections to appeal to both the jaded graddate student and the eager freshman. And, we've tried to write those Fundamentals sections so all students can easily understand them. However, though we've tried to make the Fundamentals simple, we've also tried not to make them simplistic. And though we've tried to make the Fundamentals clear, we've also tried not to make them conceptually unrigorous. (Some value a book only if it's difficult; we hope such readers will feel compelled to adopt different criteria.) THE FUNDAMENTALS AND ENRICHMENT SECTIONS The following material is redundant with a section in Chapter 1, but it's worth mentioning here also. We've divided each chapter into two main sections. We call the second section theEnrichmentsection. All the subsections that come before it we call theFundamentalssection, the bare bones of the text. The student needs to master each Fundamentals section to understand the Fundamentals sections of following chapters. However, the student needn't master the Enrichment sections to understand the later Fundamentals sections. Also, we've usually divided the Enrichment section into three levels-Basic, Intermediate, and a few Advanced Enrichment sections. We've tried to keep the Basic sections at the same level of difficulty as the Fundamentals sections. The Intermediate and Advanced levels get progressively more difficult and esoteric; yet they assume no knowledge of behavior analysis beyond this book. Here's the audience to whom we've aimed each level: the Basic level--beginning students who will do no further work in behavior analysis, and the Intermediate level--juniors, seniors, and others who will be doing further work in behavior analysis. We assume anyone reading the Intermediate level also will read the lower-level. The Advanced level is for true scholars. For access to other advanced enrichment sections, we invite you to visit our web site atwww.DickMalott.com.Of course, the instructor may evaluate the levels of difficulty or appropriateness differently than we have. IN THE SKINNER BOX To illustrate many basic behavioral contingencies and procedures, we go to hypothetical examples in the Skinner box. We find the simplicity of the life of the rat or pigeon in the test chamber to be an excellent tool for understanding the complexity of the life of the human being in the normal environment. We also do this to emphasize the phylogenic continuity of the principles of behavior. But we put most of this in the Enrichment section, so teachers can omit it if they wish to play down that continuity. (Incidentally, we've found phylogenic continuity of behavior doesn't put off most students. Students are amazingly open to new ideas. However, their professors in the humanities and social sciences aren'tMalott, Richard W. is the author of 'Principles of Behavior', published 2003 under ISBN 9780130482259 and ISBN 0130482250.