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RR 2013/248 APA Handbook of Behavior Analysis Editor-in-chief Gregory J. Madden American Psychological Association Washington, DC 2013 2 vols 2013 ISBN 978 1 4338 11111 $395 APA Handbooks in Psychology Also available electronically for institutions at $695 or $895 as a print and electronic package
Keywords Behaviour, Guides and handbooks, Psychology
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-05-2013-0106
The foreword to this book suggests that the analysis of behaviour started out as something quite separate from psychology. It might be more accurate to say that half-a-century or so ago; American psychology was dominated by two diametrically opposed approaches which have only gradually and grudgingly come to accept each other's strengths. On the one hand there were those who, following Freud, studied the workings of the human mind without considering the fact that that there was a physical or organic basis for the mind's activities, and on the other, there were those following Pavlov and B.F. Skinner who studied the behaviour of organisms, ignoring, or in extreme cases, denying any role for the mind at all. The fact that this excellent handbook appears under the auspices of the American Psychological Association, and that most of the 100 plus contributors are professors in American university psychology departments, suggests that a cease-fire has finally been declared in this curious civil war.
The first volume of this set is devoted to methods and principles, and the second to practical applications. Although there is a distinction, the division cannot be a sharp one. Behaviour analysis is one of the most easily applied approaches in psychology - the gap between modifying an organism's behaviour to see what happens and modifying its behaviour in order to make something happen...