Preface  

What Does It Mean to Be a Behavior Analyst?  

Why Do Practitioners Need to Understand Conceptual Issues?  

What This Book Will Do  

What This Book Will Not Do  

Becoming Bilingual  

So, What Is All This Fuss About?  

 

1.  An Unavoidable (but Reasonable) Assumption  

Free or Determined  

      Inside versus Outside  

      Talking About Freedom  

      Are We Really Free to Choose?  

      Or Is Our Behavior Determined?  

      Competing Assumptions  

      A Few More Issues  

      Yes, Your Assumption Is Itself Determined  

Consequences for Practitioners  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

.

2.  It’s Just Verbal Behavior  

Some Questions About Verbal Behavior  

      Do You Agree…?  

      But First, What Is Behavior Anyway?  

      What About Verbal Behavior?  

      Verbal Behavior Is Learned  

      How Do We Learn Our Verbal Repertoire?  

Organization of Verbal Behavior  

      The Concept of Response Classes  

      Verbal Response Classes  

      Reconsidering Conventional Concepts  

Given That Verbal Behavior is Learned…  

      Just Verbal Behavior?  

      What Is a Conviction?  

      Is Something Missing?  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

3.  Nevermind  

Cause and Effect  

      The Seduction of Inner Causation  

      Historical, Not Mechanical, Causation  

Is Making Up Your Mind Like Making Up Your Bed?  

      What Is Mentalism?  

      The Mind-Body Problem  

      Do Mental Explanations Explain?  

      Inventing Inside “Causes”  

Still At The Beginning  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

4.  What is Really Inside?  

Distinguishing Between Real Versus Fictional  

      Public versus Private  

      Learning to Respond to Private Events  

      Is Thinking Behavior?  

            What About Emotions and Feelings?  

      And Traits, Attitudes, Moods, and All That Other Stuff?  

What To Do About Mentalism  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

5.  Seeing Yourself  

Learning To Talk About Ourselves  

      Our Verbal Community  

      Who Do You Think You Are?  

      Perception, Awareness, Attention, and Consciousness  

The Behavior of Sensing  

      The Role of Reinforcement History  

      Seeing That You Are Seeing  

Managing Our Behavior  

      Self-control  

      Self-reinforcement  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

6.  The Misdirection of Everyday Dialect  

Knowledge and Understanding  

Purpose, Intention, and Goals  

      As a Cause for Behavior in Terms of Future Events  

      As a Self-report of Our Private Experience  

      As a Description of the Function of a Behavior  

Problem Solving  

Rules, Advice, and Instructions  

Reasoning  

      More Than Verbal Behavior?  

Propositions and Premises  

Logicality and Rules  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

7.  Behavioral Responsibility  

Creativity  

      What is Creativity?  

Novel Instead of Creative?  

Learned Behavior  

Credit Where Credit is Due?  

Are We Then Blameless?  

It Comes Down to Responsibility  

Conscience  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

8. Ethics, Rights, and Values–Without the Heat  

Ethics and Ethical Communities  

Rights  

      What are Rights?  

And Where Do They Come From?  

Values  

      What Are Values?  

Are Values Beyond Science?  

Taking the Heat Out of Arguments About Rights and Values  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

9.  A Social Life  

Culture  

      Culture-free Contingencies  

      And the Influence of Culture  

Natural Selection  

Where Might This Lead?  

A Role for Behavioral Science  

Cultural Engineering  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

10.  Radical Behaviorism  

Radical Behaviorism  

      Historical Context  

The Philosophy of the Science of Behavior Analysis  

Radical versus Methodological Behaviorism  

Radical Behaviorism and Research Methods  

A Matter of Opinion?  

Selling Radical Behaviorism  

Chapter Summary  

Text Study Guide  

Box Study Guide  

Discussion Topics and Exercises  

Suggested Readings  

Supplementary Website Readings  

  

Glossary  

Bibliography  

Author Index  

Subject Index