About Behaviorism

by B.F. Skinner

The basic book about the controversial philosophy known as behaviorism, written by its leading exponent.

"A much more effective work than Beyond Freedom and Dignity precisely because it takes more seriously the tradition (or the historical prejudices) of its opposition."
— Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

"About Behaviorism is an opportunity to match wits with one of the great men of psychology and to participate in some of its great debates."
— James B. Rule, Newsday

"The battle over Skinner’s ideas is just beginning. It promises to be one of the most interesting contests of our generation."
— Gail Boyer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science, School, Education, Classics

291 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was a highly influential American psychologist, author, inventor, advocate for social reform and poet. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. He invented the operant conditioning chamber, innovated his own philosophy of science called Radical Behaviorism, and founded his own school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. His analysis of human behavior culminated in his work Verbal Behavior, which has recently seen enormous increase in interest experimentally and in applied settings. He discovered and advanced the rate of response as a dependent variable in psychological research. He invented the cumulative recorder to measure rate of responding as part of his highly influential work on schedules of reinforcement. In a recent survey, Skinner was listed as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century. He was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles.

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a doctoral candidate in behavior analysis, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Skinner provides several gems throughout the text that I think I would have missed in my earlier days of studying radical behaviorism. In other words, Skinner often says a lot in a few words. My favorite aspect of this book is Skinner's list of myths and misconceptions about behaviorism which he addresses throughout his writing. Unfortunately, many of these myths and misconceptions are alive and well today. That being said, I would not recommend this book to anyone as an introduction to behaviorism, nor do I think this book alone will lead to a complete understanding of behaviorism. I think my appreciation of this book was fostered by years of studying behaviorism, and I highly recommend it to anyone with a similar history.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skinner has interesting takes on things like emotion, but ultimately, he's very repetitive and likes to attribute everything to "contingencies." It's borderline amusing how often he uses that word--just don't make a drinking game out of it.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I were to rate this book on how much I learned I would give it 5 stars. Unfortunately, reading dry behaviorist lingo led me to 3 star enjoyment. I will probably read Skinner again because the behaviorism theory is applicable to manipulating change in many aspects of life. Much more useful than reading Freud.

[Álvaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

De obligatoria lectura.

"El conductismo pide el cambio probablemente más drástico jamás
planteado en nuestro modo de pensar acerca del hombre. Casi
literalmente se trata de dar un vuelco total a la explicación del
comportamiento."

[Drew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This guy knows how to ramble on and on...

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The person with whom we are most familiar is ourself; many of the things we observe just before we behave occur within our body, and it is easy to take them as the causes of our behavior.
[...]
What we have learned from the experimental analysis of behavior suggests that the environment performs the functions previously assigned to feelings and and introspectively observed inner states of the organism.
[...]
The person who asserts his freedom by saying, 'I determine what I shall do next," is speaking of freedom in or from a current situation: the I who thus seems to have an option is the product of a history from which it is not free and which in fact determines what it will now do... A person is not an originating agent; he is a locus, a point at which many genetic and environmental conditions come together in a joint effect."

I read this book for the first time in a grad school seminar on cognition: It was for one of the first few classes, meant to be—I assumed—the history portion, detailing what the old kooks used to believe before we transcended all that and realized that brains are just computers and minds are software. Get it out of the way and get to the more interesting stuff. I was blown away—not by how old fashioned and unrelatable it was, but the exact opposite. I couldn't believe anybody thought they had actually argued Skinner away.

It's no wonder that the "cognitive revolution" in psychology is called a revolution, because radical behaviorism as explained by Skinner—which controlled the discourse in psychology for a time—is an ideological behemoth. If Skinner is right, what it means to live and be a human is an altogether different thing than ordinarily supposed or experienced, and we do ourselves a grave, maybe even fatal, disservice by obsessing over own mental lives, personality traits, hearts and minds, thoughts and feelings, at least at the expense of the environment around us, the situations we are in, and the institutions and norms that exert control over us.

I can't claim to have fully understood this book the first or now second time I've read it, but generally, Skinner writes plainly and clearly, translating traditional mental concepts into behavior, though I often wanted him to include more examples to ground some of the abstract topics he covers and claims he makes. If you took some psychology classes in college and remember operant conditioning—and you can get on board with the repeated, unending use of the phrase "contingencies of reinforcement," because the phrase is central to Skinner's view—you'll probably make sense of most of this book.

[Aleisha Zolman · Rating 4 out of 5]

found this book at DI for $1. knowing that i am fundamentally a behaviorist at heart, i picked this book up wondering if the source material matched my intuition and actual practice of behavior management that i use in school and on a lesser scale for myself. i found many examples of brilliance and parallel beliefs. for example, i love his rant on intuition vs. reason, explaining that you can certainly act on intuition without knowing the reasons why you are doing/rules that you are following. (pg. 146.) But the most powerful phrase for me was found on page 195 "self-management is often represented as the direct manipulation of feelings and states of mind. A person is to change his mind, use his will power, stop feeling anxious, and love his enemies. What he actually does is change the world in which he lives." this rings as a significant truth that i will continue to explore in the upcoming year as i cross reference its meaning with the definition of repentance "a fresh view about God, about oneself, and about the world we live in". if we can "manipulate" our mind to "experience" a different world then we can ultimately change our "environment" no matter where we are: that is ultimate application of repentance to me. i would especially like to carry that ability with me as social anxiey plagues me. if i could change my responses to environmental situations then maybe i could better manage the exhaustive fallout of social situations.

[Riana · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this book as part of a class on radical behaviorism. the class was excellently taught, and i can say it was one of two classes i have taken in my entire college time that changed the way i see the world.

the book is accessible, but also very dense - i am sure that if i had read it by myself, i would have missed out on much of the meaning and many implications.

i feel fortunate that i got to learn so much from reading this exceptional book.

[Jonathan-David Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up thinking it would be about interesting behavioral experiments (like Pavlov's dogs and other salivating animals), but it was instead the driest book I've ever read. I accept that Mr. Skinner knows what he's talking about, but I hardly had any idea of it, and a quarter of the way through the book and after many Zen koans such as (paraphrased) "A man goes to a party not because he feels like going, rather, he feels like going because he goes," I admitted defeat.

[Fede Milat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sorprende cómo a partir de una serie de principios relativamente sencillos, logra hacer una extrapolación a contextos tan diversos, con una profundidad y rigurosidad tan llamativa. A partir del análisis funcional y las contingencias que ofrece la comunidad verbal, logra explayar conceptos como la conducta manifiesta, conducta privada, sentimientos, emociones, lenguaje y hasta la consciencia

Tardé bastante en leerlo, se me hizo pesado por varias cuestiones, sumado a que quizá nuestro amigo Burrhus no es el mejor a la hora de escribir textos sintácticamente correctos, y utiliza demasiados términos técnicos. Sin embargo, la sensación de haberlo finalizado es muy placentera, y ya entendiendo lo que dice, uno se siente muy distinto para ver y entender el mundo a través de una perspectiva novedosa

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pedante y redundante. Se centra demasiado en corregir expresiones del lenguaje común por sus "alusiones a la causalidad interna".

[juanncorb · Rating 3 out of 5]

lo leí para entrenar al cachorrito que adoptamos mi novia y yo (si sirve)

[ash !]

9% — eventually will finish

[Ícaro de Brito Pereira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Na introdução, o Skinner traz uma lista de críticas comuns ao behaviorismo. E, durante toda a obra, rebate cada um delas. Não é uma leitura para leigos, mas é uma boa introdução para quem quer conhecer o Behaviorismo Radical como filosofia da ciência.

[Olivia Bertelsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but hoped for more insights and “advice”, how to’s etc.

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behaviorism is either overlooked or executed rigidly. I love this book as an adjunct to my review on the development of psychological thought. It’s the philosophy behind behaviorism and I can’t help but notice its parallels to existentialism. I often overlook behaviorists after reading Watson’s Psychology as The Behaviorist Views It, but I’m glad I picked this up from my dad’s book collection to educate my ignorant mind and gain an appreciation to this school of thought. In an ideal world, I hope modern-day “licensed” behaviorists or so-called behavior coaches appreciate the philosophy of behaviorism.

[Clare Tissiman connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting information but a bit wordy I could have got a higher star rating if it was easier to read but unfortunately it suffered for it.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for those who study behaviorism.

Also a must read for those who critique behaviorism.

[Hyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Behavioral analysis excels at experimental procedures, but it has not properly defined the object of inquiry in my opinion.”
- Noam Chomsky

Mr. Skinner has a bug up his ass.
The bug is called “mentalism“.

Everywhere he turns, he sees the Spectre of mentalism haunting humankind. In academic research and ordinary daily language, in linguistics and sociology, in psychology and physics, in politics and sports… from the earliest glimmerings of the dawn of civilization up to today. He tries in vain to exorcise the ghost, to no avail. In reading his works, one gets the distinct impression that one is witnessing a demented Don Quijote tilting frantically at imaginary windmills.

Skinner argues his position in the manner of a Christian fundamentalist. His strategy to consists in attacking any and all alternative perspectives as superstitious and unfounded… but doesn’t really construct any convincing argument why one may think so.

His main antagonist in this book is what he calls “mentalism”, which basically means the entirety of the long history of philosophy of mind from the ancient Greeks until today.

His reasoning can be summarized as follows: “We cannot see a mind, we cannot weigh it in the lab or measure it in a jar… therefore it doesn’t exist. It’s a fiction. All we can see is behavior, so we need to construct a theory that explains behavior without any reference whatsoever to emotion, instincts, the genetic endowment, mental processes or anything of the kind.”

The solution he comes upon is that human beings are basically machines acted upon by their environment, programmed to respond to stimuli in this or that way. It seems like he is drawing an analogy between the development of behavior in individuals and biological evolution through natural selection.

Natural selection acts upon a species to bring about a physical outcome. The environment acts upon the individual to bring about a range of behaviors, until eventually, there’s only a single behavior that is possible given any particular situation.

For example, when a baby is “hungry” (sorry, I mean “reinforced to eat”), we all know that it does not open its mouth and suck on his mother’s breast… not the first time anyway. What a baby does is try a whole range of different behaviors. It bangs its head against the wall, it flaps its arms like a bird, it poops, it wiggles his toes… until eventually his mom puts the baby to her breast, at which point it rolls it eyes, it licks the nipple, it pees, and finally, after trying all kinds of alternatives, it sucks on the nipple and gets milk and is no longer… well, not “hungry“ (because there is no such thing as feeling hunger, because you cannot weigh “hunger” or dissect it in a lab)… OK how about this. The baby is reinforced to eat again because of all the alternative it tried eating is the only thing that, um, reinforced it eating behavior?

You can see how nonsensical this argument can become once you take it to its logical conclusion. Makes you wonder if Skinner ever met a human being in his life.

In his monumental work “The Myth of the Machine”, Lewis Mumford argued that the 17th century ushered in a mechanistic worldview, heavily influenced by Newtonian physics, which prioritized quantifiable, empirical evidence. This perspective reduced nature, society, and even human thought to deterministic, machine-like processes. Experiences, values, and phenomena that could not be measured or explained through physical laws were dismissed as irrelevant or unscientific. Mumford critiqued this shift, warning that it dehumanized society, suppressing creativity, morality, and the richness of subjective experience in favor of control and efficiency.

This seems to me to be exactly what BF Skinner is doing.

Ironically, for all his condescending denunciations of the dualism in “mentalism”, his own argument rests on a foundation of mind-body dualism. Chomsky points out an inconsistency in the behaviorist framework. Behaviorists readily accept that physical processes (e.g., the development of organs like the eye or the onset of puberty) are genetically programmed. However, when it comes to the mind and its functions, behaviorists reject the idea of inherent structures or predispositions. Instead, they argue that all mental capacities are entirely shaped by environmental input. Chomsky sees this as an ironic form of dualism because it treats the mind as fundamentally different from the rest of the body.

But all of this is more or less irrelevant, because I do not think BF Skinner is really interested in understanding behavior, so much as he is in controlling it.

Chomsky has been outspoken about his belief that behaviorism, and particularly the work of figures like B.F. Skinner, has been embraced by elites and institutions of power because it aligns with their desire to develop tools for social manipulation and control. In his critiques, Chomsky connects the principles of behaviorism to broader political and ideological structures, arguing that its reductionist approach to human behavior serves to justify systems of authority and manipulation.

[Ancillar Bradingus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really complex experience. This book is profound, provocative, flawed and difficult. Arguments range from obviously true to demonstrably false, although to be totally fair, the latter are usually only obviously false in light of discoveries made after it was written. The preponderance of argument is solidly convincing (not to mention testable and falsifiable).

Regarding flaws in philosophy: work on neural correlates of subjective experience, for example -- in particular those corresponding to memory and visual perception -- has advanced past a point where dismissing the power of conceptual nervous systems is really tenable as a scientific-philosophical approach, although the book's general assertion remains valid that physiology still has a very long road to travel to fill in the blanks of human motivation and behavior. In the meantime, behaviorism points to the best analytic tool yet developed for this area of study, a tool whose results cannot in good faith be dismissed as misleading or somehow fatally incomplete.

... in retrospect, that last paragraph was for people who already read the book, and is thus pretty useless as part of a critical review. Such people either already agree, or will not be persuaded by my bare assertions.

My life is too short to construct a fair and representative recapitulation of the contents of this book, so off we fuck now to bullet-point land:

* I believe the philosophy laid out in this book is vital to human social development
* I find its critiques of psychology and psychotherapy remain profoundly apt -- not to mention unanswered -- more than 40 years after its publication
* I find it tragic that Skinner was unable to convince enough researchers of the validity of his approach, and that it has since fallen out of fashion: we as a species and as scientists remain trapped in wishful thinking stemming from misunderstandings about the realities of freedom and choice, and are often taken advantage of as a result by those who know better
* the book is extremely dangerous in that one of its ramifications is to provide a manual for effective control of individuals by other individuals, governments, religious authorities and other concentrations of human power
* the book is also vital for anyone concerned with freedom from control by such entities, in that it also provides a unique roadmap that individuals can use to subvert that control
* the beginning was provocative and interesting
* the middle bits on perception, memory, verbal behavior, and to a lesser extent thought and knowledge, are the weakest: the author does admit in advance that the behaviorist theories put forth here on these subjects leave something to be desired, and he isn't wrong
* that observation doesn't invalidate the behaviorist approach, nor conclusions/observations about its utility
* i almost put the book down as he went off the rails harping in particular on the notion of stored memories, one of the areas into which recent research has allowed much better physiological windows than were available at the time [although i note that he also predicted future clarity would arrive, which it has and continues to do]
* that would've been tragic: chapters 10-14 climb right back onto the rails and drive us inexorably to overall agreement: the last 40% or so of the book is a tour de force of innovative, convincing framing of what I now believe to be a deeply relevant approach to understanding the real fundamentals of the human experience, and I would've been so much worse off not having gotten to those parts

...the argument is compelling. Undergrad psych education strongly implies that behaviorism is outmoded or at best oversimplified: that outmoded oversimplification continues to offer a real disservice to students as human beings seeking useful truth about the human condition. I was inclined to dismiss Skinner for decades before bothering to see for myself what he had to say. This guy, or someone working on behalf of what he's saying, needs to be given a deep and serious rethink from the world scientific community.

Meantime, there are clear routes to significant personal advantage from the work, deepening effective self-knowledge and social strategy, to reduce anxiety and suffering and increase feelings of fulfillment and joy.

TLDR: Wow. (?) (.)

[Fabrizio Forlani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Albeit a bit dated (it was written in 1965) it has a lot of long-term insights on psychology in general and of course on behavioral science. Behaviorism is the phylosophy of science of behavioral sciences, so people looking for a more technical account of behavioral science to which Skinner contributed so much must look for textbooks. Here Skinner examines the various attacks on the behavioral science based on humanistic or mentalistic standpoints which basically dominated our culture for literally millennia. The basic idea of mentalism is that behavior is an effect of something 'going on inside' the mind (or the organism in general). The experimental standpoint of behavioral science is that it is the environment which selects the behavior being effective in a totally similar fashion as natural selection prunes the genetics of the organisms thus shaping their genetic evolution. It's in then the environment who shapes behavior and it happens a far more quick scale than that of evolution. This perspective clearly destroys the conventional idea of men as a rational being endowed by willpower and intelligence. But also the 'emotional' man, or the 'pulsional' man are grossly reduced in their importance. From experimental accounts of behavior, mental activity and emotional response is shaped effectively by the environment which far from being the cause of behavior, are indeed their byproducts. In this book Skinner is not against the use of lay terms of language which are full of mentalistic accounts (accordingly to our culture), but is against an idea that psychology must be a science of folk psychology, basically replicating on an academic level the same mistakes of the folk psychology, which could be practical in everyday life but it's surely not a reliable scientific account of human behavior. In this regards behavioral science was and partly is today in a stage like that of early astronomy, where even Galileo survived doing astrological interpretation. The guess of the author, and that of myself, is that the progress of behavioral science will help it to be put in use in more contexts thus improving in scope and experience. This will bring new knowledge of applied contexts such those collected using Applied Behavior Analysis and also will allow the society to benefit from this science as it has fruitfully gained from the development of every science in the past and in present time.

[Michael’ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, Skinner was a pretty bad writer. He introduces terms without explaining them and often implicitly makes arguments that contradict the point he seems to be trying to make, unnecessarily, I might add. For example, his explanation of “probable behaviour” in chapter 2 encroaches on the philosophy of mind, something Skinner himself claims is a waste of time, merely because it is philosophy rather than science, the same argument could be made from the perspective of philosophy (which at least has ethics and the philosophy of science in general to back it up). Why the practically applicable information produced by psychology would be more valuable than the ideas from philosophy is never explained. Skinner seems to engage in the behavior, common among intellectuals, privileging his own field over others. (Just like economists one the one hand and virologists and epidemiologists on the other, are currently (quite visibly) doing)
All in all I think almost everything useful in this book can be gotten from a single quote by Marx: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.” (Marx takes social structures to mediate interactions with non-social objects, thus not excluding those stimuli from the picture. But he also does not infringe on philosophy with claims about “consciousness” and such, in this, a purely sociological statement)

[Daniel Cojocaru · Rating 5 out of 5]

*For the romanian edition:
O introducere excelentă şi punctuală în ceea ce reprezintă ştiinţa comportamentului uman aşa cum a fost descrisă chiar de către titanul psihologiei moderne, B. F. Skinner.
Ţineţi cont de faptul că această lucrare nu este în niciun caz suficientă pentru a înţelege complexitatea curentului behaviorist ce beneficiază în continuare de dovezi semnificative în diverse domenii sub direcţia celor trei mari entităţi principale: analiză comportamentală aplicată, analiză comportamentală clinică şi analiză comportamentală experimentală, ci este indicat să citiţi cât mai multe articole ştiinţifice clasice şi contemporane ce pot fi găsite în jurnalele de specialitate.
Deşi varianta în limba română a apărut foarte târziu şi asta spune multe despre calitatea psihologiei din România, îi felicit pe specialiştii din cadrul Autism Voice (fosta asociaţie ATCA) pentru acest efort.

[Sydney Arthur · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ I’m almost sure that it is a sin to give this book a 2 star rating as a person with a masters degree in behavior analysis, but I have to speak my truth. Of course I acknowledge that Skinner pointed the field of psychology in a much more helpful and pragmatic direction during the time he was disseminating his philosophical views/science of behavior analysis, and I don’t disagree with the general principles of behaviorism, per se. But Skinner can be hard to get on board with if you are being introduced to such radical ideas through pretentious and overwrought writing, not to mention the whiplash from his love of using totally random and cherry-picked examples to drive home a point.

My main complaint is that the many compelling arguments he presented were too often overshadowed by the overwhelming number of dogmatic suppositions that he discussed as if they were absolute truth instead of philosophical speculation. Obviously there were a lot of statements made in this book that are now outdated given more recent scientific and technological advances, and I don’t hold those against Skinner, but I’m curious to know if his philosophy of behaviorism would be any different given access to modern accounts of behavioral neuroscience and successful therapeutic techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy.

[Tremayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The father of operant conditioning, B.F. Skinner, explains in the most simplistic terms, his works and beliefs on the field of behaviorism. I thoroughly enjoyed his literature on which he explains that it is not internal processes that cause humans to act, yet it is the environment. The contingencies of the situation that causes human to act. He explains that everything is a product of reinforcement - the consequences of our behaviors are either negatively or positively reinforced. However, I rate this book four stars because I do believe there internal practices that go into play when it comes to an understanding of the human psyche, but I understand Skinner's assertions and where he is coming from. I will take this knowledge and continue on my journey of enlightenment.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a class, but don't let looks deceive you. Approach Skinner with an open mind and a perspective of life that is willing to shift. I have classmates who found this book to be the driest, more feet-dragging text they have ever had to read.... but I ate it up in two days. I keep going back with a new thought I wish I could sit down and pick Skinners brain on his perspective of life. Father of Behaviorism, a highly analytical and sequential mind writes down exactly what he thinks about the concepts of our lives- everything is a choice, and the choices are always made for a reason, even if you don't know it yet. The rabbit holes you can jump down... I feel like my own kind of Alice.

[Kelly H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love thinking and learning about behavior and behaviorism, but even for me this book was very dense and slow to read. I am a school psychologist and this took me a long time to read carefully. I found the last few chapters the most helpful. I would not recommend this to a lay person trying to understand the science of behavior. I wouldn't recommend reading the whole thing through for school psychs either, but I would use chapters or excerpts for a course. I did come away with a better understanding and language to explain human behavior to others from reading this. Overall, I am glad I read it.

[Porter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amazing that about behaviorism was seriously considered as academic or scientific in the 20th century let alone after the first millennium AD. His thought processes and logical steps are so sloppy and founded on so many questionable assumptions he makes Aristotle seem rigorously scientific by comparison. The book I read just before this Wealth, poverty, and politics describes this pedantic waste of time perfectly. This book is a definitional example of using fancy words in a nonsensical way to essentially try to seem like he is saying something of import. To say so many words and yet so actually convey so little.

[Anji B · Rating 5 out of 5]

"About Behaviorism" by B.F. Skinner is a cornerstone text in psychology, offering a comprehensive exploration of behaviorism. Skinner's clear and precise writing style makes complex concepts accessible to both students and professionals. He presents behaviorism as a scientific approach to understanding behavior, emphasizing observable actions and environmental influences. While some may critique Skinner's deterministic view of human behavior, his insights into conditioning and reinforcement remain influential in psychology and beyond. Overall, "About Behaviorism" is essential reading for anyone interested in the study of behavior and its underlying mechanisms.

[Jessica Biggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groundbreaking book of its time making the difference between Watson’s methodological behaviorism to Skinner’s radical behaviorism. The book itself is fascinating to students of behavior analysis, but I don’t recommend it to anyone with no prior knowledge, or if looking to learn more about Applied Behavior Analysis.
Focuses mostly on contingencies of operant conditioning and reinforcement, as well as why it’s different from other types of psychology.