Behaviorism [Paperback]

John B. Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1970

This is a facsimile reprint of the original book by Jonh B Watson, rebuilt using the latest technology. There are no poor, missing or blurred pages and all photographic images have been professionally restored. At Yokai Publishing we believe that by restoring this title to print it will live on for generations to come.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (May 1, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393005240
• ISBN-13: 978-0393005240
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most original and influential books of our age., May 30, 1999

By 

Lee Higgs (Deerfield, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behaviorism (Paperback)

This book changed forever our understanding of the mind and human behaviour. Skinner's ideas are now so widely used, it is easy to forget that they were revolutionary and controversial not long ago. Well written and easily understood, it is worth reading just for the freshness of his ideas.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE FOUNDING WORK OF BEHAVIORISM, August 19, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behaviorism (Paperback)

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, after doing research on animal behavior.

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"We believed then, as we do now, that man is an animal different from other animals only in the types of behavior he displays." (Introduction)
"I have never replied to a criticism. Only rarely has anyone taken up the cudgels for behaviorism. Each behaviorist has been too busy in presenting his experimental results or his generalizations to concern himself with answering criticisms." (Introduction)
"The behaviorist recognizes no such things as mental traits, dispositions or tendencies. Hence, for him, there is no use in raising the question of the inheritance of talent in its old form." (Chap. V)
"I should like to go one step further now and say, 'Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select---doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.' I am going beyond my facts and I admit doing it, but so have advocates for the contrary and they have been doing it for thousands of years." (Chap. VI)
"You have already grasped the notion that the behaviorist is a strict determinist---the child or adult has to do what he does do." (Chap. VII)
"No sane person can ever again use the old introspective method with which James and his immediate followers came so near wrecking this most thrilling part of psychology." (Chap. VIII)
"The behaviorist advances the view that what the psychologists have hitherto called thought is in short nothing but talking to ourselves." (Chap. X)
"(P)ersonality is but the end product of our habit systems." (Chap. XII)
"(Y)ou can by conditioning not only build up the behavior complications, patterns and conflicts in diseased personalities, but also by the same process lay the foundations for the onset of actual organic changes which finally result in infections and lesions---all without introducing the concepts of the mind-body relation..." (Chap XII)

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars behaviorism, January 13, 2000

By 

jeff (Tennessee) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behaviorism (Paperback)

John Watson's new idea for psychology, behaviorism went through this country like wildfire, mostly because of his book behaviorism. It is detailed, and for the most part, easy to read. Anyone who is enterested in behaviorism and its techniques should read this book.