This course will be a Seminar examining the philosophy of science underlying the field of behavior analysis, and some of the implications of this approach to human behavior.The basic course structure will be that of a classic seminar: each week a class member will give a presentation on that week's topic. This presentation should include both an extension of the content of the designated chapter(s) in the text:
UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIORISM: Science, Behavior and Culture (2nd ed),
by William M. Baum. Blackwell, 2004.and some topics for class discussion.
There's a very good Behaviorism Tutorial online at http://server.bmod.athabascau.ca/html/Behaviorism.
This would be a good warmup for the course!
There are also a few good articles on Wikipedia (see Radical Behaviorism, Verbal Behavior, and Behavior Analysis [you'll get a few good links here]).
A number of us are working on factchecking and expanding these articles, so they're reasonable reliable.Some more advanced material (by Jay Moore at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) is available at ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/Psychology/BehaviorAnalysis/conceptual-analysis/papers-moore/.
Each class meeting will begin with a short quiz on the week's topic, followed by a discussion of that quiz (I will allow one absence without making up the quiz). This should segue into the week's presentation.
Finally, each class member will write a paper based on his/her presentation (if two people give a presentation, they will each be responsible for a separate paper). This paper (and the presentation) should examine some aspect of the assigned chapter in depth. The text and its references are only a starting point..
ALL papers will be due April 29th.
I'd suggest handing them in at least a week earlier to allow for rewriting.Grades will be based on papers, quizzes and presentations, possibly modified slightly by class participation.
A grade of A denotes work that is outstanding; not merely adequate.I would like to electronically extend this course beyond the temporal and spacial boundaries of the classroom. To do this, I have set up a WWWeb-based discussion page at the MSU D2L site <https://d2l.mnsu.edu/>.I will expect each of you to post at least one question for discussion each week. Some course material and announcements will also be posted on this site.
Some recommended books and articles are available on my Web site. I'll try to keep most of it on the D2L site.A good source of information on the Web is the Association for Behavior Analysis site which also has links to other behavioral Web sites.
The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies has a good Web site including journals and discussion groups.Articles published in The Journal of The Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis can be found at
<http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jeab/index.html>A good group of behavioral journals is published online at Behavior Analyst Online.
There is an expanded collection of LINKS on the D2L site.
|
Jan 22: Discussion: |
Mar 18: Student presentation: |
|
Jan 29: Discussion: |
Mar 25: Student presentation: |
|
Feb 5 Student presentation: |
April 1: Student presentation: |
|
Feb 12: Student presentation: |
April 8: Student presentation: |
|
Feb 19: Student presentation: |
April 15: Student presentation: |
|
Feb 26: Student presentation: |
April 22: Student presentation: |
|
March 4: Student presentation: |
April 29: Discussion topic one possibility: Paul Chance
The Ultimate Challenge: Prove B. F. Skinner Wrong
Abstract
For much of his career, B. F. Skinner displayed the
optimism that is often attributed to behaviorists. With time, however,
he became less and less sanguine about the power of behavior science to
solve the major problems facing humanity. Near the end of his life he
concluded that a fair consideration of principles revealed by the
scientific analysis of behavior leads to pessimism about our species.
In this article I discuss the case for Skinner’s pessimism and
suggest that the ultimate challenge for behavior analysts today is to
prove Skinner wrong.
The Behavior Analyst, 30(2) Fall 2007 |
top | my home page / psych home page | MSUS,M home page | CSBS home page updated 14 January 2008
webmaster: paul.brandon@mnsu.edu