Psychological behaviorism began to form a theory of abnormal behavior from the start. In Staats (1957) the abnormal language symptom of a psychotic patient was analyzed as a learned behavior, produced and maintained inadvertently by hospital staff. The analysis stated how non-reinforcement and instead the reinforcement of normal language would provide the treatment. Verified by Ayllon and Michael (1959) PB’s behavior modification principles were called the “seeds of the behavioral revolution” and the beginning of the field of behavior analysis by Malott, Whaley, & Malott (1997, p. 175). The first PB book (Staats, 1963) markedly expanded that, presenting the first general behavioral theory of abnormal behavior and the first call for a behavioral assessment field and the first foundation of the cognitive behavioral approach. The theory suggested that various behavior problems and disorders could be analyzed as deficit or inappropriate behavior, deficit or inappropriate stimulus control of behavior, or deficit or inappropriate emotional (reinforcer) systems. Staats (1975) advanced the general PB theory by introducing the concept of the three basic behavioral repertoires—language-cognitive, sensory-motor, and emotional-motivational. The theory stated that deficits and inappropriate aspects of the three BBRs, in essence abnormalities of personality, result in abnormal behavior. The 1996 (Staats, 1996) version advances this theory, indicating how the environment plays a central role in the original learning of the individual’s BBRs as well as in later determining the particular behaviors the individual will display.The environment can be deficit or inappropriate in both the learning phase and the later behaving phase. In addition, the individual’s organic conditioning can be deficit or inappropriate when the individual is learning the BBRs as well as later when the individual is behaving as a response to a later situation.

Using this theory PB has presented full theories of behavior disorders such as depression (Staats & Heiby, 1985; Heiby & Staats, 1990), bipolar disorder (Riedel, Heiby, & Kopetskie, 2001), dyslexia (Staats, 1963;1975, 1996; Staats & Butterfield, 1965) and summary theories of a number of other disorders such as autism, mental retardation, and the anxiety disorders (see Staats, 1963, 1975, 1996).

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