It is not possible
to summarize the various developments begun in psychological
behaviorism. A sampling will thus be given, concentrating
on the early years of the more than 45 years of PB’s
history, as presented in the following table.
| Date |
Contribution |
| 1954-1956 |
Began program to extend learning-behavior
principles to human behavior in informal and formal studies.
Conditioning cat to respond to words; Analysis of use
reinforcement with boy learning to use prosthesis; social
reinforcement for confident speech of a graduate student.
Completion of dissertation, "A behavioristic study
of verbal and instrumental response hierarchies and their
relationship to human problem solving" which was
a first study of language behavior in the reinforcement
framework (see Staats, 1957). |
| 1957 |
(1) Formulation of the behavior modification principles
(Staats, 1957). (2) Language conditioning of emotion studies
(Staats & Staats, 1957; Staats & Staats, 1958)
that began behavioral studies of actual language functions,
when Skinner’s approach to verbal behavior had no
empirical studies. |
| 1958 |
(1) Invention of the token reinforcer system and the
SMART method of reading training. (2) Completion of an
ONR Technical Report showing how physiological emotional
responses can be classically conditioned to words. |
| 1959 |
Receipt of U.S. Office of Education research grant and
beginning of the experiments on reading in young children
|
| 1960 |
Beginning of the systematic study and training of child
behavior development with daughter and the beginning study
of methods by which to conduct such experimental-longitudinal
research (see Staats, 1963, chap. 10; Staats, Brewer,
& Gross, 1970). |
| 1961 |
(1) Six month residence at Maudsley Hospital, London
as a NationalScience Foundation Senior Faculty Fellow;
to establish communication of PB with Europeans interested
in a behavioral approach. (2) Training daughter in the
concept of number, discriminating numbers of objects up
to five, and in counting. |
| 1962-1968 |
(1) Beginning the training of reading with daughter,
started when she was two years old, that was to last for
more than four years. This includes audiotaping of training
sessions over time as attached (LINKS). (2) My analysis
of the psychotic patient (Staats, 1957) included the use
of extinction to weaken undesirable behavior along with
reinforcing desirable behavior. I extended those principles
in originating the time out procedure with my daughter
when she was two. When she displayed inappropriate behavior
I would pick her up and put her in her room in her crib
and indicate she had to stay there until she stopped crying.
If we were in a restaurant or other public place I would
pick her up and go outside, without any rewarding social
interaction. I disseminated the concept and practice (see
also Staats, 1971)—they were used first in a publication
of a student--and time out is now a household word. |
| 1962 |
(1) Publication of the first of the reading experiments
using extrinsic reinforcers with four-year-olds (Staats,
Staats, Schutz, & Wolf, 1962). Verified principles,
showed systematic data collection with individual subjects,
and challenged traditional child development views of
readiness. (2) Behavioral analysis of speech and reading
learning and description of my Staats’ token reinforcer
system (Staats & Staats, 1962). |
| 1963 |
The first presentation of the general PB program with
the publication of Complex Human Behavior (Staats, 1963).
(1) The PB blueprint for beginning child behavior therapy
(child behavior analysis (chapts 9 & 10; Staats &
Butterfield, 1965; Staats, Finley, Minke, & Wolf,
1964). (2) The first broad behavioral theory and taxonomy
of abnormal behavior (chapt. 11). (3) The first general
"learning psychotherapy," later called, behavior
modification, behavior analysis, or behavior therapy,
introducing the concept of “programs of treatment”
for different disorders. (4) The first conceptualization
of a cognitive behavior therapy, called “verbal
learning psychotherapy.” (5) The first conceptualization
of behavioral assessment (see Silva, 1993). (6) Projection
of a behavioral field to deal with actual phenomena of
child development (chapt. 9) such as toilet training,
crying and tantrums, sensory-motor skill, feeding problems,
dependent behavior, socialization, social reasoning (such
as rationalization), the use of punishment, and sex behavior
and training. (7) The first conception of the parent as
a trainer who knowingly or unknowingly is responsible
for training the child in desirable repertoires and not
in undesirable repertoires and who, thus needs behavioral
knowledge of how to conduct such training, and by what
principles—topics the field of behavior therapy
later developed widely (chap. 9). (8) The first behavioral
theory of language that deals both with the learning of
language (chapt. 4) and the manner in which language functions
for the individual and between individuals (chapt. 5).
(9) The first presentation of the principles of mediation
in the context of a full theory of language, principles
later employed in beginning the study of stimulus equivalence
(Staats, 1961; chapt. 4, and elsewhere; Staats, 1961).
(10) The first systematic use of the term behavior analysis
as an approach and a methodology for studying human behavior
(chap. 10). (11) The first behavioral analysis of the
learning of arithmetic and mathematic repertoires (chap.
5). (12) The first presentation of the concept of vicarious
learning (chap. 7). (13) The first behavior analysis of
psychological tests (chap. 7 & 9). |
| 1964 |
Publication of the first of the many books of readings
of behavioral studies (Staats, 1964) see Krasner &
Ullmann (1965). |
| 1965-1970 |
(1) Establishment of the first preschool classroom for
teaching culturally deprived children cognitive skills
in reading, writing, and number repertoires (see Staats,
Brewer, & Gross, 1970; attached CD). (2) Establishment
of a program, also in the public schools, for training
backward inner-city adolescents to read, employing literate
students as the trainers (see Staats, Minke, & Butts,
1970). (3) Publication of Learning, Language and Cognition
(Staats, 1968) which formally introduced the concepts
of the basic behavioral repertoire and cumulative-hierarchical
learning, providing the foundation for advancing the PB
theory of personality. |
| 1971 |
Publication of Child Learning, Intelligence, and Personality
(Staats, 1971). This included the first full behavioral
theory of personality, especially a theory of intelligence.
The nature-nurture issue was addressed and the importance
of learning in human behavior was detailed in the context
of modern behavior analysis. |
| 1975 |
Publication of Social Behaviorism (Staats, 1975). This
book, also included many original contributions, including
advancement of the PB theory of personality, further detailing
of the three broad basic behavioral repertoires, an advanced
theory of abnormal behavior, of developmental educational
psychology and clinical psychology. Importantly this book
addresses the problem of psychology’s disunity and
need for unification. The manner in which the PB theory
of human behavior joins with biological study and social
science and humanities study is outlined, anticipating
later unified approaches (like Wilson, 2000). In addition,
the PB basic theory of learning, which had been progressively
studied and advanced in earlier works, was systematically
set forth. |
| 1972-1978 |
These years saw the completion of a series of studies
that explicitly provided the foundation for the PB theory
of learning (see Harms & Staats, 1978; Staats &
Hammond, 1972; Staats, Minke, Martin, & Higa, 1972;
Staats, Gross, Guay, & Carlson, 1973; Staats &
Warren, 1974). The studies showed that basic principles,
which apply also to lower animal subjects, can be established
with human subjects. |
| 1983 |
Publication of Psychology’s Crisis of Disunity:
Philosophy and Methods for a Unified Science (Staats,
1983). PB’s focus on grand, overarching, unified
theory was first evidenced its 1963 book. PB’s position
that psychology is a disunified science that needs unification
was first presented in a chapter on attitudes calling
for unified theory (see Staats, 1968) and a chapter outlining
its basic learning theory (see Staats, 1970). In a continuing
line of publications (see also Staats, 1981, 1991, 1999)
and presentations at professional meetings, and in spearheading
the formation of Society for the Study of Unification
in Psychology, and editing SUNI’s Newsletter for
Uninomic Psychology, PB has made psychology’s disunity
and its need for unification an active area of study. |
| 1996 |
Publication of Behavior and Personality: Psychological
Behaviorism (Staats, 1996) advanced elements in PB theory
and introduced new elements to it. Very centrally the
book presents a philosophy and methodology of overarching
unified theory, which centrally features the first personality
theory based on a variety of types of evidence, ranging
from basic laboratory experimentation to cause-and-effect
study that changes personality, and extends the theory
to various fields of psychology. The personality theory
is derived from a basic theory of learning, human learning,
child development, and social interaction. And the theory
in turn is basic to psychological measurement, abnormal
psychology and clinical psychology. The personality
theory is the bridging theory that provides the basis
for unifying a behavioral theory with concepts and principles
from traditional psychology. The PB theory is one of
the several personality theories presented in chapters
in volume five of Wiley’s new Handbook of Psychology
(see Staats, 2003) and with its unique properties should
provide a guiding force in future developments.
Continue to Conclusion |
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