The psychology classic--a detailed study of scientific theories of human nature and the possible ways in which human behavior can be predicted and controlled--from one of the most influential behaviorists of the twentieth century and the author of Walden Two.

This is an important book, exceptionally well written, and logically consistent with the basic premise of the unitary nature of science. Many students of society and culture would take violent issue with most of the things that Skinner has to say, but even those who disagree most will find this a stimulating book. --Samuel M. Strong, The American Journal of Sociology

This is a remarkable book--remarkable in that it presents a strong, consistent, and all but exhaustive case for a natural science of human behavior...It ought to be...valuable for those whose preferences lie with, as well as those whose preferences stand against, a behavioristic approach to human activity. --Harry Prosch, Ethics

Más allá de la libertad y la dignidad es una obra profunda y ciertamente controvertida, un hito del pensamiento del siglo XX. B. F. Skinner hace su declaración definitiva sobre la humanidad y la sociedad. Insistiendo en que los problemas del mundo actual sólo pueden resolverse tratando de forma mucho más eficaz el comportamiento humano, Skinner sostiene que nuestros conceptos tradicionales de libertad y dignidad deben ser revisados. Han desempeñado un papel histórico en nuestra lucha contra muchos tipos de tiranía, reconoce, pero ahora son responsables de la defensa inútil de un individuo presuntamente libre y autónomo; están perpetuando nuestro uso del castigo y bloqueando el desarrollo de prácticas culturales más eficaces. Apoyando sus argumentos en los resultados del análisis experimental de la conducta, del que fue pionero, Skinner rechaza las explicaciones tradicionales del comportamiento en términos de estados internos, sentimientos y otros atributos mentales y habla en favor de las explicaciones basadas en la interacción entre la dotación genética y la historia personal. Más allá de la libertad y la dignidad nos insta a reexaminar los ideales que hemos dado por sentados y a considerar la posibilidad de un enfoque radicalmente diferente de los problemas existenciales que acucian a la humanidad.

2015 Reprint of 1957 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The significance of this work was grasped immediately. Osgood wrote that Verbal Behavior is certainly one of the two or three most significant contributions to this field in our time. (Osgood, 1958, p. 212). Morris wrote that Skinner is both elegant and admirable (Morris, 1958, p. 213.) Both predicted a promising future for the book and such did turn out to be the case. Over more than half a century after its initial publication in 1957, Verbal Behavior has remained in demand and continues to be relevant. The documented efficacy of Skinner's practices, especially with autism, has assured its relevance. His functional analysis of language continues to inform contemporary research in the field of linguistics. Contents: A functional analysis of verbal behavior -- General problems -- The mand -- Verbal behavior under the control of verbal stimuli -- The tact -- Special conditions affecting stimulus control -- The audience -- The verbal operant as a unit of analysis -- Multiple causation -- Supplementary stimulation -- New combinations of fragmentary responses -- The autoclitic -- Grammar and syntax as autoclitic processes -- Composition and its effects -- Self-editing -- Special conditions of self-editing -- Self-strengthening of verbal behavior -- Logical and scientific verbal behavior -- Thinking.

A seminal work that delves into the depths of one of psychology's most influential and controversial philosophies.

Written by a leading proponent of behaviorism, this comprehensive book offers an exploration of the principles and arguments that underpin this groundbreaking approach to understanding human behavior.

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

Ciencia y conducta humana (CyCH) es la primera gran obra académica de B. F. Skinner en aparecer en español. Títulos como La conducta de los organismos o Conducta verbal deberían de esperar aún algunos años desde que la primera traducción de Fontanella ve la luz en enero de 1970 como parte de la entonces incipiente Colección Conducta Humana. Ramón Bayés, uno de los directores de la colección, había mantenido cierta correspondencia con Skinner por aquellos años y al consultarle qué título podría ser apropiado para dar una visión general e introductoria del análisis de conducta a los lectores de habla española, Skinner le contesta, Ciencia y conducta humana, sin duda (R. Bayés, comunicación personal, 17 de julio de 2020). Aquella fue reimpresa en varias ocasiones hasta 1986. La traducción que para aquella edición realizó por encargo María Josepa Gallofré i Virgili, quien luego fuera profesora de literatura moderna en la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, acusa hoy ciertas limitaciones debidas, bien a la evolución de la jerga conductual en español, bien a las deficiencias propias de una traducción más literaria que técnica. Ello ha tratado de paliarse aquí con la mayor diligencia posible, realizándose innumerables correcciones a la traducción que editara Fontanella y que aquí se ha utilizado solo como punto de partida, teniendo siempre como norte la actual edición de B. F. Skinner Foundation, editada por última vez en 2014. En aquellos puntos en los que se ha estimado necesario, se han añadido notas aclaratorias, por ejemplo, en las ocasiones en las que referencias metalingüísticas pueden hacer abrupta la traducción, o cuando Skinner utiliza nociones, como las de conducta precurrente o reforzamiento automático, que no serían elaboradas sino años después.

En esta edición hemos priorizado la fidelidad al original, añadiendo los cambios mínimos, tanto en la filosofía y estilo de traducción, como en la presentación misma de la obra, a fin de acercarla al lector actual. Nuestro afán ha sido que CyCH pueda seguir cumpliendo la función de obra de introducción al análisis de conducta con la que Skinner la concibiera y, al hacerlo, aportar una puerta de entrada al campo científico y aplicado del análisis de conducta a nuevas generaciones de estudiantes y profesionales.

Pese al afianzamiento y diversificación del campo en los setenta años transcurridos desde la publicación original de CyCH, Skinner parecía escribir para la eternidad; su relevancia y frescura no han palidecido en todos estos años. El libro sigue siendo una obra amena y apasionante, si bien densa en algunos puntos, requiriendo de la atención y, por qué no, de la participación del lector en una formidable conversación entre principios conductuales y aplicaciones a la vida diaria.

At the age of 30, B. F. Skinner found himself at a dinner sitting next to Professor Alfred North Whitehead. Never one to lose an opportunity to promote behaviorism, Skinner expounded its main tenets to the distinguished philosopher. Whitehead acknowledged that science might account for most of human behavior but he would not include verbal behavior. He ended the discussion with a challenge: Let me see you, he said, account for my behavior as I sit here saying, 'No black scorpion is falling upon this table.' The next morning Skinner began this book. It took him over twenty years to complete. The book extends the laboratory-based principles of selection by consequences to account for what people say, write, gesture, and think. Skinner argues that verbal behavior requires a separate analysis because it does not operate on the environment directly, but rather through the behavior of other people in a verbal community. He illustrates his thesis with examples from literature, the arts, and the sciences, as well as from his own verbal behavior and that of his colleagues and children. Perhaps it is because this theoretical work provides a way to approach that most human of human behavior that Skinner often called Verbal Behavior his most important work.

2021 Hardcover Reprint of the 1957 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The significance of this work was grasped immediately. Osgood wrote that Verbal Behavior is certainly one of the two or three most significant contributions to this field in our time. (Osgood, 1958, p. 212). Morris wrote that Skinner is both elegant and admirable (Morris, 1958, p. 213.) Both predicted a promising future for the book and such did turn out to be the case. Over more than half a century after its initial publication in 1957, Verbal Behavior has remained in demand and continues to be relevant. The documented efficacy of Skinner's practices, especially with autism, has assured its relevance. His functional analysis of language continues to inform contemporary research in the field of linguistics. Contents: A functional analysis of verbal behavior -- General problems -- The mand -- Verbal behavior under the control of verbal stimuli -- The tact -- Special conditions affecting stimulus control -- The audience -- The verbal operant as a unit of analysis -- Multiple causation -- Supplementary stimulation -- New combinations of fragmentary responses -- The autoclitic -- Grammar and syntax as autoclitic processes -- Composition and its effects -- Self-editing -- Special conditions of self-editing -- Self-strengthening of verbal behavior -- Logical and scientific verbal behavior -- Thinking.

La conducta de los organismos fue editado en español en 1975 por la desaparecida Fontanella como parte de la mítica colección Conducta humana dirigida por Ramón Bayés, Joan Masana y Josep Toro, con una traducción de Lluís Flaquer i Vilardebò. Agradecemos a Lluís Flaquer su pronta respuesta a nuestro requerimiento de re-edición, así como a B. F. Skinner Foundation y, especialmente, a Konstantin Evdokimov, director de operaciones de la fundación, por su apoyo durante el desarrollo de este proyecto.

La traducción original de La conducta de los organismos, al igual que sucedió con otros títulos de Fontanella, se benefició de un excelente plantel de jóvenes traductores, todos ellos vinculados de forma directa o indirecta con la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona y entre los que destacan Roser Berdagué (Premio Nacional de Traducción en 2009), Francesc Parcerisas, Josefa Gallofré, y el propio Lluís Flaquer, quien luego seguiría una distinguida carrera académica llegando a ser catedrático de sociología en la UAB.

Para la presente edición hemos realizado una revisión exhaustiva del texto utilizando como referencia la re-edición de 1966 revisada recientemente por B. F. Skinner Foundation. Hemos encontrado pocas correcciones que hacer a la traducción de Flaquer. Se ha recuperado y revisado la abundante notación original de Skinner y se han adaptado términos a traducciones actuales de uso común (p.ej., dispensador para magazine, elicitar para elicit, privación para deprivation, reversión para reversal, sobreestimación para overshooting, reforzador para reinforcer, etc.). En un afán de respetar el carácter ya histórico de esta obra se ha reconstruido en la presente edición la tipografía y el estilo general de maquetación de la edición original de 1938 de Appleton-Century-Crofts.

La calidad del material gráfico original disponible de las casi 150 figuras originales previo a esta edición es deficiente. Ello ha motivado una cuidadosa reelaboración de todas las figuras originales que han sido minuciosamente transformadas en gráficos de vectores, desarrollo que, esperamos, haga la obra más atractiva al lector actual y le ayude a reconciliar el discurso de B. F. Skinner con los registros acumulativos y figuras que le acompañan.

En la posición defendida en La conducta de los organismos se hallan los cimientos de lo que será el desarrollo del pensamiento del autor y de los diferentes conductismos y variantes del análisis de conducta que habrían de seguir y, en particular, la deuda que tanto molecuralistas como molaristas manifiestan con la figura de B. F. Skinner. Por un lado, la concepción de contingencia entendida como contigüidad temporal, una noción más alineada con el enfoque molecular y, por otro, la noción de operante como clase de respuesta, claramente un concepto molar y que tanto juego habría de dar en el análisis aplicado de conducta de décadas posteriores. Ambas aproximaciones, quizás deliberadamente ambiguas en su contraposición en el pensamiento de B. F. Skinner, ya están presentes en La conducta de los organismos.

Over half a century after its initial publication in 1957, Verbal Behavior has remained in high demand and continues to contribute to science and society. The documented efficacy of Skinner's practices has maintained the popularity of Verbal Behavior despite the initial criticism from Noam Chomsky's allegedly fatal review. In fact, his research has inspired techniques that have proven increasingly successful with aberrant behavior disorders, such as autism and delayed speech.

In this brilliant and ambitious work, Skinner gives a functional analysis of verbal behavior and argues that operant conditioning can account for and explain a large portion of linguistic phenomena, as demonstrated in laboratory experiments and extensive literary analysis. Skinner details the consequences and issues of this analysis and addresses its philosophical implications, such as the social aspects of language and natures of meaning and thought.

Skinner's classic study of psychology, while controversial, has contributed to the welfare of society, and it continues to inspire a growing body of research and applications. Verbal Behavior is an exceptional theoretical work for those who wish to understand the principals of behavioral therapy.

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), America's most influential behavioral scientist, authored over 20 books and nearly 200 articles. He served as the Psychology Department Chair at the University of Indiana and later became the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University until his retirement in 1974. His contributions to psychology have incited an abundance of developments and remain relevant in the field today.

First published in 1957, Verbal Behavior is the widely influential work on linguistics and behaviorism by B. F. Skinner, the renowned American psychologist, social philosopher, and author. Considered to be one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, Skinner was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University for nearly twenty years and expanded on his work on the study of human behavior and the use of language over decades. Verbal Behavior was one of his most influential published works and had a profound impact on the study of behavior and human language since it first appeared. Skinner rejected the emphasis on experimental research when studying behavior, especially verbal cues and responses, and instead focused on theory and examples drawn from literature, film, and personal experiences with family, friends, and colleagues. In this ground-breaking work, Skinner applied his theories of verbal cues and responses, and their accompanying behavioral components, to better understand why people say, write, gesture, and think the way that they do. Decades later many of Skinner's theories continue to be tested and discussed by psychologists, behaviorists, linguists, and philosophers. Verbal Behavior endures as a fascinating and thought-provoking examination of verbal language, the most human of human behaviors. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Over half a century after its initial publication in 1957, Verbal Behavior has remained in high demand and continues to contribute to science and society. The documented efficacy of Skinner's practices has maintained the popularity of Verbal Behavior despite the initial criticism from Noam Chomsky's allegedly fatal review. In fact, his research has inspired techniques that have proven increasingly successful with aberrant behavior disorders, such as autism and delayed speech.

In this brilliant and ambitious work, Skinner gives a functional analysis of verbal behavior and argues that operant conditioning can account for and explain a large portion of linguistic phenomena, as demonstrated in laboratory experiments and extensive literary analysis. Skinner details the consequences and issues of this analysis and addresses its philosophical implications, such as the social aspects of language and natures of meaning and thought.

Skinner's classic study of psychology, while controversial, has contributed to the welfare of society, and it continues to inspire a growing body of research and applications. Verbal Behavior is an exceptional theoretical work for those who wish to understand the principals of behavioral therapy.

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), America's most influential behavioral scientist, authored over 20 books and nearly 200 articles. He served as the Psychology Department Chair at the University of Indiana and later became the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University until his retirement in 1974. His contributions to psychology have incited an abundance of developments and remain relevant in the field today.

Certain basic assumptions essential to any scientific activity are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried out. The prediction and the later statement of result may be composed of the same terms in the same syntactic arrangement the difference being in the degree of confidence.

Certain basic assumptions, essential to any scientific activity, are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried out. The prediction and the later statement of result may be composed of the same terms in the same syntactic arrangement, the difference being in the degree of confidence.

En Conducta verbal B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) vuelca el producto de más de 20 años de reflexión sobre el lenguaje desde una perspectiva analítico-conductual. Skinner analiza el lenguaje como conducta operante reforzada por la acción mediadora de un oyente. La naturaleza del lenguaje es interacción entre hablante y oyente, ya sean o no hablante y oyente el mismo individuo, o sea la conducta encubierta o manifiesta. Skinner nos ofrece una unidad de la conducta verbal de naturaleza dinámica cuya magnitud varía con el calibre de la clase de respuestas (frecuentemente vocal) definida funcionalmente por su efecto en la audiencia reforzante. Con este enfoque logra crear una taxonomía de las funciones operantes del lenguaje.

Certain basic assumptions essential to any scientific activity are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried out. The prediction and the later statement of result may be composed of the same terms in the same syntactic arrangement the difference being in the degree of confidence. No empirical statement is wholly non-theoretical in this sense because evidence is never complete nor is any prediction probably ever made wholly without evidence. The term theory will not refer here to statements of these sorts but rather to any explanation of an observed fact which appeals to events taking place somewhere else at some other level of observation described in different terms and measured if at all in different dimensions.Research designed with respect to theory is also likely to be wasteful. That a theory generates research does not prove its value unless the research is valuable. Much useless experimentation results from theories and much energy and skill are absorbed by them. Most theories are eventually overthrown and the greater part of the associated research is discarded. This could be justified if it were true that productive research requires a theory as is of course often claimed. It is argued that research would be aimless and disorganized without a theory to guide it. The view is supported by psychological texts that take their cue from the logicians rather than empirical science and describe thinking as necessarily involving stages of hypothesis deduction experimental test and confirmation. But this is not the way most scientists actually work. It is possible to design significant experiments for other reasons and the possibility to be examined is that such research will lead more directly to the kind of information that a science usually accumulates.

Certain basic assumptions, essential to any scientific activity, are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried out. The prediction and the later statement of result may be composed of the same terms in the same syntactic arrangement, the difference being in the degree of confidence. No empirical statement is wholly non-theoretical in this sense, because evidence is never complete, nor is any prediction probably ever made wholly without evidence. The term theory will not refer here to statements of these sorts but rather to any explanation of an observed fact which appeals to events taking place somewhere else, at some other level of observation, described in different terms, and measured, if at all, in different dimensions. Research designed with respect to theory is also likely to be wasteful. That a theory generates research does not prove its value unless the research is valuable. Much useless experimentation results from theories, and much energy and skill are absorbed by them. Most theories are eventually overthrown, and the greater part of the associated research is discarded. This could be justified if it were true that productive research requires a theory, as is, of course, often claimed. It is argued that research would be aimless and disorganized without a theory to guide it. The view is supported by psychological texts that take their cue from the logicians rather than empirical science and describe thinking as necessarily involving stages of hypothesis, deduction, experimental test, and confirmation. But this is not the way most scientists actually work. It is possible to design significant experiments for other reasons and the possibility to be examined is that such research will lead more directly to the kind of information that a science usually accumulates.

En Conducta verbal B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) vuelca el producto de más de 20 años de reflexión sobre el lenguaje desde una perspectiva analítico-conductual. Skinner analiza el lenguaje como conducta operante reforzada por la acción mediadora de un oyente. La naturaleza del lenguaje es interacción entre hablante y oyente, ya sean o no hablante y oyente el mismo individuo, o sea la conducta encubierta o manifiesta. Skinner nos ofrece una unidad de la conducta verbal de naturaleza dinámica cuya magnitud varía con el calibre de la clase de respuestas (frecuentemente vocal) definida funcionalmente por su efecto en la audiencia reforzante. Con este enfoque logra crear una taxonomía de las funciones operantes del lenguaje.