Verbal Behavior

by B.F. Skinner

Book Overview

This book, which Skinner often call his most important work, extends the laboratory-based principles of selection by consequences to account for what people say, write, gesture, and think. Skinner... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1614278652
• ISBN13: 9781614278658
• Release Date: August 2015
• Publisher: Martino Fine Books
• Length: 492 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Life Changer

A key finding of Radical Behavorism is the role and power of operant behavior. An importance of "Verbal Behavior" is that it suggests that operant behavior can explain much of human language and, with that, much of human thought. So with this book, Skinner could feel that his findings on operant behavior had the power to help us understand "mental" and "psychological" aspects of being human that hitherto had been no better defined that a Tarot deck could do. My only one reading so far seems quite inadequate. I had to make an effort to get through the first half, in which a lot of fundamentals are introduced. Fortunately, all the preparation paid off for me in the second half, which I found quite exciting. Much of it, oddly, given that I was struggling at times to understand, felt familiar. I thought "Yes, that's how I revise my speech, yes, that's how I think, yes that's how I adjust what I am saying with my audience in mind." Skinner's hypothesis that thinking is a behavior (verbal and nonverbal) of the same basic kind (albeit of its own nature and complexity) as other human behavior hit me with the greatest force. It implies that, although for each of us there are private events, dualism is overcome. It may not be that we're "beyond freedom and dignity" as that we've rendered such terms obsolete - because we now we have the knowledge to do what needs doing instead of spouting empty words about it. "Verbal Behavior" lives: for example, extending Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" work, Barry Lowenkron from California State University has added to our understanding of an area not well covered by Skinner: how a listener comprehends what is said. Lowenkron goes to great pains to provide clear examples of his finding of what he calls "joint control", which is fully based on Skinner's own findings regarding tacts and self-echoics. It can take much longer to find the truth than make up a story, but the ignorance that supports cognitive fictions is being brushed aside to be replaced by behaviorist knowledge.

A Diamond in the Rough

I return to this book off and on. (I wish I can study this book with someone who has mastered this material.) The only epiphany I have had in my life is/was when I read Chapter 2 of this book about two decades ago (and understood that Skinner was analyzing language utterances as law of effect conditioned behavior).Simply a brilliant book. Most underrated,as people have pointed out. I just reread Chapter 1. It only has 12 pages. However, the brilliance can clearly be seen. As is the difficulty. There are about 12 sentences (in these 12 pages) that I do not understand almost completely. (For instance, the one about speaker also being a listener.)Added on 6/12/2004------------------I happened to come across Chomsky's critique of Verbal Behavior online and started studying it closely, especially Section 3. I noticed several misunderstandings almost right away and started answering them, in a writeup. (I will post the details on these later.) On a lark, I sent a copy of this to Noam Chomsky, not expecting to receive a reply. I was surprised to get a reply. We exchanged several e-mails. However, Chomsky stubbornly refused to see my points. His answers were mostly non-sequiturs. Are may points valid? You be the judge when I get around to posting my two specific points. In the meantime, you may want to look athttp://www.sulekha.com/expressions/column.asp?cid=305940

An unjustly neglected classic

Verbal behavior is a classic work and one the most neglected and underrated scientific texts of century, erroneously believed by many to have been conclusively demolished by Noam Chomsky (whose work in competition with Freud's is possibly the most overrated). Skinners analysis of verbal behavior differs from other accounts both in psychology and linguistics in being entirely naturalistic and free of the quite far-reaching metaphysical assumptions about 'meanings' and 'rules' inherent in traditional approaches. The latter focus on an idealized and abstract entity (grammatically correct language) which does not really exist, whereas Skinner analyses the verbal behavior actually performed by people. He demonstrates that a large amount of linguistic phenomena can be interpreted and explained by the principles of operant conditioning which have been demonstrated in laboratory experiments and he explores the consequences of this analysis for problems normally only addressed by philosophers, such as the nature of meaning, the social aspects of language, the possibility of a private language and the nature of thinking. Many philosophers will surprised to learn that some of the best ideas of the later Wittgenstein can be found more clearly and elegantly expressed by Skinner.

Brilliant, Eminently Useful, and Difficult

Skinner's VB is a fascinating read and is the bedrock on which subsequent analyses of VB stand. It was and is an ambitious, risky, brilliant work. Despite its flaws in the final few chapters, the influence of this work on modern clinical- and applied-behavior-analysis is significant. Skinner's chapters on tacting (the VB of accurately, usefully labeling one's own behavior and the objects or qualities of one's world) and manding (asking for what one wants or needs from others) should be required reading for every psychotherapist. Contrary to popular opinion, VB was not refuted by Chomsky and never died. The proof of this has been in its usefulness for analysis, intervention and the improvement of human behavior. This is not BFS's most accessible work. Thus, three suggestions: (re)Reading BFS's _Science and Human Behavior_ OR _About Behaviorism_ may be an advisable refresher before tackling VB. Additionally, Kohlenberg and Tsai's (1991) Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (especially their chapter on the Self)will make clear, simply and compellingly, the importance of a rich, carefully trained repertoire of verbal behavior to the healthy development of the human. Finally, spending some time looking at the data - actual studies of verbal behavior in the journals JABA or VB - really highlights that a useful marriage of theory, philosophy and technology were brought forth by this book. Sr+ reading!

Fortunately Unlike Other Books

This is not just an excellent book for those of us who are students of behavior; it is also an effect tool for those unfamiliar with the scientific principles of behavior analysis. Dr. Skinner describes the different kinds verbal behavior, behavior that is reinforced as a result of the mediation of other people with similar repertories, produced by the contingencies of reinforcement on the one hand, and the way in which they are formed into effective verbal discourse and successful action on the other. Therefore, it is primarily with behavior of the former and latter that a behavioral understanding of what you are doing and saying is profited. Dr. Skinner's approach to verbal behavior is derived from countless experiments in the analysis of behavior, experiments in which the principles of behavior have been rigorously studied, demonstrated, and verified. It is consequently not unnatural that finding it practicable and convenient, as undoubtedly it is, to verbal behavior is justifiable. Such a view obviously renders it easy to welcome behavior as an appropriate subject matter in its own right. Moreover, it is downright profitable to welcome behavior, which its first implication is the fact of objective and successful action!