This book comprehensively introduces the major psychological principles of behavior:operant conditioning, Pavlovian conditioning, social learning theory, and cognitive behaviorism. It closely links these basic abstract principles to relevant, concrete examples from everyday life--showing readers how each behavior principle operates in easily understood settings,and how to apply them in complex natural situations. Chapter topics cover behavior modification; primary and secondary reinforcers and punishers; differential reinforcement and shaping; modeling and observational learning; prompts and fading; rules; schedules; positive and negative control; and thinking, the self, and self-control. For individuals making the transition from adolescence into the various phases of adulthood--seeking a better understanding of their life, and ways to make it more positive.

PrefaceIt is exciting to enter the 21st century as behavioral science broadens its scope to deal ever more effectively with natural environments. We hopeBehavior Principles in Everyday Lifecan, in its small way, help students and professionals learn how to apply behavioral analyses to everyday situations. This book is about people of all ages in many different kinds of settings, revealing many of the behavioral principles that produce both functional and dysfunctional patterns of behavior. Our hope is that readers will use the information to live happier, more fulfilling lives--free from pain and fear--while sharing this knowledge and behavior with others.During the thirty years we have taught behavior principles, we have become firmly convinced that the majority of students learn the principles most rapidly and effectively when they study them with examples from everyday life. Students are more familiar with the behavior seen in natural settings than any other forms of behavior; so it takes them little effort to follow the examples, and they can focus on learning the principles of behavior and methods of behavioral analysis.Students report having numerous "Eureka" experiences--which they describe as pleasant, positive reinforcers--as they read material that helps them understand everyday events they had never appreciated before. "So that's why I do that!" This allows readers to receive immediate positive reinforcement as they learn behavior principles and the skills for doing behavior analyses. Many of Skinner's analyses of everyday events gave us those "Eureka" experiences, and we hope to continue that tradition.By reducing the effort of studying behavior principles--with familiar examples and frequent positive reinforcers--we can help our students learn more behavioral material in one course than if the topic were taught without these examples. This new edition contains more examples and a more carefully worded presentation of behavior principles than did prior editions. Our goal is to help students learn the behavior principles well and generalize their behavior analytic skills to numerous situations and events.Many students are eager to understand their own behavior, and most do not accept the old psychological models that are still presented in so many of their courses. The Freudian model is so strongly focused on psychoses, neuroses, and other mental illnesses that it misses much of the fun, beauty, and positive qualities of everyday life. Sociobiology reduces so much of life to sexual imperatives that it misses much of the rest of life. And purely cognitive psychology neglects consequences, contingencies, stimulus control, schedules of reinforcement, methods for modifying behavior, and much more.Behavioral psychology can offer students more modern and empirically defensible theories to explain the details of everyday life than can the other psychological theories. It is time to enthusiastically advance the study of behavior into natural environments and analyze the cognitions, emotions, and behaviors that people experience in their daily lives from a behavioral perspective. The fact that behavioral science has demanded--and been rewarded for using--experimental control in laboratories and clinics should not deter us from expanding our science into less controlled environments. We firmly believe that behavior principles are far more effective than the other psychological theories in explaining behavior in natural settings.It is important to remember that Skinner was not reluctant to generalize his science far beyond his database, and his work was an enormous catalyst for the advance of our science. InWalden Two, Science and Human Behavior, About Behaviorism,and other writings, Skinner (1948a, 1953, 1974) clearly showed how deeply interested he was in applying behavioral analyses and i