A view of human functioning is presented in which functioning is seen as integrating head and heart, emotion and reason, in a process by which people are constantly making sense of their lived emotional experience to form narratives of told experience. Because much of the processing involved in the generation of emotional experience occurs…

Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner are often seen as psychology's polar opposites. It seems this view is fallacious. Indeed, Freud and Skinner had many things in common, including basic assumptions shaped by positivism and determinism. More important, Skinner took a clear interest in psychoanalysis and wanted to be analyzed but was turned down. His…

Comments on the article by Driver-Linn (see record 2003-05602-002), which presented an account of why psychologists have almost continuously invoked Kuhn since the 1970s to justify a wide array of the discipline's historical developments and epistemological proclivities. The current author suggests that perhaps the more pressing questions,…

Responds to comments made by numerous authors (see records 2004-14303-014, 2004-14303-015, and 2004-14303-016) on the current author's original article (see record 2003-05602-002), which presented an account of why psychologists have almost continuously invoked Kuhn since the 1970s to justify a wide array of the discipline's historical…

In this response to Skinner's criticism of a previously written article, Herrnstein notes that phylogenic behavior as used by Skinner refers to a third kind of behavior. Herrnstein suggests that this is neither a necessary nor a desirable addition to behavioristic analysis. (Author/AM)

Although reinforcement often leads to repetitive, even stereotyped responding, that is not a necessary outcome. When it depends on variations, reinforcement results in responding that is diverse, novel, indeed unpredictable, with distributions sometimes approaching those of a random process. This article reviews evidence for the powerful and…

This article presents comments on "Psychology Needs Realism not Instrumentalism" by B. Haig, "Ontological and Epistemic Claims of Realism and Instrumentalism" by Lau and "The Scientific Denial of the Real and the Dialectic of Scientism and Humanism" by Ramey and Chrysikou which were all comments on the original article "Realism, Instrumentalism,…

This article focuses on two perspectives of the humanism-behaviorism dialogue: namely, the status of the dialogue in the ancient past, the period of postwar America in the 1940s, and the future of this dialogue in the remaining few decades of this century. (Author/AM)

That psychoanalytic theory has not been displaced by the behavioral theory of neurosis is remarkable in view of the persuasive evidence that exists for the efficacy of behavior therapy. One reason for this seems to be the persistence of widespread misperceptions of behavior therapy. (Author)

Reviews changing patterns of health and illness that have led to increased interest in the role of patient and provider behaviors, discussing the advantages of using health care settings as prevention sites. Presents examples of successful behaviorally-based prevention programs, offering evidence supporting their cost-effectiveness. Describes…

Some descriptive criteria for identifying rule-governed behavior are identified from the perspective of cognitive psychology. It is suggested that the concept of explanation in psychology be modified from a specification in terms of physical properties of the antecedent events in a causal sequence to a mapping of rules onto behavior or behavior…

Discusses whether humans have a capacity to care about others, or if the target of concern is always oneself. Presents evidence that supports the empathy-altruism hypothesis, suggesting that humans are capable of empathy and caring for another in need. Discusses limits on human capacity for altruistic caring. (JS)

According to the hedonic treadmill model, good and bad events temporarily affect happiness, but people quickly adapt back to hedonic neutrality. The theory, which has gained widespread acceptance in recent years, implies that individual and societal efforts to increase happiness are doomed to failure. The recent empirical work outlined here…

An analysis of some of the diversions (preoccupations with topics such as feelings, internal thought processes, inner life, the individual as a creative agent) which have delayed better understanding of human behavior and the formation of a science based on the relationship of the behavior of the organism to the environment. (EH)

It is suggested that the theory of behavior based on conditioning processes can be reconciled with new data, but only by revising certain tacit behaviorist assumptions about the parameters of the conditioning process. (Author/AM)