Introduction to Behavior: An Evolutionary Perspective - Softcover

Baum, William M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1394184611 ISBN 13: 9781394184613

Publisher: Wiley, 2023

Synopsis

An up-to-date approach to behavior analysis within the framework of evolutionary theory

Introduction to Behavior is a contemporary textbook for students in behavior analysis and other behaviorally-oriented disciplines. Dispensing with outdated models of behavior and reinforcement, this book adopts a new conceptual framework for the understanding of behavior, human and nonhuman. It will help students at all levels, particularly students being trained in applied behavior analysis, offering an easily approachable and plausible framework that can inform both research and practice. Excellent for undergraduate and graduate students alike, as well as others interested in the field of behavior science, this book covers standard topics in behavior analysis from an up-to-date perspective. Readers will be introduced to a far more effective way of viewing behavior than the traditional reinforcement-based approach.

• Examine traditional concepts of behavior analysis from an evolutionary perspective
• Gain a concrete conceptual framework that can be used to guide research and practice in applied behavioral science
• Understand human and nonhuman behaviors, both in laboratory settings and in daily life, from an individual and a social perspective
• Build your knowledge of why people make the choices they make given particular environmental inputs

Introduction to Behavior fills an important gap in available texts on behavior analysis, placing helpful behavioral concepts within a sound, evidence-based evolutionary framework.

About this title

About the Author

William M. Baum, PhD, is Emeritus Professor at the University of New Hampshire and Associate Researcher at the University of California, Davis. He taught for seven years at Harvard University and for more than twenty years at the University of New Hampshire. He has published over 100 journal articles presenting laboratory research, theoretical contributions, and philosophical discussions on choice, cultural evolution, behavioral processes, and the philosophy of behavior.

From the Back Cover

A fresh new look at the science of human and nonhuman behavior, focusing on how evolution shapes choices and actions of all kinds

Although traditional, reinforcement-based approaches to behavior have proven to be ineffective, the field of applied behavior analysis is alive and well. Introduction to Behavior: An Evolutionary Perspective introduces readers to contemporary perspectives on why people and other organisms do what they do. Examining the concepts of behavior and organism from within an evolutionary framework―including how natural selection influences species-wide tendencies―this book sets a foundation for observing, measuring, and understanding behavior.

Founded on up-to-date research and written by one of the leading scholars in the field, this book explores why and when behaviors change (or stay the same), how environmental inputs interact with evolution to produce behavioral outcomes, and how evolutionary theory can be mobilized to explain verbal, social, and cultural behavior phenomena.

Filling an important need for a new conceptual framework in basic and applied behavior analysis, Introduction to Behavior trains undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals to study and theorize about behavior through the powerful lens of evolution.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1394184611
• ISBN 13: 9781394184613
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160