The Behavior of Organisms

With the publication of his first book, The Behavior of Organisms (1938), B. F. Skinner launched a new science based on selection by consequences as the mechanism through which behavior changes during the lifetime of the individual. The book summarizes nearly ten years of research, spanning the years of Skinner’s graduate school days at Harvard through his three years as a member of the Society of Fellows. In the book, Skinner defines his basic unit of behavior, which he named the operant, proposes rate as the basic datum, and describes his research program–to identify the variables of which behavior is a function.

(B.F. Skinner) Paperback

Published originally in 1938. Reprinted by the B. F. Skinner Foundation, 1991 and 1999.

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