Introduction to Behavior: An Evolutionary Perspective

"No adequate understanding of behavior is possible without evolutionary theory. Evolution due to selection is necessary to understand why behavior and organisms exist, how culture evolves, and how behavior of individual organisms develops. Evolutionary theory permits going beyond everyday folk psychology that views actions as done by an agent for reasons known to the agent and done because of the agent's assessment of consequences. Evolutionary theory provides a foundation for a true natural science of behavior, one in which behavioral events are natural events and are understood in relation to other natural events. We no longer see sunrise and sunset as caused by hidden entities or gods, and a scientific approach to behavior should also not ascribe behavioral phenomena to hidden entities like an inner agent or inner thoughts and feelings. This book takes the perspective of evolutionary biology to present the basics of a science of behavior. It begins by discussing what is an organism and then what is behavior. Once we understand that an organism is a process and that activities of the organism are parts of that process, we are in a position to see how behavior interacts with the environment and adapts to environmental covariances and changes in them. The book covers customary topics like choice, stimulus control, foraging, adaptation, verbal behavior, and social behavior, but it does so according to a non-traditional organization consistent with the natural-science and evolutionary framework"--
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 Dispensing with outdated models of behavior and reinforcement, this book adopts a new conceptual framework for the understanding of behavior, human and nonhuman.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.