The Science of Psychology

An Interbehavioral Survey

J. R. Kantor

9780911188202

517 pages

University of Akron Press

Hardback $25.00

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Overview

This volume presents the data and interpretations of the psychological domain as the contents of a natural science. As a natural science, psychology departs radically from the traditional mind-body or dualistic doctrines, which hold that organisms are composed of psychic structures or functions that are manifested by or correspond to anatomical and physiological actions or behavior. Accordingly, the materials of this volume are derived exclusively from observations of organisms as they interact with objects, other organisms, and conditions encountered in their environments. Interbehavioral psychology regards psychological events as definite organized fields in which organisms and stimulus objects interbehave, and that what happens in detail is based upon previous confrontations of the organisms and stimulus objects under specific conditions prevailing at the time.

Author Bio

Jacob Robert Kantor (1888-1984) was a prominent systematic psychologist who organized scientific values into a coherent system of psychology. From the interbehavioral perspective, self-actional causes, whether fictional events (e.g., mentalism) or fictional powers attributed to otherwise actual events (brain as cause of behavior), are anathema to the science of psychology. He is the author of a number of books on general logic, psychology, and the logic of science. He has also published numerous articles in scientific journals. Among his publications are The Logic of Modern Science, Psychology and Logic, and The Aim and Progress of Psychology and Other Sciences.