A new, counterintuitive theory for how social networks influence the spread of behavior New social movements, technologies, and public-health initiatives often struggle to take off, yet many diseases disperse rapidly without issue. Can the lessons learned from the viral diffusion of diseases be used to improve the spread of beneficial behaviors and innovations? In How Behavior Spreads, Damon Centola presents over a decade of original research examining how changes in societal behavior--in voting, health, technology, and finance-occur and the ways social networks can be used to influence how they propagate. Centola's startling findings show that the same conditions accelerating the viral expansion of an epidemic unexpectedly inhibit the spread of behaviors. While it is commonly believed that "weak ties"-long-distance connections linking acquaintances-lead to the quicker spread of behaviors, in fact the exact opposite holds true. Centola demonstrates how the most well-known, intuitive ideas about social networks have caused past diffusion efforts to fail, and how such efforts might succeed in the future. Pioneering the use of Web-based methods to understand how changes in people's social networks alter their behaviors, Centola illustrates the ways in which these insights can be applied to solve countless problems of organizational change, cultural evolution, and social innovation. His findings offer important lessons for public health workers, entrepreneurs, and activists looking to harness networks for social change. Practical and informative, How Behavior Spreads is a must-read for anyone interested in how the theory of social networks can transform our world.

What does it mean for someone to be an asshole? The answer is not obvious, despite the fact that we are often stuck dealing with people for whom there is no better name. We try to avoid them, but assholes are everywhere--at work, at home, on the road, in the public sphere--and we struggle to comprehend why exactly someone should be "acting like that."
Asshole management begins with asshole understanding. Finally giving us the concepts to discern why assholes disturb us so, philosopher Aaron James presents a provocative theory of the asshole to explain why such people exist, especially in an age of raging narcissism and unbridled capitalism. We get a better sense of when the asshole is best resisted and best ignored--a better sense of what is, and what is not, worth fighting for.

The scope of someone's consent is the range of actions that they permit by giving consent. The Scope of Consent investigates the under-explored question of which normative principle governs the scope of consent. To answer this question, the book's investigation involves taking a stance on what constitutes consent. By appealing to the idea that someone can justify their behaviour by appealing to another person's consent, Dougherty defends the view that consent consists in behaviour that expresses a consent-giver's will for how a consent-receiver behaves. The ultimate conclusion of the book is that the scope of consent is determined by certain evidence that bears on the appropriate interpretation of the consent.

"It all began one morning last July when we noticed a young manof twenty-six crying in his bed in Dr. Pitre's ward. He had just come from a longjourney on foot and was exhausted, but that was not the cause of his tears. He weptbecause he could not prevent himself from departing on a trip when the need tookhim; he deserted family, work, and daily life to walk as fast as he could, straightahead, sometimes doing 70 kilometers a day on foot, until in the end he would bearrested for vagrancy and thrown in prison."

--Dr.Philippe Tissie, July 1886

Thus begins therecorded case history of Albert Dadas, a native of France's Bordeaux region and thefirst diagnosed mad traveler, or fuguer. An occasional employee of a local gascompany, Dadas suffered from a strange compulsion that led him to travelobsessively, often without identification, not knowing who he was or why hetraveled. He became notorious for his extraordinary expeditions to such far-reachingspots as Algeria, Moscow, and Constantinople. Medical reports of Dadas set off atthe time of a small epidemic of compulsive mad voyagers, the epicenter of which wasBordeaux, but which soon spread throughout France to Italy, Germany, andRussia.

Today we are similarly besieged by mentalillnesses of the moment, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and attention deficithyperactivity disorder. The debate rages about which of these conditions areaffectations or cultural artifacts and which are "real." In Mad Travelers, IanHacking uses the Dadas case to weigh the legitimacy of cultural influences versusphysical symptoms in the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. He argues thatpsychological symptoms find stable homes at a given place and time, in "ecologicalniches" where transient illnesses flourish.

Usingthe records of Dadas's physician, Philippe Tissie, Hacking attempts to make sense ofthis strange epidemic. While telling his fascinating tale, he raises probingquestions about the nature of mental disorders, the cultural repercussions of theirdiagnosis, and the relevance of this century-old case study for today's overanalyzedsociety.

Why do people persist in commitments that threaten their happiness, security, and comfort? Why do some of our most central, identity-defining commitments seem to resist the effects of reasoning and critical reflection? Drawing on real-life examples, empirical psychology, and philosophical reflection, Paul Katsafanas argues that these commitments involve an ethical stance called devotion, which plays a pervasive-but often hidden-role in human life. Devotion typically involves sacralizing certain values, goals, or relationships. To sacralize a value is to treat it as inviolable (trade-offs with ordinary values are forbidden), incontestable (even contemplating such trade-offs is prohibited), and dialectically invulnerable (no rational considerations can disrupt the agent's commitment to the value). Philosophy of Devotion offers a detailed philosophical account and defense of these features. Devotion and the sacralization of values can be reasonable; indeed, a life involving meaningful, sustained commitment depends on these stances. Without devotion, we risk an existential condition that Katsafanas describes as normative dissipation, in which all of our commitments become etiolated. Yet devotion can easily go wrong, deforming into the individual and group fanaticism that have become pervasive features of modern social life. Katsafanas provides an alternative to fanaticism, investigating the way in which we can express non-pathological forms of devotion. We can be devoted through affirmation and through what Katsafanas calls the deepening move, which treats the agent's central commitments as systematically inchoate. Each of these stances enables a wholehearted form of devotion that nevertheless preserves flexibility and openness, avoiding the dangers of fanaticism on the one hand and normative dissipation on the other. But this is inevitably a fragile and precarious achievement: affirmation can slide into a focus on rejecting what isn't affirmed, and the deepening move can ossify into rigidity. Only the perpetual quest to maintain a form of existential flexibility, which may require oscillation between affirmation and deepening, can stave off these dangers

This important contribution to choice theory examines two theories of motivation and two kinds of explanation of behavior that they support.

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Barry Schwartz, Steven Robbins, and new coauthor Edward Wasserman offer students an engaging introduction to the basic principles of Pavlovian conditioning, operant conditioning, and comparative cognition. The text s critical approach exposes students to the unresolved problems and controversies surrounding behavior theory and encourages them to interpret the material and make connections between theories and real-life situations. With several hundred new references, a new emphasis on comparative cognition, and expanded treatment of neuroscience and the neural basis of learning, the Fifth Edition sets the standard in its coverage of contemporary theory and research."

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government enlisted the aid of a select group of psychologists, sociologists, and political scientists to blueprint enemy behavior. Not only did these academics bring sophisticated concepts to what became a project of demonizing communist societies, but they influenced decision-making in the map rooms, prison camps, and battlefields of the Korean War and in Vietnam. With verve and insight, Ron Robin tells the intriguing story of the rise of behavioral scientists in government and how their potentially dangerous, "American" assumptions about human behavior would shape U.S. views of domestic disturbances and insurgencies in Third World countries for decades to come.

Based at government-funded think tanks, the experts devised provocative solutions for key Cold War dilemmas, including psychological warfare projects, negotiation strategies during the Korean armistice, and morale studies in the Vietnam era. Robin examines factors that shaped the scientists' thinking and explores their psycho-cultural and rational choice explanations for enemy behavior. He reveals how the academics' intolerance for complexity ultimately reduced the nation's adversaries to borderline psychotics, ignored revolutionary social shifts in post-World War II Asia, and promoted the notion of a maniacal threat facing the United States.

Putting the issue of scientific validity aside, Robin presents the first extensive analysis of the intellectual underpinnings of Cold War behavioral sciences in a book that will be indispensable reading for anyone interested in the era and its legacy.

A Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year DISCOVER HOW LIFE REALLY WORKS - ON EARTH AND IN SPACE 'A wonderfully insightful sidelong look at Earthly biology' Richard Dawkins 'Crawls with curious facts' Sunday Times _________________________ We are unprepared for the greatest discovery of modern science. Scientists are confident that there is alien life across the universe yet we have not moved beyond our perception of 'aliens' as Hollywood stereotypes. The time has come to abandon our fixation on alien monsters and place our expectations on solid scientific footing. Using his own expert understanding of life on Earth and Darwin's theory of evolution - which applies throughout the universe - Cambridge zoologist Dr Arik Kershenbaum explains what alien life must be like. This is the story of how life really works, on Earth and in space. _________________________ 'An entertaining, eye-opening and, above all, a hopeful view of what - or who - might be out there in the cosmos' Philip Ball, author of Nature's Patterns 'A fascinating insight into the deepest of questions: what might an alien actually look like' Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins 'If you don't want to be surprised by extraterrestrial life, look no further than this lively overview of the laws of evolution that have produced life on earth' Frans de Waal, author of Mama's Last Hug

An exhaustive reference for mental and behavioral health The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science provides psychologists, researchers, teachers, and students with a complete reference for the field. Comprehensive coverage includes diagnoses, assessment, scales, treatments, research, and more, including entries for influential psychologists and psychological organizations from around the globe. The Third Edition has been updated to reflect the growing impact of neuroscience and biomedical research, and contains over 1,200 entries across the four-volume set. This massive cache of information is an invaluable reference for anyone in the field.

Is it in our best interest to compete or to cooperate? Some have argued that humans are fundamentally competitive and that pursuing our self-interest is the best way to get ahead. Others believe that we are hard-wired to cooperate and are most successful when we collaborate with others. In Friend and Foe, leading psychologists Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer draw on original, cutting-edge research to explain why this debate misses the mark. They argue that it is only by learning how to strike the right balance between competition and cooperation that we can improve long-term relationships and maximise success in work and life. Galinsky and Schweitzer show how holding these two forces in the right balance can enable us to turn weaknesses into strengths, to recognise deception and build trust, and to improve our powers of negotiation without alienating our counterparts. Along the way, they also offer answers to a number of perplexing puzzles, from how too much talent can undermine a team's success, to why ending an auction at 2am can get you the best outcome, to when acting less competently can help you gain status. This book is a guide for better navigating your social world by learning when to cooperate as a friend and when to compete as a foe - and how to be better at both.

A Unique Resource for a State-of-the-Art Practice

Presented by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, this is the first and only work to offer readers a comprehensive look at individual psychological assessment as currently practiced in business environments. Here, you will examine the best methods and techniques now in use. You will see how assessment is being used to alter organizational cultures and achieve specific business goals. You will discover a framework you can use to make your own practice state-of-the-art. And you will benefit from thought-provoking discussions on issues vital to the field's continued success as well as informed predictions for its future. All of which makes this an essential resource any person concerned with individual psychological assessment should possess.

Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences is the classic text on multiple regression. It is noted for its non-mathematical, applied, and data-analytic approach intended to teach the reader "how to do it." Students and researchers profit from its verbal-conceptual exposition and frequent use of concrete examples. The applied emphasis provides clear illustrations of the principles and provides worked examples of the types of applications that are possible. Researchers learn how to specify regression models that directly address their research questions of interest. Early in the text an overview of the fundamental ideas of multiple regression and a review of bivariate correlation and regression and other elementary statistical concepts provide a strong foundation for a solid understanding of the rest of the text. The third edition reflects both the current and developing state-of-the-art practices in the field: *An increased emphasis on graphics provides greater understanding of data. *An increased emphasis on the use of confidence intervals and effect size measures provides more information about the size and precision of relationships. *An accompanying CD contains data for most of the numerical examples along with the computer code for SPSS, SAS, and SYSTAT. These computer scripts can serve as templates for the analysis of the student's own data. *Five entirely new chapters are included: Assumptions of the regression model and remedies when they are not met (Ch. 4), detection and treatment of the potential problems of outliers and multicollinearity (Ch. 10), alternative regression models that may be used when the dependent variable is binary, ordered category, or count in form, including logistic, ordinal logistic, Poisson regression, and the generalized linear model (Ch. 13), multilevel models for data collected in groups or other clusters (Ch. 14), and the analysis of longitudinal data (Ch. 15). *Extensively revi

Traditionally economists have based their economic predictions on the assumption that humans are super-rational creatures, using the information we are given efficiently and generally making selfish decisions that work well for us as individuals. Economists also assume that we're doing the very best we can possibly do - not only for today, but over our whole lifetimes too. But increasingly the study of behavioural economics is revealing that our lives are not that simple. Instead, our decisions are complicated by our own psychology. Each of us makes mistakes every day. We don't always know what's best for us and, even if we do, we might not have the self-control to deliver on our best intentions. We struggle to stay on diets, to get enough exercise and to manage our money. We misjudge risky situations. We are prone to herding: sometimes peer pressure leads us blindly to copy others around us; other times copying others helps us to learn quickly about new, unfamiliar situations. This Very Short Introduction explores the reasons why we make irrational decisions; how we decide quickly; why we make mistakes in risky situations; our tendency to procrastination; and how we are affected by social influences, personality, mood and emotions. The implications of understanding the rationale for our own financial behaviour are huge. Behavioural economics could help policy-makers to understand the people behind their policies, enabling them to design more effective policies, while at the same time we could find ourselves assaulted by increasingly savvy marketing. Michelle Baddeley concludes by looking forward, to see what the future of behavioural economics holds for us. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Learn how you can make a name for yourself in the field of applied behavior analysis research. If you're like many practitioners in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA), you may encounter barriers when conducting research-including limited resources, competing contingencies, an absence of a formal institutional review board, and rigorous methodology requirements. This book addresses these limitations directly, and offers strategies for contributing to research literature, advancing your career, and making professional scholarly submissions over the course of your career. In this book, you'll find a thorough discussion about the research-to-practice gap, arguments for why ABA practitioners should publish, tips for ensuring ethical research practices, time management skills to help you stay productive, and strategies for overcoming common obstacles in research. Also included are practical ways to conduct research in applied settings, information about receiving mentorship, tips for writing, a quick reference guide to the editorial process, examples of applied studies, and resources to help you get started right away.

The obesity epidemic is one of the most serious public health threats confronting the nation and the world. The majority of overweight individuals want to lose weight, but the overall success of self-administered diets and commercial weight loss programs is very poor. Scientific findings suggest that the problem boils down to adherence. The dietary and physical activity recommendations that weight loss programs promote are effective; however, people have difficulty initiating and maintaining changes. Effective Weight Loss presents 25 detailed sessions of an empirically supported, cognitive-behavioral treatment package called Acceptance-Based Behavioral Treatment (ABT). The foundation of this approach is comprised of the nutritional, physical activity, and behavioral components of the most successful, gold-standard behavioral weight loss programs. These components are synthesized with acceptance, willingness, behavioral commitment, motivation, and relapse prevention strategies drawn from a range of therapies. ABT is based on the idea that specialized self-control skills are necessary for weight control, given our innate desire to consume delicious foods and to conserve energy by avoiding physical activity. These self-control skills revolve around a willingness to choose behaviors that may be perceived as uncomfortable, for the sake of a more valuable objective. The Clinician Guide is geared towards helping administer treatment, and the companion Workbook provides summaries of session content, exercises, worksheets, handouts, and assignments for patients and clients receiving the treatment. The books will appeal to psychologists, primary care physicians, nutritionists, dieticians, and other clinicians who counsel the overweight.

Brain and behaviour are intrinsically linked. Animals demonstrate a huge and complex repertoire of behaviours, so how can specific behaviours be mapped onto the complicated neural circuits of the brain? Highlighting the extraordinary advances that have been made in the field of behavioural neuroscience over recent decades, this book examines how behaviours can be understood in terms of their neural mechanisms. Each chapter outlines the components of a particular behaviour, discussing laboratory techniques, the key brain structures involved, and the underpinning cellular and molecular mechanisms. Commins covers a range of topics including learning in a simple invertebrate, fear conditioning, taste aversion, sound localization, and echolocation in bats, as well as more complex behaviours, such as language development, spatial navigation and circadian rhythms. Demonstrating key processes through clear, step-by-step explanations and numerous illustrations, this will be valuable reading for students of zoology, animal behaviour, psychology, and neuroscience.

A Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Daniel Pink and Adam Grant NEXT BIG IDEA book club read about how to avoid the pitfalls of too little, and too much, complexity. 'Essential insights into the character of human choice and decision-making.' ROBERT CIALDINI, bestselling author of Influence ________ In this groundbreaking exploration of how our brains work, psychologist Professor Kevin Dutton explains that by understanding the nature of our hardwired black and white thinking we are better equipped to negotiate life's grey zones and make subtler and smarter decisions. Our brains are hardwired to sort, categorize and draw lines. It's how we navigate the kaleidoscope of everyday information. Yet imagine failing an exam by a mere 1 per cent. Or being caught speeding at just 1 mph over the speed limit. We have to draw the line somewhere, we say. But lines can be unhelpful or even dangerous when drawn where they aren't wanted, or in too thick a hand. By thinking in terms of ' 'them' or 'us' and 'this' or 'that' we isolate ourselves from ideas we don't agree with and people who are not the same as us. We fail to listen to the other side of the argument and beliefs become polarized. Intolerance and extremism flourish. The human race has survived by making binary decisions, but such thinking might also destroy us. We may be programmed to think in black and white but rainbow thinking is the key to our cognitive future. __________ 'Fascinating, important and entirely convincing.' SIR PHILIP PULLMAN

This important contribution to choice theory examines two theories of motivation and two kinds of explanation of behavior that they support. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Human behavior is a subject so vast that it would seem to defy one's ability to comfortably and confidently grasp its varieties, nuances, shapes, and dynamics. But in this wide-ranging and comprehensive survey of the contexts of human behavior, Dennis Saleebey examines the different social science approaches to understanding the way humans react to and are affected by their environment.

Using a biopsychosocial perspective, this book demonstrates that there are many paths of knowledge, many methods of inquiry, and many perspectives that can guide one's understanding of human behavior. Resilience (how we cope with trauma) and meaning-making (how we see and make sense of the world around us) provide the conceptual framework of the book. Saleebey examines a number of specific theories relevant to the biopsychosocial approach: part/whole analysis, psychodynamic theory, ecological theory, cognitive theory, and radical/critical theory. Human development is presented as a continuing interaction between individual, family, community, social institutions, and culture. Pedagogical devices to aid the student include chapter overviews, case studies, and meaning-making dialogues at the end of each chapter that pose questions for further thought.

Through Our Eyes Only? is an immensely engaging exploration of one of the greatest remaining biological mysteries: the possibility of conscious experiences in non-human animals. Dawkins argues that the idea of consciousness in other species has now progressed from a vague possibility to a plausible, scientifically respectable view. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, this book aims to show how near -- and how far -- we are to understanding what goes on in the minds of other animals. 'Her approach ... is impeccable ... Her writing is highly accessible, lively and illustrative.' - Booklist on the hardback edition.

Tax evasion is a complex phenomenon which is influenced not just by economic motives but by psychological factors as well. Economic-psychological research focuses on individual and social representations of taxation as well as decision-making. In this 2007 book, Erich Kirchler assembles research on tax compliance, with a focus on tax evasion, and integrates the findings into a model based on the interaction climate between tax authorities and taxpayers. The interaction climate is defined by citizens' trust in authorities and the power of authorities to control taxpayers effectively; depending on trust and power, either voluntary compliance, enforced compliance or no compliance are likely outcomes. Featuring chapters on the social representations of taxation, decision-making and self-employed income tax behaviour, this book will appeal to researchers in economic psychology, behavioural economics and public administration.

This innovative book provides an up-to-date assessment of the factors accounting for the differences between people who save and people who do not save money. Humans are forward looking and want to make provisions for future consumption according to saving theories. Some people save and others with similar incomes and wealth do not. Why? Whilst psychology has devoted little attention to the forward looking dimension of human behaviour, it contributes theories and techniques for studying the cognitive, motivational, and social factors that affect saving. The book examines the assumption that man is forward looking and desires to provide for the future. It summarises theories and behavioural research in the area of saving and explores the psychological insights and findings of economists and interprets them in terms of modern psychology. The Psychology of Saving will be welcomed as a major contribution to economic psychology which brings together research and analysis, developing our understanding about rationality, expectations and consumer behaviour.