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Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Philosophy & theory of psychology > Behavioural theory (Behaviourism)
In a stimulating synthesis of cognitive science, anthropology, and linguistics, Philip Lieberman tackles the fundamental questions of human nature: How and why are human beings so different from other species? Can the Darwinian theory of evolution explain human linguistic and cognitive ability? How do our processes of language and thought differ from those of Homo erectus 500,000 years ago, or of the Neanderthals 35,000 years ago? What accounts for human moral sense? Lieberman believes that evolution for rapid, efficient vocal communication forged modern human beings by creating the modern human brain. Earlier hominids lacked fully human speech and syntax, which together allow us to convey complex thoughts rapidly. The author discusses how natural selection acted on older brain mechanisms to produce a structure that can regulate the motor activity necessary for speech and command the complex syntax that enhances the creativity of human language. The unique brain mechanisms underlying human language also enhance human cognitive ability, allowing us to derive abstract concepts and to plan complex activities. These factors are necessary for the development of true altruism and moral behavior. Lieberman supports his argument about the evolution of speech and the human brain by combining the comparative method of Charles Darwin, insights from archaeology and child development, and the results of high-tech research with computerized brain scanning and computer models that can recreate speech sounds made by our ancestors over 100,000 years ago. Uniquely Human will stimulate fresh thought and controversy on the basic question of how we came to be.
This is a timely work which explores the validity of rational and subjective approaches to conflict resolution, considers the value of international law and organizations for addressing complex social phenomena, and outlines a structural approach to international conflicts. In addition it extends the analysis of conflict transformation to new issues on the international agenda, such as antagonism between urban and rural areas and threat to the environment.
The culmination of twenty years of research, this book is a cross-cultural exploration of the ways in which age, gender, and culture affect the development of social behavior in children. The authors and their associates observed children between the ages of two and ten going about their daily lives in communities in Africa, India, the Philippines, Okinawa, Mexico, and the United States. This rich fund of data has enabled them to identify the types of social behavior that are universal and those which differ from one cultural environment to another. Whiting and Edwards shed new light on the nature-nurture question: in analyzing the behavior of young children, they focus on the relative contributions of universal physiological maturation and universal social imperatives. They point out cross-cultural similarities, but also note the differences in experience between children who grow up in simple and in complex societies. They show that knowledge of the company children keep, and of the proportion of time they spend with various categories of people, makes it possible to predict important aspects of their interpersonal behavior. An extension and elaboration of the classic Children of Six Cultures (Harvard, 1975), Children of Different Worlds will appeal to the same audience-developmental psychologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, and educators-and is sure to be equally influential.
In this book, J.P.Scott combines genetic theories of evolution, systems theory, and theories of behavioural evolution to explain the evolution of social behaviour and organization. He proposes that caregiving has evolved from self care, to care of fertilized eggs, to developing embryos, to hatchings. Care may then be extended to adult offspring, collateral relatives and to unrelated others.;Humans, Scott shows, are unique in the degree to which caregiving behaviour is extendable to non-related humans, other animals as pets, and even to plants. He concludes that social organization is based on caregiving as well as processes such as unconscious physiological co-operation, site attachment, sexual behaviour, defensive behaviour, competition and conflict. Competition is thus not the sole mode of evolution. This view challenges some of the conventional sociobiological theories of the evolution of altruism. The book's broad interdisciplinary scope and social relevance has significant import for the general reader as well as for researchers and students in evolution, animal behaviour, ecology, psychobiology, and the human sciences of anthropology, political science, and sociology.
In his most probing and expansive work to date, Jerome Kagan-one of this country's leading psychologists-demonstrates that innovative research methods in the behavioral sciences and neurobiology, together with a renewed philosophical commitment to rigorous empiricism, are transforming our understanding of human behavior. Contemporary psychology, according to Kagan, has been preoccupied with three central themes: How malleable is temperament? How predictable are the milestones of cognitive development? How accurate is consciousness as a window onto the self, its motives, beliefs, and emotions? In a review of past approaches to these questions, Kagan argues persuasively that behavioral scientists have reached less-than-satisfactory answers because they have failed to appreciate the biases inherent in their frame of reference and the limitations of their investigative procedures. He calls into question a number of techniques that have been mainstays of psychological investigation: the Ainsworth Strange Situation for assessing the emotional attachment of an infant to its mother, and interviews and questionnaires as indexes of personality, to name only two. Kagan's own research has used novel laboratory situations to discover a group of children who exhibit a pattern of behavior he calls "temperamentally inhibited"-they are restless and irritable from birth, and by twenty-four months cling to the mother and show biological signs of high anxiety in unfamiliar situations. These findings, coupled with current understanding of the structure and chemistry of the nervous system, lead him to speculate that these children are born with a biological predisposition that favors the development of a shy, fearful personality. Through longitudinal studies of this kind, as well as through his cross-cultural investigations of cognitive development, Kagan has infused new meaning into the nature-nurture debate.
Although commonly believed that males are more promiscuous than females, new research has revealed that female infidelity is a common occurrence throughout the animal kingdom. Female Infidelity and Paternal Uncertainty is the first book to address how males deal with the consequences of female infidelity and the strategies they have evolved to try to avoid the possibility of raising an offspring they unknowingly did not sire. Each chapter deals with a specific evolved strategy developed to aid males in either limiting opportunities for their mate to be unfaithful or to "correct" the by-products of infidelity should it occur. With sections including mate guarding, intra-vaginal tactics and paternity assessment, this book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in behavioral biology, evolutionary psychology, human sexuality, anthropology, sociology, reproductive health and medicine.
Seminars by Professor Windy Dryden. See the man live and in action. To find out more and to book your place go to www.cityminds.com _______________________________________ `The REBT Approach to Therapeutic Change is again an excellent introduction for trainee and practising counsellors, or anyone interested in the subject. The outline of the approach is very clear and is helped by examples in chart form' - Mark Edwards, Nurtuting Potential `A remarkably useful book for the practitioners of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy and other kinds of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy!... Definitive and thorough going'- Albert Ellis `Change' is at the heart of counselling and psychotherapy. Clients enter into the therapeutic process in the hope that something in themselves or their situation will be different by the end. Counsellors and Psychotherapists therefore need to understand the nature of change and how best to facilitate it. This is the subject of The Rational Emotive Behavioural Approach to Therapeutic Change. Central to the REBT approach is the view that many of the problems people experience in life are largely determinded by irrational beliefs they hold about themselves, other people and the world. The therapist's role is therefore to help clients identify, challenge and change these unhelpful beliefs. The book describes the cognitive, emotional and behavioural techniques which clients can use to promote psychological change in themselves. It also discusses obstacles to change, which may arise at different points in the therapeutic process and provides strategies for tackling them. Despite its centrality within counselling and psychotherapy, surprisingly little has been written on the subject of change and in a way that is accessible for trainees and practitioners. The Rational Emotive Behavioural Approach to Therapeutic Change will be welcomed both by those specializing in REBT and those trained in other approaches wanting to learn more about the change process in counselling and psychotherapy.
This hands-on guide is designed to help school practitioners conduct effective multidimensional assessments of a wide range of emotional and behavioral difficulties. Each chapter focuses on a particular method, describes its applications in the school setting, and offers clear guidelines for implementation, illustrated with realistic case examples. Approaches discussed include direct observation, analogue assessment, child self-reports, teacher and parent interviewing, informant reports, and self-monitoring procedures. Recommendations for working with culturally and linguistically diverse children and adolescents are also provided. The theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the assessment strategies demonstrated here are thoroughly reviewed in the companion volume, Behavioral Assessment in Schools, Second Edition: Theory, Research, and Clinical Foundations (see other side for more information).
The study of the relationship between the person and the situation has had a long history in psychology. Many theories of personality are set on an interpersonal stage and many social phenomena are played out differently as the cast of characters change. At times the study of persons and situations has been contentious, however, recent interest in process models of personality and social interaction have focused on the ways people navigate, influence, and are influenced by their social worlds. Personality and Social Behavior contains a series of essays on topics where a transactional analysis of the person and situation has proved most fruitful. Contributions span the personality and social psychology spectrum and include such topics as new units in personality; neuroscience perspectives on interpersonal personality; social and interpersonal frameworks for understanding the self and self-esteem; and personality process analyses of romantic relationships, prejudice, health, andleadership. This volume provides essential reading for researchers with an
interest in this core topic in social psychology and may also be
used as a text on related upper-level courses.
Recent research has emphasized that socially transmitted information may affect both the gene pool and the phenotypes of individuals and populations, and that an improved understanding of evolutionary issues is beneficial to those working towards the improvement of human health. Equally, an improved awareness of how human behavior influences health and reproductive fitness is starting to shed new light on the processes that shape the evolution of human behavior and the human mind. Focusing directly on these emerging trends, Social Information Transmission and Human Biology bridges the gap between primarily theoretical work undertaken by those with evolutionary interests and biomedical work undertaken by those dealing with practical issues in human health and demographics. Incorporating papers from a symposium organized under the auspices of the UK Society for the Study of Human Biology, this volume merges the perspectives of internationally renowned evolutionary and theoretical biologists, zoologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, and medical researchers whose work is linked by common themes addressing how information is transmitted socially and how its transmission influences both immediate and evolutionary biological outcomes. Emphasizes the diverse ways in which socially transmitted information impacts on human biology To illustrate these themes, the chapters draw on models and data ranging from observations on chimpanzee populations in the wild and on the human archaeological record, to studies of contemporary humans in both developing and industrialized countries. Taking a broad approach, many of the chapters address areas of behavior that are familiar toscientists in particular fields, but do so using a variety of cross-disciplinary perspectives, which will prove stimulating for researchers in a range of academic subject areas, while helping to facilitate closer collaboration between biological and social scientists.
This edited collection brings together scholars from the United States and abroad to provide an introduction to selected topics in cross-cultural psychology, the scientific study of human behaviour and mental processes under diverse cultural conditions.
Teachers, parents, and community leaders need effective strategies for dealing with inappropriate behaviors of all children. The factors behind inappropriate behavior (inadequate and early environmental influences, home environment, behavior styles, cultural styles, and learning styles) are compounded for young African-American males due to the organizational structure of the public schools. In order to meet the challenge, the schools must adapt new and creative ways for teaching social skills to this population. This book presents that social skills curriculum.
Advances the proposition that the first responsibility of psychotherapists is to analyse their own resistance to their patients. This primer aims at both new and experienced professionals, outlining the various kinds of counterresistance, their manifestations and how to analyse and resolve them. |
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