Talking About Behavior

Radical Behaviorism for ABA Practitioners

James M. Johnston

Welcome to the companion website for the second edition of my book, retitled Talking About Behavior. It was first published in 2013 with the title, Radical Behaviorism for ABA Practitioners, which is now the subtitle. This revision continues the first edition’s focus on presenting students and practitioners in the field of applied behavior analysis with an engaging introduction to radical behaviorism, the philosophy underlying the field of behavior analysis.

Early chapters consider some basic assumptions about the nature of behavior and clarify how we learn to talk about our own behavior and everyone else’s. This foundation leads to chapters that discuss a wide range of conceptual issues in a way that shows how they are important to practitioners in their everyday work. Each chapter begins with a vignette that highlights the ways that ABA practitioners experience the misunderstandings about behavior encouraged by everyday dialect. Discussion then focuses on helping readers learn a way of talking about behavior that avoids these conceptual confusions and the problems they can cause for delivery of behavioral services.

The book approaches these topics in an informal and readable style. Pedagogical features include boxes that address special topics that supplement chapter narratives, as well as definitions of key terms and tables summarizing important points. Each chapter ends with a summary of main points, study guides for text and box content, discussion topics and exercises, suggested readings, and supplementary website readings, which are available on this website. The book concludes with a glossary, bibliography, and indexes.