Have a Dream: My Hopeful Future For Behavior Analysis

The year 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the Norwegian Association for Behavior Analysis and the 100th anniversary of John Watson’s founding document of behaviorism, “Psychology As The behaviorist Views It.” In that article, Watson stated that psychology should be “a purely objective experimental branch of natural science...” whose “theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior.” This goal was soon thereafter realized by B. F. Skinner and other experimental behavior analysts. Watson is also famous for making bold proclamations, including the “Give me a dozen, healthy infants... “ statement in his 1930 book, Behaviorism. That statement has been widely taken out of context and misunderstood. In my talk, I will offer a different, and much less controversial, interpretation of Watson’s statement, and describe how his position paved the way for applied behavior analysis and, in particular, for the more egalitarian view of human potential and behavior inherent in the social engineering promulgated by B. F. Skinner. I then present my dream for the future of behavior analysis as I hope it evolves.