Control: History of Behavioral Psychology - Hardcover

"[A] highly readable, at times entertaining, yet eminently scholarly book." -History and Philosophy of Psychology Bulletin "The book is excellent." -American Journal of Psychology "Control, a strongly written work of careful scholarship, will be a critical part of that continuing discussion and it deserves the attention of all historians of the discipline. Readers will be rewarded with important insights." -Theory & Psychology

Providing a detailed history of behaviourism in American psychology, this volume sets out to balance the investigation of individual theorists and their contributions with analysis of the structures of assumption which underlie behavourist psychology, and with behaviourism's role as both creator and creature of larger American intellectual patterns, practices and values. The book also presents a critique of behavioursts' attitudes towards human motivation, exploring how their positivism affects their ability to account for the unobservable, inner factors that control behaviour.