?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=The+operant%2C+from+rat+to+man%3A+an+introduction+to+some+recent+experiments+on+human+behavior.&rft.creator=Verplanck%2C+W.S.&rft.subject=Applied+Cognitive+Psychology&rft.subject=Behavioral+Analysis&rft.subject=Evolutionary+Psychology&rft.subject=Perceptual+Cognitive+Psychology&rft.description=Virtually+all+psychologists+accept+the+premise+that+human+behavior+is+orderly.+The+order+that+they+see%2C+however%2C+varies+considerably+from+group+to+group%2C+and+the+aspects+of+behavior+in+which+these+orders+appear+differ+as+well.+The+clinician+and+the+personality+psychologist+observe+their+fellow+men+and+see+need-presses%2C+repressions%2C+and+aggressive+drives.+The+experimental+psychologist+finds+his+order+in+the+rates+at+which+nonsense+syllables+are+learned%2C+or+at+which+conditioned+eyelid+reflexes+are+acquired.+If+he+is+physiologically+oriented%2C+he+is+apt+to+concern+himself+with+muscle+twitches+and+even+with+the+secretion+of+saliva.+It+is+in+terms+of+such+variables+that+psychologists+have+set+their+descriptions+of%2C+and+their+predictions+about%2C+the+actions+of+people.++All+of+us%2C+whether+psychologists+or+not%2C+observe+people+acting.+We+learn+rules+of+%22practical+psychology.%22+Some+of+us%2C+especially+the+novelists+and+playwrights%2C+do+a+remarkably+good+job+of+giving+plausible+accounts+of+behavior%2C+often+in+terms+that+seem+pertinent.+These+writers%2C+however%2C+do+not+employ+the+language+used+by+psychologists+at+either+end+of+the+spectrum.+They+describe+ordinary%2C+everyday+behavior%2C+and+describe+it+well%2C+but+not+by+using+the+conceptualizations+that+psychologists+seem+to+have+found+useful%2C+nor+even+terms+that+can+be+readily+translated+into+such+conceptualizations.++The+psychologist's+efforts+tend+to+be+limited+in+their+usefulness+to+the+description+and+prediction+of+the+behavior+of+people+whose+behavior+is+awry%2C+or+of+people+who+are+engaged+in+the+strange+and+unusual+activities+demanded+of+them+in+a+laboratory+of+experimental+psychology.+Dale+Carnegie%2C+practical+politicians%2C+and%2C+perhaps%2C+everybody+but+psychologists%2C+concern+themselves+with+simple%2C+ordinary%2C+everyday+behavior.+One+reason+for+this+situation+is%2C+perhaps%2C+the+lack+of+methods+of+conceptualizing+behavior%2C+or+of+abstracting+relevant+aspects+of+behavior+for+study+that+are+not+clinic-+or+laboratory-bound.+This+lack+of+methods+is+due%2C+perhaps%2C+to+a+conviction+that+ordinary+behavior+is+too+complex+and+is+determined+by+too+many+variables+to+make+possible+the+discovery+of+any+order+except+by+the+application+of+theory.++What+I+desire+to+do+here+is+to+introduce+some+concepts%2C+and+to+describe+some+experiments+derived+from+them%2C+that+suggest+that+the+orderliness+of+human+behavior+may+be+more+accessible+than+has+been+hitherto+assumed.+These+experiments+may+accordingly+suggest+new+direction+for+research+on+human+behavior.&rft.date=1955&rft.type=Journal+(Paginated)&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F602%2F1%2Fbiblio18.html&rft.identifier=++Verplanck%2C+W.S.++(1955)+The+operant%2C+from+rat+to+man%3A+an+introduction+to+some+recent+experiments+on+human+behavior.++%5BJournal+(Paginated)%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F602%2F