The Behavior of Organisms

The Behavior of Organisms is a book written by B.F. Skinner and published in May 1938. It is part of the Century Psychology Series and helped start a new way of studying how living things act or behave. This new way is called the experimental analysis of behavior or Behavior Analysis.

In the book, Skinner talks about how scientists can watch and record behavior instead of just thinking about it. He explains that behavior can be two kinds: one that happens because of something we can see, like a noise or a light, and another that happens without a clear reason we can see right away.

Skinner studied this behavior using rats, especially looking at how they eat and react to different things. The book was reviewed in 1939 by Ernest R. Hilgard.