ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1, some objectives were set for this volume. As well as outlining the present “state of the art” of behavioral analysis and its applications to significant human problems, we set out to address a number of questions. These included the very basic issue as to what the science of behaviour is trying to find out: while well-established sciences now have an agenda set by their highly sophisticated technologies and methodologies and the phenomena which these have revealed, the science of behaviour is still in the process of defining itself. How shall we deal with the aspects of behaviour that are apparently inaccessible to our simple measuring techniques? Are there phenomena of psychological significance that will never yield to a behavioral analysis? Behavioral analysis has been criticised for being “manipulative”, and for providing techniques that enable the strong to influence the weak. Is this true, and if it is, is it a truth about behaviour or about the way the subject has been approached?
