Laws of Human Behavior
Steps Toward Hard Science
Donald Pfaff ; Sandra Sherman
- How
- scientific
- studies
- of
- human
- behavior
- can
- be
- replicated
- with
- the
- consistency
- and
- rigor
- characteristic
- of
- the
- physical
- sciences,
- yielding
- scientific
- “laws.”In
- Laws
- of
- Human
- Behavior,
- Donald
- Pfaff
- and
- Sandra
- Sherman
- argue
- that
- many
- behavioral
- and
- neural
- discoveries—verified
- over
- the
- years
- through
- precise,
- reliable
- measurement—are
- tantamount
- to
- “laws,”
- comparable
- in
- rigor
- and
- replicability
- to
- physical
- laws
- such
- as
- gravity
- and
- the
- second
- law
- of
- thermodynamics.
- Drawing
- on
- research
- in
- areas
- including
- psychophysics,
- various
- types
- of
- conditioning
- and
- habit
- formation,
- and
- even
- social
- behaviors,
- they
- show
- how
- important
- aspects
- of
- the
- behavioral
- sciences
- contribute
- to
- laws
- that
- should
- be
- celebrated
- now.
- Responding
- to
- what
- some
- commentators
- have
- called
- a
- crisis
- in
- reliability,
- the
- authors
- make
- a
- compelling
- case
- for
- the
- progress
- that
- experimental
- work
- in
- areas,
- formerly
- labeled
- as
- “soft”
- science,
- has
- achieved.The
- book
- is
- international
- in
- scope.
- References
- range
- from
- the
- early
- nineteenth-century
- work
- of
- Weber
- to
- papers
- published
- in
- 2023.
- In
- particular,
- the
- authors
- cite
- important
- accomplishments
- in
- the
- behavioral
- and
- neural
- sciences
- of
- the
- past
- few
- decades
- that
- support
- the
- characterization
- of
- these
- sciences
- as
- “exact.”
- Each
- chapter
- of
- the
- book
- has
- three
- parts:
- examples
- of
- the
- law’s
- manifestations
- in
- everyday
- life,
- examples
- of
- the
- laboratory
- science
- that
- supports
- the
- law,
- and
- neurobiological
- results
- that
- further
- support
- the
- validity
- of
- the
- law.
- The
- book
- also
- offers
- clues
- for
- understanding
- where
- the
- field
- of
- behavioral
- science
- is
- headed.
- The
- authors
- intend
- for
- the
- book
- to
- be
- accessible
- to
- interested nonscientists.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
