Behaviorism

Name: Behaviorism
ISBN: 9787100212601

约翰·B.华生The Commercial Press2022

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Chapters: 14
Series: Chinese Translations of World Academic Classics
ISBN: 9787100212601

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Summary

Behaviorism is the representative work of the American psychologist John B. Watson, founder of behaviorist psychology, translated from the 1930 revised edition published by N. N. Norton, and comprises twelve chapters. In the book Watson systematically sets out and argues the basic tenets of behaviorism: psychology should not study the invisible, intangible "consciousness" but observable, measurable behavior that can be described in terms of stimulus and response; research methods must abandon introspection and turn to the experimental and observational methods common in the natural sciences. The book begins with "What is behaviorism," compares the old and new psychology, then discusses the problems, methods, and techniques of studying human behavior, and uses two chapters to introduce the structure of the human body and the role of the glands in everyday behavior. Watson then devotes two chapters to asking "Do humans have instincts?", examining the evidence provided by studies of human infants. Two chapters on emotion discuss the types of innate emotion, the acquisition of new emotions and the disappearance of old ones, and introduce related experiments. The latter half turns to the formation and retention of bodily habits, the relationship between speech and thought, and "do we always think in words," with the final chapter proposing that "personality is merely the product of habit," followed by an index. The book is written in accessible language with concrete examples; it is a primary text for understanding the behaviorist school's claims and its historical limitations, and an important document for psychology readers looking back on the paradigm shift in twentieth-century psychology.

Editor's review

华生这本《行为主义》是心理学史上少数几本真正改变了学科走向的书之一。它把“意识”请出心理学的研究对象，把行为、刺激、反应、习惯推到前台，由此奠定了此后半个世纪美国心理学的主流语汇。今天读它，价值不在于照单全收，而在于看清一套研究纲领如何被提出、如何自我论证、又在哪里自信过头。商务印书馆这一版由潘威、郭本禹据1930年修订版译出，收入“汉译世界学术名著丛书”。译文配以完整章节标题与索引，便于检索与对照原文。书中论情绪条件作用、习惯养成、言语与思维的部分，对教育、育儿、行为矫正乃至广告传播仍有启发；而“人格只是习惯之产物”这类断言，恰好适合作为课堂讨论与批判性阅读的材料。既适合心理学专业学生作为流派原典精读，也适合对心理学史、行为科学感兴趣的普通读者选读。

Who it's for

A good fit for

心理学专业本科生、研究生，需要精读行为主义原典的学习者
对心理学史与20世纪科学思潮感兴趣的读者
教育、育儿、行为矫正、广告传播等实践领域从业者
习惯养成、自我管理类读者，想了解行为主义解释框架的人

Not a good fit for

希望读到当代整合视角心理学导论的入门读者
对实验细节与生理构造章节缺乏耐心、只想读结论的人
期待系统介绍斯金纳、班杜拉等后续新行为主义理论的读者

Reading tips

可先读第一章与第十二章，抓住华生的核心主张，再回头细读中间各章的证据链。
读时随手对照今日心理学教材，标注已被推翻或修正的论断，形成自己的批判笔记。
情绪与习惯两章可结合自身育儿、教养或习惯改变的实例来读，理解条件作用的现实含义。
生理构造与腺体两章偏技术，非专业读者可略读，重点把握“行为可被客观研究”这一论证思路。

About the publisher

The Commercial Press China · Founded in 1897

The Commercial Press is a publisher known for classic works and academic publishing, with titles spanning Eastern philosophy, foreign literature, world history, social culture, and applied psychology. Its list includes classical commentaries such as Zhu Xi's Collected Commentaries on the Analects and Wang Bi's Commentary on the Zhouyi, as well as modern annotated translations like Zhuangzi with Modern Notes and Translation. In foreign literature it offers War and Peace and Crime and Punishment, while in world history it carries Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Applied psychology is represented by Irvin D. Yalom's Existential Psychotherapy, and ethical texts include a Greek-Chinese-English edition of the Nicomachean Ethics. Its authors and translators include Zhu Xi, Wang Bi, Yalom, Braudel, and translators such as Huang Zheng, Zhang Yiling, Shen Dongyu, and Tang Jialong, balancing the editing of original texts with academic translation.

Introduction
Chapter 1: What Is Behaviorism? — A Comparison of the Old and New Psychology
Chapter 2: How to Study Human Behavior — Questions, Methods, Techniques, and Examples of Research Findings
Chapter 3: The Human Body — What It Is Made Of, How It Is Assembled and How It Works, Part One: The Bodily Structures That Make Behavior Possible
Chapter 4: The Human Body (Continued) — What It Is Made Of, How It Is Assembled and How It Works, Part Two: The Role of the Glands in Everyday Behavior
Chapter 5: Do Humans Have Instincts? Part One: An Inquiry into the Inheritance of Talents, Tendencies, and So-Called "Mental" Traits
Chapter 6: Do Humans Have Instincts? (Continued) Part Two: Insights from the Study of Human Infants
Chapter 7: Emotions — What Innate Emotions We Have, How We Acquire New Emotions, and How We Lose Old Ones, Part One: An Overview of Emotion Research and Related Experiments
Chapter 8: Emotions (Continued) — What Innate Emotions We Have, How We Acquire New Emotions, and How We Lose Old Ones, Part Two: Further Experiments and Observations on How Emotions Are Acquired, Transformed, and Lost
Chapter 9: Our Bodily Habits — How They Begin; How We Maintain and Discard Them
Chapter 10: Speech and Thought — Understanding Speech and Thought Correctly, and Dispelling the Notion That Humans Have a "Mental" Life
Chapter 11: Do We Always Think in Words? — Or Does Our Whole Body Participate in Thinking?
Chapter 12: Personality — Proposing the View That Our Personality Is Merely a Product of Habits
Index

FAQ

这本书和北京大学出版社2012年版有什么区别？

两版译者和出版社不同：北京大学版由李维翻译，属“科学素养文库·科学元典丛书”；商务印书馆版由潘威、郭本禹翻译，收入“汉译世界学术名著丛书”，并附索引，可对照阅读。

没有心理学基础能读懂吗？

可以。华生写作时面向普通读者，语言通俗、举例多。不过书中涉及人体构造、腺体、条件作用实验等内容，零基础读者略读相关章节即可，不必纠结细节。

书中观点今天还成立吗？

部分已不成立。华生否定本能、否认内部心理过程的极端立场，后来被认知心理学和新行为主义修正。但它作为历史文献的价值，以及关于习惯、情绪的许多观察，仍值得参考。

这个译本依据哪个英文版本？

据出版信息，该译本据N. N. Norton出版公司1930年修订版译出，全书十二章，附索引。

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About the author

约翰·B.华生 Author

John B. Watson is the author of Behaviorism, though public information on his full English name, nationality, dates of birth and death, and other personal background is limited. What can be confirmed is that this work is classified as a philosophy title, and its Chinese translation gives Chinese-language readers access to the basic claims of behaviorism, a field at the intersection of psychology and philosophy. Judging from the title and its classification, the book develops the core position of behaviorism—that psychology should focus on observable behavior rather than introspective consciousness—and extends this into philosophical reflection on mind, language, and knowledge. Watson's writing is marked by clear theses and direct argumentation, with little personal narrative or literary embellishment; its emphasis is on redefining the object and method of psychology from a behaviorist perspective. The work has had a certain influence in related fields and is often regarded as one of the introductory texts for understanding the development of behaviorist thought. It should be noted that, since only one of his works is held in the collection, public information on Watson's fuller biography and academic career is limited, and no speculation is offered here.