156 A Psychological Behaviorism Theory of Personality
sulted from following psychoanalytic theory or traditional
developmental (biologically oriented) theory. Such cases
of applied failure represent disconfirmation of the theory. A
good theory should yield good applications. An important part
of PB’s development, thus, has been directed toward practice,
as will be briefly mentioned.
Clinical Applications
The analysis of the opposite speech of the schizophrenic pa-
tient contained clinical directives. The analysis said that the
opposite speech was learned and maintained via the inadver-
tent reinforcement provided by the professional staff (Staats,
1957). That analysis led directly to applications (Ayllon &
Michael, 1959). As another example, PB’s token reinforcer
system was employed as the token economy in dealing with
hospitalized psychotic patients (Ayllon & Azrin, 1968). Psy-
chological behaviorism analyses and reinforcement methods
have been used to train mentally retarded children (Bijou,
1965; Birnbrauer, Bijou, Wolf, & Kidder, 1965) and autistic
children (Lovaas, 1977), to toilet train children (Azrin &
Foxx, 1974), and to treat juvenile delinquents in different set-
tings (see Staats & Butterfield, 1965; Wolf, et al., 1976). Wolf,
Risely, and Mees (1964) used the PB approach of working in
the naturalistic situation, including PB’s time-out procedure,
in their seminal study to treat an autistic child’s behavior prob-
lems. Many of the other extensions of PB’s methods, as sug-
gested for a wide variety of children’s problems (see Staats,
1963; Staats & Butterfield, 1965; Staats & Staats, 1962) were
accomplished by others, creating the body of works con-
tributed to the establishment of the field of behavior analysis.
As another example, the PB theory of language provided a
basis for understanding why traditional verbal psychotherapy
could be used to change behavior therapeutically laying a
foundation for the field of cognitive behavior therapy (Staats,
1972). Radical behaviorism, however, rejected for some
16 years. Finally, verbal therapy was later accepted as though
it were a derivative of radical behaviorism (Hamilton, 1988;
Hayes & Wilson, 1994). Additional projections of clinical
research and treatment have been outlined based on the addi-
tional developments of PB (Staats, 1996, chap. 8).
Educational Psychology Applications
The PB research on reading and treatment of nonreading has
already been mentioned. Reading was conceptualized as a
later elaboration of the language-cognitive BBR. Learned on
the foundation of the repertoires of language, it is a complex
repertoire that requires long-term training and a huge number
of training trials. The subrepertoires of reading, when they
have been acquired, serve various learning functions for the
individual in later school learning (Staats, 1975). The PB
theory of reading focuses on this extensive learning and de-
nies the existence of biological defects responsible for learn-
ing disabilities such as dyslexia because the children have
normal intelligence, which means normal language BBRs.
PB research and analysis thus states the definitive principle
that if the child has developed normal language, then the
child has all the cognitive ability needed to learn reading per-
fectly well because no additional abilities are required for
reading (see Staats, 1975).
Dyslexia arises because there is inadequate reinforcement
to maintain the child’s attention and participation in the long
task. I designed the token reinforcer system to solve the moti-
vation problem by providing reinforcement for the child’s at-
tention and participation. The system works widely, as shown
by its use in the multitude of studies and programs designed to
treat reading and other developmental academic disorders (see
Burns & Kondrick, 1998; Sulzer-Azeroff & Mayer, 1986). The
Sylvan Learning Centers enterprise by its use of the token re-
inforcer system validates the system as well as the PB theories
of developmental academic disorders (see Staats, 1963, 1968,
1975, 1996). The PB theories of the various academic reper-
toires (reading, writing, counting, number operations, math)
provide the foundation for deriving a large body of additional
research to understand school learning and to solve the prob-
lems of school learning. The educational field’s absorption
with cognitive psychology stands in the way of the vast re-
search and application that would advance education so much.CONCLUSIONThe PB theory of personality is set in a general theory that goes
from the study of basic learning, including the biology of that
learning, through the multiple levels of study that provide
its principles and concepts. The theory of personality, thus, is
sunk into general psychology, making connections to various
fields in psychology. It is specific, objective, and empirical. It
draws widely on various areas of study, and it has implications
for conducting large amounts of additional research and appli-
cation in various areas and fields of study. The theory provides
a philosophy of science and methodology of theory construc-
tion. This is the only theory of personality that claims it can be
employed to establish or to change personality, a claim that if
fulfilled would have enormous importance. It is the only the-
ory that is unified and has comprehensive scope—sorely
needed developments for the field and psychology generally.
It is a theory that ties together personality and personality
measurement on a broad front. And it projects new areas and