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The behavioral sciences-anthropology, sociology, psychology, economics, geography, political science-have reached a turning point as we enter the decade of the 1990s. Freed from a strict emulation of classical science methodology, while benefiting from the remarkable advances in biology and the other "hard" sciences, scholars in the behavioral scie
List of contents
Preface -- Behavioral Science in Perspective -- Perspectives on Behavioral Science -- Metaphysics and Methodology -- Views from the Disciplines -- Mind as Machine: The Cognitive Revolution in Behavioral Science -- Psychology and the Decline of Positivism: The Case for a Human Science -- Anthropology: Ships That Crash in the Night -- Sociology: Retrospect and Prospect -- Toward a Behavioral Science of World Politics -- Behavioral Science at the Boundary -- Language and Other Cognitive Systems -- Health and Behavior: An Evolutionary Perspective on Contemporary Problems -- An Uneasy Partnership: Law and the Behavioral Sciences -- Behavioral Science and World Problems -- The Social Sciences and the Population Problem1 -- A Behavioral Science Perspective on the Study of War and Peace -- Greenhouse Gases, Nile Snails, and Human Choice -- Conclusion -- Behavioral Science: An Emerging Paradigm for Social Inquiry?
About the author
Richard Jessor, PhD, ScD, is Distinguished Professor of Behavioral Science and Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder where he has spent his entire academic career. He was an invited Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1995-96, and he received the Outstanding Achievement in Adolescent Medicine Award in 2005 from the Society for Adolescent Medicine. Jessor is, after 65 years, the longest-serving active faculty member at the University of Colorado. In May 2015, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by the Regents of the University of Colorado.
Summary
Perspectives on Behavioral Science captures a sense of the reappraisal taking place in the behavioral sciences today. The distinguished contributors focus on the new paradigms of the behavioral sciences, illuminating not only ourselves but also our place in a changing world.
