Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Behavior analysis is a generic science, and Skinner's vision for it was that it would become a mainstream force, relevant for most if not all human concerns, major and minor.
Clearly his vision has not been realized. Determining why this is the case would require a complex multifactorial analysis. One likely factor is that the majority of its basic science findings have been obtained from the study of rats and pigeons. Another likely factor, one directly addressed by this paper, is that the majority of its applied science findings have been obtained from the study of people in only one tail of the normal distribution.
Regardless, those outside the field see the relevance of behavior analysis to general human affairs as very limited. Whether the path behavior analysis is on will lead to widespread perception of mainstream relevance anytime soon seems doubtful. An alternative route would involve integrating it with a field that has already made the trip successfully. A premier example involves primary medical care. This paper argues for the integration of behavior analysis with pediatric primary care, sketches a method for its accomplishment, and uses diurnal enuresis to illustrate the requirements of the method.
Skinner's vision of behavior analysis was that it would become a mainstream science relevant to all aspects of human behavior and that it would be harnessed to improve the human condition substantively.
Alas, that vision has yet to materialize. This is not to say behavior analysis has not contributed. On the contrary, behavior analysis has flourished in one tail of the distribution of human concerns.
