"WE MUST CAST OUR LOTS WITH A NON-STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND ACHIEVE WHATEVER DEGREE OF RELIABILITY OR REPRODUCIBILITY WE MAY THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES OF MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL": FIRST EDITION OF SKINNER'S THE BEHAVIOR OF ORGANISMS: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS, 1938

SKINNER, Burrhus Frederic. Behavior of Organisms. An Experimental Analysis. New York and London: D. Appleton-Century, (1938). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $4200.

First edition of the foundational work in behavioral analysis and experimental analysis of behavior, in scarce original dust jacket.

This work established methods of experimentation in behavioral analysis and the theory underlying them. "Skinner outlines a science of behavior which generates its own laws through an analysis of its own data rather than securing them by reference to a conceptual neural process… The system developed in the present book is objective and descriptive. Behavior is regarded as either respondent or operant… The factual part of the book deals largely with this behavior as studied by the author in extensive researches on the feeding responses of rats. The conditioning of such responses is compared with the stimulus conditioning of Pavlov. Particular emphasis is placed on the concept of 'reflex reserve,' a process which is built up during conditioning and exhausted during extinction, and on the concept of reflex strength" (American Psychological Association). Owner signature of Dr. Charlotte Z. Brown, a psychiatry/community health professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Book fine, scarce dust jacket with a bit of wear and toning to extremities. A near-fine copy.