RECOMMENDATIONS FOR READERS
We highly recommend this book to behavior analysts (and others) with an interest in theory or theory construction. Much is new or modified from Staats' prior works, such as his framework theory of abnormal behavior (chap. 7). The breadth and the many provocative ideas should be useful to both basic and applied behavior analysts.
If one were to use this book for teaching graduate students and could not assign the whole book, probably the most important chapters would be the first three to five. They give Staats' overall conception completely enough for the student to understand its essence. Chapter 4 could even be omitted from that assignment.
Some readers may find Staats' approach too close to a hypothetical-deductive one, but it seems well worthwhile to propose a skeleton on which flesh needs to be added as a way of pointing the direction for future research, theory, and even practice. Staats has done this well, and we hope it does provoke much development, especially in areas previously neglected by behavior analysis.