Joseph Morrow                           

(9.18.35 - death)

Primary Areas of Study

Radical behaviorist history and philosophy

Links

Applied Behavior Consultants, Inc. Website

CSUS Faculty

International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis Awardee

A Mother's Courage interviewee

Selected Papers

Morrow, Joseph E.,  (2008) Behaviorism And Applied Behavior Analysis: History Philosophy And Cultural Impact.  Review of Psycho-Pedagogy.  Special Psihopedagogy Department.  University Of Bucharest.  Humanitas  Foundation Publishing House, Bucharest Romania

Selected Books

Morrow, Joseph E. 2011.  Introduction to Applied Behavior Analysis, Chapter One in Children with Special Needs and Applied Behavior Analysis (特殊儿童应用行为分析)   Published By PEKING UNIVERSITY PRESS

ABC, Inc. videos

Students

Intellectual Ancestry

Skinner never had many students.  Those of us who became “Skinnerians” in the 50’ies and 60’ies usually did so because of some book we read.  I have discussed this over the years with many behaviorists.  Jack Michael read Science and Human Behavior.  Jim Holland read Behavior of Organisms.  In my own situation I was an experimental psych graduate student given the task of teaching an introductory psych course at Washington State University and allowed to choose my own text. It was 1963. I started looking through the intro texts and each time I would find a number of issues in the text that only raised disdain.  I remember saying over and over again, “I can’t ask students to learn this junk.”  I literally stumbled on a text –because of the name- Principles of Psychology by Keller and Schoenfeld.  I read it and said that I could ask students to learn this.  In the process I became an ardent radical behaviorist.  I had much to learn and was highly influenced later by Science and Human Behavior and Contingencies of Reinforcement.  I had a short and productive relationship with J.D. Keehn who got me through the Ph.D. process despite my being left of Lenin in a climate of John Birch.I was usually the only behaviorist on the faculty but benefited greatly from the counsel of Henry Corte, Jack Michael (who taught me PSI), Bob Jensen, Helene Burgess, and Jim Holland.  I never thought of myself as a psychologist despite the fact that I taught in psych departments.  When the Association for Behavior Analysis came along, around 1975 I finally found my professional allies and I have been there ever since.

Additional Information

Brief essay on J. Watson by Joseph Morrow