The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self-Instruction

The book's central claim is that the principles of behavior analysis are best taught through programmed instruction—the same reinforcement technology the content describes. Holland and Skinner designed the text as a linear sequence of frames, each requiring the student to construct a response before moving on. The student writes the answer in a blank, then immediately checks it against the correct response. This format ensures active responding, immediate feedback, and self-pacing, implementing Skinner's conviction that effective teaching means arranging contingencies of reinforcement rather than delivering information. The content and the method are thus inseparable: the book teaches behavior analysis by making the reader's learning itself an example of the principles being taught .

James G. Holland (1927–2018) was a pioneer of programmed instruction who worked with Skinner to develop The Analysis of Behavior . While Skinner supplied the theoretical framework and the authority of his name, Holland contributed the programmatic design expertise. He developed techniques for evaluating programs, most notably the "Blackout Technique," which determined how much of a frame's text was actually necessary for occasioning the correct answer. One study found that 90% of the words in a particular frame were unnecessary . Holland later became a prominent critic of the behavior analysis establishment, arguing that radical behaviorism should address social inequality and institutional control. His collaboration with Skinner represents the convergence of operant theory and instructional technology.

The book's table of contents follows a carefully ordered progression from basic to complex. It begins with reflex behavior, then moves through operant conditioning's elementary concepts, precise contingencies, shaping, and intermittent reinforcement. Subsequent chapters address stimulus control, deprivation, emotion (two chapters), avoidance and escape behavior, and punishment. The final sections extend the analysis to scientific interpretation of complex cases, self-control, and the interpretation of personality . This sequence reflects Skinner's pedagogical logic: each concept builds on the previous one, and the student is never asked to respond to material for which the necessary prerequisites have not been established. The program covers the same conceptual territory as a conventional textbook but distributes it across hundreds of small, cumulative steps.

Contemporary reviews were generally positive about the program's construction. A 1961 review in Contemporary Psychology called it "one of the most carefully prepared programs available for use at the college level," noting that the items were carefully written and intelligently organized and that the entire program had gone through two revisions . The reviewer acknowledged that some students might have negative attitudinal or motivational reactions but concluded that the advantages outweighed the drawbacks. A more critical evaluation appeared in a 1963 Australian journal, which argued that the program's extrapolations to human behavior consisted of "anecdotes and fantastic anecdotes" and that students should be asking "Is this so?" rather than simply supplying correct answers. That reviewer warned the program risked becoming "an instrument of indoctrination rather than of education" .

The book has an unusual physical feature: the BnF catalog notes that the text is printed tête-bêche, meaning the second part of the text is read with the book turned upside down . This design choice reflects the programmed format's practical requirements. The student works through frames sequentially, writing answers in the blanks, and the head-to-tail arrangement may have been intended to allow the student to check answers without the visual distraction of the correct responses being immediately adjacent on the same page opening. It is a physical manifestation of the book's commitment to the contingencies of self-instruction: the design serves the pedagogy rather than the other way around.

The Analysis of Behavior (1961) is the practical demonstration of the principles Skinner would articulate in The Technology of Teaching (1968). The earlier book shows what programmed instruction looks like when fully realized: linear frames, constructed responses, immediate confirmation, self-pacing. The later book provides the theoretical justification, arguing that teaching is the arrangement of contingencies of reinforcement and that traditional instruction relies too heavily on aversive control. The Analysis of Behavior can be read as a case study of the technology The Technology of Teaching advocates. Together they form a pair: one demonstrates the method in action, the other explains why the method works and how it should be extended to education more broadly.