Dr. Amsel begins Part One by taking up the nature versus nurture debate, followed by his thoughts about folk psychology versus the scientific approach to psychology. He then concludes with an assessment of Sigmund Freud’s work.

In Part Two, Dr. Amsel covers a number of scientific approaches to many present-day issues ranging from trauma, to the heroine epidemic, to human development and concludes with his view on the future of the scientific approach to human behavior.

Dr. Biglan begins by explaining why prosocial behavior is so important for the well-being of people and groups and how prosocial groups have advantages. He then lays out coercion theory, developed by Gerald Patterson. He concludes Part One by taking up the political problems involved in bringing the results of coercion theory into mainstream America.

Dr. Biglan begins Part Two by suggesting how to get society to embrace interventions based on coercion theory. This is followed by a description of evidence-based practices and knowledge. He concludes with some philosophical thoughts on psychology and behavioral science moving forward.

Dr. Brinegar starts with her thoughts on the nature versus nurture debate. She then proceeds to tell us how behavioral economics differs from traditional economics, using the example of “risk.” She concludes by challenging the traditional economic concept of “the rational economic actor.”

Dr. Currie begins Part One with his unique perspective on the old nature versus nurture debate. Next he provides a comprehensive overview of the physiological and psychological impacts of chronic stress. He then shows us how science uses laboratory animal models to shed light on chronic stress.

In Part Two, Dr. Currie continues to discuss his laboratory research regarding animal models and chronic stress. He concludes with a presentation of his research into food addiction disorders.

In Part One, Dr. Desbordes takes you through a wide range of topics relating neuroscience to psychology, including the mind, memory, intention and the self. She concludes with a discussion about compassion meditation and changes in the brain.

Dr. Desbordes begins Part Two with Neuroplasticity and its relationship to the hippocampus. She ends with new research relating the psychological phenomenon with neural substrates.

Dr. Hackenberg begins Part One by reviewing the basic principles of behaviorism and then takes up the evolutionary approach to animal behavior. This leads to a discussion of cognition and language from the behavior analyst perspective.

In Part Two, Dr. Hackenberg continues the discussion of language from the behavioral analyst perspective. Next, he introduces us to an important aspect of behavioral economics, the Token Economy theory and concludes with a critique of the “rational actor” theory of classical economics.

Dr. Horner begins by bringing Skinner’s behaviorism into the 21st century and talks about how it has become integral to 21st century behavioral analysis interventions and programs, particularly with regard to schools. He concludes Part One with the history of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, PBIS.

In Part Two, Dr. Horner focuses on the implementation and successes of his Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program, which is revolutionizing the American school system.

Dr. Madden begins by offering his perspective on the nature versus nurture debate. He ends Part One by providing some broad definitions for behavioral science and behavior analysis.

In Part Two, Dr. Madden explains how “behavior reinforcers” are causes of human behavior. This leads to some of the key concepts in behavioral economics including discounted future consequences and an attack on classical economics’ “rational actor.” He concludes with his own research into changing behavior patterns and a new behavior analysis approach to clinical practice.

Dr. Murphy begins with his thoughts on the nature versus nurture debate and then defines the emerging field of behavioral geography. He concludes with some examples of the behavioral geographer’s perspective and how this perspective illustrates that people can see places differently.

Dr. Olds walks us through the history, the scientific basis, and the enormous success of the Nurse-Family Partnership program.

Dr. Patterson, who is now suffering from Parkinson’s disease, and Dr. Forgatch take you through the origins, development, techniques and successful interventions of their coercion theory.

Dr. Phelps begins Part One with some basic thoughts on behavioral science and then proceeds to bring the scientific perspective to some important psychological concepts including personality and schizophrenia.

In Part Two, Dr. Phelps brings the scientific perspective to bipolar disorder. He then analyzes a variety of developmental learning theories such as Piaget’s stage theory and habituation. He concludes with the increasing role of genetics and neuroscience in the study of behavior.

Dr. Thompson begins Part One with a personal account of the early days of behaviorism and early evolutionary behavioral models. As one of the founding fathers of the new autistic interventions methods, he goes on to define autism and some of its causes.

In Part Two, Dr. Thompson describes the pioneering intervention efforts that are taking place today in normalizing the lives of people who suffer from autism. He concludes with a couple of interesting case histories.

After commenting on the nature versus nurture debate, Dr. Tracer provides an overview of the integration of science and human behavior. Then he provides an in-depth analysis of behavior in terms of evolutionary concepts. From there he moves on to pro-sociality and its relationship to the emerging behavioral economic theory. He concludes with the results of his own research on breast-feeding.

Dr. Warneken takes you through his social cognition discoveries, including the ability of young children to read people’s minds prior to the development of language and that children are born with an altruistic ability to help others.