The virtues of scientific psychology: A reply to Harzem.

Buskist et al. (1988) wrote a reply to Harzem. Harzem said behavior analysis had stalled since the 1960s. The authors counted books, articles, and new ideas. They showed the field had grown, not stopped.

The paper is a position piece. No new lab data. Just a tally of what already exists.

The review found piles of evidence. Labs had built steady theory since 1960. Restarting from zero would waste that work.

In short, behavior analysis already has a strong base. We can build on it instead of tearing it down.

Marr (1989) took the idea further. One year later he urged Newton-style math models. He said numbers can link tiny moment-to-moment acts to big life patterns. This extends the 1988 claim that data exist; now we formalize them.

Watson et al. (2007) added a twist. They agreed science grows, but said values can clash. When data alone can’t solve an ethical problem, gather the team and talk it out Dewey-style. This keeps the field both scientific and humane.

Sosa et al. (2022) seem to push back. They praise the old data yet say feedback-control theory could replace today’s framework. It looks like a reboot, but it’s an upgrade, not a restart. The 1988 pile of facts stays; the lens changes.

You can trust the decades of JABA and JEAB on your shelf. When a colleague claims ‘we need to start over,’ show them the graph of growing citations. Use that history to defend keeping effective procedures like reinforcement-based DTT or FCT in your clinic today.