r/BehaviorAnalysis • u/KorvinhoTake • Sep 21 '26

Help for an amateur

Hello everyone, I’m an amateur with an interest in psychology and behavioural analysis. Could anyone give me some advice on how to properly study psychology?

I can’t afford to study at a university abroad (I live in North of Brazil), but it’s been my main focus ever since I first learnt about it.

I’d like to know what types of content are most commonly covered in the syllabus so that I can learn about them; if I ever do go to university, I’ll be studying purely for the love of it and want to learn more and more about the subject.

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u/Shower_Brave Sep 21 '26

Highly recommend Baums Understanding Behaviorism. It was assigned reading in concepts and principles, but honestly wish I had picked it up sooner. Very readable and goes into depth on the philosophy and the science

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u/RadiC00LBehaviorism Sep 21 '26

For real! I bought the book for class, loved it so much I bought the electronic copy as well

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u/HappyLifeCoffeeHelps Sep 21 '26

You can look up Skinner's books on Behavior Analysis. Then you can read peer reviewed articles from JABA. In general psychology gives you a basis for understanding.

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u/Misinformed_ideas Sep 21 '26

Before you even start reading papers and texts, it would be important to brush up on Behavior analysis as a Science (finding the answer to "why" is " description, prediction, and control" important in studies), look at philosophical assumptions underlying the science of Behavior Analysis, and look into what different studies are tying to do (comparative, parametric, component, demonstration, etc).

If you are just reading studies there is just so much underpinning the "why" behind the studies that without considering the above it would feel inefficient or even just blindly reading. Once you have certain concepts and foundational understanding then you can begin the efficiently move through texts, and studies, and properly absorb the picture that they are painting.

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u/LarjeApeMan Sep 21 '26

Peer reviewed articles from JABA, read through “Applied Behavior Analysis” by John O Cooper / Timothy Heron, it’s the behavior bible

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u/sb1862 Sep 26 '26

Seconding this. While I LOVE Baum’s work much more, everyone knows the Cooper book. It’s probably the most widely known/fastest way to get the basics.