The Consummate Skinnerian: Remembering Jack Michael

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

Jack Michael,Behavior Analyst

Jack Michael was the quintessential behavior analyst. Despite his reputation as a theoretician and expert in verbal behavior and on Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior, Jack was actually an applied behavior analyst in the literal sense before anyone had coined the term. Prior to becoming one of Jack’s doctoral students at Western Michigan University, I was a behavior-analytic neophyte. After I graduated and began my own teaching (modeled after Jack’s behavior-analytic method of teaching) and thinking and writing about behavior analysis, I found myself talking and thinking like Jack. He had a similar behavior changing effect not only on many of his other students, but also on others who had the good fortune to know him.     

A Tribute to the Life of Jack Michael

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

The Early Medieval State: A Strategic-Relational Approach

The state is a contested concept in the historiography on early medieval societies. Debates have frequently revolved around its heuristic validity, but few scholars have addressed its broader theoretical implications. Those who have tend to reduce the state to its institutional features and privilege the role of the dominant groups in the analysis of state-building processes and the workings of the state. This paper contends that a richer conceptualisation of the state can overcome the limits of the debate as it has been framed so far and provide a deeper insight into how social relations shaped and were shaped by the development of early medieval polities. After reviewing the most significant historiographical contributions to the debate, the paper introduces the Strategic-Relational Approach to the state, as formulated by B. Jessop, as one that can provide a more nuanced understanding of early medieval polities. Particular emphasis is made on the analysis of class relationships and the articulation of hegemonic projects as two particularly fruitful lines of inquiry. Finally, the paper focuses on one particular instance of early medieval political practice, the politics of the land, as a means to illustrate the potential of the approach.     

Memories of Jack Michael From a Freshman Whose Life He Changed

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

Standing on the Shoulders of a Giant: Remembrances of Jack Michael,Part 1

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - In 1959, Jack Michael and his PhD student Ted Ayllon published “The Psychiatric Nurse as a Behavioral Engineer” (Ayllon & Michael, 1959). That...     

Standing on the Shoulders of a Giant: Remembrances of Jack Michael,Part 2

In Part 1 of these remembrances of Jack Michael, we briefly described Jack’s history in terms of how he became a behavior analyst (Sundberg & Schlinger, 2021). We pointed out that he was one of the first to apply the principles of behavior analysis discovered in the experimental laboratory to the area of rehabilitation. In so doing, Jack was perhaps the first applied behavior analyst. In Part 1, some of his former students and close associates from his early years at the University of Houston, Arizona State University, and Western Michigan University—John Mabry, Grayson Osborne, Jon Bailey, Mark Sundberg, and J. Vincent Carbone—provided their personal tributes to Jack. In Part 2, we offer six more tributes that—with one exception, that of Ted Ayllon—provide insight into Jack’s work in the latter part of his career. In addition to Ted Ayllon, these tributes are from Jack’s students and close associates Hank Schlinger, Dave Palmer, John and Barb Esch, Carl Sundberg, and Caio Miguel. The authors provide insights not only into their views about Jack but also into their own lives. Collectively, they paint a picture of people from different backgrounds that all found their way to Jack Michael and to behavior analysis. To a person, they describe how their behavior, whether as scientists, practitioners, or both, was radically transformed as a result, and how they attribute that change largely to Jack’s influence.     

The Quality‐Defining Process in Early Years Services: A Case Study

In this article we argue, through a case study in a large, urban local authority in England, that local stakeholders in early years provision express a variety of perspectives on quality but are constrained by a national framework which promotes an ‘official’ definition of quality. We offer a quality‐defining model that captures the role of both ‘official’ definitions and more pluralistic approaches to quality. Finally, we highlight mechanisms already in place in the structure of early years services that could offer social spaces for the quality‐defining process to take place.     

The astronaut and Foggy Bottom PR: Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Michael Collins, 1969–1971

Michael Collins was one of the three astronauts in the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, although only the other two walked on the moon. Upon his return, he became Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. His main assignment was to reach out to the college generation that was protesting the war in Viet Nam. Collins served for 15 months, resigning to head the nascent National Air and Space Museum. This article recounts his experience as the top public relations officer for the State Department and concludes with Collins’ own views on the experience, 35 years later.     

Vulnerable Multiracial Families and Early Years Services: Concerns,Challenges and Opportunities

In Britain, very young mixed-parentage children are more likely to receive state care than any other children. However, despite a dramatic increase in the number of multiracial families, their experiences have received little research attention. This article reviews the research on the experiences of vulnerable and poor multiracial families. Three areas of concern emerge—the relationship between family structure, locality and racism, disadvantage and oppression; the impact on family life of structurally reinforced and culturally defined gender roles; and the strengths and limitations of current early years research and practice. Suggestions are made about ways in which early years professionals might develop their practice with young vulnerable multiracial families.     

Equal Opportunities and Ethnicity in the Early Years: Implementing the Children Act

SUMMARY: This paper discusses findings from a research study on the implementation of the Children Act 1989, undertaken a year after the Act came into operation. It covers the three main functions of provider, coordinator, and regulator assigned to local authorities in respect of daycare and related services to children under-eight; focusing on the ways in which local authorities interpreted the Act in responding to issues of equal opportunities and ethnic diversity.