Chapter 1 – Introduction

Many of society’s best achievements—from democratic government to helping the less fortunate, and from great works of art to important scientific discoveries—as well as some of its most pressing health and social challenges—from unhealthy lifestyles to environmental pollution and from racism to terrorism—are firmly rooted in behavior. Behavior is anything that a person says or does. Some commonly used synonyms include “activity,” “action,” “performance,” “responding,” “response,” and “reaction.” Technically, behavior is any muscular, glandular, or electrical activity of an organism. The opposite of private or covert behavior is public or overt behavior. Although, behavior modifiers sometimes deal with covert behavior, they tend to focus on overt behavior, because the latter is generally more important to the individual and to society. Creativity also refers to the kinds of behavior that a person is likely to engage under certain circumstances.