From the very beginning, the organization of regular annual PSBP scientific symposiums – held in March, around the anniversary of B. F. Skinner’s birth – has been of the most important initiatives of the PTPB, aimed at promoting behavioral psychology. The symposiums are aimed at presenting (1) theoretical issues, (2) research results, (3) the results of practical experiments, and (4) the applications of behavioral psychology. The papers address a wide range of issues from the perspective of behavioral psychology, even if this perspective is not the only one and not the dominant one in the approach to a given problem. The symposiums are an opportunity for the entire Polish community of behavior analysts to meet, exchange views, discuss, and integrate. They also make it possible to show the specificity of behavioral psychology against other psychological theories, which is why they attract representatives not only of behavioral psychology but also of other branches of contemporary psychology.

 

The first symposium was held on March 18, 2005, at the JU Institute of Psychology. It attracted nearly twenty participants, who listened to five speakers. Subsequent symposiums enjoyed increasingly large interest; they attracted an increasing number of participants and speakers, representing various academic and therapeutic organizations from all over Poland. The series of symposiums held in Cracow culminated in the sixth one, which took place in 2010. The circle of speakers included not only representatives of Poland’s largest academic and therapeutic centers but also special guests from abroad, B. F. Skinner’s disciples (Prof. William Baum and Prof. Howard Rachlin), who became honorary PSBP members during the symposium.