Ruben Ardila PhD

Ruben's main academic and research activities have been developed at the National University of Colombia, at the University of the Andes, and at Saint Thomas University. He has also been a visiting professor in several countries: Germany, the USA, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, and Spain.

His main fields of work and research are experimental psychology, history of psychology, social issues. He has carried out research in fields such as the influence of early experiences on animal behavior, the evolution of behavior, patterns of child rearing, the psychological impact of the nuclear war threat, human rights, the effects of unemployement, reinforcement schedules, etc. One of his most recent research publications is the social perception of science and the psychology of scientists; the name of the book is Science and the Scientists: A Psychological Perspective.

Rubén Ardila proposed an integrating paradigm for psychology which he named, Experimental synthesis of behavior. His aim is to find a unifying paradigm for psychology, beyond schools and psychological systems. It is not an «eclectic» proposal, but a paradigm derived from the experimental analysis of behavior (hence its name). Said unifying paradigm has had a great influence on psychology at the international level. There are several groups in different countries around the world that study and investigate the paradigm of the experimental synthesis of behavior.