Should behaviorism

shape educational
practices?
CARSON M.
BENNETT
Human Freedom
must be
preserved and
extended!
Freedom is the ability to make choices
which are not controlled by highly
aversive stimuli.
• In behavioral view, FREEDOM is maintained or lost as
the result of ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES which
enlarge or limit the arena of possible actions, not as a
result of CHANGES IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS
OF HUMANS.
• In traditional view, FREEDOM is grounded in custom
and in the experience of choice. THOUGHTS and
FEELINGS are the generators of our actions.
• What we really experience as FREEDOM is
the opportunity and ability to behave in ways
that PRODUCE REWARDS and AVOID
PUNISHMENTS, not the absence of
environmental controls on our behavior.
• The traditional view of FREEDOM is
hard to defend on logical and
empirical grounds.
• We are confused on the issue of
crediting and blaming individuals for
their behavior as the result of their
past and present environmental
influences.
• As a result, B.F. Skinner developed
RADICAL BEHAVIORAL VIEWPOINT.
• All behavior is determined by the interaction
of past and present environmental
influences.
We cannot CHOOSE
OUR CHOICE even
though WE CAN
CHOOSE ONE
BEHAVIOR OVER
ANOTHER
•CHOICES are determined by
the interaction of
environmental and genetic
influences.
 A man walking through
a supposedly empty
cemetery at midnight. A
prankster hiding behind a
large headstone lets out an
unexpected and unnerving
moan. The man bursts into
a run, and does not stop
until he has sprinted out of
cemetery.
ABC Analysis
•Antecedent Event
•Behavior
•Consequence
• Thoughts and feelings
ACCOMPANY rather than
GENERATE behavior.
• They are as much shaped by the
environment as the observable
behavior is.
• We feel free in situations in which
our behavior is controlled by positive
events (rewards).
• We are not as likely to feel free when
our behavior is controlled by
aversive stimuli.
• We feel free in situations in which
our behavior is controlled by positive
events (rewards).
• We are not as likely to feel free when
our behavior is controlled by
aversive stimuli.
• Our behavior is EQUALLY under
environmental control whether that
control is positive or negative.
• “How can behavior be controlled
in ethical ways?”
• Control is ethical if it is agreed to by the
individual or his/ her parent/ guardian and if
it is in the best interest of the individual.
• Control is not ethical if it is just in the
interest or convenience of the controlling
individual or institution.
WHY HAS THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF HUMAN FREEDOM
PERSISTED?

• The behavioral view seems both to threaten

freedom and to contradict common sense.
• Our behavior can be free of any control except our
thoughts and feelings.
• Environmental influences are usually complex and
subtle and thus difficult to detect.
WHAT KIND OF SOCIAL AND PERSONAL GAINS WOULD RESULT IF
WE ADOPTED THE RADICAL BEHAVIORAL VIEWPOINT?

• By looking for the determinants of behavior in the environment,

we can control behavior more effectively.
• Efforts to address the substantial underachievement of children
in the lower socioeconomic class have been hampered by our
tendency to look for the causes of the underachievement in
some personality defect of the children or their parents.
• Many problems of the elderly could be addressed by designing
environments which would compensate for their declining
physical and intellectual resources.
IN WHAT IS B.F. SKINNER REALLY SAYING?

• When someone does something wrong, we should look at what is

wrong with the environment, not what is wrong with the person.
• Our society is fond of blaming the victim (e.g. homeless or the
welfare recipient). Society can help them by providing supportive
environmental changes rather than by exhorting them to display
more character or backbone.
• We would increase the effectiveness of behavioral controls by
taking long-term consequences into consideration.
 Let us celebrate and preserve our
freedom! But let us do so by
analyzing and changing our
environments to produce the kinds
of behavior and the kind of society
we want, instead of continuing to
substitute empty rhetoric about
“internal feelings” of action.
 REFERENCES
Bennett, Carson M. (1990). A Skinnerian View of Human Freedom. The Humanist, July/
August 1990. American Humanist Association.

Clashing Views on Educational Issues. Retrieved from

https://studylib.net/doc/6706448/clashing-views-on-educational-issues--18-e-expande
d

Issue 3 Should Behaviorism Shape Educational. Retrieved from https

://www.coursehero.com/file/p4hotpr/Issue-3-Should-Behaviorism-Shape-Educational
-Practices-Carson-Bennett-believes
/

Koonze, Glen L. (2014). Taking Side: Clashing Views on Educational Issues, 18 th ed.
McGraw Hills