A New Perspective // Samantha Tedder

     Behaviorism, through my entire high school career and college career until now has been comprised of Pavol and his dogs, dissing all other behaviorists and not attempting to acknowledge any benefits of the practice. This has left me with a skewed view of behaviorism, which I was glad to have challenged by Skinner's essay. 

    Skinner believes behaviorism has been misrepresented and reduced to far simpler terms than it is due. I must acknowledge all 20 bad examples are ones I have heard and maybe a few I've agreed with. Though Skinner has succeeded in showing a value to behaviorism. He goes back to Watson, one of the fathers of the study, and acknowledges how it was turned into something it was never intended to be. Neither Pavlov nor Watson could truly see inside the mind and make factual statements, and they were not trying to. They were trying to understand the mind by its choices and responses to the world around it. 

Overall I found his explanation of behaviorism quite helpful in understanding its purpose. It is about understanding the causes of behavior and their patterns. Then using these discoveries to in a perfect world create good behavior. A scary side to this would be the desire to manipulate others with behaviorism, so I can only really get behind it in a therapeutic setting. Regardless I think behaviorism has to be paired with something else. Humans are not computers; sometimes, we break patterns and cycles so much that we surprise ourselves. We have emotions and thoughts that do not bend to reason and fight against our natural inclination in situations. 


P.S. I commented on Josh N' and Song W's Blogs

Comments

  1. Bug OlsenMarch 21, 2022 at 10:21 PM

    I agree with your statement that behaviorism has to be paired with something else. Until reading this, I always thought of behaviorism as an "either-or" between the mental and physical worlds. Skinner's writing helped me understand this better, and it makes much more sense than I initially thought.

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  2. Raygan BosterMarch 21, 2022 at 11:13 PM

    Studying peoples behavior can be really helpful if used correctly. I like how you mentioned how it can be used to manipulate others because it is incredibly accurate. However, when used correctly, it can help you understand what that person might be feeling and lead to more understanding and acceptance than was initially possible.

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  3. Emma Kate PattersonMarch 22, 2022 at 3:08 AM

    I think you are absolutely right in saying that in order to change something we must first understand it. If we aim to reduce bad behavior and increase good behavior we must first understand where our behavior comes from.

    ReplyDelete

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