Government and Law
The use of power to punish
What is the narrow definition of government?
A response in which the consequence and the response my only be temporally related. This is likely to occur in verbal behavior, such as a child saying "stop" to a ball and the ball stops. Additionally, we see this as a way to shift blame to an individual even though their behavior is not related to the consequence at all. Such as a car accident occurring after a person engages in behavior that makes everyone late.
What is a superstitious response?
Escape in which the individual may attempt to run away from the controller.
Revolt in which the individual engages in a counterattack
Passive resistance in which the individual simply doesn't behave in a manner that conforms with the expectations of the contoller.
What are the byproducts of control?
A promise to pay based upon the topography of a behavior and verbal specifications of how the behaviro is executed and to what degree.
What are the conditions of payment?
It emphasizes the acquisition of behavior rather than maintenance, which sets it apart from other agencies. Through this process, discriminative operants are brought under the control of designated stimuli so that the individual is prepared for events that are likely to occur in the future.
What is education?
This is the governmental delineation between what the group may refer to as "right" or "wrong"
What is "legal" or "illegal"?
An extension of "good" and "bad", "legal" and "illegal" as it applies to the religious institution. It is the primary technique of control applied to the individuals that are part of the religious group.
What is "moral" and "immoral" or "virtuous" and "sinful"?
This is a potential effect of control on operant behavior. It is seen when the individual has been severely punished and no longer is able to effectively or accurately execute discriminative responses.
What is defective stimulus control?
These are not often used in the workplace but can generate positive responding. This would be attributed as a bonus delivered on an intermittent schedule that is unpredictable and in small sums. This is not akin to a Christmas bonus which becomes part of a fixed schedule as it occurs annually.
What is a variable schedule?
Good grades, promotions, diplomas, degrees, medals, special privileges, acceptance into exclusive clubs, and social approval to name a few.
What are the reinforcers commonly established by educational agencies?
This is the net result of engaging in illegal behavior - a private event which is an aversive stimuli which provide for the automatic positive reinforcing quality of behaving in a manner considered legal
What is "feeling guilty"?
Through conditioning verbal reinforcements that promise an after-life of Heaven or Hell.
How does the religious agency achieve power?
Thrill-seeking is an example. This is a potential effect of control on operant behavior. It is characterized by responding that is not well adapted to reality.
What is excessively vigorous behavior?
Payment is delivered upon a per unit output by the individual. It is a highly effective schedule which can lead to long work hours and high rates of activity both of which may be harmful to the individual. If the schedule is at the right rate it keeps performance steady. If the rate is too high or there is inadequate reinforcement provided a post-reinforcement pause occurs in which the individual decreases activity after the reinforcement is delivered.
What is a fixed ratio schedule?
When educational reinforcement is made available based only on a particular topography of a behavior that reaches a designated intensity.
What is skill?
It is a statement of the effect of one's behavior on another rather than a topographical description. More specifically it is a statement of the contingency of reinforcement maintained by a government agency.
What is a law?
This type of behavior is promoted by the religious agency. It is in direct contrast to behavior that the agency tries to suppress, which benefits the individual. Examples of those promoted include: love, charity, and faith. Examples of those suppressed include: gluttony and possessive behavior.
What is behavior that benefits the group?
A controlling agency designed to treat behavior which has become dangerous to the individual or to others in the individual's landscape. It is characterized by a) diagnosis b) therapy and c- the non-punishing audience.
What is psychotherapy?
The scientific study of people engaging in buying, selling, lending, borrowing, hiring and working (p.398) The study of human behavior is implicit as the money is the conditioned reinforcer for which other reinforcers are exchanged.
What is economics?
It is sometimes defined as the probability of a skilled behavior but this is not a wholely accurate description. It truly relies on the exact right response (skill) executed at the exact right time under tight stimulus control. This is also referred to as fluent responding in later behavior analytic literature.
What is knowledge?
The modern view accepts that this is an influence on the law. Because of this there are variances in laws: French Law, English Law, US Law. However, although this is an advancement, there are still discrepancies between the scientific account of human behavior and the legal account of human behavior.
What is culture?
The aversive stimuli imposed by the religious institution of which there is a means of escaping by engaging in pious behavior or asking for absolution.
What is "sin"?
An effect of control on operant behavior; this is a form of escape from both conditioned and unconditioned aversive stimuli by the use of alcohol or other drugs- particularly this is characterized by the use of drugs or alcohol to escape withdrawal symptoms.
What is drug addiction?
These are most common reinforcement schedules in the work place and are when payment is delivered daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc.
What is a fixed interval schedule?
It is the effect of the speaker on the listener in so much as they are able to impart verbal stimuli that alters the probability of the behavior of the listener. It is a complex process that cannot be oversimplified as the listener must have a significant learning history to condition the verbal stimulus to have the same properties as the experience itself. This can be represented by a parent telling a child the stove is "hot". This is not inherently understood by the child, but if the child has a prior learning history sufficient to strengthen the verbal stimulus of "hot", then this may weaken the probability of the response of touching the stove in that moment.
What is instruction?
This is what we rely on for a person to behave legally. It is through this that the individual is able to have "knowledge of consequences", meaning that there is an understanding of what may occur based on their behavior. In this way the government relies on this for the individual to come under the control of the law without having prior contact with any of the consequences available for illegal behavior.
What is the prior history of reinforcement and punishment?
These are behaviors that characterize how the psychotherapist diagnosis the inner illness. They are found to be an indicator of the inner illness rather than the item to be treated. Collectively these are grouped together as a profile and listed in diagnostic manuals like the DSM-V suggesting some uniformity which may or may not exist in the data.
What are symptoms?
Some places of employment supplement fixed interval schedules with bonuses or other incentive pay. This helps to alleviate some of the problems with one type of schedule by supplementing with the other.
What is a combined schedule?
This is the lay-person's term for what we can understand as a state in which the individual is influenced by emotion or motivational variables to such a degree that the techniques of governmental control are no longer effective. The individual is typically not incarcerated (according to Skinner) because they are not believed to be a threat to society as the likelihood of a resurgence of the behavior is not likely.
What is a "crime of passion"?
Fear - in which behavior that has led to escape is strengthened and other behaviors have been weakened
Anxiety- commonly accompanied by fear and avoidance behaviors, it is characterized by a response which is aroused by features of the environment which have previously aroused a fear response
Anger or Rage - Emotional response accompanied by reflexes that create a heightened state in which aggressive acts toward the controller may occur
Depression- another emotional response which is paired with passive resistance (sulking, boredom, listlessness, sleeping, etc).
What are the emotional byproducts of control?
This is payment that is delivered based on work meeting a particular expectation. This drives the individual to perform at a quality that is higher than what is needed in order to ensure they maximize the payment received.
What is differential payment based on quality of work?
This is often described as a government which governs the least, but is really the principle of a government making the least use of it's power to wield punishment, which likely encourages our support and reinforcement of the government in response.
What is freedom?
The counter control which discourages the misuse of the control that the psychotherapist is able to gain over the individuals with whom they work.
What are ethical standards and practices of the organized profession of psychotherapy?
According to Skinner the individual and the employer both engage in this behavior. The individual does this when they accept or reject a job offer and the employer does this when they consider whether or not to offer a job to an individual.
What is weighing positive and negative reinforcers?
The government arranges an environment in which aversive consequences or punishments do not occur, positive consequences are contacted regularly and the individuals being governed do not enter extreme deprivation states. This also creates an environment in which those being governed are likely to support the government.
What is security?
A potential effect of control on the operant- this is characterized by severely limited responding which is a result of punishment. It can range from driving carefully after a car accident to complete hysterical paralysis.
What is excessively restrained behavior?
This is a principle promoted by governments meaning that they are wielding their power to punish equally or responsibly. In actuality, a government possessing this quality is quite simply more likely to reinforce those individuals that support it.
What is justice or a just government?
Although he attributed behavior to variables of cause and effect, he attributed these relations to explanatory fictions. Interestingly he paved the way for dismissing these explanatory fictions by noting that some events could not be observed even by the individual themselves. However, he embraced an analysis of inferences leading him to be one of the key contributors to the field of psychotherapy.
Who is Freud?