Should Behaviorism Shape Educational Practices - Research Paper Example

 “Of all contemporary Psychologists, B.F. Skinner is the most honored and the most maligned, the most widely recognized and the most mis-represented, the most cited and the most misunderstood.” (Catania, 1989) In the history of psychology, Behaviorism can be considered a product of its times, and if we reflect back to 1938 when B.F. Skinner published his first book, “The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis,” it was a time when totalitarian and fascist regimes were growing ascendant across the world. When one considers “operant conditioning” in the context of those times, it seems as if Skinner is launching the handbook for all future police state control and propaganda models, our worst fears with how human beings are manipulated by the state through mass-produced media, consumer-driven reward systems, surveillance, and control of variables in perceptual reality conceptualization. Psychology is a word with many connotations from the Greek – the inquiry into the human “psyche” in all its dynamism, creativity, beauty, & amazing capabilities as shown through our lives, art, knowledge, thought, and culture as humans- Mind, in the traditional sense with all of its natural complexity. Skinner would excise completely from his research and logic in psychology, this manner of conceptualization of Mind, replacing it with the empirical study of behavior patterns. “Behaviorism, the doctrine, is committed in its fullest and most complete sense to the truth of the following three sets of claims: 1. Psychology is the science of behavior. Psychology is not the science of mind. 2. Behavior can be described and explained without making ultimate reference to mental events or to internal psychological processes. The sources of behavior are external (in the environment), not internal (in the mind, in the head). 3. In the course of theory development in psychology, if, somehow, mental terms or concepts are deployed in describing or explaining behavior, then either (a) these terms or concepts should be eliminated and replaced by behavioral terms or (b) they can and should be translated or paraphrased into behavioral concepts.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2001) Continuing the representation of historical context, consider this timeline of psychological research that was conducted contemporaneously with Skinner’s work in Behaviorism in America & abroad: 1936: First lobotomy in the United States “Walter Freeman performs first frontal lobotomy in the United States at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. By 1951, more than 18,000 such operations have been performed. The procedure, intended to relieve severe and debilitating psychosis, is controversial.” 1938: The Behavior of Organisms "B.F. Skinner publishes The Behavior of Organisms, introducing the concept of operant conditioning. The work draws widespread attention to behaviorism and inspires laboratory research on conditioning." 1938: Electroconvulsive therapy begun “Italian psychiatrist and neuropathologist Ugo Cerletti and his associates treat human patients with electrical shocks to alleviate schizophrenia and psychosis. ECT, while controversial, is proven effective in some cases and is still in use in 2001.” (WGBH, 2001) Thus, it is not an exaggeration at all to say that psychologists in 1938 were pursuing in recognized institutions research that we would consider atrocious, morally reprehensible, and untenable today, such as lobotomies and electro-shock therapy. Worse, we can detect actual cruelty in the research methods, in that the human beings in these instances are little more than objects of experimentation for the psychologists pleasure who show no compassion at all to their subjects. When we place Skinner’s experiments with rats and pigeons in operant conditioning cages, we see very clearly what this represents for the human, and also that it was meant for the human. Skinner draws direct conclusions from animal behavior to human behavior, data based on caged animals in industrial vacuums, stripped of all natural environment save the cold bare walls of a box and an apparatus to release food and water. For Skinner this is a valid method of psychological inquiry, but is no longer seen as such popularly by civil society in the 21st century. In the imagery of his experiments, we see the same architecture as in the concentration camps and the same mind-set. Indeed, it is easy to see a continuum between Skinner, Pavlov in the Soviet Union, Nazi scientists, and other researchers doing shock treatment and lobotomies on mental patients in 1938. The critique is that there is fascism and totalitarianism at the center of Skinner’s methods that echo the horrible visions and nightmares of the existentialists who were also contemporaries of that era. However, we see Kafka and Kierkegaard on the other side of the equation, as the victims of the modern state armed with Behaviorist logic and methods of social control. Some members of the Beat poets were lobotomized and given shock treatment by the leading psychologists in the 1950’s at Columbia University. We really have to question then, in retrospect, because we know definitively through 20/20 hindsight that the concentration camps, lobotomies, experiments on humans as animals, experiments on animals as machines, mechanizing individual humans, breaking their spirit, and denying any philosophical existence to their spirit, is not a correct fundamental philosophy for a school of thought. We see also the Orwellian aspects of Behaviorism when aligned with state power and capital. While this is not to accuse B.F. Skinner of being a Nazi or doing experiments in the concentration camps, it is only to point out how terribly close and aligned the views of Skinner are with fascist and totalitarian movements that surrounded him in 1938. Since the U.S. government is no longer transparent, we may never know to what degree Skinner assisted the secret apparatus of the state with experiments based in Behaviorism during the Cold War, but when the history of American fascism is written, Skinner will have the same chapters reserved for him in that text as he holds in our university textbooks of psychology today, including the same philosophy, methodology, and statistics. When the objection is strong, the individual is best served to speak up quickly and voice all concerns in a free and open manner. Thus, when asked if Behaviorism should be used to shape educational practices, the answer is an unequivocal and absolute “NO,” that not under any circumstances should Behaviorism be adopted as a philosophy or methodology on which to base educational policies. It does not value the human being. Historically, the philosophical roots of Behaviorism are derived from the fascist era and show many affinities to fascist science. This is evident through the lack of compassion shown by “psychological” researchers to their subjects, both human and animal, and in the way that Behaviorism provides a framework for a totalitarian system like Orwell’s “1984” philosophically. That American fascism and fascist science may have developed independent, separate, and on different cultural frameworks than in European counterparts may not be readily evident unless one follows a minority discourse of critical theory such as the post-modern critique and view Behaviorism through that lens for closer inspection. In a Foucaultian perspective, Skinner is the prophet that gives birth to the modern police state in America: “Operant Conditioning is the term used by B.F. Skinner to describe the effects of the consequences of a particular behavior on the future occurrence of that behavior. There are four types of Operant Conditioning: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment, and Extinction. Both Positive and Negative Reinforcement strengthen behavior while both Punishment and Extinction weaken behavior.” (MCLI, 2001) From this standpoint, “Positive Reinforcement” is seen in the career path, the consumerist society, capitalist inequalities in wealth distribution, promotion through vast bureaucratic, corporate, or military hierarchies, etc. From “Negative Reinforcement” we see issues such as status, class, fashion, detentions, violence, poverty, etc. “Punishment” is what Angela Davis calls the Prison Industrial Complex, a vast network of prisons, jails, courts, police stations, and a second, domestic army of control. Finally, “Extinction” is killing, the death penalty, war, assassination, genocide, etc. that the state may organize and undertake on different moral principles than that which bind individuals. We see then in “operant conditioning” the exact opposite of what we want in all aspects of society and especially in the education system. Rejecting Behaviorism for these reasons, we then look for an alternative, fundamentally, for a Humanist Psychology and from that we look for schools of thought with a more expansive worldview than what is posited by Skinner, a psychology that opens up the mind rather than lobotomizing it, treating it with electric shocks, or otherwise reducing it philosophically to brain cells & chemistry or simply behavior. Many of our most popular psychiatric drugs have the possibility of being tomorrow’s lobotomies, as state use of Haldol, Thorazine, and other drugs in the US and Soviet prison system has shown. In our search for a foundational psychology to base our educational system on, we do not wish to replace Behaviorism with a modern chemical version of Behaviorism. We are searching for a psychology that values the human and values the child, a fundamental psychological method that will actually improve the education system, rather than turn it into a mini-model of the police state in the classroom for programming students to believe what the state wants them to believe. We want to reject this as legacy Behaviorism, to explore possibilities like Montessori and Krishnamurti schools, to open up freedom, possibility, wonder and joy in students at what it is to learn and understand the processes that combine to create our environment and concepts of reality. We do not want our children in boxes being programmed by operant conditioning techniques of negative and positive feedback at the risk of being punished or eliminated. We want to educate our children that they may be the leaders of world peace, social justice, progress, and enlightenment. In many ways it seems as if Skinner is already the foundation of the educational system and we need a new paradigm to replace that old system, but what we really need in the educational context is a humanistic psychology that is intelligent, compassionate, expansive, and acceptable to all cultures in the community in a way that values traditional & multicultural knowledge, art, expression, and other ways of thinking outside the Skinner box. In reviewing psychological schools in the context of education, we find Freudianism too sexual; Jungianism in the Bill Moyer sense a possible option but maybe too mystic for a mainstream school; Existentialism too dark and depressing; Psychiatry too commercial, career oriented, and pharmaceutical driven; Gestalt too small; Transpersonal too radical, until finally approaching the works of Carl Rogers and his school as the best choice for a foundational psychology in the context of education because of its humanistic base. In Rodgers’ teaching and philosophy, we have an honest attempt to truly value the human being and mind in a way that is unique from all the others listed above. While it is beyond the scope of this essay to summarize all of Rogers’ philosophy, a review of how he conceived of the Self is clearly and fundamentally different than that of Skinner: Self “The human organism's ‘phenomenal field’ includes all experiences available at a given moment, both conscious and unconscious (Rogers, 1959). As development occurs, a portion of this field becomes differentiated and this becomes the person's ‘self’ (Hall & Lindzey, 1985; Rogers, 1959). The ‘self’ is a central construct in this theory. It develops through interactions with others and involves awareness of being and functioning. The self-concept is ‘the organized set of characteristics that the individual perceives as peculiar to himself/herself’ (Ryckman, 1993, p.106). It is based largely on the social evaluations he/she has experienced.” Self-Actualizing Tendency “A distinctly psychological form of the actualizing tendency related to this ‘self’ is the ‘self-actualizing tendency’. It involves the actualization of that portion of experience symbolized in the self (Rogers, 1959). It can be seen as a push to experience oneself in a way that is consistent with one's conscious view of what one is (Maddi, 1996). Connected to the development of the self-concept and self-actualization are secondary needs (assumed to likely be learned in childhood): the ‘need for positive regard from others’ and ‘the need for positive self-regard’, an internalized version of the previous. These lead to the favoring of behavior that is consistent with the person's self-concept (Maddi, 1996).” (Pescitelli, 1996) In summary, where Skinner is one-Dimensional in the Marcusan sense, excising Mind as such from his philosophy, focusing on materialism in an extreme way, and building a clinical, mass-produced system that could be used as a control model, it is definitely not a good choice to base a school or educational system on Behaviorism. On the other hand, Rogers’ view of the self is expansive, incorporating all of the internal and external experiences of Mind without limiting them. He further sees “self actualization” as the goal and peak experience in life through which the individual grows, expands, and matures as a human being through life cycles. Rogers posits the most expansive framework of any psychological system excepting the Transpersonal, but with this comes something that is determinate in deciding the issue. The school and education system is responsible to an even greater constituency than the government. Whereas governments may rule with 51%, not everyone may vote, the school and education system’s responsibility is to all students, in all locations. With this broad social base representative, the psychology of the school or education system must be one that everyone can understand, appreciate, and find their own identity in – here not only students, educators, and administrators, but the parents and families in the greater community. Thus the choice of a fundamental psychology is political, but in seeking one that is free, open, expansive, equal, and democratic for the individual’s own self-definition and self-determination, then Humanistic Psychology as posited by Carl Rogers is the best choice in an education system that must represent 100% of the community without causing strife or dissent. Most importantly, Rogers’ humanism positions the individual at the center of the psychology, as we experience mind and learning as individuals, and provides a broad base for both students and educators to develop further their own unique understanding of life with a sense of hope and progress when compared to the Behaviorism of B.F. Skinner. Sources: Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction (MCLI). (11/24/1999). Operant Conditioning Basics. Maricopa Community Colleges. Retrieved from http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/nru/opcond.html Pescitelli, Dagmar. (1996). An Analysis of Carl Rogers' Theory of Personality. Maricopa Community Colleges. Retrieved from http://pandc.ca/?cat=carl_rogers&page=rogerian_theory Rogers, Carl Ransom. Freedom to Learn for the 80's. Columbus: Merrill Pub Co; Revised edition (October 1982). Schugurensky, Daniel. (December 04, 2001). 1938: B.F. Skinner publishes The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. Selected Moments of the 20th Century. Retrieved from http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_sc/assignment1/1938skinner.html Skinner, B. F. Beyond Freedom & Dignity. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub Co; 1 edition (March 1, 2002) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (First published Fri May 26, 2000; substantive revision Tue Jul 27, 2010). Behaviorism. Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/ WGBH Educational Foundation. (2001). The History of Psychology. Metaphysics Annenberg Media. Retrieved from http://www.learner.org/discoveringpsychology/history/history_nonflash.html Read More