BFD final

7. Why do people assume that science cannot help and contribute to the design of a culture? (p. 158-163)

a. Because people assume that the difference between contrived settings in the lab & natural settings in the real world (they are seen as more complex) are too great & that science won't be applicable.

Distinguish between the observer and the experimenter when it comes to understanding human behavior.

a. Observer doesn't understand the contingencies, and the experimenter is able to control the contingencies. Experimenters are trained at looking at these observable events whereas the observer is not. Experimenter takes data while observer just watches. Observers are not able to see the contingencies and the data, they come to the conclusion that feelings and internal states are the causes because they don't have access to anything else. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

3. What stands in the way of pursuing a science and technology of behavior?

a. People assume that behavior is a byproduct and not the subject to be studied. The world of the mind steals the show. We still put the causes of behavior in the mind and it leaves us powerless to change.

4. How do we build belief? (p. 94); How do we change the way a person looks at something, as well as what he sees when he looks, by changing __; we do not change something called __." (p. 94), and again..."We change __ of responses by __; we do not change something called a __." (p. 94-95) ...Note all of these questions have similar answers.

a. We build belief when we increase the probability of action by reinforcing behavior. b. How do we change the way a person looks at something, as well as what he sees when he looks, by changing the contingencies; we do not change something called perception, and again..."We change the relative strengths of responses by differential reinforcement of alternative courses of action; we do not change something called a preferences."

6. How is designing a culture like designing an experiment? (p 153-)

a. We can arrange contingencies & note effects that they have on people & whether they work (whereas in experiments we watch what happens) b. Example: come up with new laws and evaluate its social and fiscal impact, then see if it was a good idea. BASICALLY what an experiment is. Doing things that work, don't do things that don't.

7. Translate the statement "You should tell the truth" to explain what it means from a behavioral perspective.

a. We use the words should and ought. We use these words to clarify nonsocial contingencies. If you are reinforced by the approval of your fellow men, you will be reinforced when you tell the truth. To tell a person that they should tell the truth is to tell them that if they like to get positive reinforcement from others, then he will do so if he tells the truth

7. Be able to give and explain an example of someone trying to maintain their dignity by concealing environmental sources of influence, and then losing their "dignity" as more environmental influences are identified.

a. When someone takes credit for work they didn't do. They want to appear like they worked so hard and deserve the credit when in fact it was the work someone else did. When they get caught cheating, and the source of the environmental influence is exposed, they will lose the credit.

2. What are some questions raised by the shift from internal control to external control? (p. 102)

a. Whom is doing this, why are you doing it, how are you using it, to what end, what are we trying to change? Who gets to make all of these changes? Ultimately the question is "what is the meaning of life"?

2. Freedom is about ____________ consequences, whereas dignity is about _________ ________. (p. 44)

Freedom is about aversive consequences, whereas dignity is about positive reinforcement. (p. 44)

5. What does a culture do to induce its members to work towards its survival? (p. 151-153, but more specifically 152-153).

Makes member engage in safe practices (wear safety hat). You want to make people happy, so you give them the illusion of freedom. Arrange the contingencies so that the reinforcement is given to behaviors that also insures the survival.

1. Distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement in terms of which of these makes you feel controlled and why.

Negative R+ makes you feel controlled, because you are avoiding aversive control. Positive R+ is often compared with taking credit for action (dignity).

3. Describe how culture evolves, and where is the breakdown between the parallels of biological and cultural evolution? (p. 129-131)

a. A culture is selected by its adaptation to an environment: to the extent that it helps its members to get what they need and avoid what is dangerous, it helps them to survive and transmit the culture. b. New practices correspond to genetic mutation. Initial selections for the practice arise from "accidents". c. The parallels break down at the point of transmission. The way biology is transmitted is in the form of genes. The parents pass on their genes to the kids. In a cultural context however your culture can be effected in a bi-directional manner. What you do as the parent can affect your children but what they adopt in terms of practices can also effect the parent. That does not occur in a biological context.

5. Explain altruistic behavior. Why might someone do something that is for the good of others when the result might be unfavorable for him/herself?

a. A person does not act for the good of others because of a feeling of belongingness or refuse to act because of feelings of alienation. His behavior depends upon the control exerted by the social environment. A person might act in such a way in order to contact positive reinforcement.

4. What does it mean to say, "only a free man can be responsible for his conduct"? Explain why "any move toward an environment in which men are automatically good threatens responsibility."

a. A responsible man is a deserving man. It is saying that a free man can be responsible for his actions. A person who is not free is not responsible for his actions and can therefore not be punished or praised for it b. If we say that men are automatically good and it was the environment who was controlling them, then we are saying that men are not free and therefore cannot be punished for their actions (they are not responsible).

10. How can we ensure that both the controller and the controlled person will behave well? (p. 171 "The great problem is to ..."). Explain what this means.

a. Accountability. You need to make it so that it's not just one person who's benefiting, but everyone is benefiting from each other. Controller Is accountable for the controlled and controlled are accountable for the leader.

5. Where does the illusion that freedom and dignity are respected when control seems incomplete arise from? (p. 96-97)

a. Arises in part from the probabilistic nature of operant behavior. Seldom does any environmental condition elicit behavior in the all-or-nothing fashion of a reflex; it simply makes a probability of behavior more likely to occur.

3. What is "automatic goodness" and how does it relate to the avoidance of a science of behavior (i.e., "at issue is the attribute of autonomous man", and "The issue is again the visibility of control")? (p. 66-68) What is the trouble when we punish a person for behaving badly? (p. 66)

a. Automatic goodness is the idea that you are good because you are born good and your autonomous man is good. b. We are still putting the cause of the behavior inside of the person and not the environment. We are saying that a person is innately good or bad because of something inside of them, leaving us powerless to change the behavior. c. The trouble is that when we punish a person for behaving badly, we leave it up to him to discover how to behave well. We aren't teaching people how to behave well, we are just calling them out on behaving bad. Governed by negative reinforcement.

5. Explain Skinner's "autonomous man": what is it and what are the problems associated with it. (He mentions 3 sources of trouble - be able to explain these)

a. Autonomous man is an entity inside all of us that controls what we think and do. i. He is autonomous in the sense that his behavior is uncaused. He can therefore be held responsible for what he does and and justly punished if he offends. But if the environment influences our actions can we punish those behaviors? We want freedom from negative reinforcement. ii. It questions our dignity and worth. If we say that the environment causes our actions, then our success is also due to the environment and not to our "inner self". iii. Questions who is to construct our controlling environment and to what extent.

1. From Skinner's perspective, why is it that advances in biology and physics, for example, won't solve all of the world's problems? Give an example pertaining to #1

a. Because we need to change the behavior. We can have all the best technology but if people don't adopt these practices you won't get the effect desired. b. New methods of birth control won't work unless people actually use them.

9. What is a good reason why the control of human behavior is resisted (p. 167) and describe the reciprocal relation between the controller and the controlled as a means of addressing this critique. (p. 169)

a. Control is assumed to be a bad thing, people strive to be free from control (freedom). People try to take credit for their behavior (dignity). It's easy to resist changing the culture when the people who propose the idea says they want to control you.

4. Distinguish between the species and the culture. What is meant by "What evolve are practices" (p. 133)? And complete the statement, "A culture evolves when ..."(p. 134). (p. 132-134)

a. Culture- the behavior/practices of a group of people. Species are the people themselves. What evolve are those behaviors it's not the people themselves. A culture evolves when new practices further the survival of those who practice them.

2. In what ways does a person interact with his/her culture? What does a given group of people call "good"? (p. 128)

a. Each person continues to do a practice because it has been working for them. Other members then do them as well because of social contingencies. b. What a person calls good is what members of the group find reinforcing as a result of their genetic endowment and the natural and social contingencies to which they have been exposed.

2. What are two things people may do when they are controlled with aversive stimuli?

a. Escape or avoid it b. Counter control (attack)

6. Explain what Skinner means by "exoneration". (p. 76) How does the maintenance of the concepts of freedom and dignity work in favor of the "controller"? In other words, what does the controller get to avoid? Be able to describe how human behavior being attributed to genetic sources is used as a means of exoneration. (p. 78)

a. Exoneration is in a sense the obverse of responsibility. The controller can escape responsibility if he can maintain the position that the individual himself is in control. The teacher who gives a student credit for learning can also blame him for not learning. b. We still put the cause of the behavior into the person and can therefore not be changed. We say that a person is not responsible for their actions because of something internal to them, leaving us powerless to change the behavior.

4. What things are "good" (or "bad") in Skinner's perspective? (p. 103-105)

a. Good things are positive reinforcers. Bad things are things we escape or avoid. Things are good or bad presumably because of the contingencies of survival under which the species evolved

4. When does someone maintain credit, and when is someone likely to receive "maximum credit"? (p. 47)

a. He is likely to get credit if there are no obvious environmental causes for his behavior b. A person gets maximum credit if there are obvious reasons to act differently than how the person acted c. One example would be taking a bullet for a stranger.

2. Does a person ever become truly self-reliant? Explain what Skinner means when he says, "dependence on things is not independence."

a. No. Even though he deals effectively with things, he is necessarily dependent upon those who have taught him to do so. We are just shifting our dependence from other people to things but we are still dependent on those things.

11. Skinner says, "The practical question...is how remote consequences can be made effective." Explain what he means and why this is important. (p. 173)

a. Idea is that any time you try to change someone's behavior, you're increasing the response effort for them. In the moment, it might be aversive to change up what you've been doing, but in the long run it's going to impact everyone in a beneficial way. How can we make people be okay with the increased response effort therefore wait for the beneficial reinforcement in the future? b. Example: climate change report. How do we get people to behavior more eco-friendly? Response effort is higher now.

1. What are the "ideas" and "values' of a culture? (p. 128)

a. Ideas are social contingencies or the behaviors they generate b. Values are the reinforcers that appear in the contingencies

4. In what ways has the literature of freedom been helpful, and what are its limitations?

a. In changing practices. It has been successful in reducing the aversive stimuli used in intentional control. b. It has also made us act c. The limitation is that they focus too much on states of mind or feelings. That may not mean that we are free from aversive control. It focuses on how we feel but not on the contingencies.

4. What are the 3 types of values that emerge in relation to the survival of a culture? (p. 150-151)

a. Individualistic (the individual will be out under minimal aversive control & ultimate value is personal positive R+) b. Social (good of others is more valued & it comes at the possible cost of personal positive R+) c. Survival value (doing it for the good of the culture, planning for the good of the culture).

5. Is evolution of a culture "progress"? (p. 138) Discuss this question with respect to the concept of development. Does a culture mature? What is the main objection to the metaphor of growth? (p. 138-143)

a. It changes but it does not progress. It's not temporally related. It's not intentional and it's not done because of survival value. b. The main objection to the metaphor of growth, in considering the development of an individualized or the evolution of a culture, is that it emphasizes a terminal state which does not have a function. c. By saying the word GROWTH, you're suggesting there will be a DEATH. For culture, it's about "what works now" it doesn't have to be better than before.

5. Man's struggle for freedom is not due to a will to be free, but what? (Hint: Answer is a combination of information from p. 41 & p. 42)

a. It is not to be free from control, but to be free from certain types of aversive control.

5. Can we solve problems by increasing how much responsibility a person feels or has? From a behavioral perspective, how should these problems be solved?

a. No we cannot solve problems by increasing responsibility b. We need to change the contingencies in order to produce the desired behaviors.

3. Is it possible to change a person's mind? What is actually being changed when we say "we changed a person's mind?

a. No we don't change minds. By manipulating environmental contingencies, one makes changes which are said to indicate a change of mind, but if there is any effect, it is on behavior. We don't change a person's mind, what changes is the probability of action.

8. Is it possible for a new culture to develop in the absence of the current cultures in effect? Explain. (p. 164)

a. No, we are not able to make a complete break with the past. People who designs culture are not cultureless, they have their practices that they engage in. They will want to incorporate what works in their lives. The designer of a new culture will always be bound to their own culture in which they were raised in & he will be susceptible to designing a world that he likes/bias.

1. Distinguish between permissiveness, the midwife metaphor, and guidance as alternatives to punishment. Specifically, (a) explain what they are, (b) provide a hierarchy of easiest to most difficult for the practitioner to implement, (c) explain the common advantage across all three of these, and (d) why are these advantages generally illusory?

a. Permissiveness is when there is no control. Midwifery is when you are helping someone give birth to a behavior. It assumes that the behavior is inside of you and the other person is indirectly prompting the person. Guidance is when someone is giving you direct prompting. b. Permissiveness-guidance- midwifery (easiest to hardest) c. Common advantage is that it exonerates the teacher d. The environment is still controlling your behavior.

1. Distinguish between the prescientific and scientific view and explain what can be changed and what cannot be changed. (p. 101)

a. Prescientific view is a person's behavior is at least his own achievement. In the scientific view a person's behavior is determined by a genetic endowment traceable to the evolutionary history of the species and by the environmental circumstances to which an individual has been exposed. Prescientific (autonomous man) view is not easily changed, while the scientific (environment) view can be change.

2. What are some ways that others can arrange the environment to prevent punishable behavior? (p.64-65)

a. Punishable behavior can be minimized by creating circumstances in which it is not likely to occur b. Another possibility is to break up the contingencies under which punished behavior is reinforced. c. Arrange circumstances under which behavior may occur without being punished.

6. How does the concept of dignity prevent the development of a science of behavior?

a. Science of behavior isn't ready to progress until we let go of those things that make us more dignified. Because we want to believe we have free will and are therefore responsible for our actions. Until we put the cause of the behavior into the environment science of behavior cannot progress.

1. What are some things a person does to avoid punishment? (p. 62-64)

a. Sublimate it. Act in ways which are similarly reinforcing, but cannot be punished b. Read about others doing the punishable behavior and identify with them c. Rationalize the behavior so that it is not punishable.

3. Skinner says, "Such a technology is ethically neutral"? What is the technology, and what does this mean?

a. Technology is the science of behavior. It's not inherently good or bad, it can be used by good or bad people. Science is just the process of discovering things. The methodology to reinforce some BX & not others is impartial. It is up to the culture to decide what gets reinforced & therefore assign a value to some BX (should we design a better way to raise children? To the benefit of who? Parents or children?)

3. What is the literature of freedom and what is its purpose?

a. The content of the literature is the philosophy of freedom (books, movies, pamphlets, fables, etc.). Has been designed to induce people to escape from or attack those who act to control them aversively.

3. What is a value judgment, and what is a feeling? (p. 104)

a. Value Judgements = Classifying something in terms of its reinforcing effects b. Feelings = by-products of the contingencies and throw no further light on the distinction between public and private.

6. Explain what the "fundamental mistake" made by all of the alternative to punishments is, in your own words. (p. 99)

a. The mistake is that they assume that the cause of the behavior is inside of a person, when in fact it is in the environment. They keep putting the cause of the behavior inside of the person or the autonomous man because it is harder to spot the environmental contingencies that are in effect.

1. In your own words, how to external influences on behavior threaten one's dignity? (p. 44)

a. The more obvious the external influence on behavior the less credit we are likely to give the person, which in turn lessens his dignity.

3. "The amount of credit a person receives is related in a curious way to the visibility of the causes of his behavior." (p 45) and "An inverse relation between credit and the conspicuousness of causes is particularly obvious when behavior is explicitly controlled by stimuli." (p. 47) Know what these quotes are saying/Be able to explain them.

a. The more you see the source of control the less credit a person is given

6. Can the verbal community arrange the subtle contingencies necessary to teach fine distinctions among stimuli which are inaccessible to it? Explain your answer.

a. The verbal community cannot arrange the subtle contingencies necessary to teach fine distinctions among stimuli which are inaccessible to it. It must rely on visible evidence of the presence or absence of a private condition. If a kid eats all his food, one might say that the food was good but there might be other reasons for the kid eating all the food like deprivation. We don't have access to private events.

4. Why is it that behavior is not considered a valid subject-matter in its own right? (and what makes it difficult for people to ascribe the cause of behavior to the environment?)

a. The world of the mind steals the show. Behavior is not recognized as a subject in its own right. Explanatory entities seem to be self-observed (autonomous man). The role of the environment in not clear (hard to pinpoint). Alternative explanations are hard to find.

5. In what ways are the literature of freedom and dignity (a) similar and (b) different?

a. They are both concerned with weakening the control others have on you. They are concerned with justice (how much credit or punishment you get for your actions) b. The literature of dignity allows for aversive stimulation in order to get more praise and credit. The literature of freedom says to escape all aversive stimuli. The literature of dignity also says that sometimes it's okay to give up some of your freedom to contact more dignity.

2. Why is it that sciences like biology and physics have made more progress? - what have they "let go of"?

a. They went away from putting the cause of the behavior due to psychic entities (ex. It rained because the gods were sad) and into physical things.

6. What is the literature of freedom unprepared to do?

a. Unprepared for the next step, which is not to free men from control but to analyze and change the kinds of control to which they are exposed.

1. How can a scientific analysis of human behavior help to solve problems such as "anxiety", "uncertainty", "malaise," "alienation", etc. (p. 146 - 147)

a. You want to take it away from the labels and bring it to the observable world by operationalize it. Then you can change the contingencies surrounding those problems. b. It helps define what needs to be done & suggests ways to do it. For example, by analyzing the contingencies in the environment that lead to certain emotional states (anxiety - high frequency of contacting unavoidable aversive consequences), we can find the contingencies that need to change in order to change anxious BX.