Behavior modification. Description[edit] The first use of the term behavior modification appears to have been by Edward Thorndike in 1911. His article Provisional Laws of Acquired Behavior or Learning makes frequent use of the term "modifying behavior".[1] Through early research in the 1940s and the 1950s the term was used by Joseph Wolpe's research group.[2] The experimental tradition in clinical psychology[3] used it to refer to psycho-therapeutic techniques derived from empirical research. It has since come to refer mainly to techniques for increasing adaptive behavior through reinforcement and decreasing maladaptive behavior through extinction or punishment (with emphasis on the former). Behavior modification is a form of Behavior therapy now known as Applied behavior analysis. Emphasizing the empirical roots of behavior modification, some authors[4] consider it to be broader in scope and to subsume the other two categories of behavior change methods.
Some areas of effectiveness[edit] Criticism[edit] Propaganda, American-style. By Noam Chomsky Pointing to the massive amounts of propaganda spewed by government and institutions around the world, observers have called our era the age of Orwell. But the fact is that Orwell was a latecomer on the scene. As early as World War I, American historians offered themselves to President Woodrow Wilson to carry out a task they called "historical engineering," by which they meant designing the facts of history so that they would serve state policy. In this instance, the U.S. government wanted to silence opposition to the war. In 1921, the famous American journalist Walter Lippmann said that the art of democracy requires what he called the "manufacture of consent. " That's the kind of thing that Orwell described in 1984 (not a very good book in my opinion). 1984 is so popular because it's trivial and it attacks our enemies.
In totalitarian societies where there's a Ministry of Truth, propaganda doesn't really try to control your thoughts. Consider the following facts. Socialization. Theories[edit] Socialization is the process by which human infants begin to acquire the skills necessary to perform as a functioning member of their society, and is the most influential learning process one can experience.[9] Unlike many other living species, whose behavior is biologically set, humans need social experiences to learn their culture and to survive.[10] Although cultural variability manifests in the actions, customs, and behaviors of whole social groups (societies), the most fundamental expression of culture is found at the individual level.
This expression can only occur after an individual has been socialized by his or her parents, family, extended family, and extended social networks. This reflexive process of both learning and teaching is how cultural and social characteristics attain continuity. Klaus Hurrelmann[edit] From the late 1980s, sociological and psychological theories have been connected with the term socialization. Lawrence Kohlberg[edit] Carol Gilligan[edit] Indoctrination. Religious[edit] Religious indoctrination, the original sense of indoctrination, refers to a process of imparting doctrine in an authoritative way, as in catechism. Most religious groups among the revealed religions instruct new members in the principles of the religion; this is now not usually referred to as indoctrination by the religions themselves, in part because of the negative connotations the word has acquired.
Mystery religions require a period of indoctrination before granting access to esoteric knowledge. (cf. Information security) As a pejorative term, indoctrination implies forcibly or coercively causing people to act and think on the basis of a certain ideology.[3] Some secular critics[who?] Believe that all religions indoctrinate their adherents, as children, and the accusation is made in the case of religious extremism. Military[edit] The initial psychological preparation of soldiers during training is referred to (non-pejoratively) as indoctrination. Criticism[edit] Emotivism. In the 1950s, emotivism appeared in a modified form in the universal prescriptivism of R. M. Hare.[5][6] History[edit] David Hume's statements on ethics foreshadowed those of 20th century emotivists. Emotivism reached prominence in the early 20th century, but it was born centuries earlier.
In 1710, George Berkeley wrote that language in general often serves to inspire feelings as well as communicate ideas.[7] Decades later, David Hume espoused ideas similar to Stevenson's later ones.[8] In his 1751 book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Hume considered morality to be related to fact but "determined by sentiment": In moral deliberations we must be acquainted beforehand with all the objects, and all their relations to each other; and from a comparison of the whole, fix our choice or approbation. … While we are ignorant whether a man were aggressor or not, how can we determine whether the person who killed him be criminal or innocent? R. Proponents[edit] A. A. C. Criticism[edit]
Social conditioning.