Assignment Task:
Dr. Skinner said
''I think cognitive psychology is a great hoax and a fraud, and that goes for brain science, too,''.
''They are nowhere near answering the important questions about behavior. ''
"Behaviorism holds that people act as they do because of the rewards and punishments...they have received."
"[Others] have attacked behaviorism as undermining people's sense of freedom and have denounced [behaviorism's] claims that the environment determines what people achieve."
What is meant by this?
If we accept behaviorism's view that our behavior is determined by rewards and punishments, do we have free will? Do you agree?
"Dr. Skinner...is an ardent opponent of the use of punishment, such as spanking, or using 'aversive' -such as pinches and shocks... 'What's wrong with punishments is that they work immediately, but give no long-term results,' Dr. Skinner said.
'The responses to punishment are either the urge to escape, to counterattack or a stubborn apathy.'"
Think of a time you've received a punishment.
Does your experience match what Skinner says?
If punishments are not effective in the long term, what is the purpose of prisons, or school policies like detention?