Word: behaviorist
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...Renowned behaviorist B.F. Skinner, Pierce Professor of Psychology Emeritus, also issued harsh words of criticism from the Ed School yesterday. Skinner, departing considerably from his intended speech on computer-aided learning, said the government book does not offer "a single thing of use" to teachers and said he was "terribly disappointed...
...rich with the availability and advocacy of cigarettes. Billions of dollars have been spent by the tobacco companies over the past 60 years to modify the behavior of consumers. In fact, the popular cigarette slogan, "I'd walk a mile for a Camel," was written by the first American behaviorist, John B. Watson, who had lost his professorship at Johns Hopkins and ended up as an advertising executive at J. Walter Thompson in New York...
...seems that the behaviorist position would lead us to find for the plaintiff. After all, the tobacco companies knew that cigarettes were strong, reinforcers for many people yet still sold them. But not so fast. What about the behavior of the tobacco companies...
TOBACCO COMPANIES are controlled by environmental contingencies just as surely as individual smokers are. Society has made reinforcement for these companies (i.e., profits) contingent on cigarette-selling behavior. Unfortunately, people die as a result. But do the tobacco companies have a "choice"? The behaviorist says...
...there's the rub. Behaviorism is not compatible with our current conception of personal responsibility, for the latter arises from free will, which the behaviorist denies. There are no bad people, the behaviorist argues, only bad environments. For the behaviorist, society is on trial in every case...