Is “Deskilling” a Threat to Safety in Your Workplace?
Maybe you’ve heard the term de-skilling. It refers to the loss of knowledge or skills on the part of a person as a result of technology doing more of the work for them. In work environments…
Symptoms, Causes, and Behavioral Enviroscience (a.k.a. Behavior Analysis)
Way back in the 1950s and ‘60s, early behavior analysts waged a war of ideas with the established psychiatric practices of treating behavior problems. Those proto-behavior analysts attacked something…
The Yin and Yang of Reinforcement
Most everyone who is a behavior analyst and works with helping people change, focuses on the use of positive reinforcement to do so. Positive reinforcement is, indeed, one of the premier principles…
Labeling Actions and their People
In a paper that I recently edited for a professional journal, I encountered the following description of the behavior of a young girl with developmental delays: “She exhibited aggression (i.e.,…
A Review of “Believing in Magic” by Stuart Vyse
Reviewed by Mirari Elcoro, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Armstrong State University (Savannah, GA)
Are you superstitious? Whether the answer is yes or no, Stuart Vyse, Professor of…
Leadership Behaviors: An Introduction
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, then you are a leader.”
—John Quincy Adams
It has been almost a decade since Measure of a Leader was published yet…
The Learning Curve
The learning curve is one of the classic findings of psychology, dating at least to the end of the 19thcentury. Two different learning curves are shown in the figure accompanying this commentary.…
Give Me that That Ole Time Religion?: On Differences and Similarities
A long time ago one of the most influential scientists in behavior analysis, Murray Sidman wrote on the subject of comparative psychology that differences between species were easy to find, but, he…
Get Outta My Head
Have you ever had someone perceive you to be a certain way as if they know what you’re thinking? I just received an invitation to a webinar that teaches managers to read people’s minds. What a…
The Pleasure of Reinforcement
I don’t know about you, but I would describe most of the things that positively reinforce my behavior as “pleasurable.” But, hold on, you say. One of the first things one learns when being taught…
Shaping the Shaper
Shaping is the process whereby we selectively (differentially, for the more technically inclined) reinforce closer and closer approximations to our goal or target behavior to eventually achieve that…
Queens Paideia School: Educational Excellence
Let me introduce you to one school that we think has much of offer American education. Aubrey Daniels and I went to visit Dr. Francis Mechner’s kindergarten through 8th grade Paideia School in…
The Temper Tantrum Heard ‘round the World: What’s a Mother to Do?
Well, this was a little embarrassing for someone. A recent article in the Washington Post described, and included a picture of, a 2-year old having a “full-on” (in the reporter’s words; a…
The Long and Short of Consequences
Everyone on the planet must by now be familiar with the notion of short and long-term consequences of things we do. For those of you familiar with the PICNIC Analysis® made famous by Aubrey…
A Review of "The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self Control" by Walter Mischel
Reviewed by Ronnie Dietrich, Senior Fellow, The Wing Institute, Oakland, California
Very few psychological experiments become well known within the discipline. Even fewer become well…
What is Behavior?
This is a web site largely concerned with the advancement of behavior analysis, but what exactly do we mean by the word behavior? Dictionary definitions indicate that behavior is something an…
Behavior and the Role of Unintended Consequences
Behavior and the Role of Unintended Consequences: Examples from Process Engineering and Bold Community Initiatives
Organizational ethics takes more than good people seeking to do good. It takes more…
I was going to give you feedback but…
How a leader provides feedback is one of those distinguishing factors between being a leader by title and being a truly effective leader. The delivery of frequent feedback allows for continuous…
