Radical behaviorism: A productive and needed philosophy for education

Radical behaviorism is the philosophy of the science of behavior originating in the work of B. F. Skinner and elaborated over the years by a community of researchers, scholars, and practitioners. Radical behaviorism is a complete, or thoroughgoing behaviorism in that all human behavior, public and private, is explained in terms of its functional relations with environmental events. Radical behaviorism is often misrepresented in the literatures of education and psychology. Two fundamental misconceptions of radical behaviorism are that its followers (1) are logical positivists who require that a phenomenon be observed by two or more people before it qualifies for scientific analysis, and (2) either will not or cannot incorporate private events (e.g., thoughts, feelings) into their analyses of human behavior. This paper offers an advocacy perspective on contemporary radical behaviorism. In particular, we define radical behaviorism and briefly outline the history of the term's use in psychological literature, discuss the scientific practice of behavior analysts, explain the intolerance exhibited by radical behaviorists, and comment on the use of popularity as a criterion for good science. The paper concludes with a discussion of the recent shift in educational research and practice from empiricism and outcome-oriented intervention toward a holistic/constructivist philosophy described by its advocates as incompatible with behaviorally-based instruction.     

Ogden R. Lindsley and the historical development of precision teaching

This paper presents the historical developments of precision teaching, a technological offshoot of radical behaviorism and free-operant conditioning. The sequence progresses from the scientific precursors of precision teaching and the beginnings of precision teaching to principal developments since 1965. Information about the persons, events, and accomplishments presented in this chronology was compiled in several ways. Journals, books, and conference presentations provided the essential information. The most important source for this account was Ogden Lindsley himself, because Lindsley and his students established the basic practices that define precision teaching.     

A BRIEF COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF POTENTIAL TREATMENT PACKAGES IN AN OUTPATIENT CLINIC SETTING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

The purpose of this study was to develop outpatient clinic assessments that allowed us to assess multiple treatment variables, produce relatively quick effects, and isolate active treatment components. Assessment began by evaluating a treatment package consisting of antecedent and consequence variables followed by a component analysis to determine the separate effects of the treatment variables. Three examples of the findings are presented.     

Keeping a group psychotherapy program alive and well within a psychiatric residency

A mandatory year of outpatient group therapy training is an accepted part of residency training in psychiatry. Residents need stable groups to lead in order to have a satisfactory training experience. A solid group program is integrated and cohesive. A group therapy coordinator has to consider the following factors in developing and maintaining the optimum program: sanction from the department of psychiatry; integration of the program into the system; transfer of groups from one class to another; personal screening and followup of all referrals; availability to professionals in the community; coordinator participation in relevant group therapy classes; a vehicle for supervisors to collaborate with each other and administrator; and a format for all members of the group program community to interact.This paper is an elaboration of a symposium presentation, Training in Group Psychotherapy: The Quest for a Viable Model, AGPA Annual meeting, 1990.     

On the relationship of data to theory: A reply to Ronis and Greenwald

Ronis and Greenwald (Dissonance theory revised again: Comment on the paper by Fazio, Zanna, and Cooper. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 1979, 62–69) question our integrative formulation of dissonance and self-perception processes. We argue that our formulation provides an explanation of both the full range of results in the literature and our own experimental data, while neither dissonance nor self-perception theory can singly explain the existing data.     

The voice problems of stutterers: A practical approach from clinical experience

Voice disorders, which may be caused by the stuttering problem, have been noted in at least one-third of stutterers seen. Basically, stutterers have false speech images that normal speech is perfect and without natural dysfluencies (repetitions, pauses, etc.). Many stutterers also have erroneous vocal images of how they should or should not sound. Both images control speech and voice. Clinical experience indicates that vocal rehabilitation should be used in conjunction with speech therapy for many stutterers.     

Test-retest reliability of retrospective self-reports in three populations of alcohol abusers

The reliability of alcohol abusers' retrospective self-reports was evaluated using a time-line follow-back interview technique. Independent groups of male subjects were interviewed in three different treatment settings (outpatient,n=12; inpatient,n=12; residential,n=12) on two separate occasions to assess the test-retest reliability of their self-reports of daily drinking and related events occurring 1 year prior to treatment. Correlational and scatterplot analyses generally showed a high correlation and low discrepancy between the two sets of interview responses for all groups. However, since some population differences were found in the reliability of reports for some variables, further research is needed to delineate the conditions under which reliable and valid retrospective self-reports can be obtained from different populations of alcohol abusers.This research was supported, in part, by Grant No. AA07072 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to Vanderbilt University.     

Hierarchical coding in speech timing

The analysis of syllable and pause durations in speech production can provide information about the properties of a speaker's grammatical code. The present study was conducted to reveal aspects of this code by analyzing syllable and pause durations in structurally ambiguous sentences. In Experiments 1–6, acoustical measurements were made for a key syllabic segment and a following pause for 10 or more speakers. Each of six structural ambiguities, previously unrelated, involved a grammatical relation between the constituent following the pause and one of two possible constituents preceding the pause. The results showed lengthening of the syllabic segments and pauses for the reading in which the constituent following the pause was hierarchically dominated by the higher of the two possible preceding constituents in a syntactic representation. The effects were also observed, to a lesser extent, when the structurally ambiguous sentences were embedded in disambiguating paragraph contexts (Experiment 7). The results show that a single hierarchical principle can provide a unified account of speech timing effects for a number of otherwise unrelated ambiguities. This principle is superior to a linear alternative and provides specific inferences about hierarchical relations among syntactic constituents in speech coding.