EDITORIAL: MENTAL ILLNESS, MENTAL HEALTH, AND CULTURAL ANALYTIC SCIENCE Mattaini, Mark A This special issue of Behavior and Social Issues is dedicated to an examination of serious mental illness and its treatment. The authors of the lead articles, Stephen E. Wong, W. Joseph Wyart and Donna M. Midkiff suggest that behavior analytic approaches to treatment […]
Category: Behavior and Social Issues
STIMULUS CHANGE: REINFORCER OR PUNISHER? REPLY TO HURSH Rumph, Robin To answer the question Hursh poses, we would have to say that NCLB presents an opportunity for those who support data-based decision making and science-based pedagogy and does not present an undue risk of guilt by association. Were Zig Englemann and Wes Becker guilty because […]
TOWARD A CONSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS: ETHICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES RAISED BY APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS Goldiamond, Israel Concepts of social power and its allocation are currently being applied to many social issues. In a related manner, questions are being increasingly raised with regard to the constitutional and human rights of prisoners, mental patients, and […]
RETROSPECTIVE ON GOLDIAMOND’S “TOWARD A CONSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS” Glenn, Sigrid S In reading again Israel Goldiamond’s “Toward a Constructional Approach to Social Problems,” I am reminded anew of the scope and power of the work of this great behavior analyst. For purposes of this commentary, I would like to focus on three characteristics […]
BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS OF COMPANION-ANIMAL OVERPOPULATION: A CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE PROBLEM AND SUGGESTIONS FOR INTERVENTION Fournier, Angela K ABSTRACT: This paper conceptualizes the societal problem of companion-animal overpopulation and offers a framework to humanely reduce the current surplus of animals and prevent further overpopulation. Overpopulation is described as a societal problem, with the individual and collective […]
COMMENTARIES ON GOLDIAMOND’S “TOWARD A CONSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH TO SOCIAL PROBLEMS” Knapp, Terry THE CONSTITUTION AS SOURCE AND MODEL: THE ETHICAL CONSTRUCTION OF NEW REPERTOIRES THROUGH CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING Behaviorism had been inaugurated with great effort by Willard Day based on a suggestion by B. F. Skinner that a forum was needed to discuss the conceptual and […]
Paradoxical patterns in the measurement of hyperactivity Kenney, Mitchalina ABSTRACT: The use of rating scales rather than direct observation procedures to identify various behavior problems is a popular trend in the public school system. We compared a popular rating scale with a direct observation system to measure “hyperactive behaviors” in a classroom setting. The subjects […]
Not so fast, Mr. Pinker: A Behaviorist Looks at the Blank Slate. A Review of Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature Schliger, Henry D 2002, New York: Viking. ISBN 0670031518. 528 pp. $27.95. Stephen Pinker’s latest book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, is getting a lot […]
ARE WOMEN, PEOPLE OF COLOR, ASIANS, AND SOUTHERN EUROPEANS INHERENTLY INFERIOR TO NORTH-EUROPEAN MALES? A HISTORY OF BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM-A CULTURAL, SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL DISGRACE-AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR UNDERSTANDING “MENTAL ILLNESS” Malott, Richard W ABSTRACT: Biological determinism is the view tht biological or genetic factors are the main or even the sole cause of important behavioral […]
RESPONSE TO WONG, WYATT AND MIDKIFF Mitchell, Christopher G Upon reading the abstracts for the articles by Drs. Wong, Wyatt and Midkiff, I thought here we go again-two more articles that attack the pharmaceutical industry and challenge current conceptualizations and classifications of mental illness. In my mind these issues were settled long ago and no […]