I don't have time to write this but I want to talk about instant gratification. It's a reason I'm a behaviorist even though behaviorism is so often terribly applied.
I tend to try things one time and then give up. And I know this seems lazy or greedy or something. But the point is that even getting myself to the beginning of things is so scary and tiring that if the thing doesn't turn out well, it's completely devastating. So things need to work right away.
And I think for some people, the risk that is scary/tiring can be a very small risk, as small as trying to understand what someone else is asking you to do. So, M&Ms.
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I think there is a huge difference between behaviorism that is leveraged by someone to improve their life, or even behaviorism which is leveraged by another on behalf of someone with their consent, and behaviorism that is used to control and change people regardless of their wants or needs.
ReplyDeleteBehaviorism is awesome and, really, nobody can truly argue that it doesn't work. That's the point and that's why ABA is so difficult to critique. Of course, the problem with ABA isn't its methodology or whether it works, the problem with ABA is why it is employed and what it accomplishes. If ABA was abolished without dismanteling the kyriarchical framework that dehumanizes autistic children we would only serve to herald a new "autism treatment" promising to erase our autism.