Pattern proliferation in teleological behaviorism

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-146
Author(s):  
Bruce N. Waller
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism ◽  
Controlling Behavior

AbstractRachlin's teleological behaviorist account shows promise for extending our behavioral understanding of many aspects of self-control, particularly when self-control involves controlling behavior through larger behavioral patterns. However, it may face special challenges in dealing with instances of self-control that involve pattern breaking.

The role of negative reinforcement; or: Is there an altruist in the house?

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmund J. Fantino ◽  
Stephanie J. Stolarz-Fantino
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Reinforcement ◽  
Negative Reinforcement ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Behavioral Analysis ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism ◽  
Rule Governed Behavior

We agree with Rachlin's argument that altruism is best understood as a case of self-control, and that a behavioral analysis is appropriate. However, the appeal to teleological behaviorism and the value of behavioral patterns may be unnecessary. Instead, we argue that altruism can generally be explained with traditional behavioral principles such as negative reinforcement, conditioned reinforcement, and rule-governed behavior.

Receptivity to Racial and Ethnic Diversity

1999 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann C. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
And Training

This paper describes a study of receptivity to diversity suggesting that in three groups ( ns = 9, 10, and 6) the graduate students who showed more receptive behavioral patterns tended to take more initiative and to be more engaged in networking relationships and also may show more empathetic behavior and more self-control. Opportunities for education and training programs are suggested if data from larger samples are consistent.

Can teleological behaviorism account for the effects of instructions on self-control without invoking cognition?

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-135
Author(s):  
Kristi Lemm ◽  
Yuichi Shoda ◽  
Walter Mischel
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Temporal Patterning ◽  
Control Behavior ◽  
Verbal Instructions ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism ◽  
Experimental Findings

AbstractIn its commitment to eschewing internal causes, the teleological behavioristic analysis endeavors to explain self-control through the temporal patterning of behavior, but it leaves unanswered the most challenging questions. It fails to account convincingly for experimental findings in which self-control behavior was predictably changed by verbal instructions to think about and imagine the rewards in different ways.

The teleological science of self-control

1997 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Rachlin
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Pattern ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism ◽  
Complex Patterns ◽  
The Mind

In response to Ainslie & Gault: The value of a temporally extended behavioral pattern depends on relationships inherent in the pattern itself. It is not possible to express that value as the simple sum of the discounted present values of the pattern's component acts.In response to Leiber: Teleological behaviorism may be deemed unscientific because it has not yet succeeded to the required degree in predicting and controlling the highly complex patterns of human behavior that comprise our mental lives. However teleological behaviorism is not unscientific because it is teleological or “noncausal;” nor is teleological behaviorism unscientific because it is not reducible to neurophysiology. Nothing in principle bars the development of a teleological science of the mind.

Self-control: Acts of free will

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-141
Author(s):  
James A. Schirillo
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Behavioral Patterns

AbstractRachlin overlooks that free will determines when and in what direction acts that appear impulsive will occur. Because behavioral patterns continuously evolve, animals are not guaranteed when they will, or how to, maximize larger-later reinforcements. An animal therefore uses self-control to emit free acts to vary behavioral patterns to optimize larger-later rewards.

scholarly journals Effects of video game on socio- behavioral environment

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 258
Author(s):  
P. Shirley ◽  
Balaji Arumugam ◽  
E. Suganya ◽  
M. Gowthamraj
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Care Hospital ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Study Participants

Background: Nowadays the teens playing outdoor games are difficult to be seen and of course, they play all these games not in reality but in a screen using video games. The biggest revolution in electronic world has put our teens more addicted towards video games which not only affect their academic performance but also have impact on their behaviour and health. The objectives of the study were to assess the pattern of video game usage among the study population; to determine the influence of video game in behaviour of the study population.Methods: The study was conducted as a cross sectional study during January and February 2018, among medical students of tertiary care hospital, Chennai. The data was collected using preformed pretested questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 21.Results: Out of 211 study participants, majority 168 (80%) were males. Around, 97 (45.9%) participants, liked to play during night hours and most 114 (54.1%) of them preferred adventure and racing games. The change in behavioral patterns like, skipping sleep 20 (25.3%), using bad words 22 (27.8%), betting 40 (50.6%), risky stunts 38 (48.1%) were observed. Around half of the participants 97 (46%) were giving complaints of various health problems like finger pain, 72 (34.1%) wrist pain, 63 (29.8%) neck pain, and 54 (26%) eye pain due to usage of video games.Conclusions: The behavioral patterns explored in this study are alarming which suggest that this age group has to be sensitized on the self control to use the video games. 

Teleological behaviorism and altruism

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Lacey
Keyword(s):  
Self Control ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism

Rachlin shows that experiments about social cooperation may fruitfully be grouped with experiments on self-control, and that this suggests interesting possibilities for practical behavioral controls. The concepts of selfishness and altruism, however, that inform his theorizing about these experiments, do not serve to provide understanding of the behavior that commonly is referred to, derogatorily, as selfish.

Self-control observed

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-159
Author(s):  
Howard Rachlin
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Conscious Thought ◽  
Overt Behavior ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism ◽  
Scientific Legitimacy ◽  
Mediating Mechanisms ◽  
Complex Cases

AbstractComplex cases of self-control involve processes such as guilt-avoidance, inhibition, self-punishment, conscious thought, free will, and imagination. Such processes, conceived as internal mediating mechanisms, serve the function in psychological theory of avoiding teleological causation. Acceptance of the scientific legitimacy of teleological behaviorism would obviate the need for internal mediation, redefine the above processes in terms of temporally extended patterns of overt behavior, and clarify their relation to selfcontrol.

scholarly journals Altruism and selfishness

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Rachlin
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Alcoholic Drinks ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Case Basis ◽  
Over Time

Many situations in human life present choices between (a) narrowly preferred particular alternatives and (b) narrowly less preferred (or aversive) particular alternatives that nevertheless form part of highly preferred abstract behavioral patterns. Such alternatives characterize problems of self-control. For example, at any given moment, a person may accept alcoholic drinks yet also prefer being sober to being drunk over the next few days. Other situations present choices between (a) alternatives beneficial to an individual and (b) alternatives that are less beneficial (or harmful) to the individual that would nevertheless be beneficial if chosen by many individuals. Such alternatives characterize problems of social cooperation; choices of the latter alternative are generally considered to be altruistic. Altruism, like self-control, is a valuable temporally-extended pattern of behavior. Like self-control, altruism may be learned and maintained over an individual's lifetime. It needs no special inherited mechanism. Individual acts of altruism, each of which may be of no benefit (or of possible harm) to the actor, may nevertheless be beneficial when repeated over time. However, because each selfish decision is individually preferred to each altruistic decision, people can benefit from altruistic behavior only when they are committed to an altruistic pattern of acts and refuse to make decisions on a case-by-case basis.

My behavior made me do it: The uncaused cause of teleological behaviorism

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-131
Author(s):  
Jordan Hughes ◽  
Patricia S. Churchland
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Bilateral Lesion ◽  
Social Decision ◽  
Teleological Behaviorism ◽  
Marked Deficit ◽  
Social Decision Making

AbstractToward a neurobiologically grounded approach to explaining self-control we discuss the case of a patient with a bilateral lesion in frontal ventromedial cortex. Patients with such lesions display a marked deficit in social decision making. Compared with an account that examines the causal antecedents of self-control, Rachlin's behaviorist approach seems lacking in explanatory strength.

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