The Power of Reinforcement

1. REINFORCEMENT AS “RAT PSYCHOLOGY”

1 REINFORCEMENT AS “RAT PSYCHOLOGY” Anew vaccine has been developed. Hailed as a miracle, the vaccine protects against ALL sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS and herpes, and prevents the flu, the common cold, and all childhood diseases such as chicken pox.The vaccine is available starting tomorrow. Would you take it? Would you want your child to have a shot? Sorry, one piece of information concerning the hypothetical vaccine was left out. The vaccine has never been tested on animals and is not based on animal models of the diseases. The pharmaceutical company manufactured the drug by looking at people with the illnesses and put together something that seemed logical to them. Knowing this, would you take the vaccine? Probably not. In reality, before new drugs are even allowed to be tested in a very limited and controlled manner on humans, the drugs must undergo numerous tests on animal models of the disease. While laws require pharmaceutical companies to test their new drugs on animals before they are allowed to be tested on humans, the opposite is true with many psychological and educational “treatments.” The treatments are seldom, if ever, tested on animals and seldom based on animal models of abnormal or inappropriate behavior. Often the “treatments” are not based on any valid research of any sort (Singer & Lalich, 1996; Watters & Ofshe, 1999). Psychologists and educators simply develop the treatments by looking at people with the problem behavior(s) and develop something that somehow relates to what they have seen. This anything goes attitude in psychotherapy has produced, by the estimate of University of Pennsylvania researcher Alan E. Kazdin (1994), over 400 different approaches to psychotherapy! Ed Anderson, trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies lamented on this state of affairs: “Being a 3 chemist by profession, I often wondered why there is only one chemistry, one biology, one physics, and there are 10,000 psychologies” (from Daniels, 1994, p. xii). While not ethical for physical problems, this “invent a therapy ” approach is standard practice when it comes to behavioral and educational problems. The result is that millions of dollars are wasted on such quackery as “past life regression,” “facilitated communication,” empirically invalidated psychoanalytic “therapy” (e.g., Singer & Lalich, 1996; Watters & Ofshe, 1999; Wolpe, 1981), “whole word” reading instruction, and “new math.” Indeed, one child died in a “rebirthing” effort to get her to “bond” to her adopted mother. The systematic, purposeful use of reinforcement is seen as too elementary , ineffective, irrelevant, or even as unethical for human problems. The science of behavior, called “behavior analysis” that is based on an experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) that often uses rat and pigeon behavior as a source of data to unveil the reinforcement process, is held in disdain by many in psychology, management, and education. Ironically, however, the most effective psychological and educational treatments and programs can all be ultimately traced back to animal models or data from animal behavior and behavior’s systematic relation to reinforcement. Likewise , performance management, developed by Aubrey C. Daniels, directly applies behavior analysis, primarily the effective application of positive reinforcement, to business management. This direct systematic application of reinforcement to management has resulted in improved quality and productivity at such companies as 3M, Kodak, Rubbermaid, and Honeywell, as well as other companies in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Brazil (Daniels, 1994). RAT PSYCHOLOGY IN INNER-CITY EDUCATION In 1975, in one of the poorest, most violent sections of the Houston,Texas, area, Thaddeus Lott took over as principal of Wesley Elementary, a school with a 99% minority population. Only 18% of the third graders were reading at grade level. However, by 1996, 100% of the third graders passed the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. In 1998, Wesley first graders ranked in the top 13 of 182 Houston schools in reading, out-scoring many upperclass , predominantly white schools. Similar results have occurred with functionally similar programs in other run-down “ghetto” schools, such as Public School 114 in the Bronx (Lemann, 1998). Despite his truly amazing success, rather than being applauded, Principal Lott is vilified by many in psychology and education. Lott’s success is discounted and criticized because his school program is based on rein4 THE POWER OF REINFORCEMENT forcement that is contingent on progressive achievement by teachers and students and uses the method of “direct instruction.” In direct instruction students are constantly drilled with correct answers reinforced and...