Amy’s Arguments
- The philosophical underpinnings of these kinds of “Christian” behaviour “training” models do not sit well with biblical theology.
The more I read about Ezzo and Pearl’s behaviour modification techniques the more I am reminded of Behaviouristic psychology (the works of Skinner, Watson, Pavlov etc)
Fundamentally, behavioural psychology advocates the use operant/classical conditioning for behaviour modification (neg or pos reinforcement and the pleasure/avoidance stimulus responses they entail).
From a purely pragmatic standpoint these often demonstratably work – they get results…for example,
I see the needle + it causes me pain
I avoid needlesI eat chocolate = I feel good
In order to feel good, I eat chocolate, lol…but the understanding of human nature behind it is disturbing from a Christian standpoint.
At the roots of Behaviourism are a worldview that totally denies that people have
(a) real emotions (such as love, grief, hatred etc.) our internal states are just a sum of the internal processing of our external behaviour, conditioned according to stimulus response
(b) personality preferences (unless they’ve been ‘shaped’ through outside behavioural control)
(c) a moral conscience – people simply learn to “react” and “behave” [so much for God’s laws being written on our hearts and minds…]
(d) original thoughts/ideas – including the ‘big ideas’ like truth and beauty AND God
(e) self determination or internal self control [just behaviour patterns that have conformed to external reward/punishment patterns]
(f) a soul (this is ‘superstition’ which we have been conditioned to believe for purposes of social control or it gratifies some conditioned response)
OK, so I’ve said that in practise operant/classical conditioning works – we all use it whenever we praise our children for doing something good…but to RELY on punishment/reward for behaviour modification or use it as a sole means of teaching/training a child?
What a naive and Godless conception of what it is to be a human! Methinks of that song lyric – ‘Despite all my rage, I am still but a rat in a cage!” – Amy in Australia