How to Teach a Chicken to Dance

By Spider Lady, published Nov 08, 2007

Published Content: 100  Total Views: 18,145  Favorited By: 13 CPs

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Behavioral science is really an odd bird. This is because so many people struggle with cause and effect. This is also why the patient who is brought into therapy is often not the focus for the change. The patient's spouse, employees, parent, etc, are often the individuals in a hold pattern of responding to behavior which gets, at the least, periodic reward. For the child acting out, the reward may be attention. If the child does not learn to get positive attention, they WILL learn to get negative attention. (Second born child syndrome: If the child cannot compete with the abilities of the older sibling they will act Behavioral science is really an odd bird. This is because so many people struggle with cause and effect. This is also why the patient who is brought into therapy is often not the focus for the change. The patient's spouse, employees, parent, etc, are often the individuals in a hold pattern of responding to behavior which gets, at the least, periodic reward. For the child acting out, the reward may be attention. If the child does not learn to get positive attention, they WILL learn to get negative attention. (Second born child syndrome: If the child cannot compete with the abilities of the older sibling they will act out for negative attention. Let's face it. Negative attention beats no attention. )

The same goes with the woman who complains about the guy who keeps calling on the telephone. Every time she answers the phone, she is rewarding the behavior. And as the gambling industry has so effectively put into practice, periodic reward is more addictive than constant reward. If you do not hear the little bells ring every twenty minutes or so with a few coins deposited back, you will not continue to feed the machine.