Behaviourist Contemporary Debate

• Revolves around using conditioning techniques to control the behaviour of children
• Conditioning Techniques cannot be used with vulnerable children

  ABA requires large amount of 1:1 therapy therefore it may be too costly to be practical. Nearly half of 460 respondents with ASD in ABA therapy to show PTSD symptoms

  Forced eye contact and to work at tables without comfort seats for hours

  Uses both reinforcement and punishment to modify behaviour.
• Conditioning techniques can be used with vulnerable children

  Lovaas developed applied behaviour (ABA) a 1;1 method to improve social interactions of ASD children

  Children with autism are helped to learn through incentives, focused mainly on language difficulties and self care.
• Conditioning Techniques should be used with children in the home

  Supernanny (Jo Frost) - suggested operant conditioning for parents

  Child is naughty and given attention = positive reinforcement

  Naughty step removes attention from child

  Good behaviour = reinforced through rewards = praise
• Conditioning Techniques should be used with children in the home 2nd Point

  Gill asked parents to encourage completing chores through pocket money, child completed 70% of chores = successful
• Conditioning Techniques should not be used with children in the home

  Naughty Step criticised by Morris as claims young kids do not have ability to reflect on own behaviour without empathy/ help with their feelings

  however to be effective conditioning techniques need to be applied consistently and if parents = busy/tired they may show frustration and be inconsistent.
• Conditioning techniques should be used with children in schools

  McAllister et al - increased use of teacher praise and disapproval (control conditioning) = decrease in inappropriate talking amongst pupils, control condition had no improvement

  Le Francoise argues classical conditioning can be used to maximise student performance, teachers maximise pleasant stimuli in school environment and minimise negative stimuli.
• Conditioning Techniques do not help with children in schools

  Lepper et al asked children to draw nice pictures, when children were promised a reward they spent half as much time drawing as children who weren't

  Lewis conducted observation in Japanese schools and found operant conditioning was rarely used and children were just internally motivated. japan is ranked 4th in Science = reading vs UK (23rd)