by Dr. Adams | POSTS
The information imparted to infants by parents is never objective or apathetic. Such information is subjective and emotionally-laden and always distorted, or conditioned, to some degree. In this manner, emotions affect the child’s rational, intellectual, cognitive...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
Since conditioning creates distortions that interfere in our realistic perception of people, we see others falsely. We can only detect extreme differences in other people. We can distinguish a kind, caring, altruistic, giving and selfless person. We can also ascertain...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
The best approach to self-understanding is to study yourself intelligently rather than through any external source such as self-help advice. Since each person is conditioned to act reflexly, he or she must learn by concerted practice to observe both other people and...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
There are many profound effects of the conditioning process. One is that appropriate responses are not given to specific situations by an internal process of thinking. Realistic, evidentiary factors are excluded from consideration. A person is left with only a fixed...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
We have been taught to think that a very large percentage of the population is “normal.” By “normal” I mean a group of people well-adapted emotionally and behaviorally who have few anxieties, depressions or addictions, who have well-functioning relationships and who...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
Self-help books are everywhere. They flood bookstores and are a huge business. Their how-to-do-it approach is immensely popular and intellectually facile. Self-help books follow a “step” format. If a person performs step 1, then step 2, and so on, then he or she...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
As I have discussed, studies of behavioral and emotional conditioning have a lengthy history. Everybody has some extent of conditioning in childhood that endures with them in adult life. So, does conditioning follow gender/sex, race or cultural distinctions? Is it...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
Burrhus F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist. He researched the shaping or modification of behaviors that created learning. His form of learning was called Operant Conditioning. He maintained such learning is either perpetuated or extinguished by the...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
John B. Watson (1878-1958) was an American psychologist who created the theory of “behaviorism.” His theory was a scientific psychological approach based only on complex behaviors that could be observed. The theory refuted the presence of the mind. Watson believed...
by Dr. Adams | POSTS
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) was an Austrian zoologist and ethologist. An ethologist studies animal behavior patterns in their natural environment. Lorenz studied animals with a special focus on greylag geese. He discovered that baby geese (goslings) that were...
