How to be Introspective and Observe Yourself

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...

Effects of Conditioning

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...

There is No Such Thing as a “Normal” Person

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...

How Do We Learn Self-Understanding?

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...

History of Conditioning—B.F. Skinner

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...
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