The Epidemic of Violence Part 2

Although not a neo –Freudian, Henry A Murray postulated a number of human needs within his theoretical framework. Included in Murray’s list of needs were aggression and abasement. He defined aggression: to fight; to revenge an injury; to attack or kill another; to punish another etc.. Another related need was called abasement: to accept injury; mutilate the self; seek and enjoy pain, and punishment; to incorporate aggression directed towards self. Murray believed that needs were hypothetical .Further, a need was related to an underlying physiological process in the brain; and the expression of a particular emotion or affect. Moreover, various circumstances bring about or initiate this hypothetical construct. Thus, with Murray, we know that needs are related to goals that are affected by various conditions within the environment. To account for aggression as being exclusively molded by the influence of the environment, behaviorism took the mantle. In this view, man was supposed to have been born good and rational; but only under bad institutions and bad education, that he developed evil strivings. The notion of unconscious, ego, mind, will, and character etc. were extraneous and not needed to account or explain man’s behavior. A giant within this school of thought, BF Skinner postulated R-S [with R being the response and S being the reinforcing stimulus]. With his experiments, he demonstrated that with the proper use of a positive reinforcement [Pleasure] ratio, animal and human behavior could be significantly altered. If an apparent reward didn’t influence or modify behavior, then it was not seen as a reinforcement. When a reinforcement worked, it changed behavior. This school of thought believed that reward was superior and more effective than punishment .Punishment didn’t change the response, it only inhibited the response when the punisher was present. The negative behavior would surface when the punisher was absent, or out of sight. My Border collie is a good example of the efficiency of positive reinforcement. This young dog responds by licking my face, laying at my feet and wagging her tail when verbally praised. Verbal praise works terrifically in modifying and reinforcing the behavior that I want. She has never been slapped or hit. In my opinion, she’s a sweet and loving dog. To Be Continued