Select a current ‘hot button’ issue – immigration, gun control, climate change

SPE 563 DISCUSSION QUESTION

Team Discussion

Question prompt/summary

Part 1 1-Select a current ‘hot button’ issue – immigration, gun control, climate change, etc. 2-What are the components of this issue on which individuals or groups disagree? 3-Describe the source of these disagreements from a radical behaviorism perspective. Specifically examine these opposing perspectives in terms of Operant Behavior and verbal behavior. 4-Ground your interpretation in the philosophical assumptions underlying the science of behavior analysis (e.g., selectionism, determinism, empiricism, parsimony, pragmatism).

Part 2 In About Behaviorism, Chapter 7, Skinner approaches Thinking and Choice from a behaviorist perspective. Discuss these terms from a common language, colloquial, every-day perspective. As a behaviorist, how would you describe Thinking and Choice to a colleague or parent of a client not familiar with Behaviorism.