Many people have deep emotional reactions to power and even the word power. This is understandable. How power is used and our views about power influence much of our lives. Power is the realm of control, domination, and influence. How power is used is a life and death reality. However, people also live their...
Acceptance of others is one of humanities higher traits. Accepting a large number of others who differ from us is not easy. Accepting a large number of others who differ from us goes against our animal nature. When we care for and truly accept others as our own we’ll be less likely to harm...
Selection is the process that creates ordered from the chaos of random exploratory behavior. Behaviors are selected by elimination. The behaviors that did not work are preformed less and less until they undergo extinction. In a perfect world extinction would take place without excessive complications. In the real world there are myriads of unpredictable...
Controlling signals are the cues that prompt us to behave in certain ways. Controlling signals can also reward behavior. A traffic light is a controlling signal. The traffic light controls how we drive. When we respond appropriately we’re also rewarded. Traffic lights present an interesting example because sometimes stopping is aversive yet it’s also...
Deficiency Needs All living organisms have certain requirements for maintaining the life process. The minimum requirements needed to for life to continue consist of basic needs. We usually think of basic need as consisting of air, food, water, shelter, sex, etc… When an individual or group is deficient in these needs their biological systems...
Humanity can learn much about the rules of natures from dog training. How to use incentives is one of the most obvious natural rules we can learn from dog training. Out of the different forms of incentive the rules of positive reinforcement are the most important to experiment with and master. Positive reinforcement is...