Is Behavior Modification Ethical? Essay

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Learning Theory and Conditioning

Whether there are ethical objections to using learning theory to shape the behavior of oneself or others is a very interesting ethical question, which has no clear-cut answer. Learning theory is critical to teaching people, and, particularly with children, is a universal part of the behavior conditioning process. Moreover, many adults choose to use learning theory to help retrain themselves, eradicating bad habits and reinforcing good habits. The real ethical dilemma arises when one adult person is consciously using learning theory in a goal-directed manner to change the behavior of another adult person without that other person's permission.

Few people could argue that there are objections to using learning theory to shape behavior in children. Whether a person is an advocate of rewards-based behavior modification in children, whereby children are given rewards for participating in particular behaviors, or an advocate of punishment for children, whereby children are punished for engaging in particular behaviors, it is clear that both approaches rely upon learning theory to reinforce appropriate and inappropriate behaviors in children.

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Parents do not have to understand learning theory to employ these approaches, many of which are unconsciously incorporated from the parents' own experiences as children.

Moreover, there is little objection to people employing learning theory to change their own behavior. For example, people suffering from addiction issues are often told to avoid things that could trigger the desire to use. These things may include people, places, or things that have previously been associated with the use of drugs or alcohol. It seems ridiculous to suggest that it is unethical for people to avoid triggers while trying to conquer an addiction. Furthermore, when people are trying to engage in positive behaviors, many adults set up their own reward systems to reinforce positive behaviors and hopefully make them habits, which are reinforced by triggers in the environment.

The real question comes when a person is consciously using behavior modification techniques based on learning theory to modify the behavior of another adult….....

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