Posts Tagged ‘psychology’

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B. F. Skinner: Why America’s Decline

December 6, 2022

The following long quote is from one of the greatest Psychologist of the 20th century, and perhaps of all time. This is the stunning truth about the problems that face all humanity. As a professor, I read this warning to nearly all of the students taking my classes for over 30 years. It has a prominent place in the book I am writing entitled: The Psychology of America’s Decline: And How To Reverse It.

I have not blogged in many days, I am too busy working on this book. I may not get it finished and published before I am finished. We shall see about that!

Regarding the past and present quality of our environment and the quality of life for all, Skinner wrote the following (p. 5) in his 1971 book entitled Beyond Freedom and Dignity, published by Alfred A Knopf.

I quote the following.

In trying to solve the terrifying problems that face us in the world today, we naturally turn to the things we do best. We play from strength, and our strength is science and technology. To contain a population explosion we look for better methods of birth control. Threatened by a nuclear holocaust, we build bigger deterrent forces and anti-ballistic-missile systems. We try to stave off world famine with new foods and better ways of growing them. Improved sanitation and medicine will, we hope, control disease, better housing and transportation will solve the problems of the ghettos, and new ways of reducing or disposing of waste will stop the pollution of the environment. We can point to remarkable achievements in all these fields, and it is not surprising that we should try to extend them. But things grow steadily worse, and it is disheartening to find that technology itself is increasingly at fault. Sanitation and medicine have made the problems of population more acute, war has acquired a new horror with the invention of nuclear weapons, and the affluent pursuit of happiness is largely responsible for pollution. As Darlington has said, ‘Every new source from which man has increased his power on the earth has been used to diminish the prospects of his successors. All his progress has been made at the expense of damage to his environment which he cannot repair and could not foresee.’
Whether or not he could have foreseen the damage, man must repair it or all is lost. And he can do so if he will recognize the nature of the difficulty. The application of the physical and biological sciences alone will not solve our problems because the solutions lie in another field. Better contraceptives will control population only if people use them. New weapons may offset new defenses and vice versa, but a nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed. New methods of agriculture and medicine will not help if they are not practiced, and housing is a matter not only of buildings and cities but of how people live. Overcrowding can be corrected only by inducing people not to crowd, and the environment will continue to deteriorate until polluting practices are abandoned.
In short, we need to make vast changes in human behavior, and we cannot make them with the help of nothing more than physics or biology, no matter how hard we try.

End of Quote

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The truth is that the solutions to our social and political problems lay in the wise use of well known scientifically validated psychological laws and principles that influence the quality of human behavior.

In America people vote for representatives who promise to make rules about rewarding and punishing (i.e., strengthening and weakening) the behavior patterns of America’s countless citizens, and other inhabitants. This now includes millions of unvetted individuals who illegally flood across our borders.

Skinner names nearly every environmental and behavioral problem that is now killing record numbers of our population, destroying the quality of our lives, and weakening our ability to survive as an effectively self-regulating nation. A nation capable of defend its self against powerful forces now in the process of destroying our Constitutional Republic by attacking it and us all from outside and from within.

In our Constitutional Republic increasing numbers of our people have long been voting for governmental rules, laws, and regulations that are destroying their own home land’s way of life. If only they knew enough about the laws and principles of psychology that influencing the quality of our own populations behaviors, they would understand that they are voting for the self-destruction of America as well as their own, and their loved one’s safety, security, and prosperity.

It is essential that voters understand the psychological laws and principles that increase good prosocial behaviors and decrease bad antisocial behaviors among our citizens; and then vote accordingly!

The basic laws and principles must be taught to all future voters in America’s private and public schools.

12/6/22

V. Thomas Mawhinney Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and a Practicing Psychologist.

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Psychology of Marxist Propaganda

April 18, 2021

Many principles of psychology facilitate Socialism and Communism’s skillful use of propaganda and other manipulations used to create cultural revolutions. The Oxford Languages Dictionary defines Propaganda as:

“Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or view.” Information can come in many forms including written words, pictures, music, art, movies, video’s, word of mouth, or actual human enactments.

In psychology, as in all sciences, the discovered principles and laws can be used for good or evil; much as nuclear power can be used to sustain societies or destroy them.

America’s Ongoing Cultural Revolution can be seen as a sequence of cultural “evolutions” (i,e., smaller changes in a population’s behavior patterns learned from teaching, imitation and other sources of social influence. Cultures are forever changing. A bigger, even stunning Revolution can occur when a sequence of smaller evolutionary changes compile to a point that population and governmental behavior patterns “suddenly” no longer resemble their own historical main features. America’s 20th and 21st Century Marxist Revolutionaries, have used the word “TRANSFOMRATION” to describe their goal for America. A “transformation” of something can be described as a change of something into something entirely different. In other word the Goal is a Marxist Revolution of in America.

America’s more slowly evolving sequence of small social, economic and political changes for decades have been moving away from those rules that our Founding father’s wrote into America’s Constitution. These smaller evolutionary changes have been effected largely by a series of radical rule changes imposed upon our states and entire population by an increasingly radicalized, growing, corrupt and all-controlling federal government.

America’s radicalized Marxist Democratic Party, at all levels, has used our schools, universities, the media…and now the political/economic power of big business to increasingly control and propagandize America. They have flooded our society with a variety of, beliefs, theories and ideologies antithetical our Constitution and our traditional values.

The following are a few examples of their Marxist though and behavior changing propagandistic implants into American culture:  Negative and Slanderous labeling, Critical Theory, Intersectionality Theory, Identity Politics, Woke culture, Cancel Culture, Diversity, Inclusion, Equality of Outcome, White Privilege, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ, Sexual Fluidity, Open Borders, Sanctuary Cities, Defunding the Police, Atheism, Secular Humanism, Post-Modernism, Attacking Middle Class Values (Traditional Families and Marriage), Defaming and Destroying America’s Historical Monuments and much, much more. If some of these terms are unfamiliar to you please do a computer search to learn about them. These are just some of the many informational and media attacks that the Marxist Revolutionaries have thrust into virtually every American institution, agency, business, economy, and hearts and minds of America’s population.

These, and other radical Democrat Marxist revolutionary strategies have weakened America’s traditional prosocial and patriotic values, traditions, and population solidarity. This can produce anxiety, anger, even hatred between different races, age groups, religious groups or political groups. This has resulted in profound social divisions and conflicts within our population. All of this, reveals the numerous complex unrelenting Marxist efforts to stress this great nation to its breaking point, and then to “Transform America” to a Socialist State.

I’ll bet that you have recognized many of these governmental rule changes and propaganda efforts impacting your emotions, perceptions, values, beliefs and behaviors of you and/or those of your loved ones. But, what you are unlikely to know and understand are the driving psychological principles that give these Marxist efforts great power. The psychological principles that underlie so many Americans, over-time, moving further and further from respect and affection for our once beloved Constitutional Republic of America; moving them and closer and closer to voting for our Transformation to a Socialist State of America!

Much of what powers population’s psychological change comes in the form of propaganda, as defined and identified with examples above. I would like to help you begin to understand the underlying principles of psychology that account for the effectiveness of propaganda to change the perceptions, emotions, beliefs and behaviors of people.

This is too big task to deal with in a series of short blogs, so it must be simplified in some good way. The majority of the power of propaganda to influence us can be attributed to a single organizing law of psychology: The Law of Contiguity.

The Law of Contiguity can cover a great deal of what we know about learning, memory, emotions, values, beliefs and our acquisition of knowledge. This law states that when things (words, images, sounds, smells, pain, discomfort, or other physical experiences happen in association with one another, or are paired-together in close time, the association between them is learned. When stimuli are paired together, they are likely to be remembered together.

Our brains are association machines. We remember things that happen together and we often learn to expect them to occur together. We can learn our preferences and aversions this way; things and experiences we work to get or, things and experiences we work to avoid or escape. That is; people, things and activities that become emotionally rewarding or unpleasant. That is people or things that seek to experience or people and things that make us anxious, fearful, or terrified and we seek to avoid or escape.

When things are associated together in time we are more likely to learn these new associations and we often learn to expect such things to happen together in the future.

Our brains are “association machines” and by experiencing and remembering (even unconsciously) new associations along with our genetics and our environmental life experiences our appetites, values, beliefs, motivations and behaviors change throughout our lives.

These changes, when viewed from a collective cultural level drive cultural evolution and, under some conditions can summate to a cultural revolution.

This has been a general introduction to my future blogs highlighting specific examples of the propaganda that Marxists/Communists are using during their ongoing attempted Second American Revolution.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D, 4/18/21

Examples of Propaganda>

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When Things Go Wrong!

September 29, 2019

When Things Go Wrong!

There are days when all of us “get down”, “things go wrong”, we have a little “pity-party”, or we just “get our undies in a bundle” and feel upset, etc, etc. Normally, we find a way to snap-out-of these negative mental states and get back on a positive track.

However, some of us have learned to think that the past has always been bad, the present is bad and the future is certain to be bad. In the field of psychopathology “mind-set” is called the Depressive Triad. People with this level of negativity set up a self-fulfilling prophesy for them selves. As a result of their dark attitude, expectations, decisions and resulting choices things often turn out badly for them.

This of course confirms their world view and further strengthens their depressive mind. This vicious cycle can easily lead to a Major Depression  often accompanied by a Generalized Anxiety Disorder, perhaps including panic attacks. This level of severity should be treated by a psychologist or a credentialed professional psychotherapist.

But, whichever level of negative thinking that we might engage in, veteran Travis Mills has a message for us that just might transform our lives.

Please take time to view the following. This video was sent to me by Gordon Jones, an American veteran and patriot. 

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 9/29/19

 

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“Immigrants! Don’t Vote for What You Fled”

June 2, 2019

“Immigrants! Don’t Vote for What You Fled”

This video is not just for Mexican immigrants to America.

It also applies to those who are escaping from U.S. cities and states that have been ruined by leftist-Liberal politicians in power for decades. 

It is normal for migrants, from outside or inside the U.S., to escape the leftist ruins of increasingly bloated, corrupt, and incompetent federal, state or local failing governments. 

What seems abnormal is when immigrants and migrants have a strong tendency to move to healthy and prosperous areas maintained by conservative populations and governments, only then to AGAIN VOTE FOR THE RADICAL/LIBERAL, LEFTIST POLITICIANS AND THE SOCIO/ECONOMIC PRACTICES THAT DESTROYED THE QUALITY OF THEIR LIVES IN THE PLACES THEY HAVE ESCAPED!

Albert Ellis asserted that humans are essentially irrational. The following is just one example of the kind of human behaviors that drove him to that conclusion. If you think about it, there are many more such examples.

Immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America; the Middle East; and even migrants from California to Texas and other liberal- to- conservative migrations in the U.S.,  often then agitate and vote to produce the same social and political environments that they have just escaped from!

See for your self in the following video!

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 6/2/19

P.S., This video “nails” the reasons behind what, at first glance, appears inexplicable.

It is the tyranny of easily available more immediate rewards (free stuff) verses more substantial delayed rewards to be earned through self-denial and hard work. These problems of immediate vs. deferred rewards are well understood in the field of psychology. 

 

 

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Legalized Prostitution: Sex Robots Lead the Way

January 1, 2019

Legalized Prostitution: Sex Robots Lead the Way.

Prostitution is illegal in every state in America, except Nevada. You might find it interesting to review the state and federal laws against Prostitution. Please see below.

https://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000119

You should know that prostitution, like gambling, pornography and recreational drugs were outlawed for good reasons. They were once called “vices” because they ruin families, businesses and individual’s lives. Separately each of these legalized activities is a great cost to society that should supersede hedonistic quests for more personal pleasures. Taken together, I judge that their synergistic costs to America are, or soon will be, disastrous.

On a strongly related matter: “technological determinism” is a term used by those who wish to illustrate how advancing technology shapes the perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors of populations within civilizations. When perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors change they can spread through populations via well-known biopsychosocial scientific laws and principles.  I call these laws and principles the mechanisms of change. I call the changes they cause within populations, behavioral contagion. The effects of behavioral contagion can be good or bad for populations, cultures, and societies.

Technological determinism is only one important source of the many summating and multiplicative changes in societies that, when viewed at-large, are identified as cultural evolution. Behavioral contagion is an important component of many chains of causes (war, depletion of resources, disease, natural disasters, religion changes, technological developments, politics and more) that drive good and bad cultural evolutions. Therefore, behavioral contagion can also be an important force in the rise and decline of civilizations. Changing and even clashing subcultures can easily be observed in societies.

Unfortunate, the workings of the biopsychosocial mechanisms that drive behavioral contagion for better and for worse, are not easily observed. In fact, from what I can tell almost everyone is oblivious to them. Even most scientists that I know do not think much about their involvement in sociocultural evolution and the survival value of  societies

The video below is a perfect example, among countless others, of technological innovations that can catalyze destructive forms of behavioral contagion in America.

The following  video is only soft-pornography But, I warn you that your own imagination will rapidly convert it to XXX rated hardcore-pornography. If you are offended by this video, and your own naturally occurring imagination, I will invite you to “grow-up” and face reality. You will have to politically defend against this reality, or you and your loved ones will be hurt to varying degrees by it.

Psychology is very much at play in this robotic example of technological determinism, its resulting behavioral contagion, and also resulting cultural evolutions will likely produce . I will explain in brief.

All animals are generally influenced by the same Psychological laws and principles. One of these principles is the Law of Effect. This law states that behaviors that produces rewards for individuals will normally cause them to repeat the same behaviors more often in the future. These behavior patterns, with repeated rewarding consequences, can become deeply ingrained within the in individuals and greatly increase in future frequency. Such high rates of behaviors have, in lay language, been called “psychological addictions”. When the rewards are actually biologically addicting, both psychological and physiological addictions present concurrent problems to individuals, families, businesses, etc., and entire societies. The psychologist B. F. Skinner researched and promulgated these laws and principles he called Operant Conditioning and Learning.

Basic Laws of Association increase the likelihood that stimuli, perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors that occur together with individuals will be psychologically linked together and will be more likely to occur together more often in the future. If the stimuli are closely associated with pleasure, individuals will be more likely to be motivated to work to produce them more often in the future. Conversely, the stimuli, perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions are closely associated with pain or discomfort will be more likely to be escaped and avoided. Ivan Pavlov’s discovery of Classical (Respondent) Conditioning helped psychologist to understand how, for better or worse, new learned (conditioned) emotions and reflexes can be learned in humans and other animals. 

The Principle of Least Effort often leads to people and other animals seeking the least effortful ways to obtain their rewards and the least effortful ways to escape or avoid pain and discomfort. The implications for sex with robots as opposed to all that one must do to find and retain sexual partners should be clear. The more realistic the sexual robots become the more powerful their attractiveness is likely to become.

It is critically to note that behavioral scientists have demonstrated that humans and other animals are generally highly motivated get their rewards more immediately, more frequently and in larger magnitudes.  

Albert Bandura, conducted important research into the psychological field of Social Learning Theory. There are a great many social influences upon perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors the individuals within societies. These influences include all of the previous laws and principles, and more. These influences are spread through language, written words, popular media, and the imitation of other’s behaviors that are perceived in some fashion. All of this presents another level of complexity of influences upon individual’s perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions and behaviors.  The principles of social learning theory present countless other avenues of behavioral contagion with good or bad effects upon individuals, cultures and societies.

All of this, and much more, is part of human and animal nature.

Historically, in Western Civilization Judeo/Christian religion’s stimuli, perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, emotions, behaviors and sacred values have militated against bad behavioral contagion. Also, Western Civilization’s, more’s, folkways and governmental laws; largely based upon these religious values, punished the spread of bad behaviors within the populations. All of this and the population’s own social controls (encouragement, praise, material rewards; or, criticism, social censure, rejection and physical punishment) also militated against bad behavioral contagion and strengthened good behavioral contagion. 

Finally, it is now increasingly clear that genetics is a very important factor in the inheritance of tendencies towards a host of diseases, both physical and psychological; as well as a number of personality features that often produce maladaptive behaviors in individuals. 

All of this provides fodder for the behavioral contagion of bad or good outcomes for individuals, culture and society. 

Perhaps you are beginning to understand that psychology is one of our most important sciences and technologies for future human social and political survival. 

Finally, please note that all levels of America’s governments have been suppressing the power of Judeo/Christian influences. Also, our corrupt governments  have been legalizing the behaviors that were formerly labeled as sinful and illegal. Governments are doing this in order to augment their tragically depleted revenues. Governmental revenues horrifically depleted by unprincipled spending designed to secure a dependent electorate dedicated to furthering politician’s personal wealth and political power. 

Sex robots are perfect technological symbols of secular post-modern nations now in steep decline.

Will America be one of these?

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D.

Health Services Provider in Psychology

Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Indiana University South Bend

 

For more “Big Picture” thinking, I invite you to study two of my professional publications below. There I detail a few (just a few) of the determinants of human behavior, cultural evolution and potentially the rise and decline of civilizations.

Also, you undoubtedly note that I have not specified what is good or bad behavior, or good and bad behavioral contagion. I invite you to think about your own value judgments about these matters. However, I ask that you put these judgments within the context of the biopsychosocial laws and principles discussed in this blog. If you wish to know my own thoughts on this difficult matter, you will find them in my publications below.  

http://uncommonculture.org/ojs/index.php/bsi/article/view/328

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zKtoOt2Vvb8C&oi=fnd&pg=PA45&dq=behavioral+contagion+of+gambling+v.t.+mawhinney&ots=F8rOYqs1Or&sig=e07hs19rcrN6pIPXg1QEw4D8KsQ#v=onepage&q=behavioral%20contagion%20of%20gambling%20v.t.%20mawhinney&f=false

 

 

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Law of Effect Needs Moral Governance

January 18, 2018

Law of Effect Needs Moral Governance

There are many psychological principles that determine human behavior. They work together in complex ways and the behavioral outcomes of these interactions often appear to be both synergistic and exponential.

For example, being sexually abused twice, 1+1, may not equal a magnitude of disturbance in the victim of 2; it might equal a magnitude of disturbance of 5. Other unfortunate experiences frequently evolve from this person’s troubled behavior and is likely to produce a quickly accelerating rate of more troubled emotions and behaviors.

Of course principles of genetics and biology are of great importance. The interactions between these factors and psychological factors are bi-directional. Therefore, principles of psychology influence behavior and behavior is influenced by bio-genetic factors.

For example, a person born with the genetic factors that determine alcohol addiction will be more motivated to consume alcohol to excess , which in turn, can lead to more physical and psychological problems. These problems can include broken families, road fatalities, ruined business early death due to alcohol related illnesses or suicide.

In the previous example of rape, the victim may turn to drugs or alcohol in order to self-medicate for the fears and anxieties that typically are associated with rapes or other traumas. This can lead to more physical and psychological problems, which could end in bad outcomes for the individual and society.

These individuals could be helped by entering therapy. But many refuse treatment, are only partially assisted, or even fail to benefit in any measurable way.

Any society that designs itself in ways that accidentally, or selfishly, increase such problems for their citizens and then spends increasing revenues and energy to fix the problems is maladaptive and self-defeating. Such cultural designs are on a certain path to cultural decline.

This defines one of modern America’s most severe and worsening self-management problems.

The primary focus of the remainder of this blog will be upon psychological principles, processes and behavioral outcomes.

The great and powerful Law of Effect states that the probability of behavior is controlled by its consequences. The higher an animal is placed upon the phylogentic continuum, the greater the Law of Effect influences that animal’s behavior. Therefore, human behavior (good, bad, or indifferent) is most greatly influenced by the Law of Effect. The behavior of animals lower on the phyologentic scale is less influenced by the law of effect and more so by genetics.

Unfortunately, if  the powerful and natural influences of the Law of Effect and other interacting psychological principles are not guided by commonly accepted moral rules, values and consequences transmitted consistently and synchronously; within families, agencies and organizations (at managerial and governmental levels)…increased rates of bad behaviors within populations will certainly occur.

This is my prediction based upon principles of conditioning and learning theory and behavioral/cognitive social learning theory. My prediction is also informed by my 36 years as a professor of psychology and over 40 years as a private cognitive/behavioral therapist.

The population behavior changes I have seen in America during the course of my adult life (now at 75 yrs.) is largely, though not a singularly result, of a decline in our moral rules and consequences that less and less consistently govern our behavior. The interacting biopsychosocial scientific principles and  behavioral outcomes cause by this erosion of moral rules, values and consequences is what I call Behavioral Contagion. More specifically, Bad Behavioral contagion, leading to increased rates of bad behavior.

For our informal purposes, “bad behaviors” will include those  perceptions, emotions, beliefs and actions that damage the healthy physical and psychological development of children, adolescents and adults. These problems are very expensive and decrease the ability of a society to survive long and well.

To be sure, an entire book could be written about what bad behavior is, and is not, and there would be disagreement about what are good or bad behaviors under various circumstances. Regarding the class of “good behaviors”, I view these as human actions that are incompatible with, or compete with, the bad behaviors as defined above.

Most people would agree that, bad behaviors are neglecting, abusing or abandoning children or other loved ones; becoming addicted to activities or substances; lying, cheating, stealing and murdering, etc.. Most people would would agree that behaviors that are incompatible, or compete with, such actions would be examples of good or non-harmful behavior.

My general definitions, for the sake of this blog, will allow most folks to begin to to think about this complex matter of desirable, pro-social (good), or undesirable antisocial (bad) behavior among residents of our society.

It is important that citizens of America learn to think about such moral values and judgments because they determine the consequences for the actions of  themselves and others (rewards, punishments or no consequences) through their social interactions with others. Just as importantly, in America’s Representative Republic, citizens also influence the moral values, rules and consequences for themselves and others by casting votes for those who will be elected to make and enforce, or change the rules that govern all of us.

So, now comes the big question based upon Behavioral Contagion Theory: What can be done to decrease bad behavioral contagion in America and, as a result, also increase our cultural health and viability? 

Without a doubt, the “wisdom of the ages”, on this matter can be found in the moral precepts of the worlds greatest peaceful religions. My research finds that many scientists who study cultural decline, note that when populations loose their faith in their God’s teachings, they also loose the moral precepts and values important for their culture’s health and viability. This phenomenon appears to be happening to many (perhaps all, to some degree), modern technologically advancing societies in the world. 

I judge that skillfully using the psychological (and genetic/biological) principles of behavioral contagion will naturally decrease rates of bad behavior and increase rates of good behavior in America. But, to achieve this will require that we strengthen the influences of the social agencies, families, churches, schools and media influences that can promulgate and model moral rules and values and also reward conformity to these rules and values with acceptance, praise, recognition, influence, political power and material/financial consequences. 

Though it is unpopular in America’s increasingly immoral society, withholding these rewards for those who do not follow moral rules is essential. In extreme cases, murder, robbery, rape and child abuse, etc. To ever be effective, Swift and certain punishment must be administered by authorities for these and similar behaviors. 

For this chain of events to occur will require that America’s government (at all levels) cease the restrictions and punishments for America’s traditional and contemporary, peaceful and pro-social religious influences. 

I judge that it is essential to vote only for those public servants who support conservative moral rules and values to guide local, state and national governance. This will naturally catalyze increasing rates of good behavioral contagion in America and decrease rates of bad behavioral contagion.

Wake-Up America: Vote For Conservative Moral Values and Principles!

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus of Psychology

Health Services Provider in Psychology

 

 

 

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Some Truth About America’s Moral Decline

January 14, 2018

Some Truth About America’s Moral Decline.

I presume that you are aware of America’s moral decline. It is very real and it is a function of many factors that have changed in American culture; some are not so easily identified as connected with our moral decline. 

The following is an article that identifies a couple of factors that are directly related to America’s moral decline. 

It is very important that Americans see this clearly. My research suggests that moral decline is all too often associated with a decline in a societies viability and long-term debilitation.

Please read this short and insightful article.

Wake-Up America!

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/53401

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 1/14/18

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President Trump’s Bad Language

January 13, 2018

President Trump’s Bad Language

There is no question, President Trump can use bad language if he is angered.

Read the outstanding book about this President’s amazing strong points, “Let Trump Be Trump”, and find that it is honest enough to report that Trump is prone to profanity when he discovers a lack of progress or incompetence. Who should be surprised to find that a man who is used to wielding great power to get his own way can become upset and unpleasant when he does not?  So what?!

Democrats, RINO republicans, and liberal members of the deep state will certainly inflate and leak such incidences. They do this to derail Trump’s “America First” efforts and to distract attention from their own evil agenda of exchanging favors to the poor, uneducated and gullible… for votes and power.

Who, in touch with reality, would be unaware of any of this?

There are at least three points to ponder on this matter.

First Point:

Is President Trump “Crazy”, as so many liberals allege?

The simple answer is absolutely not. How could it be so in light of his many life-long consistent and complex accomplishments? I will grant that he is likely to show a difficult personality when he is failing to achieve his goals. But his thinking must have remained stable and rational or he would have been incapable of a life-time of his stellar achievements.

Note that the word “crazy” is a pejorative slang term used to destroy the credibility of someone. The closest technical term to this word is psychosis, a term used by psychologists and psychiatrists for one of the most debilitating psychological conditions featuring great mental confusion and the loss of contact with reality.

President Trump is certainly not psychotic.

Furthermore, President Trump’s recent physical exam found him to be in very good condition. A physician would certainly have been able to determine if the President was in a state of psychosis (i.e.,”crazy”), or not.

The Second Point:

Is President Trump a racist?

I am unable to tell you what his deepest thoughts are on this matter, nor are others who do not know him intimately.

My research finds that most liberals, and the main-stream media are convinced that he is. Additionally, a very few liberal republicans in favor of chain immigration and continued liberal immigration policies from very poor third-world countries may also accuse him of racism.

Trump has reached-out to minorities as no other republican has for many years. He should be given the benefit of doubt on this issue.

An alternative explanation for President Trump’s position of immigration is that randomly selected, or indiscriminately admitted uneducated and unskilled individuals from third-world countries are overloading America’s social welfare, medical, educational and law enforcement/judicial systems. As a result these essential systems are in financial crises and their dramatically increased work loads are stressing their workers to the point of systemic breakdown.

This problem threatens the viability of America. It can only be resolved by increasing tax supplied funds to our essential social systems. This would be a self-destructive act on top of other self-destructive acts. Or, it can be resolved by changing our immigration system to  merit based policies to insure that immigrants are self-sufficient.

It is critically important to vote for the latter solution.

The reader should also note that uncontrolled immigration from certain Islamic countries has led to increased terrorism in America and in every other country that has tried to assimilate their refugees.

You have probably noticed that most of these countries happen to be largely inhabited by people who are not Caucasians. This is the flimsy and dishonest basis for those on the “left” launching defamatory attacks on President Trump, calling him a racist.

Perhaps you are familiar with the scientific dictum: “Correlation is not causation”.

Trump’s objection to unlimited immigration from third-world or terrorist-ridden countries is absolutely not proof that he is a “racist”.

More likely, it is proof that President Trump is putting America’s urgent need to reverse its steep decline and recover its financial and cultural health and viability is first and foremost among his many objectives.

The Third Point.

Is President Trump distinctive in his use of bad language and crude remarks?

It is a fact that Trump will win no prizes for consistent tact and diplomatic language, though he is very capable of this style of communication.

I am not arguing that profane and crude language is a good thing. But it is a fact that public language and language in chambers, during political combat, can get pretty salty.

See for yourself.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/lists/a-brief-history-of-presidential-profanity-20121210/abraham-lincoln-19691231

Wake-Up America!

Radical Liberals, socialists, progressives, RINO’s, and their deep state accomplists are attempting to destroy and then impeach our properly elected President of the United States.

Vote Conservative Republican!

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 1/13/18

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Mini Lesson: Business Economics

January 7, 2018

A Mini Lesson: Business Economics

In my undergraduate days, I was a business major before making that a minor and majoring in psychology. 

I learned about something called “Enlightened Self-Interest” in my business classes. This is a material-consequential based explanation of why it is best for businesses to take good care of their employees and their customers. It also explains why, in a free-market economic system, private businesses tend to do so.

Radical liberals, socialists, progressives and anarchists preach that private businesses are evil. They argue that businesses abuse both their employees and their customers.

While there is no doubt this is true in some cases, it is certainly not generally true.

In fact it is not true of most successful businesses because there is “Reciprocal Control” between the businesses, its workers and their customers.

If private businesses threat their employees poorly they will leave and be replaced by less skilled and dedicated ones. These businesses, in turn will tend to produce a poorer product and product services.

All of this will tend to lead to dissatisfied customers who, in a free market, most likely seek-out better businesses who will provide them better products and services. 

All of this is why socialism, communism, fascism and obviously, anarchy, fails so badly in comparison to democratic republics and a free-market economies.

Radical liberals/progressives and socialists argue that the “trickle-down theory” does not work.

See for yourself!

Click the following link. Please endure the brief ad that precedes the video. It will be worth your wait. 

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D.    1/7/18

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Operant Behavior and Cultural Evolution

April 8, 2016

Operant Behavior and Cultural Evolution

B. F. Skinner is often credited with being the greatest psychologist of the 20th Century.

In my judgment, and that of countless others, Skinner deserves this special honor  because his prodigious research and writings gave birth to the psychological science of Behavior Analysis. Furthermore, his work also led to the development of the science and technology of Applied Behavior Analysis. Skinner’s efforts and that of his legions of followers has culminated in, and continues to yield, the world’s most powerful and practical applications of psychology to ameliorate human behavior problems. But, even better, the wise use of this behavior technology could lead to the prevention of human behavior problems!

One old saying is: “An Ounce Of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure”. This rule  could be one important the key to sociocultural longevity, if humans can be helped to care for such future outcomes.

Societies that do not teach their children and young adults about science-based findings about the environmental forces that shape human behavior patterns, as well as an effective moral code to their populations, fail to do so at their own great peril. The dramatically increasing behavior problems in America’s society, and others, provide stark support for this conclusion.

Some of B. F. Skinner’s prophetic words were published in 1971 in his powerful little book,  Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Please read the following samples of his writing with care and you may begin to understand one great source of America’s citizen’s behavior problems.

Then get the entire book and learn some essential information that relatively few citizens know.

Sample 1.

Twenty-five hundred years ago it might have been said that man understood himself as well as any other part of his world. Today he is the thing he understands least (Kindle Loc. 64).

In other words, as we have advanced our understanding in all other areas of science and technology, we have remained woefully ignorant of the psychological science and technology that shapes our own behavior patterns. Skinner also wrote about the fact that the health and longevity of all cultures rest upon the understanding and benevolent use of this science and technology of human behavior.

Sample 2.

In trying to solve the terrifying problems that face us in the world today, we naturally turn to the things we do best. We play from strength, and our strength is science and technology. To contain a population explosion we look for better methods of birth control. Threatened by a nuclear holocaust, we build bigger deterrent forces and anti-ballistic-missile systems. We try to stave off world famine with new foods and better ways of growing them. Improved sanitation and medicine will, we hope, control disease, better housing and transportation will solve the problems of the ghettos, and new ways of reducing or disposing of waste will stop the pollution of the environment. We can point to remarkable achievements in all these fields, and it is not surprising that we should try to extend them. But things grow steadily worse, and it is disheartening to find that technology itself is increasingly at fault. Sanitation and medicine have made the problems of population more acute, war has acquired a new horror with the invention of nuclear weapons, and the affluent pursuit of happiness is largely responsible for pollution. As Darlington has said, ‘Every new source from which man has increased his power on the earth has been used to diminish the prospects of his successors. All his progress has been made at the expense of damage to his environment which he cannot repair and could not foresee’.

Whether or not he could have foreseen the damage, man must repair it or all is lost. And he can do so if he will recognize the nature of the difficulty. The application of the physical and biological sciences alone will not solve our problems because the solutions lie in another field. Better contraceptives will control population only if people use them. New weapons may offset new defenses and vice versa, but a nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed. New methods of agriculture and medicine will not help if they are not practiced, and housing is a matter not only of buildings and cities but of how people live. Overcrowding can be corrected only by inducing people not to crowd, and the environment will continue to deteriorate until polluting practices are abandoned.

In short, we need to make vast changes in human behavior, and we cannot make them with the help of nothing more than physics or biology, no matter how hard we try (Kindle Loc. 31-50).

The powerful truth that B. F. Skinner has tried to explain to us is that our most enduring and damaging problems are a result of the ignorant management of our own individual and collective behavior. Furthermore, our ignorance can be remediated only if we will study the right available information and convert this knowledge into practice.

I have taught my psychological subject matter as a professor for 36 years and also taught and applied it within my a private practice for a similar duration. Over this time I have watched as America has all but destroyed itself, largely through the gross misapplication of these very elemental psychological principles.

I believe that certain sociopolitical and economic philosophies are compatible with, and naturally catalytic to, the societal integration of these elementary principles of psychology…and that is why they have consistently succeed.

It is clear to me that other sociopolitical and economic philosophies are naturally antithetical to these elementary principles of psychology and this is why they have consistently failed.

In my judgement, many important elementary principles of psychology are inherent in  conservative political and economic philosophies and practices. Although the resulting behavioral and cultural outcomes are never perfect, history demonstrates conservative principles are superior to those of other sociocultural designs. I judge that B. F. Skinner would not have agreed with many of my political/economic conclusions on this last matter and I am certain many of his followers do not.

On the other hand, the natural elemental principles of psychology, as implemented by progressive/socialist political and economic philosophies consistently damage motivation and most often lead to increased rates of maladaptive and self-destructive behavior among its citizens and leaders. These tragedies are are illustrated by the fact that socialist leaders normally gather the lions-share of power and material gains, at the great expense of their citizens….including the imprisonment and even death of over one hundred of million of them by starvation and execution. The arrested development, if not the horrific decline, of entire socialist/communist societies is clearly documented by history.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, Ph.D., 4/8/18

Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Indiana University South Bend

President and Clinical Director, Behavioral Psychological Family Services

 

 

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