Behavior modification: A perspective on critical issues.

The social control of behavior control: Behavior modification,individual rights, and research ethics in America, 1971–1979

“…The Commission's report examined the use of behavior modification in outpatient settings, mental institutions, schools, prisons, and society (see Stolz & Associates, 1978;Stolz, Wienckowski, & Brown, 1975). Behavior analyst James Holland considered ethical issues in prisons.…”

Decision analysis. Clinical art or Clinical Science

“…A frequent problem --for practitioners is who is the true client , the patient or someone else (e.g., a hospital administrator ) interested in -maintaining order (Stolz et al, 1975) . Other therapies have lost their credibility because therapists have become so dependent upon government and the politically powerful fur their livelihood that they have lost the ability to make independent criticism (Snow & Newton , 1976), others because they can be afforded only by the rich , still others because they seem to be applied mainly to the poor ( Lorion , 1974;Zuniga , 1975) .…”

“…The ideological biases of many therapeutic interventions are familiar intellectual topics: the mechanistic image of people projected by behaviorism and its potential for control (Stolz , Wienckowski & Brown , 1975), the ethnocentrism of psychoanalysis , the narcissism of many contemporary therapies ( Man n , 1975;Lasch , l976a), the general tendency to treat clients as objects rather than colleagues in therapy (Mischel , 1977 ), and the fatalism induced by approaches that induce people to accept their own life crises as inevitable ( Lasch, l976b) .…”

“…They may even feel, like staunch believers in due process by law , that the decisionmaking process and the values it embodies and fosters arẽ The diversity of pressures upon government officials may be so great that the only variable predicting whether analytic solutions will be adopted may be the presence or absence of at least one individual within government who is fanatic about their being used (Pack & Pack , 1977) . Even "non-political" members of the public may prevent alternatives (Brown , 1975).…”

Learning to Apply Psychology: Didactic Training, Experience and Opinions about Behavior Modification

“…Goldiamond, 1975Woolfolk, Woolfolk, & Wilson, 1977. among the numerous dimensions to the current siege on behavior modification are (a) a confusion of terms, with behavior modification inappropriately referred to as only the end product of an intetvention, a change in the client's behavior, and synonymous with psycho-surgery, attack therapy, or even weekend nude encounter groups (Stolz, Wienckowski, & Brown, 1975); (b) a concern with the social regulation of individual behavior (Heldman, 1973); and (c) the mistaken inference that since the basic principles of behavior therapy are drawn from laboratory research with animals, behavior therapists treat their clients like animals (Bradfield, 1970). Perhaps one reason that behavior modification has been criticized is that the clearness with which behavior modifiers describe their procedures makes it susceptible to naive notions about applying behavior modification with little or no training.…”