On 18 Jun 98 at 9:51, Jon Krispin wrote:
> There is actually much research that Kohn ignores which suggests that
> appropriate use of rewards (actually reinforcers) can lead to large and
> sustained improvements in outcomes, as well as improved attitudes around
> the area of attention in clinical as well as organizational settings
> (examples can be found in any issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior
> Analysis or the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management published in
> the last 20 years).
Probably the most complete response on this subject I have seen anywhere
on the net. Just to highlight a few points, and suggest what is happening.
First, Kohn's theme is not new and has been around for ages..the research
has been around for ages. The reason nobody has heard about it is that by
and large nobody has published a pop psych. book on it. Second, pop
psych. books rarely if ever provide balanced positions, since it isn't the
nature of pop publishing to do that...it's hard to sell a book entitled
"Maybe rewards punish, but then again, maybe not".
The majority of readers of the book don't have a context of research in
which to place the ideas, and it is the context that is critical to
understand that a) there is a kernal of truth to the contention he makes
and b) it isn't the whole story.
But we've commercialized psychology and packaged it for the masses (which
would be fine except that the packaging and content doesn't usually span
the range of truth).
The sad part is that twenty years from now, there will STILL be people who
believe Kohn word for word EVEN IF research published in journals shows
that he was wrong.
Robert Bacal, Inst.For Cooperative Communication, rbacal@escape.ca
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--"Robert Bacal" <rbacal@escape.ca>
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