Coercion and it's fallout by Murray Sidman .
Ok , I have finally finished it
. Feel as though I should go straight back to the beginning and start all over again .I had to read most pages several times just to make sure I could get my brain to take it all in .....( not very good at learning new stuff )
Anyway .....what an amazing book. Cannot recommend it highly enough. It is not a book about horses , only mentions horses twice I think.However the behavior it talks about is cross species, not just human.
I found the book to be very enlightening. It is mixed with the pure facts of scientific experiments and how theories were proven in the science labs usually with rats or mice and then goes on to give real life examples of how these theories work in the real world, which is very helpful for people like me with an un scientific brain .
The books overall theory is that coercion has too many side effects to make coercion a healthy and reliable tool to use.In different chapters he talks about Not all control being coercive , how punishment works and what really happens , punishments side effects , learning through Escape , Avoidance , slow learning , avoiding the unavoidable , escaping the avoidance , How do we avoid , Neurosis and mental illness , conditioned suppression , origins of the conscience .( many more but to many to write down ) .
He finally goes on to in his last chapters how using positive reinforcement can be brought int play in society .
In all these chapters he describes as what seems harmless to one person ( also animal - I have taken it to mean also ) can have very dramatic and long term side effects for another person and we should all make ourselves very aware of these side effects before we can say we are happy to continue to use punishment and coercion as a conscious decision.
The paragraph that I feel sums up the whole book is this
'' Coercion is control through negative reinforcement and punishment .Positive reinforcement does control behavior , no less than coercion does.But it can teach us new ways to act, or support what we have already learned , without creating coercion's characteristic byproducts - violence , aggression , oppression , depression , emotional and intellectual rigidity , destruction of self and others , hatred , illness , and general unhappiness.We usually punish in order to prevent conduct that we consider harmful , dangerous , or undesirable for other reasons.We justify coercion in the name of education, civilization , morality , and self - defense " . ( page 211 )
I personally think he does an excellent job of making you think long and hard about how we behave and makes us re evaluate if things could be done differently and how.
I definitely think it's a book that everyone should read , even if too dismiss it as utter rubbish, although how they could I'm not sure ......
It's hard to get hold off and very expensive , but if you ever have the chance to read it or want a Christmas present , a very good read .
