When World War one comes to a close
a battle of a different sort
begins. Only this time, the weapons are
words and the soldiers are scientists.
This new battle will rage between two
diametrically opposed views of human behavior. 
On one side are the scientists who
see our personalities as unchanging,
fixed at birth,
biologically determined; and on the other
side are those who believe we can change-
that we are influenced by our
experiences, and what we learned along
the way. When the debate heats up in the
United States, life is changing rapidly
and dramatically. It's an unsettling time
for most people who yearn for stability
and normalcy and certainty. What scientists
have to say about human behavior- whether
it's fixed at birth and predictable
or shaped by the environment and
changeable, will have a profound effect
on how people view the future, how they see
each other, and even how they live their
lives.
But not everyone believes that biology is destiny. For many
scientists, it's your experiences in life that count-
your upbringing, your education, your
environment.
Chief among these scientists is
psychologist John Watson, who offers a
theory that is the mirror opposite of eugenics.
Over the years, Watson studies the
behavior of babies- hundreds of them!
To Watson, we arrive in the world a blank
slate - tabula rasa.
Nearly everything is learned, even things we think
are instinctual, like fear. To prove that environment
is more powerful than genetics, Watson
designs an experiment for an infant
known as little Albert. He's so
confident, he films it for posterity. At
first, Albert shows little fear, even when
Watson places a burning newspaper in front
of him. Albert is also unafraid when he
encounters a white rat for the first
time in his life, but then Watson shows
Albert the rat accompanied by a loud
clanging noise- one of the few things that
upsets little Albert.
Then he does it again, and does it again. Eventually,
Albert learns to fear not just the rat,
but all furry things, even without the
loud noise. In Watson's mind, the little Albert
experiment is a success, because it
proves that fears are learned not inherited.
Watson calls his theory behaviorism and begins to
popularize it.
He urges parents to take active control of
their children's upbringing by shaping
their environment-
to think of the home
as a scientific laboratory.
Science was increasingly important in
the popular mindset. If science said
something, if scientists tested, if
scientists experimented, well then, it must
be so! But the appeal of behaviorism runs
deeper. It's egalitarian philosophy
and outlook seems to reflect the very
spirit of democracy. Watson was the voice of the
American Dream, and the American dream
was that this is the land of opportunity
You can become what you would like to be, even
if you're not there yet- And, at least, if you don't do
it in- in your lifetime,
this is the land in which children can
do it. The American
dream of opportunity draws millions of
immigrants. They come by the ship load to
fill the jobs of a rapidly expanding
economy, to seek a better life,
but the arrival of new immigrants
increases all kinds of fears,
some are economic- that the immigrant worker
will lower the wages of American workers
or take their jobs altogether, all the
while crowding their cities and their
schools-
and there are also biological fears.
Charles Davenport and others in the
eugenics movement worried that the new
immigrants from Southern and Eastern
Europe are bringing defective genes with
them.
They have no faith that America will transform the immigrants.
If anything they fear the immigrants will
transform America.
This is the pinnacle of the eugenics
movement in the United States.
There are new immigration laws. There are new
marriage laws forbidding mixed-race
marriage,
or even new sterilization laws
preventing criminals, epileptics, or the insane from
reproducing.
Laws
are designed to protect the gene pool.
One person who truly understands the
manipulation of human behavior and it's
terrifying potential is a rising politician
in Germany. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party
come to power in the early '30s by
using every technique propaganda has to
offer, to influence the German people.
In films like this one, he promotes the credo of the Nazi
party- beauty, strength, health,
eugenic ideal. It is in
Hitler's campaign for power that the
centuries two opposing views of human
behavior- whether behavior is fixed or
malleable- come together with no apparent
contradiction to the German people.
Hitler's Germany, the fact that mass murder- that genocide
had been committed in the name of racial
purity, in the name of a eugenically
inspired racial cleansing was very
frightening to people, even the people
that previously may have been attracted
to a kind of idealism that was also part
of the idea of eugenics. And so you see
in the years after World War Two, a real
pulling back from explanations of mental
illness, of intelligence, of all sorts of
behaviors, uh, rooted in genetic
understandings, and a turn instead
toward environmental understandings. In
the 1950s, millions of
Americans scanned the daily papers with the
latest advice from Dear Abby or Ann Landers.
These twin sisters from Sioux city, Iowa, are
the most popular advice columnists of the
country. Americans love advice. They're
hell-bent on self-improvement, optimistic
about their prospects and guided by a new
religious belief that they can always
change for the better. The opposite view-
that behavior is fixed at birth and
can't be changed is still associated with
Nazi Germany where eugenics was used to
justify genocide. So Americans embraced
scientists who believe the opposite- that
when it comes to behavior, it's the
environment that counts, and virtually
anything is possible.
-can see the idea that we could engineer the
household, we could engineer the family, we could engineer
all different aspects of society.
Well, some scientists engineer shiny new
consumer goods for an
eager public, Harvard psychologist B. F.
Skinner seeks nothing less than the
engineering of human nature.
In experiments with subjects as simple as
pigeons, Skinner declares that with the right
social engineering, we can create a new
breed of human being.
Skinner is firmly in the behaviorist
tradition pioneered by John Watson in
the 1920s. Like Watson,
Skinner contends that with the right
tools, we can predict and control
behavior. He develops a system called
operant conditioning to prove that a
behavior will be repeated by a subject
when rewarded. Repetition leads to
reinforcement, and Skinner believes that
if it works for pigeons, why not people?
In Skinner's mind, behavior is behavior- up and down the
evolutionary scale, and it is all learned.
One of the great successes is an
education. People are taught to do more
complicated tasks than anyone had thought
possible, by breaking down behavior into small
steps and giving positive reinforcement along the
way. The essence of Skinner's work was that we could
manipulate the environment in ways that
would permit us to produce any kind
of behavior that we wished, and we could
develop individuals in ways that made
every possible future open to them. The idea that
anything is possible
has enormous appeal in the '50s- a
time when the country is changing at a
mind-boggling pace.
Before man learned how to control fire and put it to work, it was man's greatest 
enemy. In much the same way, your emotions can be your own greatest enemy.
Under control, your emotions can make you
healthier and happier, and improve the
lives of people around you. I think of fire in 
connection with emotions, because when you
become stirred up, when your emotions influence your actions, it affects
not only yourself, but people around you. Psychologists find that control of
emotions can be gained by understanding the stimulus-response pattern. 
Nature endows us at birth with three general patterns of
emotional response: Rage, as the response to the primary stimulus of thwarting- something
interfering with our behavior, our actions; Fear, as the response to loud noises or loss of
support; and the emotional response to love is usually the result of a show of affection
or favors, and these seem to be the emotions with which
we start life. Then as we grow up, many
everyday things and social situations
become associated with these primary
stimuli, partly by a process called
"conditioning". Let's take a look at a slice of
every day life, to understand how some stimuli can bring
about various emotional responses. What might happen to you, or to me?...
Or to Jeffrey Moore.
Jeff is an ordinary, and healthy, and
well-balanced young fellow. He usually
gets along well with people- and on this particular Friday afternoon,
Jeff and his pals are discussing a big triple date tonight. 
Jeff: My dad's gonna let me have that car tonight. 
Friend 1: Oh! 
Friend 2: The car! That's super!
Friend 1: That sounds swell, Jeff, but, well, I don't know if I'll be
able to go. I-I've got quite a headache. 
Jeff: Oh, really, hm..? 
Friend 1: Yeah...
Jeff: Well,  how  about lettin' Jeff do the soda trick, fix ya up a snappy salsa?
Friend 1: Ok...
Friends: Hey, watch-... 
Friend 1: HA! Some jerk.
Janitor: OKAY, BUB... I saw the whole wise stunt. Now, uh... Just suppose you clean it up.
Friend 1: Go on, wise guy! Clean it up!
Friend 2: Yeah, it's right on the floor there... I go to the washroom.
Jeff: Wise guys, eh? Well, suppose I don't pick you up tonight! I got a
darn good notion of lettin' you guys walk to the party.
Friend 1: What's got into him?
Friend 2: Gee, I don't know!
Why is Jeff angry? What's the stimulus that brings on this sudden emotional response of anger or mild rage?
Well, it might be that Jeff feels thwarted as he fails in the fancy trick
to impress his pals. So he gets mad at his pals.
Of course Jeff's going to get the car ready
for the party tonight. He wouldn't really miss a
chance to impress the gang. But, hm... starter won't work. Again, his 
behavior is thwarted, and a habit it is being developed- a habit
of allowing such things to annoy him.
Jeff's losing control of himself. His thinking is
becoming muddled, and he's careless in his
actions. The madder he gets, the worse it becomes. Did
you ever hear anyone say, "I was so mad I
couldn't see straight"? Severe emotional
stress often decreases efficiency. See
what I mean? And of course it's the of the
wrench. This is called "projection". He's projecting the
blame to the wrench. Let's see how the
rest of the family is doing.
Joan: Mother! Mother, oh, it's wonderful! I love the new dress you made!
Mother: Oh, thank you Joan dear!
See how the new dress tends to stimulate Joan's love for mother? This makes both mother and Joan happier.
But how does it affect Jeff, and how does his anger affect the others? 
Joan: Oh, you're the sweetest, bestest mother a girl ever had!
Mother: I'm glad you liked the dress, Joan. 
Joan: Oh, I'm so happy! I could be a model! Or a covergirl!
Jeff: Say, what's gotten into that crazy kid sister? 
Mother: Oh, Jeff, don't be that way!
Notice how mother seems to become angry herself because of Jeff's anger.
Perhaps she shouldn't, but anger is a violent emotion, and we often see
an induction of behavior, or a spread of
emotion to other persons, almost like a
contagious disease. Sometimes, rage, fear, and love are aroused together, at the same time.
Of course, Jeffrey's family didn't realize that he had been 
exposed to one irritating situation after
another, an accumulation of stimuli which brought about an
abnormally strong response. And what did this do to Jeff- this sort
of uncontrolled emotional outburst? Well, he regrets
some of the things he said, but he can't unsay them.
He's tired. That feeling of fatigue may spoil a
good time on his date tonight, and if this sort of
flare-up is repeated often, that might
lead to a permanently walked personality.
What could Jeff do to keep better control? 
Well, we say he could:
1. Eliminate the stimulus.
2. Modify the stimulus.
3. Modify the response. 
With these three ideas in mind, let's examine Jeff's episode again.
To control his emotions, Jeff eliminates the stimulus-
the failure to impress his pals by trying
such fancy tricks only when he can do them
successfully. But sometimes, the trick fails.
There are many times when you can't eliminate the
stimulus. Try to modify the stimulus.
Standing off and looking at himself,
Jeff realizes that a slip like that won't
really hurt his standing with the gang.
Taking it all lightly, as a good sport,
Jeff impresses the gang a lot more than
if he gets angry over such a little
thing. It helps to recognize and understand
the emotional patterns. Then, it's easier
to eliminate or modify the stimulus. And
there's another, even more valuable way
to control your emotions: Modify the
response. Rather than get in the habit of
getting angry, Jeff can substitute. He can
modify his response by seeing the humor
in the situation- what good does it do to
get angry about this? When Jeff's in the habit of controlling
his emotions, his thinking is straighter. Push the button.
No starter. Let's see... Pull the light switch.
Hm?! No light! That means something. 
Reason it out. No horn either! So... must be a
dead battery. That's straight thinking,
unmuddled by emotional disturbances. And
it's a simple thing to call the
garage or someone for a push and a
recharge. Don't need to fly off the
handle and take it out on the things and
the people around. When he tries to
understand his emotions and those of
people around him, Jeff has less trouble
controlling himself and he and 
those around him are happier.
The more he exercises control of his emotional
behavior, the easier it becomes to meet
the next situation without losing
control.
Yes, via better understanding of the
emotional patterns of everyday life and
by knowing how you respond to various
stimuli, you can develop better control
by eliminating the stimulus, or by
modifying the stimulus, or by modifying the
response. You can control the fire of
your emotions. You can balance your
emotions and use them so that your
personality becomes more pleasant, and
you and those around you are a great
deal happier and healthier.
