"Behavioral Psychology"

Conclusion: The Future of Violence, Society, and Behaviorism

The impact of behavioral psychology on combat in the second half of the 20th century has been truly revolutionary. It has been a quiet, subtle revolution, but nonetheless one with profound effects. A healthy, self aware, democratic society must understand these processes that have been set in play on its streets and among its armed forces. Among government institutions this is being done with great care and safeguards, nevertheless it should trouble and concern a society that this is occurring and (far more so) that it may well be necessary.

In a world of violent crime, in a world in which children around the globe are being casually conditioned to kill, there may well be justification for the cop and the peacekeeper to be operantly conditioned to engage in deadly force. Indeed, Ken Murray has conducted pioneering research at Armiger Police Training Institute that concludes that, even with conditioning, the psychology of the close combat equation is still badly skewed against the forces of law and order. Building on the Killing Enabling Factors first developed by Dave Grossman, Murray's widely presented findings have been instrumental in a major reassessment of the need for a comprehensive, systematic approach to law enforcement training. But if the carefully safeguarded conditioning of military and law enforcement professionals is a necessary evil that is still a legitimate cause for concern, how much more should a society be concerned about the fact hat the exact same process is being indiscriminately applied to our children, but without the safeguards?

The impact of behavioral technology in the second half of the 20th century has been profound, closely paralleling the time frame and process of nuclear technology. Behavioral psychology has done to the microcosm of battle what nuclear weapons did to the macrocosm of war. Just as our civilization is entering into the 21st century with a determination to restrain and apply itself to the challenges of nuclear proliferation, so too might the time have come to examine the indiscriminate proliferation of violent behavioral conditioning distributed indiscriminately to children as a form of entertainment.

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Jump to any section of this article: Select an article section Introduction: A Behavioral Evolution in Combat The Birth of Behavioral Psychology The Problem: A Resistance to Killing The Behavioral Solution: Conditioning to Kill Conditioning Kids to Kill Glossary of Terms Bibliography Beginning of this Article

Read a different article: Teaching Kids To Kill Weaponry, Evolution of Psychological Effects of Combat Aggression & Violence Critical Incident Amnesia The Morality of Bombing On Killing II: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill Trained to Kill

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