Unconditional Approach to Helping

I Read the book, “Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes" by Social Psychologist Alfie Kohn during graduate school at Indiana University.

Here is am Amazon link for the book:




(Note, Recreational Therapists are often considered to be Applied Social Psychologists).

Believe this is a book that all Recreational Therapists should be required to read.

Kohn says that “Positive Rewards” and “Negative punishments” are just two sides of the same coin -- and the coin doesn't buy very much.”

Watch this video. Kohn points out that two studies show that rewarding children for good behavior makes them less generous.

In fact, why would a child share, be generous, or "do the behavior" when no adults are there to give them a reward for it. Hmm... that is something to think about.





Kohn’s biggest argument is that we should move away from the B. F. Skinner’s behavior model and move more towards a humanistic approach that includes unconditional care and education on reasoning. Believe this approach would be best myself.

Studies show that externally motivating a child destroys her internal motivation and creativity, which is the basis for Overjustification Theory.

Recently read Daniel Pink’s [author shown on Oprah] new (2010) book, “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Pink’s motivation theory argues that the Behaviorism model is Motivation 2.0. There is a newer, more effective motivation model called Motivation 3.0. Pink points out multiple scientific research studies that repeatedly show that both reward and punishment systems are not effective for lasting, long-term change.

Here is a video by Daniel Pink at the 2009 TED conference. He presents an amazing study on how rewards DO NOT work. This video is mind-shocking. Rewards do the opposite. They are counterproductive and research has shown this for over 40 years. Watch the full video here:



wow - did Pink say that rewards can actually cause harm? Yes, he did.

Here is an Amazon link for Pink's NEW book:




Finished reading Richard Wiseman's new (2009) book, "59 Seconds." In this book, he points out how positive compliments and praise does not work with children.

If you a tell a child she is smart, she'll avoid challenging tasks because she may fail at them and she'll los her self-identify of "being smart." However, if she picks an easier activity that she already knows, she's likely to do it right and be told she's good at doing it. In the long run positive praise can be un-effective. Wiseman says, instead, praise the child on her effort.

Here is a video for Wiseman talking about his new book:



Here is a link for Wiseman's new book:




IN SUMMARY, I Danny P., beleive that people working with children should move away from what B.F. Skinner's behavior modificiaion (b-mod) becuase it is counter-productive in the long run. Beleive we should move more towards an "Unconditional Approach to Helping Children.