Seven Life Lessons From Humanistic Behaviorism: How to Bring the Best Out of Yourself and Others

Abstract

Seven evidence-based guidelines for improving the quality and increasing the frequency of desirable behavior are described and illustrated as relevant for benefiting human welfare and well-being. If practiced extensively, these life lessons would most assuredly improve overall quality of life by reducing interpersonal conflict and bullying; preventing the occurrence of unintentional injuries and fatalities; and enhancing work productivity, environmental sustainability, and life satisfaction. The first three guidelines reflect the applied behavioral science principles of positive reinforcement, observational learning, and behavior-based feedback. The subsequent four life lessons are essentially derived from humanism. Techniques for operationalizing these humanistic guidelines are presented, demonstrating social validity in integrating select principles from humanism with behaviorism. The result: humanistic behaviorism—the application of some humanistic fundamentals to make behaviorism more acceptable, effective, and sustainable on a large scale.

KEYWORDS:

• humanistic behaviorism
• behavioral feedback
• empathy
• management versus leadership
• self-motivation
• self-transcendence

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This article was adapted from my keynote presentation at the Association for Behavior Analysis International Seminar on Leadership and Cultural Change, May 25, 2014. I am grateful for informational and inspirational feedback from the following individuals who read a prior draft of this article: Katya Davydova, Cory Furrow, Rob Holdsambeck, Georgiana Lee, Shane McCarty, Micah Roediger, and two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

¹ Subsequently Krista earned a PhD in Human Development and teaches each of these life lessons as the Global People-Based Safety and Human Performance-Improvement Manager for Bechtel Corporation.