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A Brief Note on Self-Control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

John S. Marzillier
John S. Marzillier
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, University of Birmingham.
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Extract

Self-control is a difficult concept for behaviourists. The implication that we are exercising control over ourselves, rather than being controlled by our environment, appears to run counter to strict behaviourist doctrine. The spectre of mind-body dualism with homunculi sitting inside our head looms large on the horizon. The concept of the self as initiator and controller of our behaviour appears to break all the rules in the behaviourist book. Self-control, in this sense, is not only ‘mentalistic’ and ‘inferential’, it is also in danger of becoming ‘explanatory fiction’. Like the man who gives up smoking because of willpower, we can only infer his willpower from the behaviour it is designed to explain. Skinner (1953) has pointed out the dangers of using inferential concepts such as willpower and self-control. He and many other ‘radical behaviourists’ have strongly argued that there is no place for these concepts in scientific psychology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , September 1975 , pp. 71 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1975

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References

REFERENCES

Bandura, A.Principles of Behaviour Modification. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 1969.Google Scholar
Kanfer, F.H. & Karoly, P.Self-control: A behaviouristic excursion into the lion's den. Behavior Therapy, 1972, 3, 398–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, M.J. Cognition and Behavior Modification. Ballinger Publishing Co., 1974.Google Scholar
Skinner, B.F.Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan, 1953.Google Scholar
Thoresen, C.E. & Mahoney, M.J.Behavioral Self-control. New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, 1974.Google Scholar
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