ABSTRACT
In order to fully understand behaviorism, it’s first necessary to know something about the “Eugenics” movement. Eugenics was first developed in the 1870s by Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, who saw himself as extending the latter’s teachings to public policy. In essence, eugenics is the belief that governments and other agencies should adopt policies which improve the genetic “quality” of their populations. This involves promoting reproduction of people with desired genetic traits, while simultaneously discouraging the reproduction of people with less-desired traits. As a philosophical approach and political policy, it often led to deportation, enforced sterilization, and to harsh and restrictive anti-immigration policies.
