ABSTRACT
It may be that the term ‘behaviour modification’ should be dropped and some more neutral-sounding term such as a ‘behavioural approach’ should be adopted. That would also be to shed some of the theoretical baggage that came from the Skinnerian origins of the movement. But, by the same token, it would become difficult to see how anything more was being discussed than the intelligent use of ordinary encouragement and discouragement. Certainly, from the point of view of philosophy of education, what is of most interest in the behavioural movement, however it is styled, is its concept of ‘behaviour’ itself. And preoccupation with behaviour, as opposed, say, to intention, desire or belief, can be understood only in terms of the origins of the approach and its pretensions to being a new science. In any event, a close scrutiny of the concept of behaviour is an indispensable preliminary to an ethical appraisal of the movement.
