My dad was a criminologist, but he self-identified as a behavioural psychologist. I only ever knew two things about behaviourism. One was a joke: two behaviourists have sex, and one turns to the other and says: “That was great for you; how was it for me?” There’s a funnier joke about a guy who has a fear of monsters under his bed, and after cycling through all the therapy in the world lands at a behaviourist who tells him to cut the legs off his bed.
You get the picture, right? Humans’ deepest motivations are all right there to see in their behaviour. Whatever you do, make it literal and solutions-based, and don’t get any metaphors involved. There’s probably a bit more to it than that, but never mind. None of us has to practise as a behaviourist in the next 20 minutes, and if and when we do, someone will train us.
