Behavior and Social Issues 

Abstract: [NOTE: This classic paper was originally published in 1974 in Behaviorism, 2, 1-84, by the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. It is reprinted here with permission from the Cambridge Center, to make it more widely available to the contemporary scientific and practice community. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and the references reformatted for reasonable consistency with current APA style. Goldiamond clearly intended to use programed rather than programmed, and other similar variations, although the latter is now almost universal. Such usage has not been changed. Ed.]

Abstract: ClassWide Peer Tutoring is an instructional strategy developed to help teachers individualized instruction, while still providing students with ample opportunity to become actively engaged during instruction. In CWPT, class members are organized into student tutor pairs. Each earns points for completing their role competently. Students change roles during the day, sometimes performing as the student and sometimes as the tutor. CWPT provides the opportunity for students to practice and mater what they are learning while encouraging positive social interaction among students. Twelve years of data indicate that at risk students and students with disabilities in programs using CWPT acquired literacy skills at a faster rate, retain more, and made greater advances in social competency than with a variety of standard instructional methods. need for special education placement, as well as number of dropouts, decreased.

Abstract: This article represents an attempt to reach consensus on terms frequently used by its authors, who share an interest in extending a behaviorist worldview to cultural phenomena. Definitions of metacontingency, macrobehavior, macrocontingency, culturo-behavioral lineage , and cultural cusp were agreed on and are reported in this paper. In addition, the paper presents additional points its authors discussed in arriving at the definitions provided. It is expected that this terminology will continue to be refined with further study and applications.

Abstract: Though the existence of free will seems to be a background assumption in Western life, very little research has examined the belief, and the handful of studies that have done so suggest only a modest endorsement and unclear relationships to other variables. However, methodological flaws in the earlier studies likely produced an underestimation of the strength of the belief among the general population. The current study developed and then administered a new measure of belief in free will to samples of senior high school and college students under conditions where demand characteristics were controlled. Both age groups endorsed the belief in free will to a much stronger extent than seen in previous research. Further, adults associated belief in free will with three purposes of punishment (rehabilitation, retribution, and deterrence) but adolescents only related the belief to retribution. Adults produced a negative correlation between the belief in free will and locus of control whereas adolescents evidenced no association between the variables. Both age groups demonstrated significant correlations between the belief and self-esteem. Finally, adolescents evidenced no correlation between the belief and religious conviction while adults produced a negative correlation between the two variables. In addition, the new free will instrument demonstrated extraordinary factor consistency between both samples. The results are discussed in the context of competing behavior analytic views regarding the origin of the belief in free will (cultural conditioning versus evolutionary adaptation) and the implications the origin has for progressive social and cultural change.