WEBVTT

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This

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woman is an environment. To the unborn child within her, she is all the world there is.

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Everything necessary to his life comes from her. The dominant sound in his world is the

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beating of her heart. At birth, the world becomes the child's environment. Everything

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necessary to his life comes from it. It is not as easy as his mother's womb. There are the

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challenges and pressures of survival. But his relationship with the world he is born into is

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just as intimate. His eyes and his ears, all his senses, drink in what the world presents him.

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Born at any other point or place in history, he would necessarily become a somewhat different

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being. He will learn what our world presents him, and to a large measure, he will become what he

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Life is composed of actions. We are always doing something. Even sleeping is doing something. To

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live is to act. Our lives are a patchwork quilt of all our actions, which psychologists call

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behaviors. Traditionally, we think of ourselves as free agents, as actors whose stage is the world.

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Modern psychology rejects this traditional view. In earlier times, most scientists or people

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studying behavior considered each individual to be an entity in itself, that is, an individual

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came into the world with certain behaviors, and the environment was viewed as little more than a

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stage on which these behaviors were carried out. Today, however, most scientists give the environment

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a far more active role in determining an individual's behavior. Some psychologists see the world as an

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enormous machine that rewards some actions, thus making them more likely to happen again, and

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structure of consequences, of predictable results that follow from certain actions. An individual

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learns what those consequences are and acts accordingly. Behavior is changed when it has

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certain kinds of consequences. We call them reinforcers in the sense that they strengthen

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behavior, and if in a given situation I do something which has, as a result, a positively

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reinforcing consequence, I am more likely to do it again. In the world at large, when you do certain

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kinds of things, certain kinds of consequences happen. Some of this is physical, depending upon

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the physical environment. Much of it is social, depending upon how people respond to you when you

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respond to them. Together, these compose a culture, and they determine precisely what people born into

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that culture will do. Well, Dr. Skinner tends to ascribe enormous potential to the environment as a

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matter of shaping an individual's behavior. Taken to its logical extreme, this position means that

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all behaviors are completely determined by the environment. We, in our research, do not feel that

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such an extreme position is tenable. We can look at some behaviors which will emerge in our animals,

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regardless of environmental conditions. It is impossible for us to eliminate any such behavior

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by simple manipulations of the environment, and the behavior that I'm thinking particularly of is aggression.

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Not all psychologists agree with Dr. Skinner. Most, however, do believe that a great deal of what we do

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is shaped by the forces at work in the environments in which we live.

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We have a wonderfully warm story for you this evening, a story about the traditional advantages

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of American ethnic minorities. We're going to meet in a moment a young man that I personally

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consider to be the living symbol of our great American melting pot.

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Come on, get in there!

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Jesus Rodriguez, I'm Ralph Meadows, and this was your life!

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Yes, indeed, Jesus Rodriguez, child of poverty, man of anger, this was your life!

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Never see me, Jesus. All these wonderful people have shown up this evening.

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Millions are watching at home on television to bear witness to your wonderful lifetime, Jesus.

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So why don't we begin your story in the beginning?

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How's it going, Ralph Meadows?

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Good. Jesus, do you recognize what's in this enlarged photograph?

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That's an empty lot.

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That's right, a picture of an empty lot where your home stood before it was torn down for

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an urban renewal project, Jesus. It was there that you had grown up with five brothers and

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seven sisters in a one-bedroom apartment. Then tragedy struck, Jesus. Your father passed

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away and in order to support the family and ladies and gentlemen grasping the ideals of

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our free enterprise system, Jesus, you decided to start your own business. And why don't

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you tell the people what you did?

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Well, I said to use the automobile parts, you know, up caps, up bucket seats, up cars.

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And I understand you had some trouble with overhead?

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Well, some guy hit me over the head when I was stealing stuff.

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It's all Jesus Rodriguez, bent but not broken, you decided to get a job. Despite your background,

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you did get a job. Cleaning toilets at the Greyhound bus station, you were to hear this

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voice.

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Rodriguez, get over here.

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It's Mr. Ferguson, what the fuck's wrong?

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Mr. Ferguson is here.

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Mr. Ferguson, what the fuck is wrong?

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Mr. Ferguson.

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Tell us, Mr. Ferguson, what happened?

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Well, I had to let him go.

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You had to let him go, how come?

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Well, we had an overhead problem.

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Overhead?

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Yeah, he didn't like me hitting him over the head.

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Oh, thank you. All right, all right, Mr. Ferguson, wait backstage, please.

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For the wonderful...

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I hate to hit him over the head.

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Wait backstage for the wonderful party we're going to have after this show.

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I'll have to get that guy for the rest of my life.

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He's a wonderful fella.

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So, Jesus, you were to find yourself back on the streets at age nine. However, you were

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to learn that every cloud does indeed have its silver lining, for it was on the streets

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that you met someone who had a profound effect on the rest of your life.

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Hey, man, you want to buy some dope?

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Oh, that's Derry the Honky!

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Harry the Junkie!

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Harry!

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Dr. Roger Barker and his wife have spent 25 years studying the environment of a small

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town in Kansas called Oskaloosa.

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Their studies have resulted in a new way of looking at how people are affected by the

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world around them.

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The environment has, you can almost say, in a way, intentions for people, as well as people

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having intentions for themselves.

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The environment which we find here in Oskaloosa is very dynamic.

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It pushes people around.

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It coerces them.

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As you look around and take pictures of the streets, maybe, it looks kind of dead.

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Not a lot is going on.

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This is one of the contradictions which occur in these little places.

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But if you follow a person around, the average person around, you find that he's tremendously

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busy.

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The people in this town, which we have now studied for all these years, have a limited

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number of times and places for engaging in behavior.

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And we have called these behavior settings.

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The English class, the committee meeting, the drug store.

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These are settings.

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They have stability.

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They have structures.

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And they have forces within them which bend people to their purposes.

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A behavior setting is a place where people act, where people do things.

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The kind of action is appropriate to the place.

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At a soda fountain, we drink sodas and chat.

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A baseball diamond.

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A post office.

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Cheerleader practice.

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Choir practice.

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In each of these settings, certain actions are appropriate and others are not.

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A behavior setting can be seen as the intersection of two environments, the physical and the

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social.

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The physical environment is composed of such things as the room, the stools, the counter,

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and soda fountain equipment.

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The arrangement of these physical objects makes possible certain kinds of actions or

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behaviors.

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The actions we normally perform in any particular place are the social environment, what people

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do, the pattern to which newcomers are expected to conform.

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The essential part of a setting is that there is an ongoing pattern that we call the standing

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pattern of behavior occurring there.

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The pattern has grown up or is established over time.

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And when a newcomer comes in, he finds this pattern stable there, very strong very often.

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The point being that the setting is a unit of intersecting motivations and habits and

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desires of people, which tends to be bigger than any one person.

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And which tends to, once it gets rolling, push people in certain directions to fulfill its

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will.

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Now any one person may duck those consequences, may leave the setting, but if a classroom

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needs a leader, it will generate a leader.

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Everybody go out long, okay?

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Two quarter, okay?

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A football team needs a quarterback or somebody to take that position.

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It will press until it gets that sort of function fulfilled.

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The view we have is that the person has really two positions in a setting, in an ecological

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unit.

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He is on the one hand an instrument of that setting.

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He goes in there and he enacts a portion of the program.

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He in a way is legitimately passive to the pressures there.

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He follows the laws or the rules, the examples for worship or for commuting or for purchase.

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In that sense, he is passive and the environment is controlling him.

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He also goes in there as an independent agent.

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He has a private agenda.

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He has something he wants and he participates in that machine called a setting, at that

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setting's bidding, and he also extracts from that setting the kinds of gratifications he

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seeks.

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That may be a contradiction, but I think that's how it is.

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By age 13, Jesus, you had a $60 a day habit.

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More or less.

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And in trying to support your habit, you were arrested by the police and at age 16 sent

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to reform school, the one school you couldn't drop out of, Jesus.

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But there was a bright side to your incarceration, for in reform school you made your first very

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deep personal relationship.

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Hey kid, kiss me or I'll kill you.

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That's Red Donovan, my old summons.

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Red Donovan!

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Oh, hi, no.

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What's up with that guy?

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Well, I see the party started backstage already, Jesus.

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What's up with that guy, boy?

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At age 20, Jesus, you were released from reform school.

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That's correct.

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At age 20, I was released.

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And at that time, you were given a new suit and a new label, X-Com.

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X-Com.

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Bitter at what society has done to you.

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You cried out for one last chance to work within the system and your plea was not to

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go unanswered.

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Get out of Puerto Rico.

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No diploma, no job.

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You're going to hell, you're going for wealth.

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I know that one, I know that one.

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Do you remember this voice?

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Our state provides equal opportunity for all citizens.

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No.

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No.

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Of course not, hate youth.

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That's the governor of our fair state.

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And so now, desperate and hostile towards the system, you decided you wanted to change

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it.

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In politicizing your feelings, you joined a radical group where you were to follow the

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leadership of this woman.

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The only way to knock over the kid's power structure is to break down or blow it up.

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Stop the under-coveration, and have me bumped it.

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Yes!

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Right on!

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Yes!

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Right on!

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Right on!

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Right on!

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Right on!

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Right on!

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Right on!

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And so, hey, Susan, trial for conspiracy and indeed the darkest moment in your lifetime.

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These voices were to come to your aid.

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Talkfully a guilty, you'll get two years probation.

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That's the first year you're a law student at the game.

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He finds the defendant guilty.

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That's the former in the all-wife jury.

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40 years to hard labor.

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Oh, that's the all-wife judge.

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I know that voice better than anyone.

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And this voice...

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All right, come with me.

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You know that voice.

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You should.

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That's the guard that's come to take you away.

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Jesus Rodriguez, trial of poverty, man of anger, this was your trial.

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Oscar Lusa begins to wake up at 5.30 a.m.

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At this point in the day, there are ten public behavior settings available.

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The streets, for example.

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The telephone booths, parks, playgrounds, and so forth.

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Gradually, as the town comes to life, new settings are opened.

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Mabel's Beauty Shop opens at 5.30.

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The post office at 7.

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The drug store at 7.30.

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Max Mountain's hardware store at 8.

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By 11 a.m. on an average weekday, Oscar Lusa has 175 public behavior settings.

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These provide the resources for engaging in various kinds of behavior.

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Dr. Barker believes that the structure and number of these settings,

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and the number of people there are to carry out the actions these settings require,

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that all this adds up to the quality of life.

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The town is set up so that there is really what we call an undermining of these settings which exist.

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One of the features of every setting is that there are certain prescribed jobs which have to be done.

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We call these habitat claims.

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They're slots into which there has to be a person fitted to carry out the program and the maintenance of the setting.

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In Oscar Lusa, there are a lot of jobs that need to get done.

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Ten thousand different jobs, chores, or functions.

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But there are only 834 people.

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This means that the town needs the efforts of all its inhabitants in order to function.

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People are important here.

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We have figured out the degree to which this town and its functioning would be reduced by the absence of an average individual.

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If a pied piper came through here and let's say,

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take the children and piped away the children, there would be tremendous sadness in the town, of course.

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But the town would suffer because the children of the town under 12,

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especially those between 12 and 18, the adolescents, they fill many of these slots.

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And without them, the town would be a much poorer place to live.

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C-E-O-R-Y! Bears! Birds! Bears!

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I work at my father's service station. I pump gas and wait on cars.

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Hey Bears, here!

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I work at Grace Joy and my feds are past drive-ins, so I have to work there.

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I work at my father's law office and I do secretarial work for the Presbyterian Church.

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And I'm one of the co-editors for the yearbook.

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No American high school is complete without cheerleaders.

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But whether the school has 2,000 students or 200, the number needed does not change very much.

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Thus, a big school tends to have a few cheerleaders and a few big wheels and lots of wallflowers.

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You could even think about population per square mile,

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while ours is in a way population per niche or per behavior setting.

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Now once there is sufficient or abundant population available to a setting,

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then the setting begins to get pretty choosy about who's going to be obligated,

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who's going to be chosen to take on the more significant tasks in that setting.

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If there are only a few people available, one has to use the available people,

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and they are going to work harder to take more variety of tasks to do more important things.

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The small school is like a small engine. It tries to do everything that a big engine does.

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It stretches the efforts of youngsters. It means that one individual may be called upon to act in a number of different ways.

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He may be called upon to be an athlete and a journalist.

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Youngsters who have only modest talents are still quite useful and still used.

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In the small school the question is not who can do it best, but who can do it.

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Students in small schools are called upon to act, to be busy, to carry on the business of the school.

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Citizens in Oskaloosa have the same pressures.

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The owner of the local hardware store is a fellow named Max Mountain.

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Oskaloosa has demanded of Mr. Mountain a great deal more than hardware.

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I've been elected on the township board for several years.

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I think I was on the school board for about 15 years.

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I was a city clerk for about 15 years.

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Of course, it was all intermingled in together.

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A town like Oskaloosa demands of its citizens that they be active.

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In return for this, they get an environment which they can influence, which is responsive to their needs.

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Oskaloosa is a village, a small social unit in which everybody is needed to carry out the necessary and desirable functions of life.

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Our big cities are exactly the opposite.

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Enormous numbers of people live in one place.

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A great many of them are expendable, unnecessary, unneeded, surplus.

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Very few of them feel any power to influence their surroundings or that the environment can or will respond to their needs.

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You see, because our problem is not among ourselves.

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If we don't be living in the environment, in all this filth, and ain't got no jobs, and ain't got no food coming from no place, this is frustration, Jack.

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This creates problems. You understand?

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If we don't live like we do now, then the little things that we killing each other for right now today wouldn't amount to a grain of salt.

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We have an enormous police force and people who then behave, but it's an extremely inefficient society.

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A very large number of people have to be committed to making sure everybody else behaves well.

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It can be done without that, through education, through provision of goods, so that there is no better deprivation of any kind.

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If you ask why does someone steal, then you have to ask is there any other way in which he could get things without stealing them?

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Is his education, has it been such that he is able to get it and hold a job which would enable him to get these things?

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Are there jobs available? There must be some reason why a person steals. Now change those reasons.

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From the point of view of modern psychology, behavior is largely a reflection of the structure of the environment.

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High crime rates are an indication that the structure is not working.

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An environment does not work when people cannot satisfy their needs within it and are powerless to change it.

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In Oskaloosa, people have the power to affect their surroundings. In big cities, people frequently feel overwhelmed.

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This is really a chronic problem with all the cities of size. How do you make people important?

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Our studies show that it is really much better to have a high school of 200 than a high school of 2,000.

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Can you have high schools of 200, 300 in the cities? I don't see why it's impossible.

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I would propose an index of the goodness of life. We've called this the Pied Piper Index.

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How much would the community suffer if an average man is removed and not replaced? How valuable is a man?

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What happens in the bigger cities and the bigger schools?

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There's an overabundance of people for the jobs which have to be done and which are important.

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The world we inhabit is increasingly a world of our own making.

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We have developed technologies that give us unprecedented power to alter our environment.

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This power is like fire. It can be used for our benefit or it can be used to destroy us.

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We are creatures born of the earth and its forests, its waters. Biologically, we have changed little in the last 30,000 years.

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There are basic needs written into our being that cannot be erased.

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Unless we recognize the needs of life, the need for a hospitable environment where children can act and grow and develop constructively

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with a sense of significance, a sense of competence and self-esteem.

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Unless we recognize the power of the environments we make to shape what we become,

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we may, in the not too distant future, find ourselves in a world that nobody likes, nobody wanted, and nobody planned.

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But just happened that way.