Trauma-Informed Lens Podcast

Episode 29: “Pop” Behaviorism, Intrinsic Motivation, & Trauma

Posted on April 3, 2018

Podcasters: Matt Bennett & Curt Mower

Stop the madness! Token economies, level systems, behavioral management plans, IEPs, Positive Behavioral Support, RTI, light systems, and the list goes on and on. It seems like everywhere you look in the helping, parenting, criminal justice, or educational world you see systems of rewards and punishments designed to control and change behavior. Unfortunately, many of these are designed by people without much understanding of behavioral science or neurobiology and often result in unintended consequence which does more harm than good. In this episode, Matt and Curt examine the cost of many of these popular approaches, how they fail those with unresolved trauma, and how we can help those we serve find their own internal motivation.

Discussion questions:

• Why do we have a behavioral management system in first place?
• What science or thinking is behind our behavioral management approaches?
• Are these approaches working to help people find intrinsic motivation or are we just controlling behavior?
• Can we improve our current system to move from external control (outside the skin) to internal control (inside the skin)?