Origins of violence and strategies for change /

Eysenck speaks about the use of conditioning in terms of preventing violence: …man has to learn to behave in a socially acceptable manner, and to acquire a 'conscience'; this is done by means of a process of conditioning, in which antisocial acts constitute the conditioned stimuli (corresponding to the bell in Pavlov's experiment), and the punishment meted out by parents, teachers, peers, and peop [...] Understanding the dynamics of brain chemistry and the brain’s response to environmental factors leads us to the issue of what the brain requires, particularly the brains of children, in order to develop in a way which will make us the least prone to violence. [...] Strong connections are made in the healthy brain between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic brain, that is between the emotional and reasoning part of the brain. [...] WE ARE NOT HARD-WIRED FOR ANYTHING In her book Delusions of Gender, Fine (2010) takes on the issue of the concept of ‘hard-wiring’ particularly as it relates to research that makes the argument that boys and girls brains are made differently and function differently simply by reason of the sex of the person. [...] And now we have enough physical evidence and understanding of 26 biochemistry and neurology to know that the way we treat children when they are young affects the development of their brain and body chemistry over the long-term and is evident in behaviours such as addiction and violence and a lack of empathy and compassion.