A few months ago I wrote about how we gain our perspective about things: how we form the opinions that we do. https://wakinguponthewrongsideof50.com/2022/09/26/perspective/.

Somewhere in the comments, someone mentioned conditioning. So let’s look at that for a moment.

Per Oxford Languages:

Conditioning: the process of training or accustoming a person or animal to behave in a certain way or to accept certain circumstances.

But what do we really mean when we say/use/see this word?

Is conditioning bad or good? Why?

What are things that we are conditioned to do/think/feel?

Is conditioning the same as training?

For write my blog Thursday, tell me anything you want to about conditioning.

You may begin:

62 thoughts on “Condition”

  1. Hey, I think that was me! Asking as you have in this context I see conditioning as purposeful. Training is an acceptable word I think. There is a goal to provide specific stimuli/viewpoints/ideology and then plant those things into the psyche and behavior of someone/thing else. Is it just to see if doing so is possible- the whole Pavlov sort of thing, or is there a darker purpose; a sinister ulterior motive…I’m thinking cult like conditioning here. If the environmental stimulus all around you is focused on a specific framework or ideology humans can absolutely be trained to believe and respond. Good or bad…probably depends on who’s standing on the outside looking at the narrative. I vaguely remember a term in many sociology texts…social conditioning…which has probably been rebranded with a new label but there it is.

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  2. I believe the same as Deb. However we can also use conditioning as a punishment to stop behaviours – reinforce the good and punish the bad. If conditioning as a concept/theory didn’t work employers wouldn’t offer rewards and incentives to get more out of their employees

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      1. I’m gonna toss in: are things like manners simple and yes socially expected life lessons and are we on that road to qualifying where the line is that a conditioned good manners expectation turns into something deeper. This ties into what Brenda pointed out about positive reinforcement. Can you talk about this subject without then forcing someone to define where one level merges into another and who gets to make that decision???

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      2. No. I think they’re intertwined. Think about respect for elders….you can condition someone to be polite to someone older, but does that mean they lose sense of self if the lines become blurred as to how the elder treats them?

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      3. So there are *levels* to conditioning? Based on…individual personality of the conditionee and maybe the conditioner, or the focus of conditioning techniques, or environmental influence…? Have we then come back around to conditioning versus perspective/POV as a factor in the process versus the outcome??? Ironically Brenda and I have ventured off into these rather esoteric or philosophical conversations lately. We find them rather fun and intriguing and often there really is no answer, just a ton of great discussion!

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      4. I find this fascinating: Viktor Frankl wrote that “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” And so I wonder, are some of us more likely to be susceptible to positive or to negative conditioning? Or to conditioning at all?

        And given the great example about the (disappearing) respect for elders, can society exist without some level of “group conditioning”? When social norms went, Lord of the Flies came? 😁

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      5. Great points. I always use the thing about without rules there is anarchy…and yes. I think some are more susceptible to conditioning, like some kids are more drawn to peer pressure, which is basically conditioning …

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      6. Two fantastic points: I once saw a photo of a bunch of rebellious teenagers and what the author pointed out is how conformist they are in their rebellion: they all rebelled against the previous generations’ hairstyles, but they all rebelled in the same way, with similar hair styles to each other. Same for clothes, same for other “body adornments.” It was funny and it was sad to see how the teenagers all felt rebellious in such a conformist manner?

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      7. I have no facts to really judge this point but would wonder if it’s not just teens who conform? I’m having a hard time even thinking of an example but it seems to possibly be a generalization to limit conformity (even in rebellion) to teens only. My brain is trying to head to situations surrounding quintessential *mom* behaviors for some reason. Like the cult of motherhood was in my time marked by the mini van. Every mom I knew drove a mini van. It was almost an unvoiced expectation, and especially so if you were also a PTA mom as well! This is the mid 80s-mid 90s I am speaking of.

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      12. Sorry-sent too soon, Endless Weekend is incredibly engaging in this *let’s ponder* sort of thing. Not sure if EW is a follower but the ideas flow freely and are wonderful!

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      14. I suspected so but then again I don’t always get back to read everyone’s comments and interact- today is a slow day I guess so more time- Maybe LA will allow a bit of back and forth among the group here as she is incredible in starting these discussion points!

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      16. I came back to check this interesting discussion and found out that, sadly, WordPress only notifies the person to whose comment you respond (and possibly the author of the blog, not sure about that) that the thread has a new comment. That makes a lively discussion so much more difficult to maintain…

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      17. Yes, blog authors get all notification if they choose to have theirs turned on and you’re correct about the rest as well- which is why it can be time consuming in real life to revisit blog posts/comment threads no matter how interesting they are!

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  5. I agree that there can be positive and negative conditioning, but the part of the definition “accept certain circumstances” makes it sound not only cultist, but also like grooming as a pedophile would do. There are a lot of negative connotations to conditioning that governments do through PR–the frog in the boiling water syndrome.

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  6. I agree with many of the comments above that conditioning can have positive as well as negative outcomes. Do you think decades ago women were conditioned to be subservient to their husbands? Also, how did that change through the years?

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    1. By their husbands? Not as much as by their parents. I think parents thought their daughters had to be married. I’ll go out in a limb and say that I think parents still want their daughters to be married. I think it’s expected to put up with someone who is financially taking care of you

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      1. I agree it’s by parents. I remember my parents telling my brother he needed to go to med school, but I could do whatever I wanted. I was going for my MRS degree. Yes, I want my daughter to marry some day. But only when she’s ready and independent.

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      3. I agree. Look at that conditioning! My MIL divorced when my husband was three. He said growing up people judged her harshly for being a single mom. I guess they thought it better to stay married and be physically abused?

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    2. OMG YES! Case in point in sociology circles: The Cult of True Womanhood. It is a very real thing and in places still it is being practiced- the concept of the females sole role in life to be a wife and mother, bow down and defer to men in general and her husband specifically. Remember the adage about kids- they should be seen and not heard- women were not even supposed to be seen.

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  7. I think conditioning is a huge component of childhood. Parents, whether it’s intentional or not, attempt (sometimes successfully) to condition their children. With that, it could be either positive or negative conditioning. Either way to me it’s a form of manipulation.

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  9. I think air conditioning is pretty great… (had to say it)

    In the realm of sports, conditioning has a component of fitness. I think it’s often used in a negative sense? “The runner hasn’t focused as much on conditioning, and it shows…”

    In relationships, I think it brings about a thought of manipulation, and I have a tightening in my chest about it. So apparently my body doesn’t like that term, in that context, either. I also think that if someone has been “conditioned” to behave in a certain way or expect a particular outcome, that’s usually pretty negative, too. A less-than, not really up to full potential sort of situation.

    But yeah…I like air conditioning!

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  10. I think conditioning is a form of training. We have to condition ourselves, get in a mindset, get determined to do the training. This can apply to both physical and mental training.
    I remember a long time ago a tv ad for the NY Times. The theme was to be an athlete you know you have to train. You need practice and conditioning to train your body to do what you need it to do.
    Conversely, you also have to train your mind. You do that first by conditioning, discipline which leads to the training part.

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  12. Training is fine. Conditioning to me seems like way to control . One person is in power and other is controlled.
    Conditioning is how you train certain animals. Human beings should never be conditioned. Sounds like a Nazi experiment. Creepy and wrong!

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  13. This is a really interesting topic. When I think of conditioning, I generally think of something negative although I understand that conditioning can be positive. I know this doesn’t mesh with the actual definition but in my mind, training is something that I choose, while conditioning is something that I don’t. I may be conditioned by my parents, my society, my culture, my religion … but I may not have a lot of control over those things. When I think of training though, I think of something that results from a conscious choice that I get to make.

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  14. It’s not about good or bad, or right or wrong. When we do something over and over again, we become habituated to that something, hence conditioned to continue to perform that something again and again. Sometimes this conditioned learning, habits, or programming (think about childhood development and our earliest learning here of how to stay safe, etc.) are “good” for us, and sometimes not. When we can disrupt this conditioning, we create a new space where we are free from these conditioned limitations. Wow, had a lot to say today.

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  15. Yep. I think conditioning is like training people for living in society: girls do this; boys do that; “good” girls do this; “bad” boys do that, and so on and so forth, until we’ve been conditioned (trained) on the ways of the world.

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  17. Jeff Flesch has expressed my thoughts exactly, so I’ve nothing more to add other than to say thank you, I’ve really enjoyed reading the discussion 🙂

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