h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

G'day
Interesting article, although you seem to have made a couple of errors...
For one thing, you've confused Pavlovian Conditioning and Operant Conditioning, and you've missed out differentiating between
negative punishment (withdrawal of a pleasant stimuli) and positive punishment (that's the punishment you talk about).
You're partly correct, though, when you say that psychologists don't simply follow learning theory (or associative learning) today, especially when talking about human development - it's the whole nature-nurture thing, and I'm suprised you left that bit out. However,
associative learning has many practical implications, for instance in interventions designed to reduce problematic behaviours, or helping overcome phobias.
There's a lot more to associative learning that what you have presented here, and the study of this field can still contribute much to our understanding of the behaviour of those around us (this is not to say that there are many different ways to view a behaviour, and sticking blindly to associative learning, or social theory or whatever is problematic).

*Stares blankly*

But... but...

*blinks*

I'm SORRY! *sobs* I didn't want to get too carried away! There was too much to write! And I'm *never* organised or am free of convolution in such things! I'm SORRY!!

Thanks for pointing it out.