What's in the News?
What I would like you to do is to start applying what we are learning in class to real world matters. Some might ask, "What good is learning psychology if we can't apply it to real world matters?" So that is what we are going to do with this divergence assignment.
What I would like you to do is to either go to NPR (http://www.npr.org/ ) or the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) and read, watch, or listen to something that is interesting to you and relates to what we have been learning in the class.
Please respond the blog by telling us what the piece you chose was and why you picked it (what made it interesting for you)? What did you expect to see? What did you find most interesting about the piece?
Next discuss how it relates to the class using terms, terminology, and concepts that we have learned so far in class.
Include the URL in your post.
Make a list of key terms and concepts you used in your post.
Let me know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5182193
This is a story about how gambling may be reduced with a drug called Nalmefene. It talks about a specific individual who started gambling at a young age and continued through a majority of his life racking up a $30,000 debt. With 3 million americans addicted to gambling this is a rather interesting discovery.It is not yet approved but has shown a decrease 0f 60% of the target behavior of gambling. It works by decreasing the thrill from trigering the opiate reward system and it in turn decreases gambling behavior.
What makes gambling so hard to extinguish is the fact it is on a random reinforcement schedule. So a person might not win the first 6 times they play a slot machiene but that 7th time reinforces the behavior and the person will keep doing the behaviorbecause at some random interval they will be reinforced.
I chose this particular article because it looked at a common behavior that is very hard to extinguish and tends to elicit superstiouse behaviors.It is also different from most form of addictions. I was very skeptical about this drug and am still fairly skeptical about it, but it does have the right idea I'm still curious what the side effects are because it sounds to good to be true.
Im not quite sure what the drug would be considered id have to guess negative punishment because it takes away the thrill associated with gambling and it decreases the behavior.Or from the extintion view it no longer gives the reinforcement of being thrilling to gamble so the behavior eventually becomes extinguished. When people try to stop gambling with this drug they probably exhibit a form of extinction burst by trying to get that same thrill, then they probably have some variability because they try different forms of gambling to try to achieve that same thrill.
Terms Used:target behavior, extinguish, reinforces, elicit, superstiouse behaviors, negative punishment, extinction burst, variability, exticntion.
The piece I chose is entitled, “New Yorkers' Cigarette Breaks May Go Up In Smoke”. This is an article about a potential ban of smoking in public places in New York like parks and beaches.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130111848
I was interested in this because I worked in an outdoor restaurant this summer and you would not believe the number of people who were furious when they were told they weren’t allowed to smoke on the deck because, although it is outside, it is part of the restaurant. We all know smoking has been banned in restaurants, but I was interested to see that New York may be taking this a step forward to banning smoking in public outdoor settings.
I expected to see a positive punishment behavior being made when the city would be wanting to positively punish a person for smoking outside by the means of giving them tickets.
What I found most interesting about this piece was the goal to stop smoking. In the ABC, this would be broken down as,
A - In the context of an outdoor public place
B - Smoking
C - Gets a ticket for smoking
I was astounded by what one of the New York City Council members said in relation to why they wanted this ban. Gail Brewer stated, "I would like people to stop smoking," and "I'm not going to say otherwise." She later says, “I’m not interested in fines or getting anyone arrested”. I found this very ironic. Although she doesn’t want people to get punished, she still wants them to stop smoking. I felt as though she was contradicting herself. In order to stop people from smoking, the behavior, she is working to positively punish people in order to get them to stop. I am not sure she realizes that she is using punishment to try and get people to stop, but says that isn’t what she wants to do. The article explains that she wants a law on the books for “moral support” and that police will not be actively hunting down people who are smoking in outdoor public places.
Personally, I don’t believe much change in the smoking behavior will be seen if people are not punished for emitting a smoking behavior in public places. I think that signs saying No Smoking could possibly be used as a discriminative stimulus in public parks and beaches. I was happy that I could read this article thinking in terms of behavior modification. It really changed my view point on the effects of laws in relation to punishment.
Terms: positive punishment, reinforcement, punishment, discriminate stimulus, behavior, emit, elicit
The title of my article is “Questions have Long Surrounded Accused Minister” and discusses the issue of the accused minister, Bishop Eddie Long. Long was accused by four 18 year old males of sexual abuse, encouraging them to join his youth group, and pampering them with fancy cars, gifts and trips. There have been other issues about this minister, like the fact that he became a millionaire from his churches expansion, and the charities and businesses opened in it name. Sunday’s sermon was the first time he spoke about these allegations, and of course denied them, saying “I’ve never claimed to be a perfect man, but that man they’re portraying on TV, that’s not me.” His congregation appears to be behind him, applauding and cheering during his sermon, and at his arrival to the church Sunday.
The possibilities for behavior modification in this story are first the idea that if convicted, he will be punished. He will be listed as a sex offender and given some prison time, undoubtedly stripped of his position, loses a lot of money and his reputation. Punishment, in this case, would be the only option and is not a situation where reinforcement can be used. This is a case, as talked about in section 2.4 where punishment must be abrupt, and intense enough.
A= In the context of the law
B= Sexual abuse
C= Jail time, and added to the sex offender registry
The fact that his congregation is standing behind him through this (so far at least), demonstrates reinforcement. If Long did not sexually abuse these boys then he will need the reinforcement that he is a good person, and this reassurance will help him though the trial, and after, when there will still be doubts regardless of what a jury were to rule. However, if he did commit these acts then he would still be reinforced to continue lying in order to maintain his place in society.
A= In the context of allegations of sexual abuse
B= Lying about the allegations/ trying to get through the trial process
C= They support him by continuing to come to church and cheer him on
Terms Used: Punishment, reinforcement
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130159112
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11416190
This is just a clip which describes the new Playbook that Blackberry has just come out with in response to Apples Ipad. This is an interesting clip to me because we are living in the age of technology and there is a lot of competition between companies to come out with the new "best" thing. It is us as consumers that make the decision on what is in the most demand and cause this competition between producers.
This clip in regards to our class is an example of an establishing operation. They want people to go out and buy their product so they produce commercials to get our attention. They are reinforced by consumers to come out with commercials because they help them earn more money because the advertisement.
They are attempting to extinguish peoples behavior of purchasing the Ipad by educating people on why their product is superior. They use variability in their advertising by producing commercial, print ads, and radio ads to try and ensure their product gets seen.
A=television on
B=watch commercial
C=buy their product
(establishing operation, reinforcement,extinguish,variablity)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11408113
The title of my article is "Migraine cause 'identified' as genetic defect". The article is about a new discovery made while research was being conducted on a family of migraine sufferers. They found that if the gene is not working properly it can send false signals to the brain causing a migraine. Also, certain things in the environment can make it most likely that a person will get a migraine because of the defect.
I thought that this article related to our class in the sense that the defective gene is an discriminative stimulus to our brain. It gives our brain a signal, although false or exaggerated, to trigger pain sensors and cause the migraine.
A: Being outside in bright light
B: brain sends false signals
C: migraine occurs
The pain from the migraine would be the consequence and in this instance I feel that positive punishment is occuring. According to this ABC model, then a person who suffers from migraines is less likely to emit a behaivor that puts his or herself in a situation where there is intense light that may trigger a migraine to occur.
This is just theories based on research that has recently surfaced. I found it interesting because I often suffer from extreme headaches and migraines. It would be awesome if there was a cure or a more beneficial medication to help people with their suffering of migraines.
(discriminative stimulus, positive punishment, consequence, emit.)
The article that I read is called "Wyclef Jean treated in hospital for stress" and informs the reader about the singer/philanthropist's recent struggle with stress and exhaustion, stemming from the events that have unfolded in the last 8 months.
I am inclined to believe that everything that happens within one's life can be linked to every choice that that person and others have made. As a result of this belief, I feel that behavioral principles can be utilized in this article as well.
As most everyone knows, the country of Haiti was hit by an earthquake and devastated the country, leading to much rebuilding and fund-raising. Haiti is also the home country of singer Wyclef Jean, formerly of the rap group "Fugees." Wyclef has been a face on the Haitian rebuilding project and, a little over three months ago, announced a bid for the Haitian presidency. This bid for presidency has been under much scrutiny and Wyclef has been scrutinized for his aid of Haiti and how much he is actually helping. Recently, Wyclef was deemed ineligible for Haitian presidency, as he has not lived in the country for 5 years prior to candidacy. Wyclef claims that he has been a roving ambassador for Haiti but was still deemed ineligible. Now that I have set an antecedent, It can be introduced that Wyclef has also been taking part in the production and performance of some controversial music that has criticized people like the current Haitian president and Sean Penn (another face of Haitian restructure). This activity shows that he has been under much stress and is very much emotionally involved in the events unfolding.
A: Home country struck with disaster/under much scrutiny/denied candidacy
B: Fighting for candidacy/Engaging in conflict with Others
C: Critical levels of Exhaustion/Stress
I have illustrated here that as a result of these previous events culminating, Wyclef's actions and behaviors in engaging in this conflict with Sean Penn and the Haitian president has resulted in his Stress and Exhaustion levels to become medically problematic. For the majority of his career as a philanthropist and singer, Wyclef has engaged in controversial music and actions with others in the name of his beliefs, however in this case, the culmination of these antecedents has caused him to take ill. In addition, this illness and fatigue could act as a natural punishment for his confrontational and active behavior, possibly eliciting less confrontational behavior from Wyclef in regards to other settings as well as his recent state of affairs.
(Punishment, elicit, antecedent)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11107860
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130184134
Very simply put, Toys R Us is hiring thousands of employees for the holidays. I chose this because I thought it was relevant to this class in several ways. For instance, the upcoming holidays, as well as our consumer culture, has elicited Toys R Us to hire people in anticipation that our culture will remain consistent, and we will continue to emit the behavior of consumerism.
A: The holidays
B: Toys R Us hires thousands of employees
C: Toys R Us will be fully staffed for the holidays
Analysis: in the context of the holidays, Toys R Us will be hiring thousands of new employees to cover the predicted increase in shopping within its stores. The consequence of this hiring is that each Toys R Us will be fully staffed, in order to reinforce the target behavior of shopping over the holidays. My belief is that Toys R Us wants to have each shopper's shopping experience to go as smoothly as possible, reinforcing their behavior of choosing Toys R Us as the place to shop.
Terms: elicited, emit, consequence, reinforce, target behavior.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130192003
This article explains the recent phenomenon that has occurred over the last year of landlords not demanding good credit scores in order to rent them out an apartment or house. Years prior, the three digit (hopefully) number would tell many landlords everything they needed to know. Seeing a low score on a report might give false generalizations about the person. This change of pace is due partly to the increased home foreclosures. By foreclosing a home, one's credit score drops dramatically. This does not mean however, that they still have income and are able to pay bills.
This was interesting to me because I recently met with a banker to discuss loan matters and he explained the importance of a credit score. He basically told me that we are all looked at and judged based on our credit score. If this wasn't motivation for me to pay my bills, I don't know what is.
I expected this article to be more focused on landlords trying to fill their locations, and taking those out of desperation. Most times, the landlord still does check their credit history but ignores things like foreclosures or credit card limits. This article gave a landlord's interpretation of this sitatuon. She said that she never used to see low credit scores approach her but as a whole, most scores are lower.
This relates to some of our newly learned behavior modification terms. The first is generalization. Bad credit scores in the past have elicited landlords to deny one for a rental. This is partly because bad credit can mean a history of bill neglegence, a landlord's worst nightmare.
Being denied a loan or apartment could also be interpreted as a method of extinction. If you neglect your bills or max out all of your credit cards (B) you will be denied a loan or apartment (C). If banks stop allowing people with bad credit to borrow, perhaps they will take more care of their finances, a target behavior. Landlords giving in to bad credit can be misread by those with poor credit scores.
A: Everyday expenses
B: Don't pay bills
C: Bad credit
A: Needing apartment
B: Have bad credit
C: Accepted to lease new apartment!!!
As you can see, no lesson is learned in this situation. The borrower is reinforced, and may get into more trouble. Though I don't believe we should be completely judged by our credit score, we must not let it be the norm to have bad credit.
Terms: elicit, extinction, generalization, target behavior, behavior, consequence, reinforced
I chose a piece about a new dental treatment to treat cavities. The new treatment is call Icon. It involves dropping acid into the cavity to clean it out then filling it with a clear substance. I have had a couple cavities in my life which means I have had to face the drill. That high pitched sound that makes you cringe and want to run away is terrible! It is a positive punishment for eating your way to a cavity.
A = In the context of being around junk food
B = Eating junk food, poor dental hygeine
C = Getting cavities drilled
Feeling and hearing that drill is very aversive. The last time I had a cavity filled they did it without the establishing operation, novacaine! It was very unpleasant, as opposed to the novacaine making it bearable. This is what makes it punishment for the target behaviors of eating poorly and not taking care of your teeth.
But perhaps a painless procedure for fixing cavities is a bad thing. If that drill is taken away, the treatment becomes less aversive. Would it be a stretch to say that it would almost be reinforcing to the said behaviors? Who knows.
A = In the context of being around junk food
B = Eating junk food, not taking care of teeth
C = Receiving the Icon treatment
This is an example of positive reinforcement. The reinforcement being added is a repaired tooth without pain. This may lead an organism to believe that there is nothing to lose if he or she eats whatever they want and don't brush their teeth.
I liked this article a lot because I have been to the dentist and I am glad to see that they have been working on an alternative to that awful drill. Alright, lets drink all of the soda we want and not brush our teeth!
Just kiding.
But seriously.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130070080
Terms: positive punishment, reinforcement, target behavior, aversive, establishing operation, positive reinforcement
The article I chose from NPR is about the ever so delicious cupcake! In order to avoid the consequence of guilt after eating (behavior) a cupcake, the author offers healthier alternatives that cupcake lovers can enjoy.
Obviously, I chose this piece because I love cupcakes (maybe a little too much) and am definitely not opposed to healthier alternatives unless they taste like crap! I also love baking things, especially this time of year and throughout the winter. The article also talked briefly about the history of cupcakes which I also thought was interesting. It was also pointed out that cupcake popularity is rising which is especially apparent because television shows are beginning to feature the delicious treat.
I was actually surprised that only one of the alternative recipes included an unusual cupcake ingredient (garbanzo beans). I have seen healthier alternative recipes for a lot of things that contain unexpected ingredients, but the majority of the ingredients in these cupcakes seem normal.
Anyway, relating cupcakes to the class. The whole point of this article is to eat healthier and rid of the guilt you feel after you have eaten something you know is unhealthy. Broken down into the ABCs of behavior modification, it would look like this:
A: wanting a cupcake
B: eating cupcake
C: feeling guilty
In the context of wanting a cupcake, emitting a cupcake eating behavior elicits feelings of guilt. In order to reduce these feelings of guilt, the alternatives are suggested and eating one results in:
A: wanting a cupcake
B: eating cupcake
C: don’t feel guilty
On a side note, this whole article has acted as an establishing operation for me because when I finished reading it, I began to crave a cupcake. Seeing the pictures at the end didn’t help either. Now, I’m to emitting a chocolate eating behavior to compensate for my cupcake craving! I don’t feel too guilty though because it’s dark chocolate and has antioxidants! :)
Terms used: consequence, emitting, elicits, establishing operation
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130191177
I selected the article titled "Grandma Offers Cautionary Tale On Ear Cleaning." I read a few articles, and then read this one because it looked funny. It sounded like a light-hearted story. I also was drawn to it, because I had holes in my eardrums when I was a toddler, and had to undergo a few surgeries to close the holes.
So basically this article explained how people commonly create holes in their eardrum by cleaning their ears with cotton swabs. To begin with, it is not necessary to clean the inside of your ear. The article compares ears to "ovens that are self-cleaning."
Breaking down this problematic target behavior:
A. In the context of everyday life
B. a person sticks a cotton swab in their ear too far
C. resulting in a hole in their eardrum.
In this situation, positive punishment has occurred. The hole in their eardrum is an aversive consequence, and can lead to complications as serious as deafness or even paralysis of the face. This should make the person less likely to clean their ear, but unfortunately it has little effect on anyone else. People continue to use cotton swabs to clean their ears, which is likely to result in perforation of the eardrum.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/28/130193230/michigan-grandma-offer-cautionary-tale-on-ear-cleaning
Terms: target behavior, positive punishment, aversive, consequence
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130056430
The title of this article is "Review: Newest IPods Get It Right, As Expected".
This is a story about review Apple's introduction of new ipod products. It explain that these are released upgrade than before.
I chose this article because I have a lot of interested in ipod products. Actually, I am worrying whether to buy ipod touch or not. Meanwhile I saw the article, I decided to buy it.
A: In the context of article
B: Read their advertisement
C: Want to buy that stuff
I think my situation can explain by Estabilishing operation. I remembered an example which was about Nike product during class. It was related to Establishing operation. People go out to buy Apple's products. Their advertisement elicited a buying behavior. The consumers emitted the buying behavior. Every advertisement includes the great characteristics of their products. As they talks about the excellence of new stuff reinforcers make consumers want to get it more that people might have. The advertisement makes the ipod more desirable to consumers.
Terms: Establishing operation, reinforcer, elicited, emitted.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130186398
I decided to chose the article about L.A. Pot Clinics being cracked down upon. It interested me because for one, it was the main article on the page I went to and that drew my eye, and also because it pertained to something that I am pretty set against, which is drug use. The article talks a lot about clinics being meant for "medical and non profit reasoning" and yet, as the woman is quoted saying in the article, "The guys who walk in and out look like a bunch of young healthy guys, they just feel like they are above the law."
This just goes to show the kind of 'patients' the clinics are serving.
Within the article, they discuss how L.A. is going about their crackdown. A lot of the clinics are violating city regulations that were set, hence emitting behavior that is not approved of. The police want to cut down the number of clinics to a more appropriate number, through their crackdown. This to me can be viewed as a negative punishment, because in the context of L.A., the pot clinics displayed undesirable behavior to the police, and hence their ability to operate and run is being taken away. This is clearly quite aversive to both the clinic and the customers who go to them, so it's causing quite a stir.
This article surprised me in terms of my expectations by showing the actual number of Pot Clinics in L.A. I would have never expected there to be 800, and I had no idea they could just fly under the radar like they had been (before this crackdown). It seems so silly to me to allow THAT MANY to be functioning. I view pot as a drug that can help some, yes, but i see it elicit very negative behavior from people around me far too often. I would have to say that this all goes hand in hand with what I found to be the most interesting, being that there are so many pot clinics around. Just seems ridiculous to me.
terms- negative punishment, emit, elicit, undesirable behavior, aversive
The article I have chosen is about kids who are getting gastric bypass surgery more often these days. Whether this is because of attractiveness or health reasons, more kids, especially teens are getting this surgery to lose weight. Weight loss, which is the target behavior, can be achieved by putting a band around your stomach. This band restricts the stomach’s amount of food that it can hold, therefore you feel fuller faster. Though many adults have gotten this surgery, the side effects haven’t been researched for teenagers.
The way I see it, there are two ways that this can be justified by using the ABC’s. For example:
A: In the context of being overweight
B: Get Gastric Band surgery
C: Lose weight
A: In the context of being overweight
B: Get Gastric Band surgery
C: Experience a side effect
In the first example, this would be a case of negative reinforcement because we are losing weight; therefore it will increase the frequency of getting the surgery. The second example is positive punishment, because we are adding a side effect. A side effect would therefore be an aversive consequence. If you get a side effect, then this will decrease the frequency of the behavior. Therefore, it is punishment. By emitting the surgery, you are eliciting weight loss, or a side effect.
Terms used: target behavior, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, aversive, consequence, elicit, emit
URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/20/129988275/calif-teens-get-more-obesity-surgery-with-gastric-bands
The article I have chosen is about kids who are getting gastric bypass surgery more often these days. Whether this is because of attractiveness or health reasons, more kids, especially teens are getting this surgery to lose weight. Weight loss, which is the target behavior, can be achieved by putting a band around your stomach. This band restricts the stomach’s amount of food that it can hold, therefore you feel fuller faster. Though many adults have gotten this surgery, the side effects haven’t been researched for teenagers.
The way I see it, there are two ways that this can be justified by using the ABC’s. For example:
A: In the context of being overweight
B: Get Gastric Band surgery
C: Lose weight
A: In the context of being overweight
B: Get Gastric Band surgery
C: Experience a side effect
In the first example, this would be a case of negative reinforcement because we are losing weight; therefore it will increase the frequency of getting the surgery. The second example is positive punishment, because we are adding a side effect. A side effect would therefore be an aversive consequence. If you get a side effect, then this will decrease the frequency of the behavior. Therefore, it is punishment. By emitting the surgery, you are eliciting weight loss, or a side effect.
Terms used: target behavior, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, aversive, consequence, elicit, emit
URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/09/20/129988275/calif-teens-get-more-obesity-surgery-with-gastric-bands
I chose this piece because it should there is so much violence in the world and I wished people used other ways to express their opinion rather than forcing themselves on something using aggressive violence. This made me interested in the piece because it shows all kinds of people, young, old, educated, uneducated respond the same way when they haven’t been treated right by the higher power like the government.
I found this article on BBC news.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11432579
In some cities in Europe people were very angry about EU is making then pay and suffer for banks mistakes. The government imposed punishing cuts in wages, pensions and employment to deal with the debt. In Greece there is a lot of unemployment, In Britain they are increasing the retirement age, Portugal is raising taxes and cutting civil servants’ pay. The protesters made their voices heard, by yelling, usage of horns and firecrackers.
This relates to our class because we can analyze the behaviors of this violent event.
A: Being a part of EU government,
B: cutting in wages and employment,
C: citizens protesting.
The citizens were emitting an angry, non-cooperative behavior when their rights have been taken away from them. When getting paid decent at the job you do, you get reinforced going to that particular job. The government has punished the citizens by cutting the wages, pensions and employment. This is an example of negative punishment because the government is taking away something pleasant from the citizens. This makes the citizen elicit the behavior to protest. The citizens are using a positive punishment toward the government by being very non-cooperative, noisy, and bringing corruption to the government buildings in the capital cities, so there for the citizens are adding something aversive back.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130216706
I chose this story because it caught my eye. It is called: "For Some NJ Students D Is No Longer Good Enough". It is basically talking about how this high school in Mt Olive, N.J. has created a new policy that states that you have to get a C grade or above to pass a class or a test. The D and F grades are not both considered failing. They created a system that the day a child gets a D or an F an email is sent to the parents notifying them. Also the kids are allowed to retake the test or redo the assignment within 5 days and are given the option of having a peer tutor them in order for them to learn it. In relationship to behavior priniciples I see it one of two ways. It all depends on the context that you look at it in.
A= in the context of the school administration
B= all students are coming out of high school with at least a C average.
C= School has a better reputation and may recieve more funding.
That is positive reinforcment for the school. However there is another way of looking at it as well.
A= in the context of the students
B= They recieve a D grade
C= they fail.
This is positive punishment for the students. Overall I believe that failing is aversive enough for most people that they will be motivated to do the work to pass. This is an interesting way to look at how the context of looking at something changes the way it is reinforced or punished.
Terms: Positive Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, Context, aversive.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104803094
The article I chose is called "Using Psychology to Save you from Yourself". It's about using human psychology in the world of economics. The article explains how humans usually tend to make the wrong decision and need a little nudge to make the right decisions for themselves. Two psychologists worked together with an economist and published research combining psychology with economy. Their work explained that humans need help and for the economy to work, this natural human error needs to be included in business models and plans. These men suggest that to help Americans, the government needs to give us little nudges in the right direction.
I picked this article because it relates very well with our class. Human's behavior needs to be modified to get a better outcome and this modification needs to take place in the government system. Certain discriminative stimuli have to be present so that we know what kind of behavior to emit. An example in the article was that in England, the government put markings on the sidewalk for tourists that say "Look right" due to the fact that traffic is the opposite way there. If similar types of stimuli are placed in government type situations, it will elicit us to emit better decision making behaviors. These newer, better models will positively reinforce us to trust in the government by receiving better health care or insurance plans, for example.
Terms: Discriminative stimuli, emit, elicit, positive reinforcement, behavior modification
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11437079
I chose the story about a genetic link being found on ADHD. I picked it because the debate about what ADHD is, what causes it, the diagnose rate for it is always a hot topic issue. Personally, I believe ADHD is overly diagnosed and it's because society has changed parents behavior about handling children; not even troubled children that emit extrinsic aversive behaviors, just children who are energized and get bored easily. I expected to see a researcher's study about linking ADHD to genetics, which is what I saw. I didn't know if there was a specific strand of DNA that was going to be discussed but I was expecting to see a study involving twins or second generation studies. Something that surprised me the most was that this study came from the UK. After I found that information out, it made more sense to me the approach the researchers took they did. The only reason I say that is because when I was studying abroad and we visited one of the universities, their ideas and research methods took different approaches than ours. Which is why I suppose psychologists from Europe moved to the United States in the first place!
This relates to our class, not so much in the research that was done but more so in WHY the research as done and what the outcome of said research. A large majority of parents believe their children have ADHD after their children didn't respond to their parents behavior modification. Unfortunately, most of these parents use a sort of punishment to modify their children. We learned from Skinner that reinforcement works better than punishment in most cases, so when parents emit angry behaviors such as yelling, grounding, door slamming, spanking, etc and expect it to change their child's extrinsic behavior of "acting out" when intrinsically, they're just being themselves, a kid. When a parent doesn't modify a child's behavior, personally, I don't feel they should be angry when the child doesn't pay attention, or is loud, or emits another such behavior again because they weren't taught anything. Yes, they were punished, but the punishment wasn't associated with a target behavior so the child doesn't know what they are doing wrong. In some immediate situations, such as yelling in the middle of class, reinforcing the non-yelling behavior may be difficult and a punishment may need to be enforced, but on a regular routine such as in certain antecedents as at home, at the store, at school, normal contexts for the child, consistent reinforcement and punishment need to be in place.
In terms of why such research was done was because different groups of researchers were trying to explain that such behavior from children is normal but it is a culture norm to place blame. So instead of just accepting the fact that young children may behave a little "crazy" sometimes, parents wanted to find a reason why; thus, why research started trying to prove it was genetic. In the antecedent of high ADHA diagnosis rates, researchers tried to decrease the parents behavior of wondering what caused their child's ADHD (punishment), by adding research shown to have more of an environmental impact on behavior emitted by children (positive). However, the researchers from Cardiff University wanted to increase the parents behavior of blaming genetics by reinforcing their thoughts through research showing a genetic link (positive reinforcement). As stated earlier, we learn best through reinforcement so it is understandable that this is the research parents of difficult children want to believe.
Terms: emit, extrinsic, aversive, punishment, reinforcement, target behavior
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11893988
I chose an article on how Wesley Snipes is going to prison for tax evasion. I have seen almost all of his movies and and had a preconceived notion that he was a really cool and thinking that he's cool, a good guy. It turns out that from 1999-2004 he earned more than $37M dollars and never claimed a dime of it. First off, how does something like that go unnoticed for almost 5 years? His initial hearings didn't even begin until 2008 and he is just now getting sent to prison.
This relates to our class because he chose to emit a behavior that went against rules of our society. It is not like he didnt know he was suppose to. There are discriminative stimuli every year that tell us to pay our taxes. If paying taxes was not enforced, no one would pay them. As a result we would all suffer from just the lack of maintenance that taxes pay for.
In the context of everyone having to pay taxes he chose to emit a non-paying behavior, and as a result is being negatively punished by having many of material things taken away as well as his personal liberties and freedom for the next 3 years.
emit, behavior, negative punishment, discriminative stimulus
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11893988
I chose an article on how Wesley Snipes is going to prison for tax evasion. I have seen almost all of his movies and and had a preconceived notion that he was a really cool and thinking that he's cool, a good guy. It turns out that from 1999-2004 he earned more than $37M dollars and never claimed a dime of it. First off, how does something like that go unnoticed for almost 5 years? His initial hearings didn't even begin until 2008 and he is just now getting sent to prison.
This relates to our class because he chose to emit a behavior that went against rules of our society. It is not like he didnt know he was suppose to. There are discriminative stimuli every year that tell us to pay our taxes. If paying taxes was not enforced, no one would pay them. As a result we would all suffer from just the lack of maintenance that taxes pay for.
In the context of everyone having to pay taxes he chose to emit a non-paying behavior, and as a result is being negatively punished by having many of material things taken away as well as his personal liberties and freedom for the next 3 years.
emit, behavior, negative punishment, discriminative stimulus