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/ ), the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ ) or any news site listed at the bottom of this page (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ listed in their news sources) 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
The piece I chose was entitled, “Parents Can Make A Difference With Anorexic Teens”. I picked this news article because I have known people who struggle with anorexia and it triggered in my mind what behavior modification might be able to do for something like this. I expected to hear about therapy for the disorder and how parents could be taught to help reinforce or punish behaviors. I expected the therapy to focus mainly on reinforcement considering that is typically a more positive approach. I thought this piece was very interesting because it actually talked about reinforcement. I also was impressed that it suggested a lot of family based treatments. I feel like many therapy’s only involve the person affected, when in reality whole families are greatly affected by such a disorder.
The article talks of a treatment program in which families are trained to help their child with their weight. The treatment "is an approach where parents are utilized as the agents of change in treatment in trying to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations by really reinforcing the resources that most parents have for taking care of their children,” In doing so the parents are trained to put food in front of the child and then to say something along the lines of, “I know this is difficult for you, but you have to eat this and I'm going to sit here with you until you can."
I would like to break down this type of behavior into the ABC model.
A - In the context of the dinner table
B - Eating
C - Mom leaves child alone (gets off her back)
Because eating is a target behavior we want to increase, this is reinforcement. Also because the mother sitting and waiting for child is aversive, this is negative reinforcement because it is taking away something aversive. The mother leaves the child alone when she eats. The use of a mother, who has probably used reinforcement on a child throughout her life, is using the same tactic to work to help this disorder. I think this is a very good way to elicit eating behaviors in anorexia behaviors when parents emit these trained helping behaviors.
I think it would be interesting to see how reinforcement works like this form of disorder along with other psychological disorders. I know some forms of treatments are very complex, but it is an interesting thought to think about what kinds of things could be helped with the use of strategic reinforcement or punishment. I'm glad this article made me look at topics like this in a new light that relates to what I am learning about behavior modification.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130342901
Terms used: Reinforcement, positive, negative, aversive, elicit, emit, target behavior
The article I chose from NPR is about the education of North Korean defectors. Defectors are educated by unusual private school; Yeomyung school where it is located in Seoul that is capital of South Korea. Because of many problems such as political situation, hungers, and works most of defectors did not learn formal education from their country. So Yeomyung school give an opportunity for them to learn formal education and personality education.
I was interested in this because it is related to Korea where I am from. Actually, today Korea has lots of concern about North Korea because of the problem which relates successor. So I would like to search some news are involved in my country or North Korea. Also, my major is youth education I was attracted to this article naturally.
What I found most interesting about this piece was there are many students who give up their study for not individual problem but social problem. It is very different from not only our country but also many democratic states. I thought they did not have a right that studying for freely it is unfair because they want to study more at least formal education.
I would like to talk about behavior modification in this story is target behavior. Students want to learn something in this school. They can study, which they want as attending the school. So their studying and attending the school behavior is the target behavior. School education is reinforcement for the target behaviors of studying. And teachers are attempting to extinguish student behavior of studying and learning in better environment.
A: In the context of the school
B: defectors attending the school
C: they can learn
(Terms; target behavior, extinguish, reinforcement)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130330223
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11481740
It's no secret that we, inhabitants of Planet Earth are facing, or will face a devastating dilemma. First discovered by climatologists and later popularized by washed up politicians, this is issue is becoming more and more relevant to our daily lives. Still in the gray? I'm referring to the theory of Global Warming.
Many people, myself included, haven't completely bought into the idea of Global Warming. The evidence has had a history of being tampered with, and recent speculation suggests that many researchers 'lied' to an extent about their findings. On top of all of this, it's hard to foresee consequences for our behaviors when they aren't directly in front of us. While the new owner of a H3 Hummer might have a pleasurable experience cruising in their monster, they are eliciting a series of aversive actions into the environment.
This particular article found from the BBC website, is a perfect example of the consequences of neglecting our environment. For years, a factory in Hungary had been dumping its toxic waste into a nearby resevoir, located closely to residential villages. Early Tuesday morning, the resevoir holding this waste broke, eliciting thousands to flee their home to escape the toxic torrents. While purchasing a gas guzzling vehicle and spilling industrial waste into our water supply are two different behaviors topographically, their function is quite similar in that it is aversive to the environment.
This event, and many other like it around the world are examples of neglect for our environment. It is an aversive consequence that can be changed by many simple behavioral changes. One can look at this particular situation in simple ABC's.
A: Industry
B: Irresponsibly dump toxic chemicals into water
C: Massive ammonia spill, thousands displaced
Since the behavior (dumping) is to be ceased, it is punishment. The consequence (disaster) is adding something aversive, making it positive. Therefore, this is nature's own example of Positive Punishment. Companies around the world emit detrimental dumping behavior just as the industry did in Hungary. One reason we have yet to stop this behavior is because it is being reinforced.
A: Industry
B: Irresponsibly dump toxic chemicals into water
C: Low costs, High profit
The behavior in the above situation involves the same behavior being reinforced, instead of punished. The consequence (high profit) in this however is being added. This is an example of Positive Reinforcement.
How many more examples of environmental catastrophe do we need to modify our waste behavior?
Terms: aversive, pleasurable, elicit, emit, consequence, behavior, reinforce, punish, topography, function, positive reinforcement
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11476456
I chose this piece because I once had, and sometimes still do, have an interest in becoming a neo-natal intensive care unit nurse or nurse’s assistant. Recently I have been hearing about studies or articles on drinking and pregnancy. This is interesting to me because of my desire to possibly work with babies and children. Research recently has been finding that children born to women who drank small amounts of alcohol while being pregnant showed no signs of behavioral or emotional damage, even up to age 5. I was always told that drinking while being pregnant was not good in any way shape or form so this article stuck out to me for obvious reasons.
In the article I expected to just find a few studies here and there that were still in the process of determining whether or not drinking is in fact harmful to the fetus. However, what I found were clips of ongoing studies that proved that the occasional drink during pregnancy had no effect on development even through age 5 in children. Upon reading the article I had doubts that this could actually be true but based on what I have been hearing recently paired with the research in this article I am beginning to reconsider.
I think this relates to our class because drinking used to pose as a discriminative stimulus when a woman was pregnant. I have always heard that drinking while pregnant would do severe damage to a fetus and could cause fetal alcohol syndrome or death. Now that more and more articles are coming out showing that light drinking will not harm a child this could make drinking less of a discriminative stimulus to pregnant women. Also, the article states that light drinking does not harm a fetus. If women realize this they may not know their limits and could over use alcohol and drink too much to the point of actually harming the fetus. So therefore this article could be eliciting possibly dangerous behavior on the part of the mother, endangering the health of the fetus.
In most cases I think people would believe that drinking is a reinfocer (going out for drinks after work is reinforcing for a hard day of doing what a person’s job entails). However, with these studies coming out it could turn into a very devastating situation. All in all I think that women should refrain from drinking while pregnant just in case. I would never want to risk the well-being of my child for a few hours of social interaction and drinks with friends at a bar.
(discriminative stimulus, eliciting, reinforcer, reinforcing)
I chose this piece because initially the title caught my eye. But after reading the rest of the article, I was actually surprised by the findings. A study was done in Arizona to see if conventional CPR was better than just hands-on CPR. Growing up, I was led to believe that if you see someone choking, or in the article’s case seeing someone have cardiac arrest, then you are to give them mouth to mouth. A study done in Arizona showed that hands-only CPR had a higher survival rate than the more popular method, which is mouth to mouth.
Before reading the article, I expected to see a higher survival rate for people who received the hands-only approach than the 13.5 percent that the study showed. Obviously, the target behavior is to stop the person from choking or having a heart attack, but I thought that there would be a greater difference in the ways that would be reached. The survival rate of the traditional mouth to mouth CPR was only 7.5 percent. Both ways can be demonstrated in the ABC’s:
A) In the context of having a cardiac arrest
B) Receive hands-on approach
C) Receive a better survival rate
Also,
A) In the context of having a cardiac arrest
B) Receive mouth-to-mouth
C) Worse Chance of survival
The first example would be positive reinforcement because we want to increase the likelihood of that happening. If we were to try to teach people the hands-only approach rather than the traditional approach we would have to reinforce that certain behavior. I think that a program that would teach children the hands-only approach to resuscitation would act as a good establishing behavior, along with using the media such as commercials and ads.
URL: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/05/130352074/hands-only-cpr-better-than-mouth-to-mouth
Terms used: target behavior, positive reinforcement, establishing behavior
The article I choose off of BBC news website was titled “Do hard times equal good art?” I choose this article because It relates to my own major. When the economy is down the debate is what happens to the art and music in society. Studies have shown that during economic down times, great artists have come to the surface, such as Picasso. Within the article some people do not agree with art that “expresses” the overall mood of the economic downfall is a good thing. For example, in the 1930’s people began going to Broadway shows as a release from the hardships of day-to-day life. So in conclusion yes artists and musicians have a new feeling to create work out of, but if people who do have any money to spend on the arts will not want to spend it on depressing art.
Within the article I was expecting to see more statistics about how art actually come to the forefront of hard economic times. But really the article was more of a debate between if art coming out of hard times is a good thing. The most interesting thing about the article was the paragraph about one day waking up to all the operas closed, galleries shut down, and no art anywhere to be found. Followed by the harsh rationalization that, relying on philanthropists to maintain the art field is completely delusional.
This relates to what we have learned in class especially with the economy aspect.
A-in a poor economy
B-make art
C-does not sell/loss of money
A-in a healthy economy
B-make art
C-more sells
By using the ABC’s we can prove the way that the arts are used during either a good economy of bad economy. When there is a good economy, there is more money to be spent on art, and vice versa in a bad economy. By having more money people can reinforce art making by buying art. So really in the article I am not sure how great art can come out of a poor economy?
Terms; ABC’s, Reinforce, Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11479172
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11450923
I chose the clip entitled: Why companies watch your every Facebook, YouTube, Twitter move. This article is about how mass media has a huge effect on the way the world works today. A man posted his complaints about an airline company which led to complaints from several other customers eventually leading to the company changing its policies. It’s important for companies these days to read what is being posted online to protect their image. This posting was meant to serve as a positive punishment for the bad service the man received.
The main reason I choose this video is because it relates to myself and most other people of my generation. We live in the time of technology and it really has changed the world completely. In the past if one person was unhappy with a company they may have complained to a few friends and then let it go. In todays society we merely take a few minutes to post something online and it reaches thousands. This is very exciting but proves we need to be cautious about what we are posting and what others may be posting about yourself.
This is very relevant to the behavior modification topics we have discussed thus far in class. Just a single persons’ behavior in today’s society can spread rapidly around the world. This article gave the example of the man and the airline complaint. If this is broken down into the ABC’s the A= man went on plane B= airline damaged his guitar and C= he posted a complaint online. Another ABC in this same article for the airlines side of the story would be A= damaged the guitar B= didn’t read online complaints and C= ended up with mass media crisis.The airline elicited a complaint behavior in which the customer later emitted.
It can be argued that mass media is now a sort of discriminative stimulus. If a person were to read about or watch videos on certain companies saying they are no good then the person may generalize the overall company and never do business at those places. In turn postings online could very much work as a reinforcement for the company if they are positive reviews. The companies need to treat every single customer well because people have
Terms: Discriminative Stimulus, reinforcement, generalize, positive punishment,elicit, emit)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130380236
My article was one that was expanding on the article we talked about in our Psychology of Humor class last Thursday. It was titled “Schools Urged to Teach Youth Digital Citizenship” and talks about the need to put a stop to cyber bullying. I think this is a perfect opportunity for behavior modification. Unfortunately, it is too late to intervene on behalf of Tyler Clementi, the student who took his life after a ridiculously inappropriate video of him and a friend was posted on social networking sites, but I think that cyber bullying is something that absolutely needs to be addressed. There would have to be two parts to the target behavior. “Posting pictures, writings or videos on the internet”, and also “purposely offending another individual or group of individuals on an instant message site.”
From a young age kids are getting access to twitter, facebook, myspace, aim, and I’m sure many different ways to communicate through internet. It could potentially be very easy to practice bullying others and be able to hide behind a ‘screen name’ or something similar.
In order to reduce this or try to keep it in check there should be ways to eliminate the anonymity. On facebook, you have to identify yourself as a real person, with a phone number or email address. Unfortunately I do not know if there is a way to reinforce people for not cyber bullying, unless they count being able to keep their site as a positive reinforcement. However, those who do cyber bully should be punished perhaps by a negative punishment of being able to shut down their site. Facebook allows people to file “reports” against people, groups, pictures, everything that is on there has the ability to be ‘reported’ and then someone looks at them and see’s if it is offensive.
A= In the Context of Social Networking sites, and instant messaging sites
B= Purposely offending others via words, pictures, or video
C= Losing privileges to have a social networking site or instant message, for a specific period of time.
I think this is a prime teaching opportunity that needs to be addressed. In order to do this I think it should be clear that it will not be tolerated, and then those who violate this should be punished by loosing privileges to having a site and then perhaps they can have one again after so long, in order to try again. Nevertheless it is something that needs to be stopped, and I think behavior modification is a good way to start.
Terms used: Target behavior, punishment, negative punishment, reinforcement, positive reinforcement
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128721732
The piece I chose was called Why do we like what we like? The reason it interested me is that I wondered what makes certain things more pleasurable or reinfrocing because there has to be more than jjust basic concepts. I thought this piece would give me a little better idea of what creates and changes peoples intrensic value of things. I expected just a couple of broad concepts to be covered throughout the article but there were actually a lot of specific examples and interesting ideas. What I found really interesting was that people do not just judge a stimulus as pleausrable by physical standards but rather by a form of "essence" What this means is that people may find a wine more pleasurable if they believe it is expensive or believe a sweater is worth more if a celebrity wore it , or believe someone is more attractive becasue of the idea they have of them. This is really true, I mean think of art, if you saw a piece of art that looked like an accident you wouldn't think much of it, but if you were suddenly told it was a piccaso that would probably change your mind. The article also explained why mildly aversive things such as chilli peppers and horror films are pleasurable. The reasoning was that it prepares you for worst case scenario and with the chilli peppers it is about ending the pain.
It relatees to the effectiveness of reinforcement because if you know what makes people find things pleasurable than it will become easier to modify there behavior with the appropriate reinforcer. It also gives rise to new ideas for reinforces too. It does raise some questions as to why people like aversive things maybe as to go to far as sadism, how does that play into reinforcement models becasue they like the aversive consequence.
Terms: Reinforcing, intrinsic value, aversive, reinforcement, reinforcer, consequence
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11443945?
The article I chose is titled “ADHD is not bad behavior.” The article states that a child with ADHD is not a badly behaved child but a child that just lacks the ability to pay attention in class. This issue is important to psychology because ADHD is a brain condition that can be caused by genetics and the environment. The end of the article discusses the different treatments for ADHD. The first step is to try to help the child manage their behavior in the classroom and support them. Also, making a strict schedule or routine for them might be helpful. Professor Kendall says that Ritalin and other drugs should only be used in severe cases. However, this is a controversial issue. A breakdown of an example of the ABCs related to this article could be:
A- The child is in a classroom.
B- The child doesn’t pay attention and is disruptive in class.
C- The child is punished for bad behavior.
The above example is what the article says is not the case if the child has ADHD. If the child does not have ADHD they would be punished; they would probably have some time taken away from their recess. This would be negative punishment because the teacher would be taking away something desirable. This would likely be very aversive to a child and they would probably not act up in class again. If the child is diagnosed with ADHD, the disruptive behavior is not categorized as bad. According to the article, a more accurate breakdown for a child with ADHD would look more like this:
A-The child is in a classroom.
B-The child doesn’t pay attention and is disruptive in class.
C-The parents set up a stricter routine or consider medication to manage the ADHD.
Having ADHD sets the occasion for the child to be more disruptive in class when they are supposed to be paying attention. The target behavior would be the disruptive or inattentive behaviors in class.
Terms used: punished, aversive, target behavior
The piece that I decided to use was the one titled "Fifa official concerned by football 'brutality'"
This caught my eye because of the term brutality. I was intrigued as to how they would tie brutality in with soccer, so I decided to read in and see what it was all about. After reading through the article, what I had expected to see ended up being more or less what was within the article. It seems that a certain official believes that some players are simply out to hurt other players when they come onto the field, even out to end their careers at times. This behavior would be a very strong one to emit, because in terms of professional sports, attempting to hurt others intentionally is very aversive, and should learn to harsh consequences. What this official is saying is that a lot of players are getting off the hook because it wasn't seen by a ref, etc. What was probably the most interesting bit within the article was when he pointed out that "It's not because it's not been seen on the field that suddenly nothing happened." This is very true, and should be punishable beyond the field.
This articles relates in the fact that it shows behavior being used in a very poor way, but not being punished. Good players may be under a discriminative stimulus, where people would be more bound to perform an illegal kick on them simply because they want them out of the game. If regulations were brought into the game by FIFA to help regulate these certain kicks, it may act to help punish the unwanted behavior, and also to reinforce players to do the right thing out on the field, even when you know the refs aren't watching you.
terms- reinforce, aversive, punish, behavior, discriminative stimulus, emit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/9071151.stm
If you are like me and like to browse the internet or do homework while watching your favorite t.v. show, you may want to think twice before you set your laptop on your legs for an extended period of time. This behavior may result in what is called “toasted skin syndrome” which leaves your skin discolored.
Obviously, I chose this article because it is a behavior I engage in frequently and therefore find it interesting. What I was expecting to learn and what I learned after reading the article were very similar. When I sit my laptop on my lap, I can feel the warmth and know that it probably isn’t the best thing for me to do. Luckily though, I have a laptop that’s fan is on the side which helps out a lot but doesn’t completely save my legs from becoming toasted. I was amazed that laptops get as hot as they do (the article suggests 125 degrees) because you would think companies would come up with better designs to prevent this very problem.
Regardless, this is an example of positive punishment. The ABCs look like this:
A: doing work/browsing the internet
B: laptop on lap
C: toasted skin syndrome
This is positive punishment because something aversive is being added (discoloration/toasted skin syndrome) which should elicit a decrease in the target behavior. It could also elicit a person to emit a purchasing behavior (buy a laptop cooling pad) as an alternative. If a person were to emit this purchasing behavior, the ABCs may change to look like this:
A: having your laptop on your lap
B: using a cooling pad
C: decreased chances of toasted skin syndrome
This is an example of negative reinforcement because something aversive (discoloration/toasted skin syndrome) is being taken away by using a cooling pad. Because this target behavior (using a cooling pad) will lessen aversive side-effects, the behavior should occur more frequently.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/04/toasted-skin-syndrome-can_n_748899.html
Terms used: positive punishment, aversive, target behavior, elicit, emit, negative reinforcement
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130385169
I chose this story because we live in Iowa, and Iowa has A LOT OF FARMS. Lots of students at UNI come from small towns and they are aware of the responsibilities of having a farm.
The farm owner talks about the hardships and being in dept due to downturn in cattle market. He is in dept close to half a million dollars and expenses could get out of control if he doesn’t watch them closely. Him and his wife enjoy being on the farm because he is the third generation in his family to work on that farm and he is hoping his kids would be the fourth.
We can look the examples that use some context and behavior but two different consequences
A: Living on the farm,
B: producing food for others,
C: pride you feel for that privilege
A: Living on the farm,
B: producing food for others,
C: you are faced financial problems
Analysis:
Living on the farm elicits the behavior of growing crops. Growing crops can be very aversive if the whether conditions are bad. The whether can be a punisher or a reinforcer depending on your past experiences during planting. One of the consequence of growing food on the farm is the sense of pride and reward when the farmer accomplishes that. This is positive reinforcement because its an outcome of the behavior the farmer has emitted. When you grow crops and buy cattle and you get bad crops and sick cattle then you are faced with financial downfall, which is an unpleasant feeling, so it becomes positive punishment.
Terms Used: elicits, aversive, punisher, reinforcer, positive reinforcement, positive punishment
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130409561
This article is about a prison in South Carolina that does not allow its inmates any other kind of reading material than the Bible. This article interests me because it is another example of how there are policies throughout the USA that are clearly Christian, and in this case, violates the inmates' freedom to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. It is perplexing to me that the jail does not even have a library. While it is true that prisoners have lost a lot of their civil liberties, it is naive to think that they should not be allowed magazines, religious books that support each prisoner's religious beliefs, etc. Furthermore, it is astounding to me that such a policy exists, seemingly saying that the Constitution is not relevant to the jail. I will refrain from quoting other examples of how the USA purports to be a Christian nation and back such type of values, when it seems evident to me that the USA was founded, in part, upon the desire for freedom of religion. Providing the inmates with only Bibles is oppressive and an indication of bigotry.
While there are many ways that this applies to Behavior Modification, I will address oppression. I feel that withholding any and all forms of literature from the inmates, save the Bible, is an operant behavior. It is such because it sets the occasion for oppression to occur. While bigotry is not against any civil law, I feel that revoking the inmates' rights defined by the First Amendment is negative punishment. Not having access to all forms of literature is aversive. In terms of the ABC's of Behavior Modification, it is as follows:
A Limiting access to literature to only Bibles
B: Oppression
C: The inmates' rights according to the First Amendment are not being recognized
The article stated that the ACLU is suing the South Carolina jail, in order to allow the inmates any and all forms of reading materials. I surely hope that the inmates are allowed their liberties, and I hope that the court system chooses in favor of the Constitution of the United States over the policy of bigotry currently being enforced.
Terms: operant behavior, negative punishment, aversive.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130219838
I have been reading a lot of articles lately that discuss the teen-suicides in response to bullying. The article I selected is titled "NJ Senator Calls For Anti-Bully Law After Suicide." This article focuses on eighteen year old Tyler Clementi's suicide. In case you are not familiar with this story, Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge on September 22 after learning that his roommate had used his webcam to broadcast intimate images of him [Tyler] with another man. Tyler's roommate and another freshman were charged with invasion of privacy. If convicted, they could spend up to five years in prison.
After reading this article, I thought a lot about what we talked about in class today. Punishment should be used sparingly in behavior modification and aversive methods could have undesirable side effects. Here is a breakdown of the ABC's:
A. In the context of college dorm life
B. a freshman broadcasts "intimate images" of roommate
C. resulting in five years of prison time.
Since C adds something, it is positive.
Since B will decrease, it is punishment.
Therefore, this is positive punishment.
This seems logical, because I have grown up in a society that doesn't think twice about using punishment. It's hard to think about not punishing someone for these actions, especially considering the tragedy they elicited. People are very emotional about this issue, but emotions aside, I can't help wonder if reinforcement methods could be used to change these types of behavior.
The article discusses Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey senator, and his plan to create a bill that would "require colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to create policies prohibiting harassment of any student." While I think Anti-Bullying Laws should definitely be enforced, I think this is side-stepping the real issue. There have been several cases in the past month of anti-gay bullying resulting in suicide. People have been acting shocked that America's youth would emit such malicious behaviors, but who did they learn it from? Most states in our country do not allow homosexual couples to marry. Men and women are denied positions in the armed forces based on their sexuality. If society treats homosexuals differently than heterosexuals, they are creating the context for America's youth to do the same. It is similar to the phrase "do as I say - not as I do."
This phrase always drove me crazy, because it's hypocritical. People learn by example. If we expect our country's youth to act a certain way, we should be leading by example. For this particular issue, I believe equalizing human rights is the first step. Bullying usually occurs because the bully is receiving some type of reinforcement, whether it's feeling better about him/herself or encouraging words from peers. Instead of punishing the bully, an extinction method could be considered. This may be difficult to do though, because the bully may be experiencing self-reinforcement. Is it possible to use an extinction method on yourself?
Although I started to go on a tangent, I think these are all important things to consider. It's easy enough to say reinforcement is better, but in the midst of a tragedy when emotions are running high, would reinforcement be the most effective method? Would anyone even be willing to reinforce good behaviors, or would they be so focused on punishing their wrong-doings that it wouldn't be an option?
Terms: aversive, positive punishment, elicited, reinforcement, emit, extinction, self-reinforcement
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/07/danny-lampley-arrested-pledge-of-allegiance_n_755074.html
The article that I chose was one from the Huffington Post entitled "Danny Lampley Arrested: Lawyer Charged With Contempt For Staying Silent During Pledge Of Allegiance." It concerned a lawyer named Danny Lampley in Tupelo, Mississippi (coincidentally the birthplace of Elvis Presley) and his choosing not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance when the judge instructed the congregation to do so. This article caught my eye because I am very in favor of protecting the right to freedom of speech (or silence), whether it be contrary to someone else's beliefs or thoughts. Lampley has been a proponent of free speech for a number of years and often works on these cases. Lampley's justification for this was the he did not feel that he needed to say it because he didn't want to. In his view, he is an American and has the right to not say whatever he does not want to say. This brings attention to the consequences of his actions and whether openly challenging the presiding judge in a courtroom is wise considering that he is representing another client in a divorce case.
The most interesting piece of this article, in my opinion, was the statements given by others in the community concerning Lampley's actions. One man was quoted as saying ""I thought he was a disgrace to the United States. If he can't say that in front of a judge, he don't deserve to be here [in this country]." This gave me a slight chuckle before upsetting me at how ignorant and, for lack of a better term, moronic many citizens are in our nation. The fact that Lampley is being demonized by anyone for his actions is downright absurd.
Now that my personal beliefs and take on the article are out of the way, this article shows a great deal in regards to behaviorism. Lampley was found to be in this judge's courtroom and chose to behave in a way that was contrary to others' beliefs but fully within the law. His unlawful consequence was jail time. This calls attention to an idea that has yet to be discussed in class. This is that of a consequence that is not only unexpected but does not fit with the behavior. Essentially, just because a consequence of a certain behavior is loony, doesn't mean that it could not happen. Suppose I were to have a severe prejudice of homeless people and felt that they should not skip. When I saw a homeless person, I would emit a bottle from my hand and at their cranial area. In no way would anyone expect anyone to be punished for skipping, yet in this scenario, a man, in the context of homelessness, engages in skipping behavior that bears a positive punishment of a bottle to the dome. It makes no sense. But it happens. Lampley engaged in a behavior that is his right as an American citizen, yet he received a positive punishment that was not fitting with his behavior. This event has also elicited a number of groups and individuals to emit their various views on the subject of free speech in the context of a courtroom.
The topic of this article also calls to mind the fact that the members of the courtroom congregation were under stimulus control. The judge is a being of authority and, when instructed by him, those members of the court say the Pledge of Allegiance. This could be because they are patriotic, but there is a quip from a witness from a different case that insinuates that at least she was under stimulus control.
Terms: Stimulus Control, Elicit, Emit, Positive Punishment, Behavior, Antecedent (Context)
The article I chose is from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123544191 called "Children Labeled 'Bipolar' May Get A New Diagnosis". It's about how doctors and psychiatrists are diagnosing children that have temperamental issues with bipolar disorder. The issue behind it is that bipolar disorder is a very serious disease that is lifelong so it might be premature to diagnose a child with it. There could be also side affects from the medicine prescribed to patients with bipolar disease. Also, the criteria the children have differs from the standard criteria for bipolar disorder.
The question this article talks about is why are children being diagnosed with this disorder? Child Psychiatrist Gabrielle Carlson had a few explanations. She explained how it's easier to get funding for medicines prescribed for bipolar disorder because insurance companies see it as a clinical disorder. In the past, children who had the same symptoms were seen as having a conduct disorder which places blame on the parents and the environment rather than a mental disorder. Relating to the parents, it's easier for the parents to accept that their child has a mental disorder rather than placing blame on them for bad parenting styles. In a behavioral modification view, these parents are being positively reinforced when they can get medicine for their children. In previous situations, they were positively punished with claims that they were bad parents and this was aversive so they stayed away from doctors who were telling them this. There are others being positively reinforced for this diagnosis as well - pharmacy companies and psychiatrists. If these children get the diagnosis of bipolar, they get prescribed medication and therefore buy them. This type of reinforcement is steady across all types of disorders and any other medical problem.
Because bipolar disorder is such a serious and chronic disease, David Shaffer, a psychiatrist and part of the committee for the revision of the DSM, came up with a new diagnosis for these children - temper dysregulation disorder (TDD). TDD's criteria consists of the same behaviors that the children being diagnosed with bipolar disorder have. These behaviors include anger, aggression, explosive episodes, and frequent change in mood, to name a few. This new diagnosis will help to hinder the increasing amount of children incorrectly diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Terms: positive reinforcement, positive punishment, behavior, aversive
I chose a piece entitled "Pakistan Reopens Crucial Afghan Border Crossing." I chose it because I don't keep up with foreign affairs as much as others might. It is about Pakistan opening up their border to NATO supply trucks so that they can enter Afghanistan. They have closed the entrance due to a U.S. helicopter bombing that killed two Pakistani soldiers over a week ago. This blockade forced the trucks to pull over and wait on the road for days until the crossing was opened up again. In this part of the world, that will make you a sitting duck. The chances of being attacked are great.
The Pakistanis' behavior of blocking this entryway into their country brought about some aversive consequences for the truck drivers. Here is the breakdown.
A: In the context of war
B: Shut down supply entrance
C: Drivers stranded on side of road
We could also bring deprivation into this analysis. The people of Afghanistan are short on their essentials (hence the supply trucks). Their deprivation will most certainly act as an establishing operation and make the supplies more reinforcing. If they had plenty of supplies in the first place, they would have been satiated and the NATO supplies may have been punishing.
This article proves that almost anything can be broken down into behavior terms. I'm glad you have us do these media analyses because it gives us more chances to use real world examples.
Terms Used: in the context of, punishing, reinforcing, establishing operation, behavior, deprivation, satiation
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130457057
I chose to read a movie review on a movie that I was actually interested in seeing entitled "It's Kind of a Funny Story." The article itself might not seem to be related to this class, but the movie I think is. It's about a suicidal teenager who admits himself into a psych ward and ends up learning a lot about himself and helps other patients as well. I expected to find a summary of the movie which is exactly what I did find, but I wasn't necessarily expecting to see the critique recommend it. I figured that they would have thought it to be another humorous but stupid movie.
Although I haven't seen the movie I do expect that it is related to behavior modification particularly because it is set in a hospital psych ward. I expect that positive and negative reinforcement are both used a lot. I also think that deprivation and satiation will be occurring and new behaviors will be emitted by the patients.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130195398
Words used: behavior modification, emitted, deprivation, satiation, positive and negative reinforcement.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130977580
The story above is about the new alcoholic beverage stocking our shelves called Four Loco. This story is very important to me because I am a Resident Assistant in Bender Hall and I also work with younger students back at my home town because I coach and I understand that in high school and college, people may choose to consume alcoholic beverages. I expected to see how dangerous this drink is for you and I'm glad that's exactly what I saw. Other, new, points of information were brought to my attention as well. This beverage sickens me so much and I have no idea why it is still being produced after the effects it has had on some students.
Now that I have studied behavior modification, I have an explanation why such behavior of consuming such drink occurs, however, with the health concerns and numerous near death experiences, I am still so confused as to why it is being produced. The drink contains caffeine and alcohol. Both which serve as positive reinforcers for most students most of the time, as long as they are kept separate. However, a majority of people know that caffeine is a stimulant and alcohol is a depressant; why one would choose to mix the two, I don't know. Obviously, with their brightly colored cans, the makers of Four Loco want to attract people to their product to elicit a drinking behavior. Lucky for them and their productivity sales, it works. However, if people are left in the dark without any information about what they are drinking and/or how dangerous it is, it has very aversive effects. I would like to hope that the number of students from Washington State that ended up in the hospital with near lethal blood alcohol levels would be enough of a positive punishment to other college students around the country, but I guess it is all how one interprets the situation. Positive punishment by having the ultimate goal of decreasing the target behavior of drinking Four Loco by having the information of said students being added to one's knowledge in the antecedent of college. In situations such as this, obviously it is far too dangerous to satiate subjects to such beverage due to health concerns; however, I'm not sure deprivation would be effective either. Extinction of a reinforcement only occurs after the reinforcement has been administered, but I would prefer no one ever drink Four Loco to begin with!
Terms: positive reinforcement, elicit, aversive, positive punishment, aversive, antecedent, target behavior, behavior modification, satiate, deprivation, extinction
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/01/131698228/overeating-like-drug-use-rewards-and-alters-brain
The article i chose suggest a link or rather a comparison of certain foods to drugs and addiction. I have recently been trying to regulate what i eat and also what my family eats, so this came as an interest to me. Also i was interested in the comparison between drugs and food.
In this article, researchers discuss the idea of neural pathways that are set up based on our food intake and like these pleasure pathways for food, drugs also work in a same fashion.
This article suggests that we need to monitor our eating behaviors regularly and from an early age if possible. If we emit healthy choices for food at an early age research indicates that we will continue to follow the same habits as we get older. From a behavioral standpoint this makes a lot of sense. If we condition ourselves to eat certain foods we will continue to emit these pleasurable behaviors. The article however, is approaching this from a biological standpoint, and saying that rather than being conditioned we have become wired to eat certain foods, that there is a almost chemical dependence on them. Now if that were the case, a person could use bmod to change an aversive behavior such as eating sweets or fatty foods.
In my case, I love to eat food, and generally food that is not the best for me. So for me a good route would be... In the context of shopping for food, I should emit a behavior that tries to find foods that are not only healthy for me, but also taste good. By doing this i am still positively reinforcing myself with the taste, but yet making a food selection that is good for me.
positive reinforcement, emit, behavior, conditioning, pleasurable, addiction
After looking through some of the comments to see what others had done, I found that the study on anorexia nervosa in teens to be the one that was really catching my eye. As a young woman myself and with such a pressure of the "need to be thin" I can understand. I find it inspiring though that such therapy for this eating disorder has taken a turn for the better.
What I wasn't really expecting, was the form in the actual therapy. Thinking on how this disorder was treated outside this study, the question I think of is why didn't doctors and psychologists come up with before? Parents are a critical role in our lives, and a constant one. Who else to make a difference in improving a patient with anorexia then the parents. I found it interesting that the success rate of this form of family therapy had a higher rate success/ lower percentage of relapse.
In this topic, there was a lot of use of positive reinforcement. Especially, when the mother mentioned the way she speaks encouraging reinforcing words and comments to elicit the behavior response of her daughter to eat. Using variability to encourage the response and never giving in till the consequence was achieved.
A: The context of having dinner at the table
B: emitting the behavioral response of eating
C: resulting in the mother leaving the child be till next meal time
With such a distressful and aversive disorder, it is hard to overcome, and hard on every member of the family. To get through it, all members of the family should be involved. It would be interesting to see how such a form of reinforcement and family therapy would affect other disorders.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130342901
Terms: emit, behavior, response, consequence, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, elicit, variability