What I would like you to do is to find a topic from sections 2.1 & 2.2 that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
By now you all should be skilled at synthesizing the topical material you have obtained from the various web sites you visited. If you need a refresher please let me know.
Include a list of the terms and concepts you used in your post. (example - Terms: positive reinforcer, extinction, reinforcer, discriminative stimulus...)
Thanks,
--Dr. M
After reading the sections 2.1 and 2.2 I became quite interested in the topic of primary reinforcers, specifically Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is based off the importance of primary inforcers. The hierarchy stated that people want and are motivated to fulfill the basic needs before moving on to fulfill other needs. The hierarchy is based upon a pyramid and that lowest level of the pyramid contains the basic needs that people want met. Once those needs are met, people will move up the pyramid and attempt to satisfy other needs. Maslow’s pyramid was split up into two sections. These sections were deficiency needs and growth needs. Deficiency needs are such things as security, social, physiological. People like to satisfy these needs so that they can avoid feeling that they don’t want. Growth needs are at the top of the pyramid and are just attributes that help a person grow as a person.
There are five different levels to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. These levels are 1) Physiological Needs-which are the basic needs that we needs to survive. Such things include food, water, and air. 2)Security Needs-these are employment, safe environment, and good health insurance, 3)Social Needs-this level includes love and affection toward others, 4) Esteem Needs-this includes accomplishment needs and social recognition 5) Self-Actualization Needs-this is the highest need where people are self aware of themselves and are really concerned more in their personal growth.
This hierarchy is the base for other types of hierarchies. Maslow’s Hierarchy has been adapted and changed somewhat to include such things as cognitive and aesthetic needs. Such needs as knowledge and learning were added to the hierarchy along with the goal of beauty and balance in life. The hierarchy has also been adapted to transcendence needs. This need includes helping others reach self-actualization. Maslow’s Hierarchy is very important in pointing out why primary reinforcers are important to know and how they can be very effective.
Terms: Primary reinforcers, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
I forgot to add the websites to my previous comment.
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm
http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm
http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/regsys/maslow.html
I decided to do my topical about instrinsic and extrinsic motivation since they were two of the main concepts from section 2.2. There are many ways in which to get students motivated whether it be in school, or other activities such as sports or other organizations.
Some examples of intrinsic motivators would be the enjoyment of the process, the competition, the pride of accomplishment, and the skills gained. Basically things that work from the inside-out.
Some examples of extrinsic motivators would be financial incentives, scholarships, or other prizes that would come from the outside to make us happy.
In my opinion, intrinsic motivation would be the way to go to create meaningful results for students because it would require the teacher or coach to work WITH the student to help them learn gain lasting skills and perhaps obtain lasting accomplishments rather than just working toward a goal that is more or less fleeting. Extrinsic motivation also disregards student’s abilities or talents to think and make decisions on their own and doesn’t allow them the opportunity to develop self-determination or the skills that they would had they might working for something on their own.
If teachers decide that they would rather use more intrinsic motivation to encourage their students, there is quite a few different approaches and steps that one can take. For instance, it’s important to know where each student is at educationally (or athletically) because no student is the same. It also may be a good idea to have students keep a portfolio and reflect often on how they learn to help them decide what strategies do and do not work for them personally while learning. Because each child is different it’s important to use a variety of different teaching methods day to day so that each student has the opportunity to learn the way that works best for them. Sometimes it may even be beneficial to let students choose which assignments they would like to do because choice and control is important in student learning.
http://www.cat.ilstu.edu/additional/tips/intMotiv.php
http://www.ferris.edu/fctl/teaching_and_learning_tips/motivation/intrinsicvsextrinsic.htm
http://www.weplay.com/sports-parents/well-being/50-Intrinsic-vs-Extrinsic-Rewards
The four resasons to change behavior should not come as a shock to anyone. The reasoning to want to change a behavior can be because of one of the reasons or up to all of them. We may want to change behavior because it bothers us, others, lead to trouble and/or is illegal. I agree with Mr. Skinner in that reinforcement is the best way to go about changing a behavior, but we know that may not always work. The reinforcer should have intrinsic(important to individual) and/or extrinsic(important socially/culturally) value.
We are going to talk like Skinner here. Instead of saying we want to reduce the amount of ciggerates a person smoke, we are going to reinforce the behavior of not smoking. Lets say we will give reinforcement whenever someone turns down a ciggarette, or avoids places and people that trigger their want for a ciggarette, or when they reduce the amount smoked every two weeks by 1/2 a pack. These would be target behaviors we are looking at to change. If we want to change that, the reinforcer will probably have to be very intrinsicly important. THough extrinsic value may also be important.
Smoking is another example we can use to look at the four reasons to change. The behavior may bother the person smoking because of the weakened immune system they are creating. Smoking may bother others, because of it's health risks, the smell, the smoker breath, etc. etc. Smoking may lead to trouble if you get very irratible when you haven't had a cigg in a while and you start a fight with your spouse. Smoking may be illegal if you are doing it in public places that have deemed it illegal to smoke. All four reasons to change a behavior are evident here. And the primary reinforcer (biologically relevant, meet safety and social needs that would naturally occur by cutting back and then quiting would be both intrinsic and exrinsically valuable!
Terms: Reinforcement, four reasons to change behavior, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, primary reinforcer.
http://www.thingamababy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/jackhammers.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkX0Fp7SV1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulkt4j-qooQ
I am still sort of confused on the topic of positive and negative reinforcement, so I chose to focus on those two for this topical blog. The consequence of a behavior can either be pleasurable or adversive. If you want to increase the frequency of a certain behavior, you would use a reinforcement. After establishing whether you want to increase or decrease a behavior, you have to decide if you are going to add or take away something. Adding something will be positive, and taking away something will be negative. Positive reinforcement is introducing a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. An example is receiving a tip from a waitress job. If they do a good job, they will receive a tip. Negative reinforcement is the removal of an adversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. One of the examples used in the section was your car insurance lowering your monthly payment for going without an accident. It is a reinforcement because you are increasing your behavior of going without an accident. It is negative because the company is lowering or taking away the costly monthly payment.
A positive reinforcement does not mean "good." It is positive because we are adding something. Likewise, negative does not mean "bad." It is negative because we are taking something away. Negative reinforcement is not a punishment. With a punishment, we are trying to decrease the frequency of a behavior. A negative reinforcement is simply taking something away to INCREASE the frequency of behavior. A reinforcement is a consequence that follows an operant response. To understand this, we need to know what an operant response is. This is a behavior that is modifiable by its consequence. It "sets the occasion" for either a reinforcement or a punishment to occur.
Terms used: negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, reinforcement, punishment, operant response
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/opresponse.html
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/reinforcement.html
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/nru/nr.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/20051/positive_negative_reinforcement.html?cat=25
In my reading blog I mentioned one that I would remember from the reading this week would be primary reinforcement which is defined as an unconditioned reinforcer, and is a stimulus that does not require pairing other stimuli to function as a reinforcer. They are biologically relevant. Some of the examples of primary reinforcers are food and water.
I thought the part about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs was interesting and decided to look more into that. There are five groups in which these need fall under physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The most basic and fundamental important are at the bottom and eventually reaching self-actualization at the top which is the highest.
Physiological needs are those of food, air, sex, and shelter. Safety needs are personal security, health and well-being. Love and belonging are the need of friendship, intimacy, and family. Esteem is the need to feel respected and have self-respect. Eventually, this leads into self-actualization which is reaching your full potential and realizing that potential, and that you are aware of reality. Throughout history the pyramid eventually expanded and people began to change and add more “needs” that fall under the five original but including transcendence needs in the 1990’s. Transcendence needs, as of the 1990’s, is at the top of the pyramid which is helping other to reach their full potential. Also, cognitive needs were also added which is knowledge and meaning.
As you progress through life you are supposed to be progressing through the pyramid. As you fulfill every need you should reach the top and be at your full potential and understand reality and be aware of it as well. I thought it was interesting learning more about the Hierarchy of Needs.
Terms: Primary reinforcer, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm
http://www.futurehi.net/docs/Maslows_Hierarchy.html
One topic that was interesting in section 2.2 was the use of reinforcement to condition a response. My dad trains dogs and uses a mix of positive reinforcement and positive punishment depending on the personality and learning ability of the dog he is working with, to elicit certain behaviors. Positive reinforcement as a way to condition a response with an animal is quite popular. I am not a huge animal lover, but I do have a cat that no one wanted to adopt named Face. Over the past 4 years, she has grown to act like one of my dad's dogs while outside, but hide from the dogs while inside the house. She loves to play outside and has plenty of room to do it considering our house is surrounded by a state park, a field, and the lakeshore. However, I will be graduating in a few months and Face will have to move wherever I go.
This is why I am interested in using positive reinforcement techniques. I need to train Face to walk on a leash. She is morbidly obese and she won't have access to much room to run around at my apartment. So I researched ways to use positive reinforcement in animal training.
The first thing I learned was that it takes a lot more time and patience to get a cat to emit a target behavior than a dog. The next is that whatever I want my cat to view as pleasurable, I have to pair it with something pleasurable that is already a conditioned response, such as petting the cat, the cat purrs with happiness. I want the cat to be happy about me fastening a harness around her tubby belly. I would have to pair in with treats (which have large amounts of intrinsic value to my cat), praise, and petting. It will take a long time, but I can create the conditioned response of walking on a leash. The harness would become a conditioned stimulus. And hopefully face would become a much happier, healthier, and smaller cat.
http://www.behaviormatters.com/Philosophy-animal-training.htm
http://www.ehow.com/video_2348504_teach-dog-reliable-everyday-recall.html?cp=1&wa%5Fvlsrc=continuous&wa%5Fvrid=dad6435d%2D0241%2D4504%2D8208%2Df21d903ace72&pid=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufHVl-xTXhQ&feature=player_detailpage
Terms: Unconditioned and conditioned stimuli and response, pleasurable, punish, positive reinforcement and punishment, Target behavior, emit, elicit
Reading through section 2.2 I found Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs really interesting. I have always actually been interested in this since I took Psychology my sophomore year of high school. The hierarchy also serves as a source for primary reinforcers.
The first is physiological needs. The base of the pyramid. This is where raw survival kicks into play. In his pyramid or hiearchy Maslow says that this is the basics of human life, which would include food, water, and shelter. Secondly is the Safety aspect after the subject has gotten past the first stage. This is where security of anything comes in to play. Thirdly is the love/belonging stage. This is basically the need for love from family, friends, and a sexual partner. Fourthly is Esteem. This includes self esteem, confidence, and respect of others. Lastly is self-actualization. This is where the person discovers their creativity and morale.
How does this tie into Behavior Modification? If any of these needs are not met, they influence our behaviors according to what needs to be accomplished. For example lets say you have a very wealthy business owner. Money is not an issue for this man, but then a huge hurricane hits the state where he lives. This natural disaster floods his home and leaves him homeless. He then emits a behavior of survival for food and water, a type of behavior that he would have never elicited pre hurricane. This pyramid of needs pretty much lays out the basic processes and emotions that are needed to behave as normally as possible. If one of these crucial pieces is missing, it throws our behavior into a whirlwind of complexity and makes us elicit different behaviors than what we are used to emitting in different situations. This also shows that our behavior needs to be modified, according to the 4 reasons for behavior modification. Depending on the situation, all four might be broken at the same time.
TERMS: emit, elicit, behavior, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, 4 reasons for behavior modification.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1jlW7yVh0
http://changingminds.org/explanations/needs/maslow.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3OdkktmHOY
I decided to do my blog on tokens as generalized secondary reinforcers, because many things that are reinforcing to us are tokens. We work for money, which has little intrinsic value on it’s own but society places a high extrinsic value on it. Money is a secondary reinforcer because we use it to get primary reinforcers. It’s generalized because we could conceivably buy anything from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs with it. Money is merely a token, but it represents the ability to get something of value.
Another type of token, as mentioned in the chapter, is a poker chip. As with all tokens, the context has everything to do with the value. I have a stash of poker chips left over from when they were used as place markers during marching band practice. The chips, aside from reminding me where I needed to go, are completely worthless. Now, if I were in a casino, I could cash in the same amount and color of chips for a substantial amount of money. Just by changing the context, my chips could go from being worthless to worth thousands of dollars. The same is true for money. When I go on vacation out of the country, my American dollars don’t get me far. Back home, however, I can buy things with them.
Some common places for token reinforcement are schools and prisons. In schools, you might get a gold star for the day, and a certain number of gold stars gets you a prize. In my kindergarten classroom, we had our names on popsicle sticks in a cup. If the sticks stayed in the cup all week, we got to pick something from the prize bucket. If, however, we talked out of turn, were noisy during nap time, or misbehaved at recess, the stick would get removed from the cup. We didn’t physically get a token, but seeing our popsicle stick in the cup was our token. Grades are another example. In school, an A on the top of a test in a great reinforcer to continue to work hard, just as an F is a reinforcer to work hard to remove the displeasing grade. Not many of us, however, would be very happy if our boss presented us with a A instead of a paycheck. Most of us would probably contact the department of labor and quit the job.
Prisons sometimes use a similar system for reinforcing target behaviors. The inmates might get a few cigarettes for completing their duties and staying out of trouble. or maybe they get a trip to the library for something to read.
The idea behind a token society is based in operant conditioning. The consequences of a behavior shape the behavior for the next time. If you do something right or do it well, you get reinforced with some sort of token. Outside of the context, the token means little to nothing, but when kept in context the tokens are great reinforcers
Terms: Generalized reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, primary reinforcer, context, operant conditioning, reinforcer, target behaviors.
Sites:
http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch05_conditioning/secondary_reinforcement.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1310772/pdf/jaba00069-0134.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_economy
http://www.kidsmakingchange.com/TokenEconomy/cms/Token_Economy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning
My topic for this week’s assignment is discriminative stimulus. Psychologists say that an operant behavior is under stimulus control as long as it is triggered by a certain stimulus. Because organisms have to discriminate between these stimuli in order to decide how they want to respond to them, the stimuli are called discriminative stimuli.
Discriminative stimuli work by telling us what behaviors will get reinforced or punished. Because of this, discriminative stimuli control our behavior and tells us what we should do our how we should act. When we completely rely on the discriminative stimulus we are under stimulus control. Discriminative stimuli work on the behavior by telling us what the right behavior is to emit. It gives us a heads up of what the consequence may be. Saying this, discriminative stimuli are indirectly related to the consequence of the behavior that will be emitted. Discriminative stimuli provide information to the organism allowing it to respond appropriately in the presence of different stimuli.
Some examples of discriminative stimuli are road signs. They tell us what behaviors to emit, but because we choose how to act, we decide whether or not we will emit the right behaviors and if we don’t, we will receive punishment. Another example is a clock on the wall. It controls our behavior by telling us when to get up, when to go to work, and when to go home for supper. Depending on these behaviors, there are consequences for doing or not doing the right behaviors.
There is not a whole lot more information I would like to share, because I think descriptive stimulus is a fairly simple concept to grasp, and I hope my classmates understand it as well. ☺
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/stimuli.html
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/bmod/2010/09/establishing-operation-vs-discriminative-stimulus.html
http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch05_conditioning/discriminative_stimuli.html
I chose to research the topic of differential reinforcement. I was interested in researching this topic because it was a vocabulary word that I still couldn’t quite grasp after reading section 2.1. Section 2.1 described differential reinforcement as changing a behavior that would ordinarily be punished into one that would be reinforced. The first website that I went to helped put the definition into context. The website described differential reinforcement as reinforcement that is provided for behaviors when the behaviors occur at certain times and places, whereas reinforcement is not provided when the behaviors do not occur during other times and places. In other words differential reinforcement highlights the context in which particular behaviors are considered desirable and will be reinforced and when behaviors will not be reinforced. The website used an example of a girl with Asperger’s Syndrome attending school. Every time the girl would walk away from the lab table in the classroom, the teacher would walk her back to the lab table to work with her group. Every time the girl would sit at the lab table and work with her group, the teacher would give her a coupon that she could turn in at the end of class for a magazine. The example relates to differential reinforcement because the teacher was using differential reinforcement by only reinforcing the girl’s behavior when she would sit down at the lab table and work actively with her group. The girl had to learn which behavior would be reinforced and in what context/ environment to emit the behavior in if she wanted to be reinforced. The next research example I found was a Youtube video. The video explained that there are two target behaviors when dealing with differential reinforcement. The first target behavior is one that wants to be reinforced. The second target behavior is the one that the individual is trying to get rid of (extinction).The video gives and example of parents trying to decrease food refusal and trying to get the child to eat more vegetables. The parents ignore the crying behavior and provide praise and a treat when the child eats the vegetables. The video also states that differential reinforcement is the most effect method when trying to reduce problem behaviors. The video then defines various types of differential reinforcement. The first type of differential reinforcement mentioned is differential reinforcement of alternate behaviors which reinforces an appropriate alternative behavior while using extinction to eliminate the inappropriate behavior. The example is used when regarding crying to get items which are ignored, and appropriate requests for the items are reinforced. The second type of differential reinforcement is differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors is that it reinforces an incompatible behavior and puts the target behavior on extinction. The video uses an example of a child who likes to smash his food before eating it. The teacher blocks the food from preventing the child to smash it and reinforces the child when he eats the food. The last resource I used was a website that helped explain when differential reinforcement is used. The website mentioned that differential reinforcement is used when the behavior already occurs but gets lost among other behaviors. The solution to the problem of the behavior getting lost among other behaviors is to single out the desirable behavior and reinforce it. The website provided an example of a employee working at sea world trying to train an animal to do new tricks using differential reinforcement. The trainer would only reinforce the animal for doing new tricks. The animal would attempt to perform old tricks and would receive no reinforcement, which led to the extinction of the old tricks. After doing further research I now understand that differential reinforcement requires reinforcing behaviors that you want to happen more frequently and ignoring the behaviors that you don’t want to reoccur, causing an extinction of the undesirable behavior. Differential reinforcement allows the individual emitting the behavior to eventually know what behaviors they must emit in order to be reinforced.
http://www.autismnetwork.org/modules/behavior/dr/lecture01.html#topic1
http://www.usu.edu/teachall/text/behavior/LRBIpdfs/Differential.pdf
http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch05_conditioning/differential_reinforcement.html
Differential reinforcement = Reinforcement of one behavior and not the other or the reinforcement of a behavior under one condition and not the other.
6 types of Differential reinforcement:
-DRO (Ignore the problem behavior and reinforce appropriiate behavior)
-DRH (Reinforce when desired behavior is at high levels)
-DRL (Reinforce when target beh. reaches a low level of responding)
EX: Target beh. = student disrupts in class, if student only interupts twice during hour, then reinforced
-DRA (Reinforce alternate beh. to the inappropriate beh.)
-DRI ( Reinforce an incompatible beh. with appropriate beh.)
Example:Student taps on desk due to boredom, given a small ball to manipulate, when he figets quietly he is reinforced.
-DRC (Ignore inappropriate beh. and reinforce communication behavior)
The topic I was interested in this section is the generalized reinforcers. I know money is a good example but I couldnt think of many more examples until I did some research. Some of the best examples I got were tokens or tickets at a place like Chuck E Cheese. When someone receives the tickets for winning the game, they are excited even though the tix are nothing until they turn them in for another reinforcer.
Negative reinforcement is another topic that interested me bc it is somewhat confusing sometimes. I found taking away something that is aversive, to increase a behavior like a child taking out the trash to eliminate his mothers nagging decreased the nagging. Some of the examples I found helped me understand it better. It is confusing bc the word negative is sometimes thought of as a bad thing, but if I can remember to think of it as taking something away and not a bad thing, I will understand it better.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/20051/positive_negative_reinforcement.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=K4M-5ATCHx0C&pg=PA165&lpg=PA165&dq=generalized+reinforcers+preschool&source=bl&ots=FOOjCEnmfJ&sig=u-M68ritouhkTnGn8fJZgWoZ1g4&hl=en&ei=7LJNTdPwDIWdlgeSysjVDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=generalized%20reinforcers%20preschool&f=false
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html
In section 2.2 the terms limited and broad value were a little confusing to me. I understood the examples given, however it was difficult to come up with my own. Primary and secondary reinforcers have a limited or a broad value. A brief review for any readers, primary reinforcers consist of biological necessities. These necessities include water, sex, food, shelter and the like. Secondary reinforcers conditioned responses. For example, when you open a can of food for a cat everytime eventually, the cat will associate the can opening noise (conditioned response) to the food (reinforcer). The limited value of a reinforcer may hold value temporarily, whereas a reinforcer with a broad value may be applied longer. In an attempt to explain these terms I am going to use farming. Farmers have obligations to keep their cows healthy and fed consistently. This also leads to their financial stability and consistency. The reinforcer to the cows is the consistent feeding, which has a broad value because it provides their primary reinforcers (shelter, food, clean water) and money which also has a broad value. Money will always be needed and doesn't "wear off". Other terms associated with behavior modification that can be incorporated in this example are extinction and satiation. If the farmer consistently fed the cows twice a day and suddenly cut it down to one time a day, this would be considered extinction. On the other hand, if the cows were consistently fed small portions twice a day and the farmer began to feed the cows large portions twice a day, the cows would become satiated.
A rather simply example of a reinforcer with limited value is chewing gum. The full flavor eventually wears off, as well as many psychoactive drugs. In order to obtain a "buzzed feeling" you must continue to administer the drug because it wears off relatively fast. Many people believe that genes can predict future diseases. Although they do have an impact on medical findings, genes have a limited value for predicting diseases. There are many other things that determine the possibility of disease.
The stock market can have a limited or broad value, depending on the trade stock. This relies on currency which is seen as a reinforcer with a broad value. However, if the stock you invest in plumets, the stock (reinforcer) has a limited value.
Terms: Limited value, broad value, reinforcer, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, extinction, satiated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/health/research/16gene.html
http://books.google.com/books hl=en&lr=&id=uypSRHYsvW4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR6&dq=broad+value+(psychology)&ots=U_6rwDf9 Y&sig=idCNr4jWZOiltbCuIHfscluRXlo#v=onepage&q=broad%20value%20(psychology)&f=false
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/livestock/html/b1-35.html
After reading the two sections, I decided to look more into Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I'm interested in this because it defines what the basic needs of a humans life are. This clearly fits with behavior because if we were not to engage in the behaviors that Maslow suggests, we wouldn't be able to function properly. Engaging in daily behaviors helps us greatly throughout our lives, and it all starts with baseline behaviors. The baseline to a behavior will set the behavior for however long the target behavior is being engaged in, thus making the baseline behavior extremely important.
There are six different levels to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the first being physiological needs. These needs are obviously important because without these, you wouldn't be able to survive. I like to think of this level in comparison to baseline behaviors because without the baseline behavior, the behavior wouldn't exist at all. The second level is safety needs. This relates to behavior because if you had a more risk taking personality, you would be more prone to not meeting these needs thus causing you to not reach the next level fully. The next level is belongingness and love needs. This obviously relates to behavior because in order to belong/be loved you need to act a certain way and accept other people into your daily life. Esteem needs are the fourth level. These relate to behavior in a more indirect way. They relate because they are seeking approval of others, so therefore you would act a certain way in given situations so that your behavior was acceptable for that circumstance thus causing you to be accepted. This is also like an operant behavior because you're setting the occasion for a certain situation to occur. The fifth level is aesthetic and cognitive needs. These are concepts such as: knowledge, understanding, goodness, justice, order, beauty, etc. These relate to behavior because in order for you to get to this level you must be aware of your surroundings so that you understand the actuality of them. And in order to be aware, you must engage in a certain behavior that would allow you to do so. The last level is self actualization. You are not able to reach this level unless you have maintained all the other ones. This level obtains the most use of behavior because without the appropriate behavior(s) you would not be able to reach the prior steps causing you to not be able to achieve this level.
These sites go into a little bit more detail of Maslow's needs, thanks for reading! :)
http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp
http://www.bakersfield.com/archive/x1818937611/Is-parenting-a-basic-human-need
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/06/maslow-revisited-the-hierarchy-of-chakras/
After reading sections 2.1 and 2.2 I really became interested in finding out more about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic Motivation refers to the value that the individual places on something and extrinsic motivation refers to the value others place on something. An example from the reading was the intrinsic value of a one hundred dollar bill is the value of the paper it is on. The extrinsic value of a one hundred dollar bill is overall amount of reinforcers (goods and services) that others are willing to trade for it. So after reading all of that, I was curious on how intrinsic and extrinsic values apply to us in real life.
I did some googling to see what would come up with extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and a lot of the articles had to do with motivation kids in school and adults in the workforce. Motivating kids is a vital attribute that every teacher needs to learn, but what works better intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? Well if you’re applying extrinsic motivation it puts pressure on activities out comes or rewards that come with them. An example would be completing a homework assignment to get an A in the class. The kids are just doing the assignment to get the A and not doing it because they like it. Another problem with extrinsic motivation with kids is you have to constantly reinforce them otherwise the motivation will subside and drop off. This is why extrinsic is more of a short time motivation for kids and intrinsic motivation is more long term.
Intrinsic motivation can be very rewarding students and teachers. When a child is using intrinsic motivation, they are using self motivation. They’re doing something because they like to do it and they like to learn more about this. An example of intrinsic motivation is the teachers letting the kids pick a book of their choice to read and write a book report on. Reading a book of one’s choice will be much more appealing to a child and they will be motivated to finish the book and tell the teacher what it’s about. Self-motivated kids achieve more, and perceive themselves to be more competent and less anxious as well.
The same points can be made for using intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations in the workplace. Using extrinsic motivations in the workplace can lead to diminishing returns, rewards have to keep getting better for performance to keep rising, and it hurts their intrinsic motivation by rewarding an employee for work, in which it removes their desire to do it on their own. By incorporating intrinsic motivation into their workforce bosses can see an increase in performance in their employee’s jobs. Working with others, having a choice on what you work on will all increase their happiness with the job and create a good work environment.
Obviously, bosses and teachers can’t always rely on intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation has to be used. So the key to have a balance of both when they are trying to motivate their employees and students. If you can incorporate intrinsic activities and assignments more than you can expect performance to increase with their employees and students. The main thing is to make sure that motivation doesn’t subside and drop to the point where there is no motivation to do anything.
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5744243_extrinsic-vs_-intrinsic-motivation-classroom.html
http://www.education.com/reference/article/punished-rewards/
http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/performance-management/articles/39417-what-motivates-employees-intrinsic-vs-extrinsic-rewards.htm
I would like to discuss the topics of positive and negative reinforcement; I am interested in positive reinforcement, because I think it is an effective way to change an undesirable behavior. Example: at work if my boss tells me I’ve done a good job or I received a decent tip, that’s positive reinforcement for me to do a well at my job again and keep up that work performance (example of verbal praise). Positive reinforcement is like adding something and negative is like taking something away. I also would like to talk about negative reinforcement, example: 1.a person is waiting in the rain for a bus, 2.the umbrella keeps the rain off, 3.the person opens the umbrella when it rains (www.slc.sevier.org). The person is removing an aversive stimulus. In section 2.2 it states that the only thing that positive and negative reinforcement have in common is the consequence, they both are set up to get a certain consequence.
TERMS: Positive reinforcement, undesirable behavior, negative reinforcement, aversive stimuli.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA96Fba-WHk
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement.html
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/reinforcement.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/aversive+stimulus
When reading I found Maslow’s hierarchy of needs very interesting along with the primary reinforcers. I am not for sure why but ever since middle school when we were taught about it, I found it to be very interesting. I find it cool that in order to be fully satisfied and be able to go to the level. You never are completely happy until all are filled. I feel that each one of the needs can be looked at as a punishment or reinforcement depending on how it is used against or for someone. Also what in very interesting is that every culture has its own way of achieving each and everyone one?
Some of the people who use the hierarchy of needs say that it’s like their bed rock. They use it for their client plans along with every day use for individuals. This shows that no matter what profession you are in you are able to use this pyramid. Also after every day and even something as simple as a plane ride can change someone’s needs. Some people have higher needs and different needs then others. Maslow said that we need to focus on our higher needs because if we do not if can truly effect one’s health. But in all situations you need to find happy times and ways to improve and get to your other needs.
The needs do vary though from person to person. But when Maslow made this it was meant for a fully function person. This is because a mentally challenged person may not be able to achieve some of the first things in the first level. It is believe that many humans do strive for upper level capabilities. The five basic levels are Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness, Needs for Esteem, and Needs for Self-Actualization. Sometimes people and even child are not able to reach level two because they struggle to feel secure.
I love this and truly do enjoy reaching my own level of needs!
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxdNzOVRAmA
http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/hierarchyneeds.htm
After reading the sections I decided to focus on Maslow’s Heirarchy of needs. Maslows hierarchy of needs has been taught in one form or another on how it relates to certain topic in many of my classes in my college career. The first blog I posted about positive reinforcement in the workplace also mentioned the importance of Maslows heirachy. One is not going to strive for self-actualization if their esteem has not been met first. This is related to the workplace in the sense that one is not going to strive to be the best employee they can be if there are not getting any recognition at all for their hard work. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs made me wonder about jobs that are inherently dangerous such as a police officer, firefighter or the most dangerous job in the America, a professional fisherman. I doubt working in these jobs fulfills the safety level of the hierarchy of needs. There must be some other factor working in conjuction with fact that these life-threatening jobs are to make money to provide resources that balances out the fact that a person working in any of these jobs could potentially/likely die. I guess I’m not reinforced by the thrill of saving someone/or being in compromising situation. Perhaps helping someone/catching fish is a strong reinforcer for these people to do what they do. Maybe this highly powerful reinforcer balances out the lack of safety, because I do not know how someone could strive to reach self-actualization when their job is life-threatening.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-15-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america-2010-3#
http://theskooloflife.com/wordpress/self-actualization-in-the-maslow-hierarchy/
For my topic I chose to talk about reinforcement. In teaching positive reinforcement we introduce
a desirable stimulus. For example in my videos I chose, they are all of children emmiting a behavior and then the adults elict a response. They are reinforced by getting laughs by the group, or people saying good jobs, or even just smiles. These consequences of their behavior increase the likelihood of them continuing the behavior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk42wSXXGq8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5fpsmH_2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJS-o3kWR_g&feature=related
elict emit reinforcement response consequence behavior
After watching these videos and reading more about reinforcement, I have learned much more about why this behavior should be used more than punishment. Sometimes you will get your desired outcome when using punishment, but more often than not, reinforcement is key. It helps to keep positive behaviors consistent and helps to steer away from aversive behaviors in an optimistic way.
What I found most interesting from section 2.1 is B.F. Skinners belief on the use of reinforcement when possible. He had that idea that behavior is only learned when reinforcement is being used. He also stated that punishment is not that answer because it only suppresses the behavior until it can be acted out in a place where it is less likely to be punished.
I found this very interesting and it became more interesting as I did more research online. Its important for us as humans to understand what will help us learn from our experiences. Being a future teacher as mentioned in probably every single post by now this will also apply to my future classroom. As mentioned by skinner there are 4 main reasons to modify a behavior.
1. They make us feel better about ourselves.
2. They make us more pleasant to be around
3. They keep us out of trouble
4. They are legal
These four examples are what drive people to modify their behaviors. When used to reinforcement people are more likely to learn them. For example, in the link provided at the bottom is skinners study on reinforcement using birds and food. The bird learned how to peck or spin as a result of getting food or #1 listed above. Another way that a behavior is learned or strengthened was mentioned in section 2.1. if your goal is to stop eating junk food, you may change that to eating healthy. The change is important because you switch from a negative if you ate the junk food to now a positive action when you continue to eat healthy. The thought behind this is that behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur, resulting in better eating habits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepqpTtKbwohttp://tip.psychology.org/skinner.htmlhttp://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/cogrev_skinner.htm
From sections 2.1 and 2.2, the topic I was most interested in was the role of the primary reinforcer. I decided to investigate this role by researching the role of a caregiver. Even though primary reinforcers are typically considered personal survival needs like sleep and food, I would like to argue that the role of caregiver can be classified as primary reinforcer. Without a caregiver, an infant can not survive. The caregiver provides the basic needs of food, shelter, and even arguable sleep. When an infant can not sleep, it needs to be soothed to relax, otherwise the child may scream for hours until it loses consciousness. Without a caregiver to feed the child, it will surely die. Biologically all a woman needs is her breast to feed the child, granted with development of human society with have formula and infant food. The infant can not move around on its own, without the guidance to develop an infant without a caregiver will be left to disease by laying in fecal matter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU06IvTuC9g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ayFXfY890E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C8rt9IkC18&feature=related
I decided to do this topical blog on negative reinforcement. I feel like the concept of a negative reinforcement can be confusing to people but by defining negative reinforcement it becomes much clearer. It is the removal of an aversive stimulus as the target behavior is emitted. The goal of negative reinforcement is to ultimately increase a behavior.
There are many examples that show a clear picture of negative reinforcement in action. The government uses water boarding inorder to extract information from terrorist, as the terrorist spills the information the water beomes less and less until all the info is received and the process is stopped. This can also be seen in recent insurance commercials with vanishing deductibles. As the customer goes month by month the amount of the deductible vanishes to eventually nothing, as long as the customer stays accident free. It is the removal of the aversive stimulus (paying the deductible) as long as you emit the target behavior (stay accident and claim free each month). Even something like an insincere response over time can become a negative reinforcement, if someone always responds to you saying "thats great" no matter if its good or bad news your going to stop talking to that person because they dont care. If a boss gives an employee a long list of things to do and stays on him like a hawk until they are done that becomes negative reinforcement and the person is more likely to give less effort than if you gave them the tasks and let them go about it their own way.
Negative reinforcements although at times controversial can be effective in getting the responses that you desire. If I had a kid and they were recieving bad grades in school because they were instead of studying watching television, I would remove the television until the child emitted studying behaviors and recieved better grades!
Terms: Negative Reinforcement, aversive stimulus, target behavior, emitted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_1OxEvbRK0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRvhoRVfAss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbTncCa6RvU