Topical Blog Week #7 (Due Thursday)

The thing I found most interesting thus far is the section 2.3 on punishment (though this is also using 2.2: reinforcement/ it is kind of working in both). From psychologytoday.com, I found an article about how reinforcement is more effective than punishment. It is advised to reward you child and ignore the bad behavior. This studied used computer tasks that showed that negative responses hinder their work, and positive responses improve their task. This is the opposite for adults, however.
From the YouTube video, by “Intelligent Telecommunications” it was explained that children must get a lot of rewarding responses to increase good behavior. It is said that, “the use of physical punishment may stop unwanted behaviors, but it may also result in resentment or fear of the parent, or negative feelings toward themselves”. Punishment may make someone stop unwanted behavior, but there is the risk of these negative feelings about the parent or themselves. That’s why there are different ways.
To get some more insight, I looked at Psychologytoday.com and found another article about what different Psychologists think about children’s punishment. Gina Green says that abundant reinforcement is a great way. Punishment works, but can produce aversive side effects. The three other Psychologist’s opinions are slightly different, but similar of this opinion. One psychologist goes into how you will not use punishment on your child if you want them to grow up to be “loving, respectful, and self-disciplined”. Lastly, it is said to “practice less violent ways of discipline that encourage the healthy development of our children.”
Even though we had talked about punishment before, this definitely went in depth. This is a topic I find very interesting because someday, when I have kids, I can use this information on how to raise them. It also fits into anything you do, whether is manipulating people, yourself or animals. All of these articles basically have the same view about how reinforcement can overpower punishment in the shaping of your child. I know when I was younger, my parents rarely punished me, and I would say I am a peaceful and respectful person.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/family-affair/200809/rewards-are-better-punishment-here-s-why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVbGSVhKGwA
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200109/should-you-punish-your-child

After emitting a reading behavior for all of the sections so far, section 2.3 which discusses punishment is by far my favorite. The first article that elicited a reading behavior from me is about corporal punishment throughout schools in the U.S. The article discusses many of the same ideas in section 2.3 just in a more specific context. In the article, one advocate for corporal punishment argued that by teachers and administrators emitting a hitting behavior towards the children, it would allow them to maintain order in their classroom so all of the children can focus on learning. Just as we learned in the chapter punishment immediately resolves a problem; and I guess technically the consequence of being paddled for emitting an undesirable behavior immediately solves whatever the problem was. However, many people argue that it is child abuse, or at least reinforces the belief in children from a very young age that you solve problems with violence. I think that corporal punishment models violent behavior. I also think that the major reason corporal punishment is still being used is because people are scared of change and feel more comfortable following traditions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/education/30paddle.html?_r=4&hp
-corporal punishment in schools to stop behavior immediately

I also emitted a reading behavior on capital punishment. In section 2.3 there is both a section on the death penalty and punishment in different cultures so I thought it would be interesting to combine the two topics and emit a searching behavior for capital punishment in different cultures. Throughout history and even today cultures have executed their citizens differently. For example, up until 1905 in China it was common practice for people to be executed by slow slicing, in Mexico people were executed by firing squads, and in the U.S. people were electrocuted, which is still a secondary form of execution in many states, before the introduction of lethal injection. Today I think it is interesting to learn that the U.S. is really one of the only industrialized countries that still practices capital punishment; it is in the same category as Middle Eastern and African nations, while European nations, countries in South America, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and even a few African nations do not use this as a form of punishment. The use of the death penalty as a form of punishment does not eliminate undesirable behavior altogether considering people still commit murder and other various crimes. As we discussed in class punishment may eliminate an immediate undesirable behavior, but many people aware of an aversive consequence will likely just emit certain behaviors so they are less likely to be caught.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment
-punishment in different cultures and its effectiveness

Finally, I emitted a reading behavior on the effectiveness of corporal punishment. In section 2.3 in is discussed that in order for punishment to be effective it must happen immediately following the undesirable behavior and it must be consistent. In this article by Sanderson Beck, he also states that punishment is not at all effective at helping children learn why the undesirable behavior they emitted was wrong and that the longer punishment is delayed the less effective it actually is. Beck also argues that inconsistent punishment could, in a way, confuse the child. If a child is uncertain whether or not a behavior they emitted will result in an aversive consequence how are they supposed to effectively learn what behavior they should emit and which ones they should not?

http://www.san.beck.org/Punishment-Alternatives.html
-immediate punishment and consistency of punishment

The topic I want to emit a behavior to learn more about is reinforcement. I feel like this is always around me and I want to learn more how it is affecting my behaviors.
The first thing I found interesting on emitting the behavior of researching further was a little article on positive reinforcement and autism. I am a nanny and work with kids a lot and fortunately enough they are all healthy, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to take care of kids with disabilities. I liked this article because it did say that positive reinforcement is good for kids and a person can use food as one. I did like how they defined reinforcement as “means of strengthening something to make it more durable and long lasting”. Positive reinforcement is giving rewards after doing a desired behavior. This helps me realize how I can get my kids that I nanny for to emit the target behavior more often.

http://www.newsforparents.org/expert_autism_reinforcement.html
-positive reinforcement and children

The second article I found was a cute little story about a boy falling down. This was an example of negative reinforcement. I enjoyed this article because it gave us a step by step process of what negative reinforcement can look like without actually telling us how it is happening. One of the best ways to learn, I believe, is learning from your mistakes. And this just shows how being negatively reinforced is basically just like learning from our mistakes. I like the way this article put it. The father lets his some know that he is not harmed and then lets the boy go on to learn from what he has done. Negative reinforcement is a powerful thing and we don’t even realize it is happening to us most times.

http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/we-all-learn-by-falling-down-or-negative-reinforcement-is-a-great-teacher-368305.html
-Negative Reinforcement and how parents can teach their kids from it

The third thing I would like to mention about reinforcement is that it is more than just rewarding or taking things away from a person. When thinking about reinforcement, I always thought about the saying “Send in the reinforcements.” Well, what does that mean?! I found a video on youtube that shows cops marching in and it’s called Reinforcements have Arrived, it’s simple but it gets at what I was thinking. Reinforcement is the means of strengthening a behavior or action. So when you are in the high actions of war of course you want to send in the reinforcements, because that will make you stronger! And if you send in the reinforcements to make you stronger and you win, then most likely you have reinforced yourself to send in the reinforcements more often when you are in the need of them.(Kind of wordy but I hope you get my point.) So in the video the cops are the reinforcement because they are going to make their side stronger during the fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdAQ0C_Mutc
-reinforcement in the world view

The topic I decided to do further research on is positive reinforcement. This topic is related to the ABC’s because it is described in Section 1 and Section 2. The first section mainly discusses why reinforcement and punishment are different because it is easy to get the two confused. Reinforcement is the procedure used in behavior modification to increase the frequency of a behavior. Punishment is a procedure used in behavior modification to decrease the frequency of a behavior. Section two of the ABC’s has a chapter specifically dedicated to reinforcement. This chapter focuses on the differences between positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the introduction of a desirable stimulus, contingent upon emitting the target behavior, with the goal of increasing the frequency of a response. With positive reinforcement you are introducing a desirable stimulus. Negative reinforcement is the removal of an aversive stimulus, contingent upon emitting a target behavior, with the goal of increasing the frequency of a response.

I am interested in the area of positive reinforcement specifically because I think it is a behavior that is often overlooked. When it comes to parenting you are more likely to see a child being punished than praised and I think positive reinforcement is much more productive. Although I am not a parent and could be totally wrong. In my opinion though, I believe praising children for their good behavior is much more productive than scolding them every time they misbehave. It is important for children to receive attention and a lot of it. Parents do not always need to praise their children; some actually fear this could lead to them being spoiled. However, paying attention the child’s good behavior will cause them to most likely repeat the good behavior. In this situation, it is important to specifically say what it is that they did right and why you are praising them for their behavior. When a child misbehaves and they are scolded, spanked, etc. it could lead to them repeating the naughty behavior because they are receiving attention.

When it comes to positive reinforcement in school, there are controversial views. There are people that believe the education system is failing and others that don’t agree. The article I read had a section discussing why positive reinforcement is ignored and misunderstood in schools. The article states “The perception of living in a society in which individuals are free to do as they wish--as long as they do so in a socially appropriate manner--without coercion”. This is something I have not thought too hard about, but after reading that I realized that’s a good point. As long as the students aren’t acting out, many of them can breeze through school. Even if they may not be at the same academic level as the rest of their class, many teachers will take it easy on students simply because they are pleasant. Even though I don’t like to admit this, I think I am an example of this. During high school I did not put forth much effort at all. I did illegal things, hung out with the wrong crowd, but I never got caught and was good at being charming and a people pleaser. Perhaps if I were to misbehave in class, things would not have been so easy for me. There were many people in my class that misbehaved and you could feel the hatred between the teacher and student. Those students did not have an easy time with their grades and getting accepted into college. Many did not even go into college, but they went into the army. Maybe to instill more punishment due to their experience in high school? The topic of positive reinforcement may not be too clear cut when it comes to evaluating how the children developed based on their younger years, but it is interesting to ponder.

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/providerparent/PDF%20Links/PositiveReinfRewards.pdf
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Exceptional-Children/69697627.html
http://kidsgoals.com/positive-reinforcement.shtml

After emitting the behavior of thinking of a topic that interested me, the consequence was me deciding that I would do some extra research on positive reinforcement. The reason I am interested in this topic is because I think it is vital to behavior modification and can be applied to any behavior that is emitted in hopes of increasing that behavior. I think research on this topic is important because it can help parents, teachers and even babysitters understand and manipulate behavior in a good way.

I found an article on PsychNet that included information and research on positive reinforcement in relation to group contingencies. In summary, this research focused on figuring out what aspects on reinforcement, self-monitoring and feedback would promote the class working as a group toward a common goal. This articles discussion section then explained that after the teacher emitted a reinforcement procedure she “saw an immediate and drastic improvement in the behavior of her class”. This article proves that reinforcement is a necessity when it comes to improving behavior.

I also found a video clip on YouTube. After emitting the behavior of watching this clip, I realized this elicited an example of reinforcement. The clip is from The Simpsons. Homer is walking outside eating a candy bar. He then notices a Gym and decided to go in. When another person at the gym realizes he is using the equipment wrong he then gives him positive reinforcement such as saying “push, harder, go faster”. These sayings elicit a response in Homer that causes him to work harder and therefore the consequence is that he is much more fit, has larger muscles and also has a better view of working out.

Finally, the last resource I used was an article on positive reinforcement in the workplace. I emitted the behavior of reading the article which then helped me to elicit the behavior of explaining what I read. The article made a few important points. The first point I thought was important was that the author explained that “The impact that a few words or a special incentive has may be more beneficial then a company would have ever realized”. I think often times companies get caught up in the aspect of money, which I know is very important, but if they took the time to reward and reinforce favorable behaviors, they would have to spend less time on finding new employees and could invest more time elsewhere in the company. Another point that this article brought up is that reinforcement can be as easy as saying “thank you”. Even when you emit the behavior of showing gratitude it can make a big difference and hopefully lead to favorable consequences.

http://psycnet.apa.org.proxy.lib.uni.edu/journals/spq/22/4/540.pdf
-Research article that provided information on reinforcement and how it is effective in the classroom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4i8SpNgzA4&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL744DC1B6F44C02D4
-Video clip from the show “The Simpsons” that shows a good example of how simple encouragement and praise can lead to better consequences and outcomes.

http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/postrein.html
-An article that gave in-depth information of how easy and important positive reinforcement is in the workplace.

I have really enjoyed emitting a reading behavior in all the chapters and sections, but I believe that the use of positive reinforcement from section 2.2 is my favorite topic introduced in this class so far. I have always been interested in reinforcement over punishment in almost all categories of life. I believe that I am mostly interested in positive reinforcement, because I use it in my everyday life, and my parents used it on me to manipulate many of my behaviors. Positive reinforcement increases the strength of a response following the change in environment immediately following that response (Wiki definition). The topic of positive reinforcement plays a role in Chapter 3 from the two researchers Thorndike and Pavlov using reinforcement to increase a desirable behavior in their experiments mentioned. I found 3 different sources to illustrate examples of positive reinforcement.

http://www.nospank.net/sidman.htm
In this article by Murry Sidman, he explains that by using positive reinforcement it will allow parents to maintain positive contingencies and at the same time generate trust and security. Sidman states that relationships strive on positive reinforcement. Not only does he talk about parenting skills, he also stresses on all forms of relationships in everyday encounters. This article contributes to my interest in positive reinforcement because using reinforcement in relationships is what makes connections work with people, not only in manipulating someone, but increasing desiring behaviors.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/05/loc_cookies_sweet_deal.html
This is a news article that was published in The Associated Press, by Charley Gillespien. I found that this article was very interesting and relates to positive reinforcement by using alternative programs for the mentally ill offenders to avoid jail time. The article stresses that many of the programs use positive reinforcement by giving gift cards or game tickets to clients in return of taking their medication. The use of positive reinforcement has been beneficial in limiting space in jails and mental jail hospitals. I really enjoyed reading this article because it provided a very good example of positive reinforcement in a very controversial topic in today’s society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdNWJ54bQX8
I loved this YouTube video on dolphin training. The positive reinforcement skill used to train these dolphins for entertainment purposes was very interesting. Dolphin trainers used the reinforcement of food, whistles, and spray bottles, to increase the different “tricks.” Positive reinforcement can be a great way to not just help in humans but also in all animal training techniques.

I really enjoyed the topic of extinction and extinction bursts in section 2.4 so far in this class and decided to emit a researching behavior on this topic. Extinction is when a behavior is normally reinforced and all of the sudden is no longer reinforced. An extinction burst, however, is the response to this absence of reinforcement. This is when a person or animal will emit all sorts of behaviors to try and obtain that reinforcement. I enjoyed this topic because I can see how it relates to parenting, training, dieting, and any other habits or behaviors using reinforcement. I can see how this applies to my life as well which made it even more interesting to me.

In the first article I found that was written by David McRaney, he talks about extinction bursts in an example of dieting. He stated that once a person starts a diet it goes well at first, even though you’re not getting the amount of food (a reinforcement) that you usually do. However, once the thought or hunger kicks in (from the lack of the reinforcement) an extinction burst occurs. You may eat everything in the house because your body is not used to not having food. Therefore, you eat tons of different foods to try and find that reinforcement that you had been lacking so long. I think this is an excellent example of an extinction burst because we all go through it at some point. Food is naturally very rewarding to a person evolutionally, so people keep going back to food for that reward. Therefore, after this burst, the person is reinforced by the food near the end of the burst. I’d like to take this a step further and discuss how extinction bursts can actually affect a person’s lifestyle. If this person keeps trying to diet and still has these extinction bursts, it could easily affect that person’s health. When they diet and then splurge with food, the body’s nutrients and weight would fluctuate too much, thus causing a hazard to their health. So even though sometimes extinction bursts can be beneficial in the end result, sometimes they can be very negative as well.

I also read an article by Daniel T. Moore, Ph.D., which was about behavioral interventions for ADHD. In this article, there was an example about a boy with ADHD who would not sit at the table and eat his supper. After this went on for a while, his mom finally intervened and gave him a time out in the bathroom every time he emitted these behaviors. His mom would always give him something to eat even after she had cleaned up the kitchen to reinforce “Billy.” After a while, however, she stopped reinforcing him and used a time out to stop the behavior. She then thought her time out system was not working, because of the extinction burst. Billy’s wild behaviors at the supper table increased because he was going through this burst. He would start playing at the table or try to leave without listening to his mom. With this example, I saw that extinction bursts can be emitted in all sorts of situations. Dieting is a much different type of example than this one, so there are many aspects of life that can be affected by extinction bursts in many different ways. Extinction bursts don’t just occur with dieting and everyday behaviors, but they can also help in modifying behaviors of people with serious behavioral disorders. I found this to be very interesting because behavior modification can actually change a disorder in a person, or at least help to calm this disorder, by using a technique such as extinction.

My last piece of information that I looked at was an article from Canine University. The example used in this article was that dogs jump up on counters in people’s houses quite often. In order to get this to stop, a person could use extinction, and take away everything that was on the counter. Since the dog may have been reinforced by reaching something that was on the counter at one point, it is extinction because what was on the counter has been removed. The dog may then experience an extinction burst. He may jump even more or try barking or other behaviors to try and receive that reinforcement that he once received. Once he realizes that those reinforcements are no longer present, only then will the extinction bursts subside. As I discussed in the above examples, this article points out that this can happen with humans too. While the above examples were with dieting and ADHD, this article goes even further to state that with humans or animals, the worst thing you could do is give in to a tantrum, or extinction burst. This will cause the extinction bursts or tantrums to increase dramatically and can affect certain aspects of life. This can even occur with adults. If a person is used to getting his/her way, when it doesn’t happen, that person will immediately start a tantrum even as an adult. I believe that this can affect friendships, jobs, and other important parts of a normal life.

In conclusion, I believe extinction bursts can be seen all over in life. They can affect how a person is raised, everyday interactions, and the outcome of behavior modification. That is why I thought extinction and extinction bursts were such interesting topics.

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/07/07/extinction-burst/
(Examples of dieting and eating)
http://www.yourfamilyclinic.com/shareware/addbehavior.html
(ADHD example)
http://www.canineuniversity.com/articles/training/train_31.html
(Dog Example)

I have enjoyed an emitted learning behavior on punishment and cultural differences of punishment around the world in section 2.3. I find this very interesting because punishment is different in other countries and in the U.S. a murder could mean spending life in jail or the death penalty. The death penalty here consists of lethal injections and I'm quite interested to find out what other countries do for the death penalty. Depending on the severity of the crime, punishment varies. Most punishment is meant to decrease a behavior but in some cases I found on the internet, some result in a quick death. My three articles relate to punishment and cultural differences on how punishment varies in other countries.

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/the-follies-of-faith-woman-to-be-whipped-for-driving/
In Saudi Arabia, one woman is sent to have 10 lashes (by a whip) which is known to be a harsh punishment for women who drive cars. Since women are forbidden to drive cars, many Saudi women are protesting by videotaping themselves and most are getting arrested and having their jobs taken away. The lashing is a type of punishment we don't use but Saudi Arabia does.

http://asiadeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2007/12/north-korea-shot-for-making-phone-calls.html
In this article, public executions, and even torture can be a punishment for people in North Korea. North Korea is a communist country and those who even caught making illegal calls will be shot on the spot. This seems a little harsh but those who are misbehaving or commit a crime will be punished by a firing squad.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/capital_punishment/index.html
This article is over capital punishment and how there have been 46 executions in 2010 which has lead to a decrease from 2009 executions in the United States. It also mentions the drugs used for lethal injections and how scarce the drug is. The drug is called Sodium thiopental and manufacturers in Europe do not want to supply the drug anymore because it is being used for execution. I find this very interesting because soon the States will have to find ways (or other drugs) to start executing victims. This could change the meaning of capital punishment.

After emitting a reading behavior of the book up to this point, I found that the subject of punishment elicited the most interested response. Wikipedia defined punishment as “the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person or animal in response to behavior deemed wrong by an individual or group.” Behaviorists more commonly define it as was to stop a behavior. If after eliciting a punishment in response to a behavior deemed aversive, yet the behavior keeps on occurring, it is not truly punishment being elicited. This is a part of what is now known as operant conditioning developed by B.F. Skinner and includes either removing something pleasant from the person being punished (negative punishment) or giving the person punished something aversive (positive punishment).

While I have learned that reinforcement is always the better option when trying to alter a target behavior, there are some reasons in which punishment may be necessary. Rehabilitation may be a way of punishing an individual. It is a way of teaching an individual about their wrongdoing and may inform the individual in which behavior is the better one to emit. Incapacitation is another form of punishment, since most offenders typically emit the behavior in which they were incapacitated for once again, according to behaviorism it rarely is an effective form of punishment. Deterrence is another reason to punish an individual. If a person is considering emitting a behavior which is wrong, seeing another person being punished for that behavior may convince them to refrain. Retribution is another reason a person may elicit a punishment. For example, if one man steals another man’s car, to punish him, he may blow up the other guy’s house.

After emitting a reading behavior I got more interested in the topic of revenge as a form of punishment. Psychology Today stated that revenge is typically used as catharsis but actually does the opposite, a study found that, “those who seek to punish continue to think about the perpetrator, keeping the pain and the anger very much alive in their minds, while those who "move on" or "get over it" think less about the perpetrator.” So rather than moving on, the person simply continues to dwell on it, probably punishing themselves more rather than finding a way to overcome it. The study also found that before emitting the punishing behavior, the person expected to feel better about the situation, but after emitting the punishment, the consequence was actually feeling worse about the situation.

Capital punishment, the death sentence, is also an interesting form of revenge. Technically, as a form of punishment, the person who emitted typically the murdering behavior, will not emit such a behavior again as they are dead and not capable. But if the person is no longer here, can it technically be considered punishment? This is an argument that has been going on for a very long time and there are good arguments both for and against it. Individuals for the use of the death penalty as a form of punishment say that, “it deters crime, is a good tool for police and prosecutors (in plea bargaining for example), improves the community by making sure that convicted criminals do not offend again, provides closure and 'legalized revenge' to surviving victims or loved ones, and is a just penalty for their crime.” And individuals against it claim, “not all people affected by murder desire a death penalty, that execution discriminates against minorities and the poor, that it does not deter criminals more than life imprisonment, that it encourages a "culture of violence", that it is more expensive than life imprisonment, and that it violates human rights. Technically the behavior will not be emitted again so I feel as though it is a punishment, whether it is right or not is not for me to say, but I believe capital punishment is an effective punishment, using the behaviorist definition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punishment
I used this site to describe how a non-behaviorist may define punishment and why punishment is typically used.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200911/why-getting-revenge-isnt-worth-it
I used this site to learn more about revenge as a reason for punishment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment
I used this site to learn more about capital punishment.

The material that has elicited the most amount of interest and the most amount of confusion in me has been negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is one of the four main ways we were elicited of how to modify something’s behavior and it directly fits in with the 2.2 section on reinforcements.
I had emitted a reading behavior of the reinforcement section 2.2 a while back but my first article was short and to the point which re-clarified it for me. It stated that negative reinforcement is reinforcement through removing or avoiding a consequence that is found to be aversive. The website also emitted a somewhat sad but good example of negative reinforcement. If you put a rat in a cage and continually shock it until it presses a bar and then do it again until they press the bar again. This reinforces the rats bar pressing behavior by removing something that is aversive.
My first article mentions the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment. But after I emitted a reading behavior of a Psychologytoday.com article it makes much more sense. Basically the difference is that negative reinforcement is the removal of an aversive consequence due to the target behavior being emitted. Punishment on the other hand is an aversive consequence happening because of a behavior that is trying to be removed from the subject. My last article that ties into negative reinforcement is a funny YouTube clip of family guy and some of the things that they do are positive and negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is something that is hard to say and simply understand but it pretty easy to pick up if you just emit a watching behavior of some examples. It was good to read more on the topic of negative reinforcement and re-clarify it to me since it is such an interesting and confusing subject.
website-
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/nru/nr.html
newspaper-
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201001/common-misconceptions-about-science-vi-negative-reinforcem
video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_9ZZaPDtPk

The most interesting thing that I have learned so far in thesse chapters would be chapter section 3.2 on Ivan Pavlov's basic principles. This fits into the topic because we just learned about it this week. The reason I'm interested in it is because I liked reading about the experiments he did in order to further help us understand the stimulus response relationship and the response stimulus relationship. This is an example of seeing the time, and then getting hungry- stimulus response relationship. And then putting money into a vending machine and getting food out- response stimulus relationship.

The experiment that Pavlov did was with dogs in order to discover classical conditioning. Whats's interesting with Pavlov was he wasn't actually a psychologist, he was a physiologist. His work studying dogs digestive systems led to him learning that the canines would start to salivate before they would even have received the food, sometimes even just hearing the footsteps of the person giving the food would cause salivation. This led to a discovery that introducing an outside stimuli would lead to a response by the dogs. He later changed the stimuli from bells, to shapes and then changed the shapes until the dogs were too confused to know if they were supposed to respond or not.
Both of these links helped with background info on Pavlov's experiments:
http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm
This is a video showing me how Ivan Pavlovs classical conditioning techniques worked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho

So far I believe that my favorite subject in the book we are reading for class is superstitious behavior. I just think it’s funny (although I will admit I do it myself) that people think that things like wearing lucky charms or not washing a certain pair of socks will cause the person to have better luck in life. Because of this, I decided to search the internet for reasons why people do this.
Donald Saucier, an associate professor of psychology at K-State, said in an article on sciencedaily.com that "People sometimes fall back on their superstitions as a handicap. It’s a parachute they think will help them out.” In an experiment done by Scott Fluke, a K-State bachelor’s graduate in psychology, Fluke came to the conclusion that people who believe in things like fate and luck are going to be superstitious, but when it comes to things like death they feel helpless. The whole reason Fluke did his experiment (which can be read about in the article) is because he didn’t understand why people did things that don’t make any sense and it frustrated him. Because this experiment appeared to be done because he didn’t like superstitious behavior, I wanted to find something that felt a little more like there was a good reason for them.
On scientificamerica.com, Karen Hopkin suggests that superstitious behaviors come from evolution. The example she used involved an animal hearing a rustling of leaves or bushes. An animal can first think that a predator is nearby and bolt. The same animal can hear another commotion in the trees and the animal can be left with two possible outcomes. It’s either a predator or a breeze. Because the animal would rather be safe than sorry, the animal quickly dashes away from any rustling it hears. This makes sense to me. Why assume that a tree moving is because of a breeze when it very well could be the last thing it hears? So then I started to really support superstitious behavior and sought for more information on why they are a good thing.
On lifeslittlemysteries.com, it is suggested that people who perform superstitious behaviors actually have better outcomes in what they do them for. A study was done where people took a test of putting a golf ball. Those who were told the ball they had was actually lucky performed better than those who didn’t. So superstitious behaviors can almost be like taking a pill that claims can boost your confidence when in reality it is just a placebo. In order for superstitious behaviors to work, you must believe in them.
So through all this research, I have decided that I am a fan of superstitious behaviors. Though they may not actually have some sort of magic to them causing us to do better, they can help us do better in life because we believe they will. That’s always something good to have on our side.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100902131736.htm
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=superstitious-behavior-makes-evolut-08-09-18
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/superstitions-work-study-reveals-0928/

The topic I wanted to look more into that we have touched on in class it extinction. I think it is easy for people to extinguish a behavior in others but I wanted to look into how someone can extinguish a behavior they dislike for themselves and whether it is possible.
Many of the articles I read were way to extinguish an emitted behavior from another individual. I don’t know if someone can extinguish a behavior with their own will power. I think of people who smoke or drink and want to quit, or someone who wants to lose weight and diet more. They extinguish the emitted behavior of drinking, smoking or eating unhealthy things by their own will power, but I think they have another driving force, forcing them to quit. This is the only type of example I can think of when one’s self can extinguish or have an extinction burst of a behavior for one’s self.
One thing I found when looking at extinction was some ways people lose a once emitted behavior was through extreme experiences. Pavlov discovered that when a dog was faced with a near-death experience, it forgot all their previous conditioning. This is called reversing breakdown. Another was extinction can occur is through flooding. Flooding is used in therapy. A stimulus is repeatedly applied and more extreme responses encouraged until there is reversal in the emitted behavior do to the stimulus. The previous stimulus has no effect on a person anymore. When I read this I thought of people with over compulsive disorder. The third way extinction can be applied through one’s self is by aversion therapy. This is when a desirable stimulus is now a punishment. One idea I think of is the tequila example in chapter 3.2. It was something that was a stimulus and once the person got sick from it, it no longer was appealing. Therefore, tequila was extinguished from their choices of beverages when emitting the behavior of social events or drinking. One article said that you can deliberately use desensitation or flooding as methods of self extinction of a behavior the only thing is you have to be extremely careful with flooding because if it is done wrong it worsen a stimuli in a particular situation.
Many of the articles I read were way to extinguish an emitted behavior from another individual. I don’t know if someone can extinguish a behavior with their own will power. I think of people who smoke or drink and want to quit, or someone who wants to lose weight and diet more. They extinguish the emitted behavior of drinking, smoking or eating unhealthy things by their own will power, but I think they have another driving force, forcing them to quit. This is the only type of example I can think of when one’s self can extinguish or have an extinction burst of a behavior for one’s self.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Pjjknd1HREIC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=behavioral+extinction+in+oneself&ots=iOpkvrI8nI&sig=6yrX9pBnYfvFCzLlU1MohTB8HTQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/conditioning/extinction.htm
http://changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/conversion_is.htm

So far the concept that I am really interested in this class is: extinction. We live in a society that are controlled by rules and there are behaviors that are not accept, I don`t see this an issue, I see this control a way to keep us organized, safe, and make us productive. So my idea is how can we extinct undesirable behaviors? The jail is a good way to punish and extinct this behaviors?
In my opinion the jail should be a place to recover, and for people be able to come back to society and try to fit in (Punishment/extinction). However many times the conditions are not the best and the prisoners don`t do anything productive; so to try to solve this problems a few years ago born the project “Yeses” in Spain, it`s a women theater group in the jail; it `s a good way to keep them distracted and a way to integrate this women again in the society. They are in the jail, they aren`t free, but I think it s a good therapy and a way to reinforce this women in a “good direction”, and extinct the bad behavior. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A514Sn4Ijs//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLswzjnBkYY
It is a good idea too that jail could be a place for knowledge and to work, and about these there are several experiments trying to figure out how is the best way extinct the undesirable behavior and focus these persons to emit desirable behaviors.
http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=233057
http://jornadasuniversidadyencierro.blogspot.com/

Thus far into the sections, the thing I have found the most interesting is the topic of positive reinforcement. I feel like I like this the most because it was something that I knew coming into the class and I really enjoy finding different examples of how you can used positive reinforcement in life. This obviously fits into the class and what we are learning because it was one of the first things we learned about and it is one of the most important to understanding this class and what it is about.

The first example I found is from youtube. It is a clip about a school system that had decided to take the idea of positive reinforcement and implement it into their everyday school life. They have decided to start rewarding the students when they emit good behavior by starting the "STAR" program. STAR stands for "Safety first", "Treating other with respect", "Accountable for actions", "Responsible behavior", and "Show respect". If the students are proven to be showing emitting these behaviors, they are rewarded with things such as positive marks in their planners, positive calls to their parents, or a prize from the prize jar. The hope from these rewards is to obviously get the children to continue the actions of the STAR program.
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNW05PRpPUY
This site contributed to my chosen topic because it was a great example of positive reinforcement itself by using it in the school system to reinforce good behavior.

The second example I found is from a website that gives a lot of different ways to help understand positive reinforcement if you are struggling to understand what it is or how to use it. The website has different parts such as an introduction, definition section, example/nonexpamle section, practice exercises, and frequently asked questions. I feel like this would be a really good website to check out if the different parts of reinforcement is something that is confusing to you. It allows you to take steps to help you along the way to understanding.
URL: http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/prtut/
This site contributed to positive reinforcement because it could be considered a good resource for learning what it is and how to use it.

The third example I found is another youtube video. The video is of a man with a bird that used to continuously bite his hands when he would get near it. He must have decided that using positive reinforcement would be the best way to fix it so he started using treats as the reinforcement to get the bird to stop biting him and to do what he wanted. He would ask the bird to get on his hand, and when the bird would act correctly he would feed him and tell him "good bird". He also would ask the bird to step down off of his had and then back up on his hand and would reward him with the treat and "good bird" each time. The reinforcement in this video seemed to work very well because the bird was very controlled and didn't seem to have any urges to bite the man.
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iuHkcww76Q&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLB70B4C5BBACD3598
This website is a contribution because I feel it is another great example of positive reinforcement because the outcome seemed very desirable for the owner of the bird.

I wanted to delve deeper into aversion. So I researched aversion therapy. I was interested in this because it is highly controversial and many ethical issues surround this therapy method. In the chapter on punishment, aversive techniques and aversion are briefly mentioned. Aversion therapy basically pairs the undesired target behavior (ex. drinking alcohol) with something unpleasant. So when the alcohol is consumed the individual will associate that with something extremely aversive. Hypnosis can be used with aversion therapy. While under hypnosis the client imagines themselves emitting the target behavior that they desire to extinguish. Then they are presented with an aversive thought or image by the therapist. Pairing aversion therapy with hypnosis aims to ingrain these aversions within the subconscious.

The difference between punishment and aversion therapy is that with punishment procedures the aversive stimuli is present after the behavior has been emitted. In aversion therapy the aversive stimuli is presented in tandem with the target behavior.

I do not necessarily support the use of aversion therapy even for chemical dependency. While aversion therapy might extinguish the target behavior quickly and cost-effectively, it can also create new psychological problems as a result of the aversions. Not to mention the immense amount of ethical issues that surround aversion therapy, especially in the case of “converting” homosexuals. Aversion therapy actually originated with the intention of converting homosexuals to heterosexuality. The method used to convert homosexuals was to present them with a shock while the gay men viewed gay pornography. Then, they were shown heterosexual pornography and not receiving shocks. The assumed success population of the treatment turned out to be bisexual. The men who were truly gay showed little success as a result of the treatment. The APA has declared aversion therapy dangerous,ineffective, and in violation of codes of practice. A few men have even died shortly after the aversion therapy began. Use of aversion therapy to “cure” homosexuality has actually been outlawed in some countries. In my opinion, it should be outlawed in the U.S. Better than that, it should be outlawed worldwide.

Aversion therapy these days is used to treat alcohol and drug addiction. It works to eliminate the pleasant associations in the brain when the client sees, smells, or tastes the substance. One way therapists use aversion therapy is through the administration of certain drugs that basically piss your body off when the client consumes alcohol.

In the case of a patient wanting to use aversion therapy to extinguish the behavior of gambling, the therapist asks them to keep a behavioral diary in order to assess the severity and frequency of the target behavior. The therapist, with the client’s consent, decides to use shocks as the aversion. The client is asked to pick a level of shock that is uncomfortable but not extremely painful. The client also chooses the images, sounds, etc. associated with gambling. The client is shown these images, sounds, etc. and simultaneously administered the electrical shock on their wrist. The procedure is done over and over. This occurs for about a week with an hour-long session each day, then they gradually decrease. After the first couple of weeks the client can take home a portable shocking device and self-administer the shocks at home. After the decrease in the target behavior the aversion therapy is still continued once a month for an additional six months.

http://www.aversiontherapy.org/

http://www.integratedsociopsychology.net/aversion_therapy.html

http://www.minddisorders.com/A-Br/Aversion-therapy.html

I elicited the behavior of remembering positive punishement from section 2.2. This stands out to me because I remember at first it was difficult to decifer between positive punishment and positive reinforcement, although you think the two would be easy to distinguish. I am interested in learning more about this and being able to have a better understanding.

The first source I found was a video from youtube. It's a video about a mom who is punishing her adopted son for lying. She punishes him by giving him hot sauce and a cold shower, everytime he is caught lying to her. Although I believe this is also a form of child abuse, it does fall into the positive punishment category because the mom is adding this punishement to get the boy to not lie in the future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJhYRiwV-7c&feature=related
For future experiences, the boy can remember the former punishments and decide between lying and telling the truth.

The second source I found was another video from youtube. It was about a man who was dancing in the middle of the street and ends up getting hit by an ice cream truck. Although it looked rather fake, seeing as the camera man did not run to his friend after he got "hit", it still shows positive punishment because the guy is getting punished for dancing in the middle of a busy street.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r58_bRZLeLw
Guy is punished for dancing in the middle of a busy street, which is not a normal activity.

The third source I found was yet another youtube video. This time, a woman is dancing and singing for the camera. She decides to put on some heels and dance on top of her coffee table. The woman loses her balance, falls off the table, and ends up being in excruciating pain, but gives the audience a good laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Q5DcIoP0c
This is an example of positive punishment because she experienced pain from falling off of the coffee table so she is less likely to dance on top of it again.

The topic I have found most interesting is superstitious behaviors. These are behaviors that that organisms emit simply because they associate the behaviors with reinforcement, even though the behavior does not lead to reinforcement themselves. I find this very interesting because there seems to be no rational reasoning to why people do some things and why they associate them with reinforcemt.
While emitting the behavior of searching for more information on supersitious behaviors I found that people develop supersitious for three different reasons; To gain control over uncertainty, decrease the feeling of helplessness and because it is easier to rely on supersitions than to rely on coping strategies. Mostly some people make these things up so that they can believe that they can keep bad things or cause good things to happen to them, instead of letting it all up to fate. I found another article that shows that this may be a positive placebo effect in some cases, for instance when when your preformance is a key factor in the outcome then superstitions may give you an extra boost or more confidence. Skinner did research on supersitious behaviors, using pigeons in a box and were given food every five mins regardless of what the animal did. This led to some developing superstious behaviors by associating whatever they were doing with getting food and continued to emit the same behaviors. This study shows why superstitious may develop, by accident and that perhaps if people understood what was truly causing the consequences they would realize how unrational their supersitions are. Overall superstitious behaviors are unrational and do not typically truly lead to reinforcement, however they do cause people to feel more in control and creates a positive or "lucky" feeling, which in its own way may be a form of reinforcement.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html --This explained why people devleoped supersitions.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46749&page=2 --This showed that it may be a positive placebo effect.

http://www.essortment.com/superstitious-behavior-cause-cure-36002.html --This talked about Skinners research.

I chose to cover one of our most recent topics, classical conditioning. Mainly focusing on Pavlov’s influence and concepts in todays society. In theory you can apply classical conditioning to any target behavior in order to get the subject to elicit the behavior. The method can be manipulated to for practically anyones gain. I think it fits well into the chapter because it is something we recently covered and it is also a major topic we looked into. I thought from the moment I read the section on Pavlov that he was fasinating as well as his ideas, which lead me to want to look more into it. I feel that classical conditioning can be applied to almost anything or anyone for benefit. This basic idea seems so out there and mind blowing to me – yet so clear and simple at the same time. I just couldn’t help but to look more into it.

In the video clip I found, two men are at a bar called Pavlovs. The bar has a special every night of the week, everytime you here the bell you must bark and take a shot of tequila. The target behavior in this case is to get customers to drink more. The bar has manipulated classical conditioning to help them make more money. I found this use of classical conditioning quite entertaining. The idea to train custiomers to drink at the sound of a bell seems like pure business genius. However the example of getting customers to drink more seems ingenius, classical conditioning is not always used to gain profitable outcomes. In the econd source I found, an article on violence, told a much different story of classical conditioning. The articles concern was with violence and the way it is portrayed in American culture, it said “Kids watch vivid images of human death and suffering and they learn to associate it with: laughter, cheers, popcorn, soda, and their girlfriend's perfume (Grossman & DeGaetano, 1999).” Truly enough this seems reasonable, movies often combine violence and humor. It is also duely noted that most people don’t find going to the movies or watching television to be an adversive behavior, its quite the opposite. Finally the third site used classical conditioning to explaing how to train animals, not that far off from what Pavlov himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEDxRCa_wfc&feature=related
http://www.killology.com/art_teach_classical.htm
http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/#Classical

The topics I have enjoyed learning most about so far have been the concepts of reinforcement and punishment. They were covered in the earlier chapters but I am interested in them because I see them now in everything I do. I learn best by seeing real life examples of concepts so I will use youtube videos to illustrate The concepts. I also find I remember things that I find to be funny longer so I will try to use funny clips.
The first clip is an example of positive punishment. The little boy was walking without looking at where he was going. He was subsequently kicked by the dancer in the video. In this case the addition of pain following the behavior of wandering should decrease the frequency in the future that the little boy wanders around without looking. Specifically in the context of a dance competition, the little boy will be less likely to elicit a wandering behavior to avoid the consequence of pain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDSgBFP4Jus
-positive punishment

This clip is an example of positive reinforcement on behalf of the pranksters (not so much on the person being pranked. In this clip a man is woken by a loud noise. Though this is very distressing for the man being woken up, his reaction is highly reinforcing to the pranksters waking him up. The laughder indicated that the mans reaction is pleasurable and therefore reinforcing to the others. This means that the frequency of the the people pulling pranks increases. Behaviorally speaking, in the context of a prank, the addition of the mans reaction was pleasurable and therefore reinforcing to the pranksters, increasing the frequency of pranks in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVMqqcc3yhM&feature=related

Finally my third clip is an example of negative reinforcement. It is a clip of a dog wearing a shock collar and receiving a shock while barking. While it could be argued to be positive punishment because of the addition of pain, I would argue that it is negative reinforcement because the aversive stimulus of pain is removed when the dog stops barking. The removal of the aversive stimulus after the target behavior has ceased is negative reinforcement. Behaviorally speaking, in the context of a dog barking, a shock is administered and is removed when the target behavior ceases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU_IrIqVowY&feature=related

There have been many sections of the text that have elicited interest in me while emitting a reading behavior on the material so far this term, but the concept of superstitious behaviors is what I’d like to focus on this week. I find this concept interesting because the behaviors being emitted do not directly lead to reinforcement; they are just simply related to the reinforcer or behavior in some way. This obviously fits into the chapter as we just emitted a reading behavior on it and ties into Skinner’s operant chambers and hopefully material yet to come.
My interest lies in what plays a factor in establishing operation with that certain superstitious behavior. Is the operation established due to the fact that they received some type of reinforcement themselves or has the superstitious behavior something that has been established long ago and is now a behavior that many just follow. For example, why do people pick up pennies that are heads up and not tails up? This is a behavior that many people emit, but did they do so because they perceived some type of reinforcement associated with the behavior or because it has been passed down in our society for decades? I suppose it’s like contemplating what came first the chicken or the egg.
I find myself emitting superstitious behaviors more so because I have experienced some type of reinforcement associated with them than ones that are well known throughout our society. For instance, I have a system of mouse clicks that I emit when my work computer has gone into sleeping mode. I know deep down that in reality it just takes a second or two for it to kick in, but I still emit this behavior each time. At the same time I have no qualms picking up any penny off of the floor no matter if it is heads or tails up. Nothing about a tails up penny elicits an aversive attitude nor does a heads up penny give me any type of positive reinforcement.
This first clip does a great job of explaining Skinner’s work with the pigeons and applying to a real-life situation of bowling superstitious behaviors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6zS7v9nSpo
This clip is an extreme example obviously developed for comedic purposes, but I thought it was a great example of if superstitious behaviors are learned through our own associations of reinforcement or from others’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXiaREdtiB0
This last clip is a sort of debunking of superstitious behaviors, in this case dowsers, and actually has comments from those who believe in these behaviors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbhpdez4u_Q

I am really interested in superstitious behavior. Section 2.4 concluded by discussing superstitious behavior. The book talks about how superstitious behavior occurs accidentally. When some random response indirectly results in a positive consequence, people will often associate that accidental response to the positive outcome. We can see this type of behavior occur all the time. Like the chapter says, it occurs at an extremely high frequency at casinos. I myself exhibit superstitious behaviors when I go to the Casino. The first time I ever went it was my 21st birthday. I actually won a few hundred playing blackjack so I kept one of the $5 chips from then. I also started playing the game with $40. For a while afterwards, I would carry that chip around with me everywhere for good luck. I have gotten over that, but the $40 superstitious behavior still exists. Anytime I go to the casino, I play blackjack. I only start with $40 or multiples of $40. Anytime I have started with anything else, I have lost. I am really good at not spending more than I come in with though and if I am up, I will set what I started with aside so I don’t go home broke. Most of the times I start with $40, I end up winning a couple hundred and once I won $400. I know it is superstitious behavior, yet I continue to do it. I think this type of superstitious behavior may have more to it, because I probably play differently and more strategically when I enter with $40 than with other because I think that I will win with it. Because I have this thinking, I was interested to see how superstitious behavior may help or hurt us.

I found an interesting article that discusses the psychology of superstition. They begin by talking about how superstition is different than OCD, because with superstition, you believe that what you do will bring about a good outcome or avoid a bad one. It then goes on to discuss how superstitious behavior can either help us or hurt us. There are some benefits from this type of behavior. We gain a sense of security and confidence emotionally. There also has been shown to be a positive placebo effect. I think this is related highly to my blackjack playing behavior. Blackjack is both based on luck and some performance as to what you decide to do (hit, stay, double down, split). The article states that when your performance is a key factor, superstitious thinking gives you a boost. Not only does superstitious thinking give you a boost, but it can relieve anxiety and promote positive thinking. Many of us probably have heard that if you think it, it will happen. The power of positive thinking is not news. In my motivation and emotion class we learned about this and it is very true. Also many studies have shown how placebo effects can happen. People who think they are on the real medicine may actually show improvement in their condition even though they are taking a placebo. This article strengthens my ideas about why I do end up doing better when I place $40 on the blackjack table than anything else. However, superstitious behavior isn’t always positive. The article says that it can be negative when combined with gambling because you may believe you will get lucky and therefore can put more money up. I think I have curbed this side effect because, like I stated, I never put more up than I start with and I set aside what I started with if I am up so I don’t go home broke. Another aversive side effect of superstitious thought may be anxiety, such as people who are afraid of Friday the 13th may change travel arrangements or skip appointments. This fear may cause unnecessary anxiety and may require psychological assistance to overcome.
Another interesting point in this article states that women are more superstitious than men. There is also some evidence that those who are more anxious tend to be more superstitious, and women seek help more often for anxiety than men. The article also discusses how locus of control contributes to superstitious thoughts. If you have an internal locus of control you think that you are in charge of your life, fate, and you can alter what happens. If you have an external locus of control, you believe that things in your environment control the aforementioned. People with external locus of control are more likely to be superstitious. The article says a reason may be so they can get more power over their lives. Lastly, superstitious behavior may be part of a culture. The article gives the example of Harvard students who frequently rub the foot of the John Harvard statue for good luck. They may not have any type of psychological effect; they are just routine and cultural phenomenon.

The second article I found expands on the theory that locus of control is a large contributor to superstitious thinking. The study was performed at Kansas State University. They found out that people who believe chance and fate control their live are more likely superstitious. As in any study, it is important to know how they defined superstition. They defined it as “the belief in a causal relationship between an action, object, or ritual and an unrelated outcome. Such superstitious behavior can include actions like wearing a lucky jersey or using good luck charms.” I believe that their definition coincides with the definition given in section 2.4. In order to conclude that those with external locus of control are more superstitious, they dispersed questionnaires with 200 undergraduates. They asked how pessimistic they were, whether they believed in chance or fate, if they liked to be in control, and others. The major conclusion was as I mentioned earlier.
They also performed an additional study looking at how participants reacted to death. They hypothesized that superstitious behavior would increase when people thought about death in order to gain a sense of control over it. They had the participants write about how they felt about their own death. They actually found that as they thought about their own death, superstitious behavior decreased. They attributed this to the thought that thinking about death makes people feel helpless, like they cannot control it, and therefore reduces their superstitious belief. In conclusion of these two studies, they developed three reasons for this type of behavior. They said, “Individuals use superstitions to gain control over uncertainty, to decrease feelings of helplessness, and because it is easier to rely on superstition instead of coping strategies.”
I found this article highly interesting because many people do not think there is much psychologically behind superstitious behavior; however, this study proves that it is a much more complex phenomenon than we had previously thought. If I apply this finding to my gambling superstition, it is true that I do not feel like there is much control over the results in blackjack, so believing that if I go in with $40 I will win gives me some perceived control over whether I win or lose. It is intriguing to try to think if I am more of an external locus of control or internal locus of control in the rest of my life. I don’t think I have too many superstitions, but cannot decide which locus of control I am.

The third link is a fun link. It is a YouTube video of facts about Groundhog Day. Many people probably do not think about it, but Groundhog Day is a worldwide superstition! The news announcer states some facts that tell how the superstition came about. It started in Germany when they would distribute candles for the remainder of the winter. The candles would superstitiously represent how long and cold the winter would be. They then used a hedgehog to predict the weather. Once they came to America, they used groundhogs since they were plentiful in Pennsylvania. In America it dates back to 1887. They only use Punxsutawney Phil, which is also a superstition. According to the newscast, any other groundhog is an imposter. There has only been one Phil who, again superstitiously, drinks groundhog punch that gives him 7 more years to live each time. If Phil sees his shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. If he does not see his shadow, it will be an early spring. I think this is extremely relevant to the section discussion on superstitious behavior. Every year on February 2nd we gather around to watch Phil because we all have this belief that his shadow seeing behavior will determine the amount of winter left. I never really thought about where the tradition/superstition came from, so it is interesting to learn it started with candles. It is also intriguing that it has been going on for hundreds of years. This also coincides with the other article that discussed how superstition can be part of a culture. It probably does not harm or help us either way, yet not only is it cultural, it is a worldwide phenomenon. Even those in Australia and other countries celebrate the day in the same fashion.

One way to be sure that this is a superstition is to look at how often Phil has been right. The last link is interesting as it provides some information about Groundhog Day and then an Almanac from 1887 to now as to whether he saw his shadow or not. According to the site, “The groundhog's seasonal forecasting accuracy is somewhat low. Phil's Winter prognostications have been correct only 39% of the time.” This is just a fun little fact that even though it is clear there is not a strong causal relationship between Phil and amount of winter left, people participate every year in this superstitious behavior. It does not provide more control for people, but acts as a social cohesive, as one of the previous articles mentioned (just like the Harvard example).

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=46749&page=2 - This article discussed the psychological positives and negatives of superstitious behavior.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html - This article expanded on the theory of locus of control and frequency of superstitious behavior.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D3ML98mANs&feature=related – This is the YouTube video stating the beginning of Groundhog Day and how it is celebrated today. This clearly shows that this event is a superstitious one.

http://www.stormfax.com/ghogday.htm - This is the almanac of Groundhog Day, showing how accurate Phil has been.