Hi Class,
You pretty much rocked your blog posts do far and since today's class was going to cover blogging for the course and how to improve your posts etc. and since it is still snowing/snowy outside we will be doing this online work rather than in class work.
One of the blog assignment type we did for the class was the "In The News" assignments. In order to familiarize you with these assignments, we would like you to read some of the posts from past students to see what they were interested in and how they went about blogging about behavior modification in the news.
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/bmod/2011/11/topical-blog-week-14-due-thursday.html#comments
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/bmod/2011/09/-topicsin-the-news-what.html#comments
After reading the posts from the links above please answer the following:
Which posts did you like the best? Why?
Has reading these posts changed your idea of what behavior modification is? Why or why not?
Do you believe that we can take complex topics that are occurring in the world and adequately explain them with what we know about behavior modification? Why or why not?
Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
Thanks,
--Dr. M
The first post that liked had to with black Friday shopping. The post broke down just how bad black Friday shopping can be. It then used behavior mod to try to explain why these people would want a reduced price xbox so much that they would harm others to get it. Another post that i enjoyed dealt with audi marketing their cars. The post talked about how audi changed its marketing to try to reach a younger audience. They also talked about how they got celebrities that a younger audience would look up to to try to sell their cars. Another post that i found interesting was a post that dealt with belly laughter's ability to increase pain threshold. I enjoyed how they broke the article down to its basic parts and then explained it with behavior mod. Finally i thought that the post talking about someone who poured chili on a bunch of Victoria secret stuff was hilarious. I thought that while the topic was funny the person still did a really good job breaking down the situation and explaining the actions and the consequences. I think that reading these posts hasnt changed what i think behavior modification is, but i think it has opened my eyes to the fact that behavior modification is present in our daily lives a lot more than i thought. I think that we can take complex topics and explain with behavior modification. I think it is just a matter of breaking these complex topics down into their basic components and then explaining them. After reading these posts i would be interested in learning about punishment and reinforcement as well as target behavior.
Reading these in the news posts were interesting to think about the way that behavior modification is applied to everything we do and how simple it is to apply it to things that happen in the news.
There were two posts i found very interesting to read about and I enjoyed the way that the students broke down the ABC's and the five components of the behavior. The first post I found interesting was Nicole R's week 14 posting about the hunting accident. I thought the way that she wrote out the ABC's of the hunting accident and the snowmobile accident were really interesting. People go hunting and snowmobiling often, but for these two incidents people were killed in the processes of two seemly innocent activities. I could really see how you break apart an event by using the ABC's and the five components of a behavior in this article post. Another post I enjoyed reading was from Monica E's week 4 post about laughing and releasing endorphins. Like in Nicole's post I enjoyed the way that Monica explained the five parts of the behavior and the ABC's of laughing. I really like the way that Monica presented the research aspect of the ABC's in her posting.
I think reading these posts just reiterates what I felt after reading the final blogs from last semester. I think that behavior modification can be interesting to learn about and easily applicable to dealing with situations/ behaviors of everyday life. Also, like I stated in my last post I think that behavior modification is something that happens all the time whether we realize it's happening or not and can easily be applied to something as simple as reading the news.
I definitely thing that we can take complex items from the world news and explain them with the ABC's of behavior modification. Especially because when items become newsworthy, we generally want to increase or decrease a behavior from happening depending on if the news is positive or negative. This being said, behavior modification is the key component in news stories because the behavior is being reinforced with it being broadcasted on the news in the first place.
Based on these posts I think any topic that interests me would be interesting to research while learning about behavior modification. I am really into science and health behaviors so I will certainly find research articles on health research and changing people's health behaviors interesting.
Reading the first set of posts I found one about a lady who had called the police on her boyfriend who then turned her in for a hit and run in which the person had dies. Reading the analysis of this article really helped to prove that everything that happens can some way be interpreted into a psychological view. The first part of the story was a positive reinforcement by adding the police into the scenario, but the second was a negative reinforcement by removing the lady. I liked this post because this situation had nothing related to psychology, and yet it could still be analyzed.
The second article I found interesting was about kids who try and make up for lack of sleep on the weekends. The kids that had tried to make up lost sleep had done poorly on attention tests, but the ones who did not make up time had better scores. The school system then tried to fix the issue by starting school later. This increased test scores dramatically.
Reading these articles has changed the way I think of Behavior Modification. It's not only about our own behavior, but about those in our environment. Also it shows me that it will also help me understand why people do the things they do and what their reasoning would be.
These issues prove that we can take any type of scenario and explain it psychologically. Not only world conflicts but even small ones in our everyday lives. I believe it will be easy to explain situations with what we know, once we learn to look for this underlying reasons.
Based on the posts I am interested in learning about all the topics that we will discuss in this class. (:
I did like the first post about Black Friday. It was easy to understand what the ABC's were from their post, so I felt like I understand just what the ABC's are. I also liked it just because I personally don't go Black Friday shopping, cause I don't like fighting with people or getting pushed around, and I feel like Black Friday could just be one crazy mosh pit. The post was very relatable so finding the ABC's was fun to do for that article. I also liked the post about belly laughter and how people are more likely to do it because of the endorphins that are released by the body. I liked it because it was something that is just fun to read about, I like happy and positive articles, plus I laugh a lot, so it's nice to know that it's a really good thing.
Reading these posts helps me understand the ABC's more and gain a little more knowledge about behavior modification. In the Black Friday post, it is easy to see how normally shopping is a relatively relaxing thing to do, but when people get the reward or that positive reinforcement, then their behavior does change.
I do think that there are many topics in the news that can be explained by the ABC's. It seems like almost anything and everything can really be explained by that. Everyone has behaviors when they do something, and there is always a reason behind it, so behavior modification seems to be solving the reason why people do what they do.
I'm interested in learning more about operant conditioning and positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. It seems to be a motivating factor in our lives constantly, so I'm excited to learn even more about it.
A particular post I found interesting while reading the second set of posts was one about a crime committed by a 19 year old girl. This girl poured chili on 65 pairs of Victoria's Secret underwear, damaging about $700 of inventory. As all of the posts demonstrated, this crime was broken down into several parts. I thought it was funny, in the first place, that this story made national news. Secondly, I found the break down of this behavior to be entertaining. Specifically of the ABC's of this behavior, A being "at a Victoria's Secret store", B being "Pour chili on underwear", and C being "Get arrested." Through these ABC's of this behavior, it is very clear that we can take complex topics and behaviors in the world around us and explain them via behavior modification principles.
I also found another interesting post relating to the public in a sort of shopping center. This post described a beahvior that happened in Black Friday (which always provides interesting stories). This post indentified the A as large crowds of people in Black Friday trying to get X-Box 360's, B as spraying several memebrs in the crowd with pepper spray, and C as getting the X-Box 360 at a reduced price. I liked this post and the last post the best because they both analyze crimes that we can all relate to (well, maybe not pouring chili on underwear), but both posts involve things we have all experienced, e.i. Black Friday, Victoria's Secret, etc. These particlar posts also made me think about my own behavior and abilities to do such things. Through this I concluded I would never committ such behaviors.
By reading these posts my idea of what Behavior Modification is has changed a little but mostly remains the same. Before this activity, I felt as though Behavior Modification focused primarily on how to CHANGE a certain behavior. Now, I realize it involves analyzing all aspects of the situation and not just how to CHANGE a behavior or situation.
Through reading these posts I am interested in learning more about what chemical reactions take place in the body and brain to influence someone to behave in such ways. As in, for example, did something chemically occur in the 19 year old girls brain right before she decided to pour chili in 65 pairs of underwear? Generally, I am interested in learning about the physiological changes that happen before before behaviors occur.
I really liked m.anderson's post about children and their behaviors. The post was about how it takes extra effort to change behaviors in kids while still giving them enough love and support to not alter their personalities or insult them with changing their behaviors. I think the interesting part of the article this person wrote about is that you can't change a child's behavior without first being an example. You can have the best intentions possible but still not teach the child anything if you don't demonstrate first how it needs to be done. I think being an example is the best way to change a person's behavior, because then the person has someone to look up to and can set a goal as to what they want to be.
I still believe my view of behavior modification is the same. Like I said in the last post, I believe that the only type of behavior modification is self-directed behavior change; you have to want to change in order to. However, I am excited to learn more about behavior modification and see what other people think about the subject and how can apply it to every day life.
Yes, I believe that we can apply simple psychological explanations to current news events. Everybody, whether they want to admit to it or not, has had some sort of psychological occurrence in their past that can affect them later on in life. There's always a psychological explanation to what people do in their everyday lives, whether it's news worthy or just a common occurrence.
Reading these posts just makes me more excited to take the class because I want to keep learning about the human mind and how it functions. There's really no specific topic I want to learn more about; I've always been interested in peoples' behaviors and I can't wait to just know everything I possibly can about the human mind.
I read a lot of very interesting posts. I especially liked the ones about the correlation between driving and teenagers, the one about obesity and teenagers, and finally the one about the hunting accident and the man killing himself.
First off I really liked the one about teenagers and the decrease in the amount of teens going to get their licence and buying a car decreasing. I found this extremely interesting to me because I recently met a 20 year old who has never gone to get his licence, driven, and he doesn't own a car. To me this is something I don't hear of a lot. I am from a small town in the country, and living where I do, you almost have to have a licence. When I read this article it also made sense because parents aren't having as much money to throw around on vehicles for their children.
The second article that I really liked was the article about obesity in children, teens and young adults. The one part that stuck out to me that I really didn't like was the comment they made about saying that cutting out junk food in the diet is bad for you. I have taken a nutrition class and this simply doesn't seem true. There are plenty of benefits of excluding junk food, and still getting all the nutrients you need from other sources. The rest of the article was very good. It talked a lot about how the family can be there to help out the child, and things that they can do to reduce obesity. It encouraged a lot of balancing the diet and regular exercise.
Finally, the article about the hunting accident. Being from a small town in Iowa, I have heard of a lot of accidental shootings that have happened where I'm from. As sad as it is, accidentally shooting another man is not so uncommon. What really made this article stick out to me was the fact that the man than killed himself. This is a complete tragedy! I really enjoyed how they talked about the previous events that had happened in that particular families past. They had a very sad past, but it helped me to better understand and feel even more sympathetic towards them.
This posts have changed the way I now view this class. They have changed because now I see how this class will also incorporate events in the everyday world into discussion. I really liked how you learn to incorporate a life event to the ABC's of Behavior Modification.
In saying this I am now really excited to blend the everyday world into this class, because as I read some blog posts I noticed that almost everyone was doing a great job of incorporating them. Now I am really excited to learn what the ABC's of Behavior Modification are and how to use them.
My favorite post was about body image and how what happens when you think negatively or positively about one’s appearance. I liked this post because for many reasons. For starters, it is just after the first of the year, and many people are trying to lose weight right now and live healthier. I am one of these people, as my family and I are taking a trip to Mexico this spring break. Therefore I have now implemented “Operation Mexican Beach Body” by working out more and eating healthier. Besides all this relevance to my life, however, I thought the post brought up an excellent point. The ABC’S for the negative body image were insightful.
A – Negative body image
B – Negative thoughts
C – Negative actions (eating poorly)
I loved this because it is so true. A lot of time people just assume, “Well if you think negatively, then you should exercise and eat healthy.” However, this isn’t our automatic response. Because we view our appearances negatively, we have negative thoughts, and then in return to negative actions. We get stuck on a train of negativity. So I thought that was an excellent point.
I don’t really think my thoughts on behavior modification have changed much. I had a couple of close friends take the class with you last semester, so they kind of gave me a heads up on what to expect. MacLin also gave a good description of the ABC’s on Tuesday which also helped clear any questions I have. I’m sure I will learn tons that I don’t already know about behavior modification, but right now I understand everything I’ve been introduced to so far.
I honestly believe we can explain the more complex and confusing issues of the world with behavior modification. I honestly believe that every context has its own set of ABC’S. I feel like the blogs we were assigned to read do an excellent job of illustrating that. There were many different articles taking about many different things. Students last semester applied the ABC’s to HIV, murders, Black Friday shopping, and a multitude of topics that don’t relate to each other. With all this being said, I want to learn about the crime and hate actions of some people. What is going on in a serial killers mind? Why do we have these school shootings? Why are we charging SO much money for college when there is no way possible that an eighteen year old has this kind of cash?! (Okay, maybe that isn’t a ‘hate crime’, but it sure is one of the biggest scams EVER.) The harder stuff to explain is what I would like to learn more about.
Oh man! Gotta say that I am jumping on the Black Friday bandwagon. This topic, to begin with, is so fun for me! First of all, breaking down Black Friday into Behavioral terms makes our society seem like we are a bunch of maniacs! Just the topic itself, thousands of people across the country waiting in lines for hours to save a few dollars. Talk about embracing the role of being a consumer. I suppose it is great because consumerism brings money into our economy, and is essentially one way that we exist as a nation. What I liked about the Black Friday post is the way that the day is broken down in behavioral terms. Rather than speaking from a foundation of judgement towards the whole event, examining the ABC's was fascinating. I really, really like that speaking about the event behaviorally effectively skirts around the topic of morality. Because Psychology is a science, it is nice to see the world broken down into behaviors as most basic. My view of behavior modification has been expanded because speaking through the lens of morality can be frustrating, similar to the idea of carrying around a bunch of baggage (metaphorically). In this situation, if you erase your opinions about how people treat each other on a moral basis, and view the behaviors at face value, it really caused me to reconsider the idea of evolution. The Black Friday blog opened an outlet for me to consider the idea of Humans having an aspect about them that is primal. It is like the people in the crowd vying for a spot closer to the coveted XBOX 360, whatever means possible, is just so primitive. I liken it to a bunch of cave men from different tribes battling it out to get the spoils of a leftover carcass in some remote tundra thousands of years ago. The ABC's remain the same. Antecedent in this situation, is desire. Desire sets the stage for the emitted behaviors of the raucous crowd. The atmosphere of the shopping centers seem to induce this primitive madness that elicits uncivilized behaviors from otherwise law abiding, civilized people. The consequence is that people no longer value human life, and no longer care for their common man. It may not be present in their minds that they are devaluing life in this process, but it is apparent in their behaviors that any means necessary to move up a spot in line, as well as to achieve that great goal of a purchase over-rules the basic golden rule of treating others as you want to be treated. The Antecedent in this situation prescribes behaviors that result in devastating consequences. People are injured, maimed, and killed every year through this process of ABCs, and all for the end result of saving a pretty penny.
What does this all mean for me, and how I consider Behavior Modification? It causes me to consider the environment around me, as well as the desires that I have. When I enter a shopping center in the near future, I will be very aware of the world around me, as well as my behaviors. I for one would hope that my desire to strike a good deal would not result in me behaving in such a way that I demean my fellow man. In our society I would consider life to be an a priori right that we all hold. It seems to me that if I were to emit certain behaviors that would squelch the life of another human being, that I should probably analyze whether or not the end goal, this desire I have that I NEED to fulfill, better be worth it.
As I consider the world around me, I believe that as long as there are behaviors, then Behavior Modification can address countless numbers of behaviors. I think that it would be harder to try to think of situations involving humans that could not be described using terms from Behavior Modification. I suppose that a corpse is not emitting behaviors, but otherwise, it seems that living humans are always emitting behaviors in every situation, awake and asleep.
As far as I can tell, we could speak about anything involving humans interacting with their environments, and it would directly apply to Behavior Modification. That's probably why Behaviorism arose in the first place, and hasn't ever really died out. That being said, I prefer to be creative about how I think about concepts. I would love it if our class chose to pursue challenging scenarios, and learned to effectively describe them using the ABCs. Anyone can sit down and talk about something as simple as tying shoes. But I would hope that we could go much further, and tackle much more relevant and interesting topics. But I know that what is interesting ends up being subjective. Peace out all!
The post I enjoyed reading the most, was the post about a child telling one of their peers that Santa Claus does not actually exist. This post broke down the effects that telling another child that Santa doesn’t exist had in this situation. I found it interesting that a parent would forbid their child to play with a classmate in regards to that classmate denying the existence of a fictional character. Reading this post gave me insight on how we will be examining people’s behavior and dissecting the causes and outcomes of these behaviors. I feel that we can look at these complex topics and try to explain them with the ideas of behavior modification, but these explanations may not target the actual reasoning behind one’s behavior. There are many ideas of behavior modification that can assist in the explanations of these topics, but we may never have a full understanding. These posts have sparked my interest in positive and negative reinforcement. It intrigues me how positively or negatively reinforcing someone can elicit a desired behavior/outcome, and I am looking forward to digging deeper into behavior modification
After reading some of the posts pertaining to behaviors in current news, I liked HeatherE's the most. The reason I enjoyed her post was that I had seen the video she was describing last semester in another one of my psychology classes. The video was of a group bystanders rescuing a man trapped under a burning vehicle by teaming up and lifting it. It was good to be able to picture in my mind what she was describing and to have an explanation of some of the behaviors elicited in that video.
After I read over these posts my idea of behavior modification has changed a little. I'm thinking that this isn't going to be just about modifying behaviors, but also a lot of explaining behaviors through cause and effect. Through this I do believe that can take complex topics that are occurring in the world and adequately explain them with the techniques of behavior modification.
Most things occurring in the world today should be able to be explained through cause and effect and I hope to later be able to better do this through the knowledge I'm about to gain. I am also looking forward to learning the ABCs of behavior modification and hope to learn how to change some of the behaviors elicited by my roommates.
The first post that caugt my eye was the black friday shopping one, i cant remember who wrote it but i did enjoy reading it. It was very interesting to me because i like many other people have gone out and experienced black friday shopping and have noticed that even the nicest people can turn into monsters when it comes to sales. Although i didn't know that there have actually been people protesting against black friday shopping. i was always aware that some people had been against it simply because of the violence that may or may not occur but i didn't know there was actual protestors, and then i come to find that these innocent protestors end up being the victims in the end.
The second one i read was about a mean who accidently killed his friend while on a hunting trip nd then he ended up killing himself afterwards because he felt so bad. This story really intrigued me, even though im not a hunter myself, i do hear stories every now and then about different hunting accidents and people getting wounded by accident but i don't think that i have ever actually heard of anyone killing themself because of it. The story was very intense and shocking.
I do believe that we can take complex topics like some of these and explain them with our own knowledge of behavior modification because there is an explanation for everything no matter how complex the subject and by now we all have had experience out in the real world so in a way our behavior is purley common sense.
I really would like to get into some of the controversial topics and have a few debates in the class just to see what everyones point of view is on them.
First, I liked the post about Black Friday shopping because I was interested in this subject and seeing how the abc's could be applied to it. I liked how the parts were broken down into steps and then the summery of which parts were the A B and C. This made it easy to understand. I also liked the post about the kindergartner who was arrested for acting out. Personally I think the consequences were too severe, but then I don't have to whole story. I also liked the post about the child who's mouth got taped shut and how the abc's were applied to the person who taped the mouth shut and not the child. I liked that it dealt with that person's consequences and not having the consequence being a taped mouth for the behavior of talking to much. I also found it interesting that most of the news articles mentioned punishment instead of positive reinforcement. That Might have to do with what kind of news our society gives the most coverage to.
After reading the posts and seeing the lists of other tops that could be blogged about I am thinking of bemod in broader terms. It seems like it can be applied to most situations.
Also based on the posts' ability to apply Be mod to a variety of news topics I'm sure it could be applied to more complex topics. I don't think everything can be explained because usually everything is not laid out in an easy to see way.
After reading these posts I am interested in how marketing uses Bemod to sell products.
I liked two posts the most out of the selection. The first one was about black Friday, it isn’t an everyday occurrence but it is a major event and I believe that the writer did a very good job of explaining the ABC’s of it in a way that I understood what they mean. Even though I have yet to actually “learn” what they mean I was able to follow her blog about the subject. The second one I liked reading was about a five year old kindergartener who was tied and taken to a mental institution. The ABC’s in this one weren’t as well put together as the other one but it was still done well. I liked this one because issues like these arise and I would have never thought of them to be anything but ADHD or being able to break them down and look at it in such a way that the writer described it as she did.
I thought that behavior modification would apply to everyday life but I didn’t know that it would apply as detailed to such things as black Friday or the situation with the five year old kindergartener. After reading these I believe that we can take any type of situation, complex or not complex, and break it down with the ABC’s. I believe I’m more interested in the ABC’s with the criminal aspect of it, mainly because psychology is my major and that type of discussions interest me.
A post that really caught my attention was by Rezinr and was about a five year old boy being restrained, arrested, charged and taken to a mental hospital after he kicked a police officer in the knee. The kid has ADHD and the officer was brought in to talk to him about his behavior. I like how Rezinr was unbiased and didn't get into his feelings about the article. He also talked about another story of a girl having her mouth taped because she talked too much. I appreciated that Rezinr kept the blog learning based and didn't vent about how he/she felt about the article.
The second article that caught my attention was by Rezinr as well and was about a woman who poured chili on a Victoria Secret display. What I liked about this blog entry was that his/her voice was more prevalent. I also like how the blog is organized and displays.
After reading these blogs my interpretation of behavior modification has changed a little. I now think that we will be talking about more than just how to change or influence people's actions but about why people do the things they do.
I think that a lot of the major topics today can be explained with the things we will discuss in class but maybe not fully and with some errors. While we can predict how someone will act there is always someone who does the opposite of what we expect. Also, we have to account for individual differences in response to certain situations. However, I do think that we will be able to help explain some of the major things that are going on in the world today.
I am excited to discuss some controversial topics and see how other people feel about topics. I'm excited to learn about the ABCs and behavior modification.
I realize it is the first post and someone already wrote about it but I just couldn't resist writting about it as well. I was also interested in the Black Friday shopping article because I am a sales associate and in retail. Dealing with black friday shoppers sucked! (I did make alot of money though:) )
I can also relate to the increase violence because I witnessed people punching and bugging in line for "good" deals. Reading the article changed my idea concerning behavior modification. I did not realize there was a ancedote or positive/negative reinforcemnt.
I feel it is possible to take many complex problems and explain them with behaviro modification. For example the major explaination for this article is the cheaper deals or more commonly MONEY. But I don't believe every problem can be fully explained every time. There are often so many unknown variables that it is almost impossible to say one way or the other.
I would like to learn more about target behaviro and elicted behaviro.
Unfortunately, I was again very unimpressed with the majority of posts that I read. After reading the first couple of sentences my attention would already be wandering onto something else more exciting, more personal. That being said, there were a few posts that I enjoyed because of the topic of the news article and the more personal writing style of the blogger.
While some stories in the news are informative and important and blah blah I am not interested in reading about cancer rates among women in their 30s. The posts I found interesting and engaging were more along the lines of women attacking a man dressed as spongebob squarepants and an orangutan being forced to curtail her smoking habit.
These kind of posts are more fun to read and that's all I'm really after when selecting literature. As far as information is concerned, I prefer bloggers who get straight to the point. The information is presented plainly and accurately with no BS in between. I don't know if you grade posts on length, effort, content or a combination of the three, but I prefer the posts that are short, accurate, and humorous.
The question about whether the posts changed my mind about behavior modification is hard to answer. I have previewed behavior modification in a number of psychology courses here at UNI so I believe the ideas that I have about it are pretty solid. These ideas are very broad as I have not studied the intricacies of behavior modification but I believe I have somewhat of a grasp on the generalities of it. Hardly any topic is simple, so every new piece of information I come across in the posts is another surprise but I wouldn't say the ideas have changed my view of behavior modification at all.
The last question asked has no simple answer. As an amateur philosopher I call into question every method for assessing situations and acquiring knowledge. Complex situations in the world are VERY complex, so I don't believe there any simple, step-by-step ways to examine them.
For example, lets say there is a new strain of the flu effecting millions across the world. Behaviorists can come up with several different models for determining antecedents and consequences in order to find the behaviors responsible for contraction. The flu is rampant in schools, at work, at the mall, etc etc.
A- At school
B- Pick boogers
C- Contract Horse Flu
A- At the Mall
B- Touch items in the store
B- Eat at the food court
C- Contract Horse Flu
So in response the medical community suggests:
WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF GERMS. GO TO THE HOSPITAL IMMEDIATELY TO RECEIVE IMMUNIZATION.
Right?
But how do we know what the root cause of Horse flu is? How do we know for sure that our behavior has any effect on our chances of contracting this flu? How much time do we take between the first case of the flu and implementing solutions?
We are so quick to find structured strategies to explain things and then so quick to categorize these complex things to fit into the structures we create. This phenomenon is a "virus". "Viruses" can be cured using "vaccines". So we elicit the behavior of getting vaccinated by promoting fear and superstition in mainstream media.
What if vaccinations and all of these alternative physical methods are just placebos? What if every physical/biological/psychological ailment could be cured simply using the human mind?
So in response to the last question, I believe that we still have hardly any information on the true causes of human behavior and what "consequences" or "antecedents" actually mean. We can attempt to fit these complex situations into the structures we have created but I think there's a lot more to these situations and to life in general.
One article that I read that sparked my interest was about a 5 year old boy, Michael, who had ADHD and was bound by his hands and feet then charged for kicking a school police officer in the knee and eventually taken to a mental hospital. This really caught my eye because of the treatment the young boy received from the police officer. I'm sure any 5 year old would be scared if a police officer took him/her out of class to talk about their bad behavior. Don't we teach kids about stranger danger and other tactics to get out of uncomfortable situations? Having saying that, I understand we are talking about a police officer but think of Michael's home life. What if he has a family memeber in jail or prison and he sees officers treating his loved one poorly, or at least hearing that part of the story? Police do not send positive feelings to everyone.
I still think behavior modification is what I think it is. Watching, hearing or recording someone's actions, thoughts writings, etc.. and interpreting the consequences and even post consequence. How will this person's life change because of this one situation or even repeating occurances? Or do we even know at all, everyone can make a prediction about the future but it is finding the patterns or connective link that is important. I would really like to learn more about children behavior and why they do what they do sometimes. I want to go beyond punishment and rewarding for reinforcing or extincting a particular behavior. My ultimate goal in psychology is to work with kids some day so the more I can learn during my undergrad, the better.
The first article that caught my attention was about the hunter who committed suicide after accidentally shooting his friend while trying to shoot a deer. This post caught my attention because I hunt deer and overall it's a pretty crazy story. It was interesting to me that nearly every post that I read starts out with the writer saying that they emitted a reading behavior on whatever article they read.
These articles have somewhat changed what I view behavior modification as. I thought behavior modification only dealt with getting rid of negative behaviors. Now from what I can tell behavior modification can be applied to all sorts of situations.
I believe that most situations can be explained with behavior modification. The only reason that I have to believe that is based on the posts that I just read and they did a very good job of explaining each topic in depth. How exactly the situations can be explained is what I'm guessing we will be learning throughout this course.
This first blog that really grabbed my attention was the article about the Vermont man that took his life after hunting and miss-shot his friend. They both died. Only to later read on that this was unfortunately not the only tragic accident that had happened within the family of the man that killed himself. His daughter was also killed in a snowmobile accident.
It really put into perspective how the ABC’s worked. I like how she defined the steps of the ABC’s and spelled it out explaining them. Reconfirming the process in which each behavior is emitted and the consequences of the behavior were very clear here.
It does not really change my idea of what behavior modification is because it clearly shows that there was a reaction to the behavior in both cases. The first case with the man killing himself probably out of guilt given the situation and the second one, I would only assume that the person that hit her on the snowmobile that in which killed her probably either does not ride snowmobiles any longer or has a terrible memory of it when doing so. When I think of behavior modification I think of the reactions to a specific stimuli that of which is reinforced either in a negative or positive way, or in the case of the snowmobile rider would be extinction had the stopped riding going forward.
I do believe that we can take complex topics and explain them, ultimately everything revolves around psychology and results in behaviors.
I am really learning more about manipulating people. Initially when you hear that, it sounds like it would be terrible, but I feel like it could seriously benefit me not only with a future career, but in my daily life, as a wife, as a mother.
The post that I enjoyed would be the one about black Friday because we can all relate to black Friday. It is one of the days of the year that people cant wait for. everyone likes a good deal and its crazy to think that the things that this person talked about actually happens
just to get a T.V., xbox, cloths or what ever people are after at a lower price. I'm not sure if reading these post have changed my mind about what I think about behavior modification mainly because I don't know a lot about it yet but I am very excited to learn more about it. but from reading these posts I can tell that it is in are lives every day if we can see it or not. I do believe we can take complex topics and apply them to what we are learning it will be interesting to see how the world works and why people do the things they do.
The blog that I really enjoyed reading was about the Coca-Cola cans upsetting people. The main idea of the article was that every holiday Coca-Cola changes their can design, and they happened to change the color away from red. It really upset people to the point where the company had to go and change it back.
I really liked how the ABC's were clearly described, and how they used the two points from the story and broke it down. For one, they talked about the ABCs for Coca-Cola changing their can, and people getting upset. Then they did the ABCs of Coca-Cola noticing the upset customers, and then changing the can back to avoid anger.
Reading these posts didn't really change my idea about what behavior modification is, because it is kind of what I assumed it was. It definitely puts into detail how behavior is modified, however. Changing behavior can be used in postitive and negative ways, and all the blogs that I looked through showed that.
I do believe that we can take complex topics and adequately explain them with what we know about behavior modification. Anything can be broken down and put into a certain type of reinforcement or punishment, just not all are as easily done. And, using what we know, people's behaviors can be easily manipulated.
After reading these entries, I am curious to learn more about reinforcement and punishment dealing with behavior.
There were many posts that were very good at explaining the article and breaking it down. The first one I really enjoyed reading was by Monica. She broke down the situation and the ABCs of it. Her article was of the black friday sales this past year and about the woman who pepper sprayed another person just to get a good deal on an xbox. She pepper sprayed the other person which also affected some of the other people around her. The woman ended up moving up in line and did get the special on the xbox, so it worked in her favor. Monica did a good job of explaining the positive reinforcement. She got a good thing because of her actions, so the next year the same or another person could do the same thing. Another article that was good but also gave the opposite spin was the Reznirs. Their article was about the little five year old kinder-gardener. The boy as acting out and what happened is he hit and kicked someone who had authority. what happened in the end is he went to a mental health center. this is negative punishment. he received something bad because of his bad actions. this creates a decrease in behavior.
the reading hasn't really changed. From the last posts we did on our blog it made me think a lot about what behavior modification is. The posts I just read just made me think more about it, but it never changed my ideas of it.
I do believe that we can take complex topic that are occurring in the world and adequately explain them with what we know. we can look at the situation carefully and break it down by using the ABCs and also by figuring out which reinforcement is behind it. we can also look at the person and the specific situation and look at the behavior
I would like to learn more about punishment and reinforcement dealing with behavior.
My first thought after reading the blogs from previous classes was that this idea for a blog is a great one. It was very interesting to read the break-down of behaviors that are found within major stories in the news and that were also relatable to all.
The first post I liked was the post by Nichole R about the hunting shooting accident. The topic was a sad one, but I really liked how she pulled the details piece by piece out of the article and explained the ABC's in a thorough way. The very fact that she went on to analyze the behavior of the snowmobile accident involving Tim Bolognani’s daughter Jessica, shows that she took the time to analyze the complete behaviors within the story and not just one of them. Nichole did a great job of explaining her reasons why she analyzed it the way she did and provided enough information for other readers who don't have complete knowledge of the news story to understand the overall details.
The second post I liked was posted by tessgarceau on the story of HIV in the United States. This stuck out to me as a short and to the point post. It really shows that sometimes less is more. Even though it wasn't as long and drawn out as some posts were, the blogger was able to get the information across within the boundaries expected.
Reading these posts by previous students has not changed my idea of behavior modification, but it has expanded my idea of it. These blogs really put into perspective how exactly the ABC's are determined and laid out. It was a great glimpse into the ABC's and how they make up a prominent position within the area of behavior modification.
I do believe that we can take complex issues that are occurring in the world and explain them with what we know about behavior modification. A lot of the issues that occur in the world can be dealt with through either positive or negative reinforcement as explained by the previous students in their blogs we read for this assignment. A lot of how we behave elicits a response and the response that we receive from our behaviors shapes the outcome of that behavior as to whether we continue the behavior or extinguish it. As for issues in our world, a lot of them can be explained through the ideas of behavior modification such as obesity, high divorce rates, homelessness, children in poverty, genocide, wars, pollution, the current Occupy Wall Street protest, and the list goes on and on. All of the issues listed above have begun and continued through the behaviors of human beings. These issues can definitely be explained, but some may be more difficult to explain than others.
I don't really have any specific topics that I am interested in learning, I am just excited for this class overall.
I found many of the posts very interesting and enjoyed reading them all but I will concentrate on just a few of my favorites. The first post that I liked was about the increase in the number of men having "man caves." A "man cave" is just a designated room or area in the home where the guy can hang out and drink beer or just get away and have his own time alone. I have never really understood why this is so important to men(like my boyfriend) but after reading this post I have become more accepting of the idea and the positive reinforcement that it has. This article helped me better understand the ABCs of behavior modification by including several examples. For example, A: Men having man caves. B: The man hangs out and spends time in his man cave. C: The man does not go out to bars and drink. The author of this post also explained how positive reinforcement works in this case and I learned a lot after reading this post. I now believe that I am a little more understanding of the importance of a man cave!The second article that I really enjoyed was about eight Amish men being arrested for not having the orange caution triangles on their buggies. These men claimed that orange triangles interfered with their religious beliefs and therfore the men would not use them. I come from an area where many Amish families reside and therefore see horse and buggies almost everyday. I always noticed the orange triangle but have never thought that the Amish people may have a problem with something that we think is so simple/harmless. So the main reason that I enjoyed this post was because it opened my eyes to an issue facing the Amish people and made me a bit more understanding about other people's thoughts and religions. Like the first article that I mentioned, this one also contained examples of the ABCs of behavior modification and explained how this was an example of negative punishment because the men had their freedom taken away. After reading these posts my ideas of what behavior modifcation is has mostly stayed the same from what I learned while reading previous blogs for assignment one. But these posts have somewhat changed my idea of what behavior modification is because I never thought of it as such a broad subject but now I see that everything in our lives can be explained with behavior modification. Using the ABCs, every situation and behavior can be better understood. Right now I only know about a small part of behavior modification and even after reading these posts I still have so much to learn! I believe that we can take complex topics that are occuring in the world and and adequately explain them with what we know about behavior modification. This is proven by the posts I just read. The previous students analyzed many different things, like shopping, murder, recreation, obesity, self-esteem, etc. All of these are very complex issues yet could still be explained using behavior modification. Behavior modification can be used to explain very different aspects of our daily lives and it does not matter how complex the issue is, it can still be broken down into the ABCs of behavior modification. After reading these posts, I am very eager to learn more about punishment and reinforcement as well as behavior modification in the health field since that is where I will be working after college.
I really liked reading the post and the ones that I liked best were also the Black Friday post and I really thought the hunter that took his own life after accidently killing his friend while deer hunting was very interesting to me, and the women who was raped and how she and her attacker would be cleared if she agreed to marry him they would both be freed from prison.
I liked the Black Friday post because it was a example of how crazy people become when money is involved. To hear the behavior these people showed by pepper spray, someone getting shot on a Holiday shopping event is terrible behavior. The way our economy works is that we value money and our possession and will throw all their manners out the window just to save a few bucks. But also the post about two people falling in love on black Friday, which is a example of a positive behavior. I think that the other article about the hunter is very interesting it was a reaction this person made to an accident that happened to his friend. Overall by the man killing his friend he killed himself. The last article of about the women getting raped by a man and they both are being charged but the only way they can get freedom is if they agree to marry each other. I find this interesting how in different situations there is only one thing you can do for freedom is marry someone who raped you.
These post are helping me understand what this class is about help to understand behavior modification and how is effects the circumstances and outcomes. By reading the different post that are about a variety of things help me understand that you find behavior modification in everything. I think that we can help understand the behavior that is occurring in the world by understanding the behavior that is occurring. But I also think that it is small part of understanding things because behaviors happen also because of the economic, political, or financial state.
I found all of the posts to be very interesting. They were all different in what they looked up and talked about. One that caught my attention was the one about a guy and a girl exchanging numbers in a Black Friday shopping line and starting a relationship and after 3 years they are engaged. I guess I’m just one for a good love story and thought this to be interesting. Who knew Black Friday could bring people together. Once again, reading these didn’t really change my idea of what behavior modification is. Although, a lot of the consequences that people wrote about were positive. I guess I’ve always thought of consequences to be negative for some reason. I do believe that we can take complex topics that occur in the world and explain them with behavior modification. Everything that goes on involves some sort of behavior and that behavior has consequences and causes something else to happen.
Although I really enjoyed reading a lot of other posts for this assignment, the story that really stood out to me was the post written by Nichole R. Her story was about a group of three men that were deer hunting in the woods. One of the men, a forty-nine year old, accidentally shot his friend instead of the deer, and in turn killed himself because of extreme heart break and guilt.
This post stood out to me because, last semester in my college writing and research class, we had a discussion about whether or not the Fairfield cat massacre was the same as deer hunting. And in this discussion, I had said that they are definitely NOT the same. For one, the cats had NO chance of getting away, they were in one room, trapped! At least deer have a chance of running away or hiding from you. For two, hunting deer is almost like a sport and you need a license to even participate in the activity. And thirdly, the cats were brutally beaten, deer are shot and usually do not feel any pain. But anyway, that is why this story caught my attention!
I do think day by day my ideas of behavior modification is changing. Everything that happens throughout our day changes the way that we act and so forth. Many, many things influence the way that we act and the things that we do.
I definitely think that we can take complex things from the world and explain them using what we know about behavior modification. There is a reason why people do what they do and think what they think. One action can change many consequences. For example, if someone murders another person. There are many explanations for that. One being, they could have traumatic experiences from the past which makes them commit the crime. They could have a mental disability. They could have been threatened to do it. Many things could be running through that person's mind before he committed the crime and through behavior modification, we can explain these things.
Because of these posts, I am interested in a lot of new things. Nothing in particular, but this class is very intriguing so far and can not wait to learn about all of these interesting topics!
After reading a few posts in the "In the News" forum, I found that I really enjoyed Lauren Kirby's post about the Holiday shopping and holiday season. First, it only seemed appropriate based on the date that she published it, that being the day after Black Friday, but also because it was a relatable topic. She also did a good job of laying out the idea of the ABC and hinting at positive reinforcement.
I wouldn't necessarily say that my views towards behavior modification changed but I did get a better sense of how behavior modification can be related to what is happening all around us. Some bloggers did a better job than others at making this clear but overall I was able to get that sense. It was interesting to see the contrast in the first batch of posts from September versus their posts in November; it seems as though as time went on their blogs got better, long, and in more interesting detail.
The posts that I read seemed to do a good job of applying behavior modification to the complex issues of the real world. So, that being said, I think that it is possible to apply concepts from the behavior modification class to these issues. While not many of the blogs were about what I would call 'complex issues' they did seem to do a fair job at relating ideas and concepts from class towards things in the news.
I'm really interested in the reinforcement concepts; especially the contrasts of rewards and punishments in the effectiveness of the two. I anticipate this to be the topic that I will most enjoy and find interesting. It seems many of the posts from past students were about this so perhaps they felt the same as I do.
I read a few of the posts from the "In the News" blog. I read the post about the black friday shopping, which always interests me. I have only gone black friday shopping one time, and that was enough for me. It was insane! I didn't personally witness anyone pepper spraying people to get an x-box, although there was a lot of shoving and cursing. That article was interesting because each year I think it gets more and more crazy what people are willing to do to get material objects. I don't quite understand the point of being in a mosh pit for an ipod.
I also read the article about the man who killed himself after he accidentally shot his friend on a hunting trip. This was interesting to me. Was it guilt that made him commit suicide? Both of these articles made me understand the ABCs a lot better which helps in preparation for this semester when I will be doing my own blogging about current events.
I think that the blogs really helped me get a better understanding of behavior modifcation and the ABCs when it comes to applying it to real life events. I think that it is possible to take any topic from real world and apply it to behavior modification somehow. I mean, if an action occurs, there is a reason behind it, right? Human behings do things for a reason and even if the reasons are subconscious, they are there, in my opinion.
At the moment I can't think of anyone in particular I am interested in learning about. I'm interested in it all of course! We'll see how the semester progresses.
I really enjoyed reading a few comments from the "In the News" posts. The one that especially stood out was Lauren Kirby's comment about Black Friday shopping. I like how she broke it down and went through the ABC's of to explain the different meanings of it to relate to Black Friday shopping.
Reading these posts did not change my view on behavior modification because it is in your everyday life. While I was reading these posts I got a better understanding of what each meaning for the action was. I think it's interesting that behavior modification is in your everyday life. I don't think that there are things out there that don't include some type of behavior modification.
I do believe that we can take anything out of our own personal lives and relate it to behavior modification. Whatever actions of decisions we make have something to do with behavior and our brain determines how we're going to interpret our actions. I don't think that we think about it on a daily basis though. We just go on living our lives and don't think about the actions or behavior that affect our lives.
I am very interested in learning more about the ABC's so I can go through my life and learn how behavior is affecting it. I think it is so interesting that we make daily decisions and basically go through the ABC's without thinking about it.
After reading a couple of these blog posts I thought that the girlfriend who called the cops and then got arrested was a very good one. The post itself gave a very clear cut example of behavior and the what it means to say that the behavior will have consequences. It also talked about modifying the behavior when it said that the girlfriend will probably not call the cops anytime soon because of the fact that she got arrested herself when she was really trying to get her boyfriend in trouble. The consequences she thought would come out of her behavior were reversed and instead it didn't have a very happy ending for her.
These posts basically taught me that behavior modification doesn't nessecarily mean the same as completely changing someone's behavior. It can be a simple tweek to what they would normally do to be considered modification or it can be something big as the girlfriend never calling the police again because of one bad experience.
These posts all talked about things that actually happened in real life and it brings into perspective that behavior modification can actually be used in real life settings and situations. Although this class has just begun I'm mostly excited about the thought about learning about behavior modification then what weve actually learned so far. It seems like a complex system of steps and procedures but the ABC's seem to be helping a lot of students simplify things into terms everyone can understand.
I also learned that if you get your post in before everyone else you don't have to keep scrolling up everytime you need to know what the questions are! Lesson learned!
I read the post on the program the “View” (December 2, 2011, posted by Heather8). Most of it was about Whoopi Goldberg receiving a bleep each time she used “inappropriate language.” The poster said that the target behavior was Whoopi’s use of a “swear word” and that each use was followed by a bleep. Some of the other posts had more interesting target behaviors but they often seemed much harder to define. Since Whoopi’s words are bleeped, we cannot know what they were. But I assume that the director or someone who does the bleeping has a list of words that cannot be aired and these are always bleeped. The list would be the targeted behavior. The posting person said that Whoopi was being punished by the bleeps. But I am not sure. Does she even hear the bleeps in the studio? Or are they added later? I think the behavior is not Whoopi’s but that of the person doing the bleeping.
The antecedent is Whoopi’s use of one of the words on the list, but the behavior is someone else pushing the bleep button, and I guess the reinforcer is that person “doing his or her job.” What I like about this post was the behavior was one that could easily be counted and it would easy to see if the behavior decreased or not. The rest of the post deals with more complex behavior. I am not sure the connections illustrated are as direct as the bleep example.
Reading through the posts it was interesting to see how people apply the terms of behavior mod to everyday events. I don't understand all of it yet of course, but it looks interesting and very much in line with the type of things I want to learn more about in trying to understand human behavior better.
The one post that really caught my eye was one on a woman calling the cops on her ex-boyfriend. The boyfriend just got out of a stint in jail and the woman wanted nothing to do with him. The cops showed up to her house and noticed that her vehicle matched the description of a car involved in a hit and run. The woman was then arrested for murder because she called the cops in the first place. In the original post the story was broken down into the ABCs. I never really realized before reading this post and the information on it that our behavior plays such a great role in our society. Sending a person to jail is a form of behavior modification and I never really thought of it like that before reading the post and the breakdown of the behavior in the article. Having a kind of better understanding of the ABCs, I looked at a slideshow of criminals on the website. It had a listing of criminals from around the United States and some of the stupid things that they have done. After looking through some of them, I started to break them down into the ABCs and realized that behavior modification is present in all of them. If I could break down criminal behavior into the ABCs, I assume that all forms of behavior (both simple and complex) can be broken down and explained using behavior modification. Based on these posts, the most interesting topic that I would like to learn about in class is how to change some of these more negative behaviors.
The post that interested me was the one from Tasha J. I thought the post was interesting because of the topic of not driving, and how Tasha broke down everything into the cause and effect side of things. I found it interesting how every little thing had a different cause and effect, you don't realize how such a small decision like not driving has a possibility of so many different outcomes until it is written out like that right in front of you.
I think reading these posts has helped change my idea of what behavior modification, because I guess I really never thought about how complex behavior modification is. It also gave me a better idea of what we should be thinking about and looking for when analyzing behavior modification topics.
I think we could take topics that are occurring in the world and adequately explain them with what we know about behavior modification, because reading through the earlier posts about in the news I seen that every story can be broken down and explained further by figuring out the cause and effect of decisions. Every news story can be looked at as a cause and effect and all of it has to do with behavior modification as well. I think as of now we couldn't do an adequate job until we all develop a further understanding of behavior modification, but once we learn a few more things I think we could explain the news with behavior modification.
I'm not sure yet if there is any certain thing I am interested in learning, I'm sure over the semester I will find something that strikes me. I hope it will be an interesting semester and hope behavior modification will be fun.
Do you believe that we can take complex topics that are occurring in the world and adequately explain them with what we know about behavior modification? Why or why not?
Based on these posts are there any specific topics you are interested in learning?
The post I liked best and found the most interesting was by Tasha J. I can kind of relate to it because I enjoy playing video games. However, I am now on my third vehicle and have had one since I was fifteen. I don't think they have changed my mind about what behavior modification is, I have just gone with the flow really so far. Yes, our actions and behaviors are determined by our reactions to things going on in our environment. By changing how we will react or how others react we can change behaviors. Not at this time, I'll give it more thought.
The blog I found the most interesting was the one from m.anderson about childhood obesity. This is a rising problem in the United States with 34% of children already falling in the overweight category. I like how the blogger broke down the issues that could have led to the child feeling uncomfortable with their weight because bullying is also becoming a bigger problem. I also liked it I like because the blogger takes into consideration the fact that the target behavior can be both a negative reinforcement and a positive reinforcement depending on how it’s perceived.
I also found the blog about animals being able to sense earthquakes interesting. I liked how the blogger went as far back as the scientist studying the toads in the first place as the antecedent. Most people wouldn’t think about going back that far. I think that it is important to study the behaviors of animals as much as it is to study the behavior of people. Animals are sometime better in touch with nature and there for we can learn a lot from their behaviors. When humans pay closer attention to the behaviors of animals and research why they are acting that way they can modify their own behaviors in order to survive.
Every post I have read, so far, has changed my view of behavior modification. I am starting to learn that modifying behavior is more complex than I originally thought. I was under the impression that modifying ones behavior was only a self-involved, as well as, a self aware activity. I now understand that the reaction of others has a lot to do with ones behaviors. Sometimes people may not even be aware that their behaviors are often dictated through different situations and what is deemed acceptable.
I believe that we can take complex topics and explain them using behavior modification. When I was reading through the post from last semester I noticed that there were several topics that the students applied the ABCs to and this makes me believe that they can be applied to basically anything. People behave a certain way on a day to day basis depending on the reinforcement and punishment they have received previously and are still receiving that day. Every behavior has an antecedent or something that set up the behavior to happen. Every behavior also has a consequence which may affect the way the behavior is emitted later on. It seems like applying the ABCs to complex topics would be achievable.
I am interesting in learning more about the ABCs of behavior and applying it to other areas. I think that any information that is able to help in other areas of someone’s life is worthy of learning.
The post that I enjoyed reading the most was one by Jamie. She talked about HIV/AIDS and the consequences that come out of people having a negative stereotype of people with the disease. She also wrote about positive reinforcement when a mother becomes ill and her daughter moves home to take care of her. Reading this post really opened my eyes to the fact that what I learn in this class will truely help me to define and think about things in the news and "real world". She categorized things in the "ABCs" which really shed a new light on them and pulled out things that I probably wouldn't have focused on had I read the article that she did. I found her post extremely interesting and she made me more excited to begin learning behavior modification and learn more about the ABCs. The post didn't really make me think any different of behavior modification. I'm still a bit confused about what it exactly consists of and I'm excited to learn more about it, but it hasn't pushed me to think differently of it yet. I do believe that we can pull things out of the news and explain them with behavior modification. People are people and need everything to be explained. What we know about behavior modification can really help us do that and hopefully help us to fix some of the issues in society. Of the topics that Jamie spoke about, I'm not even more interested in the ABCs and how they affect or categorize our choices.
I really enjoyed Monica E.'s post about black Friday. I feel like she did a great job of analyzing and breaking down the ABC's. As a former retail worker and seasoned black Friday shopper, I was drawn to the content. I also enjoyed the article about the baby tax at COSMO restaurant. Mostly, I enjoyed reading the details about a woman being 'fined' for bring a baby to the restaurant. How silly.
I feel like I need to learn a bit more about bmod before I can really write posts that have some solid content. I've noticed that many posters are using terminology that I am unfamiliar with.. I am excited to learned the concepts of bmod so that I can really apply the concepts to news stories and other events I come across.
I'm excited for the opportunity to delve into topics that really interest me and apply concepts of class to everyday life.
I didn't necessarily "like" the post about the hunting accident which lead a man to commit suicide however I found that one to be the most intriguing. I preferred the comments that explain a real experience, such as the hunting accident over the comments that spoke about a general issue such as black Friday and why people gain weight over the holidays. Though it was a tragic event, it was one that has made others aware of the dangers of hunting and snowmobiling. When I was reading it, I could imagine the event play through my head as a movie. I think this hit home for me because of the amount of family members I have that hunt. I can not begin to fathom the feelings the individual who accidentally shot his friend felt. Reading some of the blogs have changed my idea what behavior modification. I'm beginning to realize that behavior modification doesn't just define the behavior of an individual but it can also be used to explain situations. I'm also beginning to realize that behavior modification can be used to explain every situation no matter how small or complex it may be. It's pretty amazing how you can take such a simple equation (ABC) and apply it to almost every situation from something as little as explaining why humans respond to a clock from explaining a complex situation such as the hunting accident. I'm excited to learn the vocabulary that the previous students used before me. As far as specific topics that I am interested in range from going in detail with the five senses to knowing how to apply the ABC equation to every situation.
I found a few posts very interesting, such as the childhood obesity and hunting accident, but the one that really interested me was the 5 year old boy who was bound and taken to a mental hospital for wild behavior. It later said that the child had ADHD and that he flipped out when the officer touched his hand by knocking papers off a desk and kicking the officer in the knee. I would say that this post changed my mind on behavior modification, because at first I was upset that this would happen to a child over such a thing as ADHD. Granted I work with a child who has ADHD along with other disorders and that type of punishment, in my opinion, doesn't solve anything. However, after this article I think I am beginning to grab the meaning behind what behavior modification is about, possibly it's trying to take away the judgemental or personal view and replace it with a much broder and open-minded view. I somewhat believe you can take such topics and explain them through behavioral modification, but to say I completely understand and grasp what it's trying to do would be false. I also realize that that's the point of the calss, if I understood it all right now then I should get an A and be on with my life, right? I'm really interested in learning more about the ABC and how they affect my choices in life.
I found the post about Black Friday shopping the most interesting. I have never understood why people do it. Waking up super early in the morning just to join the rest of the crazy people waiting in loooong lines..
I think everything can be broken down with the different aspects of behavior mod. The class is barely started and I've already read about multiple different topics that really can explain anything. With that, I think we can adequately explain many complex events with behavior mod because there is such a wide variety of topics to explain them.
Alright, I read a few of the responses on each link and here is what I thought:
For the first link, right off the bat I can see that use of vocabulary is going to central to this course. I'm guessing that two out of every five or six words was a vocabulary word, or at least seemed like one. Seeing this, I am beginning to think that this is the origin of my little "elicited" problem from my last post. I am definitely going to be asking Prof MacLin about this in class on Tuesday.
From the first link, I really like the post by Monica E. I think it was set up and written well. It was structured in a simple and straightforward manner that was easy to follow. I think this important, being concise and direct. I think I will make it my goal for the semester to construct the majority of my posts in this way. Her post was really helpful for me as an incoming student because I can see how to improve my blogging and the subjects the class will possibly cover at the same time. I, like many people it seemed, enjoyed the Black Friday article that Monica E blogged about, as well.
Oh great, now there's "emitting"? I'm sorry for the T.A. who has to read these rantings about word usage but these things really bother me. I think it's mostly just that the use of Emitting and eliciting is so contrived and unnatural sounding. It jars my reading of the posts because I have to stop and wonder about it. I'm really going to have to ask Prof MacLin about this. Also does anyone else have thoughts on this? It might be early in the class to be asking for answers from everyone, but if anyone has some thoughts on this (or would just like me to stop talking about this) please reply to this post. I noticed later on that tessgarceau didn't use emitting, just like she didn't use eliciting. I wonder what her grade was like, or if this had any effect on it?
As I read over more of the posts on the first link and then the ones from the second, I noticed more vocabulary and, from what I saw, this class really looks to be what I expected it to be. Topics such as target behaviors, reinforcement, consequences, positive punishment are all buzzwords that I would expect to see in a class called Behavior Modification. I liked that many people talked about the ABC's of the class that Prof MacLin mentioned. This helps me to see how the parameters of the class are applicable to the class in a more concrete way.
I most certainly believe that the behaviors of people worldwide can be explained with the knowledge of psychology. I don't think that I could be a Psych major if i believed otherwise. Being able to understand the knowledge that exists and to build upon that knowledge is part of the reason that I am a Psych major and so I could hardly deny that knowledge's usefulness.