What we would like you to do is to find a topic from what we have covered so far in class that you are interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources (only one video please).
Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the section we have covered so far, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize the topic, and then write about the topic. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
By integrating/synthesizing I mean to take what your read/experienced from the internet search (and from chapter 1 if you like) organize the information into the main themes, issues, info, examples, etc. about your topic and then write about the topic in your own words using that information. This is hard for some people to do - many students write what we refer to as "serial abstracts." They are tempted to talk about the websites rather than the topic proper. They will talk all about website #1, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #2, start a new paragraph and talk all about web site #3, and then write some kind of conclusion. Serial means one after the other...This what you DON'T want to do!
At first it is a real challenge to get out of the habit of writing "serial abstracts," but I assure you once you get the hang of it it is much easier to write using the integration method. And besides this is the way researchers and scientists write their technical reports and findings - many of you will have to be able to do this for other classes and for jobs that you may eventually be hired for so now is a good time to learn this skill.
Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Let us know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
My topic of choice is Reinforcement, which is also a very broad topic like my last one I chose (Punishment). In my own words, the concept of reinforcement is to encourage or increase he frequency of a behavior that you find desirable. This in itself is just a basic explanation, because there are several different techniques as to going about reinforcement. The two most basic types are positive and negative reinforcement. Positive Reinforcement involves introducing a desirable stimulus in order to encourage emitting the desirable behavior. Positive reinforcement not only helps us to make other emit a behavior that we find more desirable or that we want, but it also has proven to help children later in life. An article that I found posted by St. Louis Today talks about how more positive reinforcement early in a child’s life can greatly benefit them later in life. In fact, brain scans showed that school children with mothers who provide more positive reinforcement at that age have a 10 percent larger hippocampus compared to the brains of children whose parents gave less positive reinforcement. This research was important because the hippocampus plays an important role in learning and stress response. I found this personally very interesting because I knew what kind of reinforcement that parents use affect children’s personality, but I didn’t expect that it could actually increase or decrease the size of important regions of their brain. I found this fascinating to say the very least. This proof of positive reinforcement having great benefits not only occur with kids learning, but it also has a great impact on animals and the way that they learn. There are often experiments that are conducted with animals to show the impact of reinforcement (such as the rat that must pull the lever in order to receive a pellet of food). Another great example from an article found is about two sets of horses that are being taught to halt. One set receives only negative reinforcement, while the second group receives only positive reinforcement. Both groups ended up halting the same way, proving that both can be equally effective techniques to use. However, the horses that received positive reinforcement showed an overall more upbeat topography in the way that they presented themselves, and were more quick to respond to their reinforcer.
Another way to reinforce is through conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. This is a concept that is also being introduced in more depth in the section we just read, section 3.4. While 3.4 goes more in-depth by introducing Conditioned Emotional Responses, I will just be discussing how conditioning relates to reinforcement. Conditioning is more of a form of learning, but still involves reinforcing because it involves a stimulus that is presented by someone in hopes that it will reinforce someone to a response that you desire. One example that I found is a clip from the TV show “The Office”. In this clip, Jim gives Dwight an altoid mint to eat every time Jim’s computer makes a certain tone when Jim restarts it manually. Jim does this over several days, giving Dwight a mint every time the computer is restarted and makes the noise. After several days of this, Jim restarts his computer and Dwight instinctively holds out his hand for a mint after hearing the sound of the computer restarting. Dwight was conditioned to receiving a mint every time he heard the sound, thus Jim was reinforcing him after each sound. This is an example of a conditioned stimulus and response. On the other hand, there is also unconditioned stimulus and response, which is conditioning that occurs naturally (such as the dog salivating from the meat powder).
http://www.spike.com/video-clips/0jnov0/the-office-the-jim-trains-dwight
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/fitness/positive-reinforcement-may-boost-kids-brains/article_70b9f46a-81b0-5ae7-bba6-8d1a1d0b1f15.html
http://www.horsesciencenews.com/horse-training/positive-reinforcement-has-its-rewards.php
Terms Used – Reinforcement, Desirable, Stimulus Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Emit, Conditioned Emotional Responses, Conditioned Stimuli, Unconditioned Stimuli, Topography, Reinforcer
Systematic desensitization is a very relevant form of psychological intervention, thus it seemed important to discuss and review the technique in detail. Systematic desensitization is applied to phobias ranging from fear of heights (Acrophobia) to fear of certain animals, such as snakes (Ophidiophobia). The process aims to present the feared stimuli to the client and step by step, and desensitize them to the stimuli until they can function at a normal level when the stimuli is in their environment. Fear of snakes is a very common and very conditioned fear! It is prevalent because it is a conditioned part of the western culture, parents teach their kids to be afraid of what snakes could do, rather then from an aversive experience with a snake. This conditioned fear of snakes bothers me, like the fear of spiders. It is not justified, its disrespectful to mother nature but in general, it’s unnecessary fear elicited by parents and deliberately conditioned into the minds of most children; it just seems ridiculous (Website#1). Why would parents want to raise a fearful child compared to a child who can identify the dangers and emit plausible behavior, not fear! Unfortunately, I can’t change parenting techniques, so learning the process of systematic desensitization in application to Ophidiophobia is the next best step.
There are three suggested steps involved in the process of desensitization (Website#2):
1. Relaxation
2. Constructing an anxiety hierarchy
3. Pairing relaxation with the situations described in the anxiety hierarchy
In regards to Ophidiophobia, a patient would firstly be taught relaxation techniques such as breathing and deep muscle relaxation. They would then create a hierarchy of fears associated with the phobia. Such as a snake 20 meters away is on the bottom compared to holding a snake at the top of the hierarchy. The client then works through the hierarchy applying the relaxation techniques as they go.
The success of systematic desensitization in treating the symptoms of phobias has been consistent (Website#3). Systematic desensitization acts as a sort of reinforcement. Using the example of Ophidiophobia above, after seeing the snake 20m away (during the first step of the therapy) the client emits the relaxation techniques they have been taught. Upon relaxing, they realize the fear dissipates and negative reinforcement occurs-if they keep relaxing they will no longer be afraid. This is another good example of why reinforcement is a more effective way to shape and modify behavior then punishment. If punishment was used to force the individual not to be scared, success rates would be low and panic attacks frequent!
TERMS: systematic desensitization, phobias, environment, fear, condition, aversive, elicit, emit, hierarchy of fear, negative reinforcement, punishment, Ophidiophobia
Website#1 - http://en.allexperts.com/q/Psychiatry-Psychology-General-1009/2009/12/phobia-snakes.htm
Website#2 - http://www.guidetopsychology.com/sysden.htm
Website#3 - http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html
INTRODUCTION
The topic that I chose for this assignment is systematic desensitization. This fits in with the sections we have covered so far. Specifically, the term is explained in section 3.4 of our book for this class. It relates largely to the topic of classical conditioning (it’s a sort of reversal technique). Watson conditioned Little Albert to fear white rats. If he were to reverse this process, to condition Albert to not fear rats, he would probably utilize systematic desensitization. I am interested in this topic because we recently covered anxiety disorders and phobias in relation to gradual exposure in my child and adolescent psychopathology class. I was questioning in my previous blog whether gradual exposure would be more appropriate for the situation than systematic desensitization. I chose this topic to find out the answers to my questions, as any researcher would.
WHAT IS SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION?
In behavioral therapy, systematic desensitization (SD) is used to overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. It is a type of Pavlovian, or classical conditioning, therapy. It was developed by psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe. One of the main principles of this therapy is that what has been conditioned, or learned, can be unlearned (Source 3). In order for SD to occur, the subject first needs to be taught relaxation skills. Then, the therapist might ask the person to think about their specific phobia. For example, let’s go with snakes. The subject may become fearful thinking about snakes, but is told to use the relaxation techniques they have been taught. Once they feel comfortable thinking about snakes, the therapist might show them pictures of snakes, then have them hold the pictures, imagine looking at a real snake, imagine holding a real snake, and then maybe even go to a zoo to see a snake in real life. Between all of these steps, the subject would be using the relaxation techniques to overcome their specific phobia of snakes (Source 1). The process aims to remove the fear response. The goal is to substitute the initial fear response with the relaxation response in the presence of the feared stimulus (Source 2). The subject of systematic desensitization and the snake example are talked about in this video. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcojyGx8q9U
IS IT DIFFERENT FROM GRADUAL EXPOSURE?
Systematic desensitization is also called graduated exposure therapy. This relates to my question from my previous blog. In my previous writing, I had assumed that gradual exposure and systematic desensitization were two different therapies. As a result, I questioned whether gradual exposure or systematic desensitization would be a more effective therapy to use. I noted that there were similarities between the two, but I thought they were two different variations of a similar therapy. As it turns out, gradual exposure is basically just another (easier to remember) name for systematic desensitization (Source 1). This obviously renders my question irrelevant, but at least I got my answer! Gradual exposure and SD are the same therapy, and that therapy has proven to be effective in treating phobias and anxiety.
CONCLUSION
I chose the topic of systematic desensitization because it was a recent topic that I had developed questions about. We have not had class since I read about systematic desensitization, so I didn’t have the opportunity to ask Dr. MacLin. Instead, I was able to answer my questions for myself through this week’s blog assignment. I learned that gradual exposure and systematic desensitization are basically the same thing. I also learned a little about where the therapy came from and how it relates to classical conditioning. I feel that I have a better understanding of my topic because of this assignment, and I feel a sense of accomplishment.
Also, it’s really nice to do something other than sift through pages upon pages of youtube videos trying to find one that illustrates a behavioral topic. Those assignments took me FOREVER, and I would much rather find three sources, read, and write about what I learned about a specific behavioral topic… SO THANKS! :D
http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/treatments/a/SystemDesen.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_desensitization
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcojyGx8q9U
TERMS:
Systematic desensitization, classical conditioning, gradual exposure, Pavlovian, Joseph Wolpe, graduated exposure therapy, gradual exposure, response, stimulus, phobias, anxiety
A topic I find interesting is systematic desensitization, a behavior technique used to help people overcome their phobias. I find systematic desensitization interesting because I have a friend who has a phobia of needles. Every time she sees or even hears about needles she bursts into hysterics that involves shaking, laughing, and crying. By learning more about systematic desensitization perhaps I can explain the technique to her and she can receive help. Also when I have kids someday, if they for some reason begin to develop a phobia perhaps I can use this behavioral technique to eliminate the phobia and keep it from getting worse. In our behavior modification class we have read about systematic desensitization in section 3.4 and the process involved with the example of a plane phobia.
Systematic desensitization is based off the principle of classical conditioning and works to substitute a fear response to a stimulus, to a relaxed response to the stimulus. To do this, this behavioral technique uses a hierarchy of fear produced by the client and professional. This hierarchy of fear ranks items or situations involving the stimulus from least to most fearful (McLeod, 2008). The first part of systematic desensitization involves learning relaxing techniques. These techniques may include deep breathing and muscle relaxation. The relaxation techniques are beneficial in order to replace fear with relaxation (Ankrom, 2009). Once someone has learned relaxation techniques and has formed a hierarchy of fear they begin to desensitize themselves to their phobia by beginning with the least fearful items or situations to actually encountering the phobia. Generally people begin their desensitization through visualization (Richmond, 2012). For example, my friend may begin her systematic desensitization by visualizing a foam needle that cannot poke or harm her. She will then begin to visualize a real needle, followed eventually by touching a toy needle, a real needle, and her final step maybe receiving a shot.
Terms: systematic desensitization, classical conditioning, behavioral technique, visualization, stimulus, response, hierarchy of fear, phobia
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html
http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/treatments/a/SystemDesen.htm
http://www.guidetopsychology.com/sysden.htm
For this blog post, I decided to look deeper at taste aversion because I find it interesting how the mind works in relating food or drink with an unpleasant after effect, as well as how these responses can easily become conditioned in an individual. This fits in with the previous sections we have gone over relating to not only conditioning and classical conditioning, but also the subject of taste aversion itself.
When starting my search, I wanted to look at a greater in depth definition as to what taste aversion is. What I found was that taste aversion, also referred to as morbid repulsion, is when the mind develops a resistance towards certain foods or liquids which then becomes a conditioned response whenever that person comes in contact with a specific food or drink item. What this means is a natural stimulus (example food) is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (becoming ill after eating a particular food item), creating a conditioned response to not eat that food in the future, or to even become ill by the simple thought, sight, or smell of that food item. These conditioned responses can stick with a person from only a few hours or days to years of a person’s life.
Along with my research I found a discussion relating classical conditioning to taste aversion. In a web article, authors explain classical conditioning the span in time between when the natural stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus occur. In most cases of classical conditioning, this time span occurs in the matter of seconds, where as in taste aversion, this time span can take place over several hours at a time. When it comes to taste aversion, only one encounter with a foul taste or smell can condition an individual to avoid that item in future situations.
Because taste aversion only requires one encounter with the natural stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus, it often causes controversy to its classification with classical conditioning. Although taste aversion doesn’t fit into the classic cookie cutter model of classical conditioning, numerous research studies have shown that taste aversion is defiantly a development of classical conditioning. One of the greatest researchers to examine the phenomenon of taste aversion and its connection to classical conditioning was John Garcia. Contracting to Pavlov’s pervious findings, Garcia found that when feeding rats flavored water and injecting them with toxins that made the rats sick shortly after consuming the water that the rats would no longer drink the flavored water. From this research, Garcia was able to show that in certain stimuli can have an effect on the conditioning process.
All in all the simple concept of taste aversion is much more intricate than I myself thought it to be. Although I have merely touched on topic of taste aversion, there is a lot to be learned as to how taste aversion and conditioning go hand in hand with one another.
http://www.rinr.fsu.edu/issue2001/taste.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/f/taste-aversion.htm
http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Taste%20Aversion
Terms: Taste aversion, conditioned response, classical conditioning, natural stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, aversive
Reinforcement
I chose Reinforcement as a topic of further interest because last time I chose to research the Token economy system where the tokens become reinforcement. I chose this because given what I want to do after graduation I assume there is a good chance I will be involved in a token economy system. Since reinforcement goes far beyond practical use in token economys I wanted to further explore the areas of psychology for which it is used. Reinforcement is used for Applied Behavior Analysts and Occupational Therapists as well. Positive reinforcement is beneficial because it can be integrated into many different styles of therapy and intervention to increase or decrease behaviors. Differential reinforcement is often used to reinforce target behaviors and correct problematic behaviors. The example they gave was that in order for some skills to be enhanced the child may have to sit in a chair for extended periods of time. Sitting in a chair might be aversive to a child who would rather stand or run around to play. In order to increase the sitting time and get other things accomplished during a session putting beads on the table for a child to play with increases the time he/she sits in the chair. Putting beads on the table reinforced the sitting behavior and soon a frequent sitting behavior during sessions is emitted due to associating sitting with the desired objects, and since the beads are enhancing fine motor skills pairing a preferred fine motor skill ( playing with beads) with sitting increases the likelihood that sitting will happen in future sessions. This reminded me very much when talking about examples or reinforcement and the ABCs of behavior modification in the early chapters, only now it is applied specifically to clinical examples. Since therapists are encountering more children with autism and ADHD, positive reinforcement is an essential skill for a therapist. I also learned what positive reinforcement isn't and this may be equally important to know when explaining or justifying certain things to a caregiver. Reinforcement is not coercion or bribery because no unethical or undesired behavior should be reinforced, and nothing in therapy should be forced without consent, or without regard to the client's well-being, ruling out coercion. Positive Reinforcement in a nutshell is pairing desired objects with independent behavior, it rewards appropriate behaviors, and should enhance motivation to behave in ways which have been reinforced. I really like how the video incorperates the importance of the children becoming self-motivated for reinforcement. I liked this aspect of reinforcement in comparison to the token economy because it's more realistic. Tokens are less natural reinforcers. It also introduced to me the concept of intrusive prompting as a correction procedure. I think this is good because although a reinforcement wasn't delivered after incorrect responses/behaviors the intrusive prompting made sure that the child knew the correct answer and wasn't discouraged. And I know as a child becoming discouraged wasn't going to elicit correct responses for me to be reinforced in the future. This is something I don't remember reading in behavior modification and might be a useful tool for me to know in the future. Praise when paired with un natural reinforcers can eventually take the place of them and just as we talked about schedules of reinforcement in class I learned that when learning a skill continuous reinforcement works well and as skills are learned a variable schedule works best. Researching schedules of reinforcement really tied everything I learned about reinforcement and token economy together because you can combine schedules of reinforcement with a token economy. If a teacher/therapist wanted to try and replace tokens with verbal praise the child might become confused. Say they were always getting tokens for correct answers but suddenly they do not? They might conclude that they had given an incorrect response. So when praise is paired with tokens, and the tokens are taken away but the praise is not, the child still knows they have emitted a correct response. This means praise is on a continuous schedule as a reinforcer while tokens are on a variable schedule.
Terms: reinforcement, reinforcer, positive reinforcement, token economy, aversive, emit, elicit, differential reinforcement, target behavior, schedules of reinforcement, variable, continuous reinforcement, *instrusive prompt
http://ajot.aotapress.net/content/58/1/113.full.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wskmyzZNf6g
http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/schedules-of-reinforcement.html
The topic that will be discussed is superstitious behavior. Superstitious behavior fits into what we have talked about so far in behavior modification because we have discussed behaviors that are emitted in order to either increase or decrease the likelihood of having a behavior occur again. I am interested in the topic of superstitious behavior because it amazes me how many live their lives performing superstitious acts or rituals without even realizing. Superstitious behavior happens when a reinforcer or punisher occurs near the same time, and the behavior is accidentally punished or reinforced. A good example of superstitious behavior is when you’re walking down a sidewalk and try to not step on the cracks, because of the saying “if you step on a crack you’ll break your moms back.” Now, just because you don’t step on the crack and your mothers back doesn’t break doesn’t mean her back didn’t break because of you not stepping on the sidewalk cracks. The superstitious saying reinforces the behavior because more then likely your mother wouldn’t break her back, if ever, at that point in time.
Many studies have been done on superstitious behavior. One study was done at Kansas State University where researchers found that people tend to use superstitious behavior also believe in chance and fate. Although, this finding did not surprise the researchers, they did find something that astounded them. The researchers found that when death was involved people tended to be less superstitious.
I also found that many superstitious behaviors arise out of athletics. Several studies have been done with athletes superstitious beliefs with winning a game. One commercial I found depicted this well. The video had several people performing superstitious acts right before a game. After winning the game people believe it was because of their superstitious behavior that elicited the win. After this happens the person’s behavior is reinforced by the win, which therefore increases the likelihood that that person will emit superstitious behavior in the future.
Many superstitious behaviors are reinforced by the occurrence of the reinforcer directly after the superstitious behavior has been emitted.
Terms: superstitious behaviors, reinforced, reinforcer, emitted, behavior, punished, elicited, and reinforces
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubUTobPPP3o
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/09/03/scientific-view-of-superstitious-behavior/17698.html
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/superstitious%20behavior.html
According to Iribarren and colleges (2005), “Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is the psychiatric disorder that can result from the experience or witnessing of traumatic or life-threatening events such as terrorist attack, violent crime and abuse, military combat, natural disasters, serious accidents or violent personal assaults.” A study in the late 1990’s suggests that 5% of males and 10% of female are diagnosed. (Iribarren et al, 2005). Those affected by PTSD usually experience: (1) reoccurring symptoms, such as nightmares and flashbacks, (2) Avoidance symptoms, staying away from specific places or feeling strong guilt, and (3) Hyperarousal symptoms, being easily started or having difficulty sleeping. (NIMI)
PTSD, as stated earlier is experienced after a traumatic or life-threatening event, but many are seen after active military duty. ABC News found that 20% of returning war veterans are diagnosed with PTSD that we know of, there could be many more undiagnosed cases. In the past decade 70,000 service members have been diagnosed. This is a very large number of service men and women being affected by this. One marine upon returned commented that he was afraid to be near guns because of what he might do. Not only are they dealing with PTSD symptoms, but it is also comorbid with alcoholism, depression, anxiety and even suicide. With such prevalence in our society, what are ways that this can be treated?
A cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy that has been proven to the most affective, in treating PTSD is systematic desensitization. (US Department of Veteran Affairs) Systematic desensitization is a behavioral method used to gradually expose the patients to what they find most aversive to reduce their fear. Therapists want to help the patient understand and change how they think about their trauma and aftermath and help them cope their emotions. Therapists start with the least upsetting memories before talking about the worst one, which is known specifically as desensitization allowing them to deal with their bad memories a little at a time. (US Department of Veteran Affairs). Another way that has been proven as a less aversive way to treat military personnel with PTSD is through simulation, in a previously class, Abnormal Psychology that I took in the fall, I learned about this technique. In simulation, a virtual war environment is created to represent things that happened to the patient while deployed. The simulation vibrates, tilts around to what it is on the screen, and has detailed graphics and sounds experienced as well. This has helped patients revisit the traumatic situation in a safe environment, where it allows them to talk through it with the therapist without being under actual pressure.
Not only is this a therapy technique, it could also be the future to defend against the affect so PTSD. According to NBC LA, “new recruits facing front-line assignments may be able to inoculate themselves against the psychological effects of potential real-life nightmares”. By exposing them to stressful situations it assist them on ways to handle them. This could be the future to help not only patients affect by PTSD, but also decrease the number of people diagnosed in the future.
Terms: Systematic desensitization, environment, exposing, symptoms, comorbid, gradually expose, desensitization, and fear.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/what-are-the-symptoms-of-ptsd.shtml
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/ptsd-numbers-battling-post-traumatic-stress-18394379
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1297500/
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/treatment-ptsd.asp
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Virtual-Reality-A-New-Therapy-for-PTSD-Victims-155415875.html
The topic that I decided to look more into was experimental neurosis. I found this interesting because it seems like such a strange thing to happen. It was something that I wanted to look more into because I wanted to see what other things can cause experimental neurosis. I wanted to see if other experiments can produce the same results.
Experimental neurosis was, according to our text, accidently discovered by Pavlov. Pavlov discovered that some of the dogs in his experiment began to act as though they were insane. At that time researchers were just beginning to discover the function of neurons. They were just beginning to understand that some neurons were excitatory and others were inhibitory. Pavlov correlated the aggressive behavior of the dogs as excitatory and the listless behavior of the dogs as inhibitory. Pavlov believed that his experiments were directly effecting the neurons of the dogs brains. The procedure that Pavlov then used to create the experimental neurosis was to classicaly condition the dogs to discriminate different shapes. Pavlov trained the dogs to discriminate between a circle and a square. Once the dogs could descriminate the two shapes, Pavlov began to alter them. He would make the two shapes more and more similar until the dogs were unable to perform the task of descriminating the two shapes. Pavlov discoverd that some dogs would become unresponsive (inhibitory), and some dogs would become aggressive (excititory).
Pavlov refered to both of the responses as experimental neurosis. The dogs that were aggressive seemed to be under the control of excititory neurons and the dogs that were listless seemed to be under the control of inhibitory neurons.
Accoring to another source experimental neurosis "is produced in the laboratory by putting subjects in a situation where they are required to make discriminations or produce problem solving responses that are beyond their capacity to produce. This is a learned helplessness paradigm when aversive stimulation consistently follows their inevitable failures." This is similar to the way that our text described it. I feel that experimental neurosis is similar to frustration in that frustration can cause a person to become distressed the same way that experimental neurosis can cause someone to experience distress. According to another source an experiment was done that showed that experimental neurosis can be induced in humans by performing a semistarvation experiment. In the experiment 36 men participated. All of the men experienced some form of neurosis ranging from mild to severe. This study showed that this does not only happen in animals and that it can happen over a wide range of situations.
http://www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/pavlov.html
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/10/1/31.full.pdf
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Experimental_neurosis
Terms: experimental neurosis, excititory, inhibitory, discriminate, neurosis, neurons.
I chose to learn more about conditional emotional responses. The only very briefly touched on this subject, not even giving a definition for the term. I was curious as to what role this played in classical conditioning because it was obviously seen as important enough to put into the text.
Conditional emotional responses are learned emotional reactions to a once neutral stimuli. Conditional emotional responses play the same role as conditioned responses except that the response in not an emitted behavior but an emitted emotion. When learning this definition I realized that we have been using the concept of conditional emotional response from day one whenever we described an unconditioned stimulus that elicited an unconditioned response of an emotion such as feeling angry, scared, anxious, or happy after being exposed to that stimulus. This ties into the recent readings when it explained Watson's Little Albert experiment because this is the first documented case of using conditioned emotional response. Watson conditioned Little Albert to have conditioned emotional response of fear that eventually was generalized to all furry things. Conditional emotional response also ties into the discusstion of phobias beacuse all of such are examples of conditional emotional respones. In phobias a neutral stimulus is conditioned to produce an aversive response of emotion in which elicits the person with the phobia to stay away from that conditioned stimulus. Another example in which incorporates one of the philosophies of our class is the occurance of aversive conditioned emotional responses that relate to school and test taking. One example given in the readings is a professor walking into class and telling his students to clear off their desks and get out a writing utensil and then he observed the reactoins of his students. They all imediatly showed an aversive conditioned emotional response to the stimulus of the teacher's instructions as shown by the anxiety that came across the classroom.
Due to the fact that Dr.O didn't go into great detail about this topic and in class mentioned that it was a more advanced term in classical conditioning I would like to know if there is more to this term that I found with the little research required for this assignment or if we will be convering in more depth later on in the term. I feel as though it is a simple term to comprhend but also understand that there very well could be another aspect to it that I did not uncover in my search.
Terms Used: condtitional emotional response, classical conditioning, neutral stimuli, emit, conditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, elicit, aversive, conditioned stimulus
http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/conditional_emotional_responses.html
http://www.education.com/reference/article/classical-conditioning/
http://exploring--psychology.blogspot.com/2011/09/conditioned-emotional-reactions-case-of.html
From what we have learned this far, I wanted to do more research on Thorndike because we also have just recently learned about him in my History and Systems class. I am interested in Thorndike because his research is the first that I have come by that did not involve harming that participating animals. I am also interested in Thorndike’s research because I find it interesting that “trial and error” had to be experimented. It would have seemed to me, now with modern psychology, that it is similar to training an animal. This is also similar to reinforcement and punishment. Thorndike relates to what we read in section 3.1.
Edward Thorndike was interested in animal intelligence. He is best known for testing cats in his puzzle box. The puzzle box started out as old wooden crates that he would find in alleys. He would then build levers and pullies that would open the door to the box. Thorndike would put a cat in the box and put a plate of food outside said box for the cat as reinforcement. The cat would have to use trial and error in order to escape the box. Thorndike hypothesized that the cat would eventually get faster at escaping the box after multiple trails. The way to measure this is called methodological construct. Eventually, this came to be known as the Law of Effect. The Law of stated that any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped. This is similar to the foundation of behavior modification—reinforcement and punishment. This would be considered positive reinforcement. Something desirable is given to increase the behavior. In Thorndike’s experiment with the cats, food is given to the cats in order to increase the behavior of escaping the box. Thorndike also believed that behaviors were stamped in and stamped out. Behaviors that are stamped in are the ones that helped the cat escape and those that were stamped out were not effective in the escape. In order to persuade that cats to want the food more, extinction was used. The cats would be hungry when they were pun in the puzzle box for the experiment. This experiment was used to test leaning behaviors. He concluded that animals can learn by trial and error and with reward and punishment just as humans can.
Terms: Law if effects, behavior, punishment, reinforcement, Thorndike, puzzle box, stamped in, stamped out, consequences, “trial and error”, methodological construct, extinction, positive reinforcement.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
I chose this site because it was short, sweet and to the point and like Dr. MacLin’s book, it had a video which made it easy to understand.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
I chose this last site because it focused more on The Law of Effects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike
I chose Wikipedia because I thought it gave a brief overview of Thorndike’s background and information on the Law of Effect.
The topic of classical conditioning that we have been learning about is particularly interesting to me because of its application to everyday life.
Classical conditioning involves so many concepts within behaviorism it serves as a basis for a lot of different things. Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which the conditioned stimulus, after a period of time, elicits the occurrence of a second stimulus that is unconditioned. Eventually, after some time has passed the unconditioned response from the unconditioned stimulus becomes learned (conditioned response). For instance in the video “Fun with Psychology: Pavlov’s classical Conditioning” the boy classically conditions his brother to expect a shot from an airsoft gun after hearing a toy going off that says “that was easy”. The Airsoft gun was the unconditioned stimulus while the toy going off was the conditioned stimulus. After the repetitive process of making the toy go off and shooting the gun right afterward, the boy’s brother grew to expect the shot of the gun after hearing that noise of the toy. This type of conditioning, and the most effective type of conditioning, is called trace conditioning; the conditioned stimulus came right before the unconditioned stimulus (the toy went off before his brother was shot with the airsoft gun).
Brief descriptions of each type of response along with stimuli I feel are important to understand the context of classical conditioning. An unconditioned stimulus is referred to as something that occurs that automatically and naturally triggers a response. Going back to the video “Fun with Psychology: Pavlov’s classical Conditioning” the unconditioned stimulus was the airsoft gun because it caused pain and made the boy’s brother flinch automatically. The unconditioned response is something a little different. It is the unlearned response that happens naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. In the video the boy flinching after he was shot was the unconditioned response. The conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that used to be neutral when, after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually became a trigger for a conditioned response. The conditioned stimulus in the video was the toy making a sound. Previous to the video being made, the boy’s brother had no associations with that particular noise. After the video was made, the boy now flinches every time he hears that toy go off. This leads me to the Conditioned Response which in the video is the response to the toy going off. The Conditioned Response according to Pavlov is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus; flinching.
Classical conditioning has so many applications for the real world it is almost unreal. This technique that Pavlov so cleverly discovered is useful in the treatment of some anxiety problems, dog training, aiding teachers in a classroom by creating a positive learning environment, etc. Classical Conditioning while we’ve been talking about increasing the likelihood a behavior will happen, can also decrease the likelihood of a behavior happening. Extinction involves the disappearance of a conditioned response and continuing to reinforce that disappearance until eventually that behavior is extinguished. Extinction is a great behavioral technique that involves classical conditioning to decrease a behavior; when you no longer pair the conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will no longer happen. This works great when the conditioned response is aversive.
Terms: Classical conditioning, Behaviorism, learning, conditioned stimulus, elicit, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response, trace conditioning, extinction, aversive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning#Behavioral_therapies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwFQVpX2lhw
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcondbasics.htm
The topic I chose is positive reinforcement. This is probably my favorite section so far because reinforcement is a foundation for behavior modification and it really interests me and I continually find more ways people are using positive reinforcement to get a desired behavior. In positive reinforcement the child that that does not have something(lets say a piece of candy) elicits a certain desirable behavior(cleans his/her room) and they get a piece of candy. They got a piece of candy after they cleaned their room so they will relate getting candy when they clean their room which will positively reinforce cleaning their room and they will do it more often. The power of reinforcement is huge. Everyone likes to be praised and appreciated for doing something good. Positive reinforcement can make a child want to do good things, make an employee work harder, an athlete get stronger, etc. Positive reinforcement does not only work when it is someone else praising you or giving you something, it can also be used on ourselves. When a weight lifter goes to the gym and lifts weights they gain muscle that they did not have and are bigger, stronger and faster than they previously were. No one is giving them muscle and no one is lifting the weights for them. This can be an example of giving yourself positive reinforcement and it could also be an example of positive reinforcement that someone else is giving you. When someone notices that you have been working out they may say “you look skinnier” or “you look stronger” which enforces going to the gym and makes that person want to keep going.
The video I chose is kind of a silly video that shows positive reinforcement in the work place. Everyone knows that person that slacks more than anyone else on the job. In this video positive reinforcement is given more to the people that work harder by giving them more money and the employees that don't work as hard don't get as much money which makes all employees want to work harder to earn more money.
http://www.inspired-personal-development.com/positive-reinforcement.html
http://www.theleadershiphub.com/blogs/funny-video-clip-new-positive-reinforcement-motivation-system
http://www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/positive-reinforcement.html
After reading this section I really wanted to look more into the idea of functionalism. I was especially interested in how it relates to the theory of evolution. After this section it seemed to me like they go hand in hand. Functionalism is pretty much based on evolution, saying that every adaptation is a result of evolutionary purposes. I really wanted to do more research on different people who believe in functionalism and the ideas that they had.
My first link explained to me that functionalism is more of a philosophical idea. Some of the most prominent figures in psychology, such as Watson and Skinner, supported this idea. Functionalism interests me because it relates to behaviorism. It explains that behaviors have different dispositions and each behavior can be broken down. I tend to share this view because sometimes humans behavior like "animals" and the behaviors can usually be linked to an evolutionary aspect. I just think it is crazy that our species has evolved so far and attempts to be so civilized, but really we all have these motives inside of us. Most of the time they are subconscious, you might not know what caused the emotion, or how to relate it in evolutionary terms, but most of the time it is there.
I like the ideas of functionalism a lot. The process of applying the scientific method to the real world really seems logical to me. We can learn great things from experiments involving real world variables. In other words, taking these ideas outside of the lab and applying them to the real world. It is surprising the amount of behavioral aspects you can spot in your everyday life if you are looking for it. There are antecedents everywhere in our everyday life that, in a way, control our behavior. The ideas involved with a social system also interest me. It explains the things that are essential in a society to meet certain needs we have. This is where Maslow's hierarchy of needs can be brought into the picture.
Sociology also talks a lot about functionalism. In the sociological sense, functionalism has to do with social order and society. They see how each part in society has a functioning order that makes it all work. In other words, we all depend on each other for certain services. We need farmers to grow food and they need us to buy it. Each part in a society is essential to it keeping order. Functionalism is interesting in this sense because it focuses on social order and society.
http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/soc/s00/soc111-01/IntroTheories/Functionalism.html this link did a good job explaining how functionalism fits into the real world and the different emphasis s
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/ this link did a really good job in explaining to me how functionalism relates with behaviorism
http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociological-Theory/a/Functionalist-Theory.htm this link explained the sociological aspects of functionalism, it talked a lot about society and social order
terms: social order, society, Watson, Skinner, evolution, adaptation, sociology, philosophy, antecedent, behavioral dispostions
The concept I chose to look more into was intermittent reinforcement. I liked reading about this the first time because, like the temporal relationship between stimuli, it was a part of the reinforcement process that I simply had not thought much about before. Continuous reinforcement is where the reinforcer is given every time the target behavior occurs. Intermittent reinforcement differs in that it is not given every time. There are four types of intermittent reinforcement: fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval. In class we went over the various types and used some real life applicable examples. Each type has their own response rate, post-reinforcement pause, and susceptibility to extinction. An article I found online explained that for organizational purposes, the variable ratio reinforcement schedule is the most effective. This means that in a business setting it would be best to administer bonuses or reinforcers after a varying number of times the desired behavior occurred. This is because with the variable ratio schedule, the desired behavioral change is consistent and very resistant to extinction. Because of the resistance to extinction, it is easy to increase the amount of times before it is necessary to administer the reinforcer. I watched a video of a man training his parrot to fly to him reinforcing him with food on a variable ratio. This would've been easy to start, but a lot of food would have to be used initially. After the bird had caught on to the variable reinforcement schedule, it would continue to fly in accordance with it's commands. This means that he could increase the amount of times until he had to reinforce the bird. The bird would continue to fly more for the same amount of food. This could be integrated into the work example from before. The first raise would come quick, but the second raise would take a little longer to get. The person continues to always work toward that next promotion, no matter how long it may take. This is why a variable ratio schedule is extremely effective. A fixed interval example would be a weekly paycheck. It would be easy to slack off until the end of the week where you are evaluated. Then you would work harder. Once you have been reinforced, it would not be necessary that you put forth a lot of work immediately after. This is a scallop shaped pattern of behavior that is consistent with this reinforcement schedule. A study done on rats allowed them to run on a wheel after 60 seconds of pushing a lever. The rats would push the lever very infrequently at the beginning and more frequently at the end of the 60 seconds in anticipation of the reinforcer. After giving the rats cocaine, the scalloped pattern leveled out. The results of this study are still semi vague, so for the time being, we should not go and give all of our workforce cocaine so that they work harder in their respective cubicles, which as of right now seem depressingly similar to operant chambers.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1284809/
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Pr-Sa/Reinforcement-Theory.html#b
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9NxqUD_MPA
Terms: intermittent reinforcement, temporal relationship, stimuli, behavior, fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, variable interval, extinction, operant chambers
The topic I chose to research more was taste aversion. This topic interested me for many reasons. The example given from a previous section sparked this interest because I thought it was intriguing how the scientists were convinced that it would take multiple trials before a neutral stimulus could become a conditioned stimulus. The example given in the reading involved a man emitting the behavior of throwing up with the smell of alcohol. The alcohol elicited the behavior of throwing up because of the experience he had with it just one time drinking too much. The consequence of the behavior was throwing up every time he smelled that type of alcohol. I know people who emit similar behaviors when presented with a specific type of alcohol. It almost happens to me when I smell or drink tequila because it has caused me to vomit in the past.
This does not only happen with alcohol. It can also happen with types of food. From my first source, the story discusses how a person ate an enchilada and threw up thereafter. From that moment on, this person would get nauseous from smelling any foods that reminded him/her of that dish. Even though, he/she was aware that the enchilada did not cause the sickness, it still had the consequence of creating a conditioned taste aversion. This was very interesting to me because even after the fact that he/she knew that it wasn’t from the enchilada, he/she still was affected/conditioned from taste aversion. In this example, the food is the neutral stimulus and is paired with an unconditioned stimulus the illness. This led to feeling sick which is the unconditioned response. “After this one time pairing, the previously neutral stimulus (the food) is now a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response (avoiding the food).”
The video link I posted is from the hangover. They are discussing what they drank from last night and stu hears the word shot and immediate throws up. I thought this was a good example that illustrates taste aversion.
Something interesting I found researching was another form of taste aversion for animals. Conditioned taste aversion for animals is a defense mechanism to help animals avoid repeatedly eating toxic foods. “CTA is due to an association of the gustatory conditional stimulus (CS) with the delayed visceral unconditional stimulus (US).”
Terminology: taste aversion, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, emit, elicit, behavior, consequence, conditioned taste aversion, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/f/taste-aversion.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kBxkl-esOM
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198523475.001.0001/acprof-9780198523475
Punishment
I am especially interested in learning more about reinforcement and punishment and how to apply them to real world. I think I’m interested in learning more about both of them because growing up my parents used punishment in our household. We would get in trouble for something and my parents would take desirable items away or we would be grounded for a week. My parents were never physical but it’s awful when you hear about a child who gets abused and that’s a source of punishment so I wanted to look more into punishment. Learning about punishment was one of the first things we learned about in this class. Punishment is a type of operant conditioning first described by B. F. Skinner. We learned that whenever you are trying to decrease the likelihood that the target behavior will occur again in the future, you can use punishment. There are two different types of punishment, positive punishment and negative punishment. Positive punishment is the addition of something aversive. A good way to remember what positive punishment is, is to think of it as ‘adding’ something positive. Negative punishment, however, is the removal of a desirable stimulus, also known as the ‘punishment by removal.’ Again, both types of punishment are used to try and decrease the aversive behavior and hope that it doesn’t happen again in the future.
I think parents often use the techniques that they grew up with. So if their parents were a little aggressive with the punishment, I believe they will be too. Little do they know that physical abuse really isn’t that powerful when it comes to long term improvements. Physical abuse can have damaging effects on children as well. For example, when a child is brought up in a physically abusive home, they often become more aggressive themselves. They could act out in school and get into fights with other children. Children are at a higher risk for injury and mental health issues when physical abuse is used in the home. I’m not saying punishment can’t occur because sometimes it might be the right solution but physical abuse is never the answer. I think parents need to be educated on ways to use reinforcement as well. If they learned different techniques to use for discipline I think that’d be much healthier for everyone involved.
In order for punishment to be an effective procedure a few things need to occur. For starters, the punishment needs to be intense enough to stop the behavior occurring in the future. If it’s not intense enough then no behavior will change. The punishment needs to immediately follow the undesired target behavior. If there is too much time in between the aversive behavior and punishment then the two won’t be associated together. Another important factor about punishment is it needs to be consistent. You need to be consistent enough in punishment that whenever you see the undesired target behavior being emitted you need to immediately implement the punishment. However sometimes punishment doesn’t always work. For example, prison is a form of punishment. Well sometimes people who get out of jail commit the same crime over and over again and get away with it because they don’t get caught every time. But that means that punishment (prison) didn’t work to decrease the behavior. They just got lucky and didn’t get caught. One reason prison might not decrease the likelihood of the behavior is because it’s not immediate. Often times you have to wait a significant amount of time to get sentenced to jail. However, punishment in jail is better for our society because it gets criminals off the streets and that alone decreases the likelihood of any other aversive behaviors happening from that person.
Looking back at my childhood my parents used both negative and positive punishment. For example, I remember my parents using positive punishment when I would get into trouble and make me do the dishes for a week (the addition of something undesirable). I also remember my parents using negative punishment like taking away my bicycle when I would come home late. It’s funny to look back and now realize what they were doing and how they were trying to modify my behavior.
Terms: punishment, aversive, emit, target behavior, positive punishment, undesirable, negative punishment,
https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=258654
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/punishment.htm
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Theories-of-Punishment.topicArticleId-10065,articleId-10039.html
Taste Aversion--
In the section that discussed Classical Conditioning, taste aversion was mentioned towards the very end. Section 3.3 described taste aversion as the conditioned response to a certain food or drink that is associated with a toxic or aversive situation. However, this food or drink does not have to be the cause of the illness just is associated with it. This is a concept that is not unique to just one food/drink group. One taste aversion that I have is Ramon noodles—I was forced to eat them for a long period of time and eventually made myself sick on them and even now I cannot eat them without feeling nauseous.
The word aversion may sound like a bad thing or like a punishment, but according to research done for those people that grind their teeth at night. They would use a sort of introduction of a punishment to remove something aversive. While in other studies, such as those for cancer, a taste aversion can be formed during chemotherapy—I know that my aunt’s taste buds change immensely after she went through chemo. This concept can also be used as an indirect reinforcer by trying to prevent the extinction of a species. Studies have shown that animals can be conditioned to stay away from a poisonous prey based on an introduction of a foul taste that elicits an avoidance behavior. I did notice that a lot of these studies used rats and in some were even involved in figuring out ways to poison them using the exact opposite of a taste aversion. One case in particular was discussing how the taste aversion of rats could over time be forgotten if it is not continuously reinforced—they go through a sort of extinction period. I believe that this may be true for humans that if you do not eat or drink something that once made you sick for a long time, then again eat it and find that you enjoy it, the taste aversion was reversed and you had complete the period of extinction—without the extinction burst for most cases. A good example of this happening in humans would be alcohol consumption. How many of us go out on a Saturday, drink way way to much, and then on Sunday have to nurse a hangover where even the thought of alcohol will emit a churning in your stomach. At that time we vow to never drink again only to find ourselves going through the same process the next weekend—if you ask me, humans are creatures of habit and if we don’t thoroughly break the cycle then we will continue to do it. Taste is also geographically influenced. Meaning that we may be born with a certain dislike of foods without having them tied to a certain illness or aversive experience.
Terms: Aversive, Aversion, Punishment, Taste Aversion, Reinforcer, Extinction, Conditioned, Extinction Burst, Avoidance, Behavior, Reinforced, Emit, Elicits, Habit, Classical Conditioning
http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT6164278&id=mPoEAAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=taste+aversion+scholarly&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q=taste%20aversion%20scholarly&f=false
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/bio.2010.60.7.17
http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/286/2/R251.short
From a previous section I chose to do schedules of reinforcement because I wanted to learn more about it rather than just what we had learned from our book. It is relevant with what we are learning and we use schedules of reinforcement without even thinking about which ones we are using. Schedules of reinforcement are important for the learning process because it determines when and how often we reinforce a behavior because it impacts the strength and rate of the response. When a target behavior is reinforced after multiple times this is referred to as reinforcement. Ratio reinforcement is useful after you have established a contingency between the reinforcement and the appropriate behavior with the continuous reinforcement schedule. With schedules of reinforcement there are four types of partial reinforcement, them being; fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval. Fixed ratio is when a response is reinforced after a specific number of responses. An example of fixed ratio is when a worker gets a bonus for selling five items. Variable ratio occurs when a response is reinforced after no specific number of responses. An example of variable ratio is a slot machine. Fixed interval is the first response is rewarded after a specified amount of time has elapsed. An example of fixed interval is tv commercials which happen and then the show returns. Variable interval is when a response is rewarded after an unspecified amount of time has passed. An example of variable interval could be fishing, you are fishing and catch fish two minutes apart and then don’t catch anymore for the rest of the day or maybe a few hours later. Extinction also has to deal with schedules of reinforcement of a response that is discontinued. Determining which type of reinforcement schedule to use may be difficult because each of the schedule types work with different behaviors. Then, when a target behavior is reinforced after a period of time it is interval reinforcement which is useful for behaviors that can be measured in terms of their duration. Different behaviors require different schedules of reinforcement because some may work better than others.
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/schedules.htm
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehavior/schedule.pdf
https://benchprep.com/blog/learning-and-conditioning-ii-schedules-of-reinforcement/
Terms: schedules of reinforcement, target behavior, reinforced, interval reinforcement, extinction, variable interval, fixed interval, fixed ratio, variable ratio, continuous reinforcement, contingency
I decided to read up on Little Albert because it is a sensitive topic and I would like to know why Watson did what he did. Much to my surprise, I found some articles that imply that Watson committed academic fraud. Researchers have identified the participant known as Little Albert. He suffered from congenital hydrocephalus that was present at birth, and he died when he was 6 years old. Many people have questioned why Watson would use a participant who has such a condition instead of using a healthy participant. His rationale was that Little Albert was somewhat emotionally unresponsive, and would experience relatively little harm from the experiment.
The part that stood out to me was that in class today we learned that simultaneous conditioning produces weaker results than short delay or long delay conditioning. This is what made me think that Watson selected Albert with the knowledge that his condition would cause him to react more than the average baby. Albert was supposedly conditioned to fear things like a rat, a rabbit, and a dog.
One concern is that Little Albert's mom was not really able to turn down consent for her son to participate, because she worked for the institution that employed Watson, and therefore she may have been in fear of her job if she chose to withdraw consent.
Some people have proposed the idea that Watson selected Albert because he knew of his condition and predicted a short life expectancy, and didn't feel so bad about harming somebody who wouldn't live very long. I do not believe that Watson was this malicious. However, I do think that there may be some merit in the idea that it was a conspiracy to magnify the results by using a child who is not representative of the typical child. This was before the modern code of ethics, and nobody really knew what to do because there were not strict norms for human research subjects. I do not believe that this evidence completely makes Watson guilty of fraud, but it does make one think a bit more deeply. However, the important part is that even though our current code of ethics is not fool proof, it would be much harder for a researcher to do a study that results in seriously psychologically harming a human participant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experiment
This website gave background information on the study
http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/a-new-twist-in-the-sad-saga-of-little-albert/28423
This source gave evidence for why Watson is guilty
of fraud and malicious intent
http://psychology.about.com/b/2012/01/30/researchers-uncover-new-evidence-about-little-albert.htm
This website showed a little bit of a different perspective on Watson, and stuck more with the data rather than speculating
Terms:
Watson, Little Albert, Academic Fraud, Congenital Hydrocephalus, Emotionally Unresponsive, Simultaneous Conditioning, Short Delay, Long Delay, Conditioned, Ethics,
My topic I chose to concentrate on is stimuli control. In our most recent sections we have been learning about operant and classical conditioning. Stimuli are very important when conditioning or modifying behavior. A stimulus also coincides with material from the very beginning in chapter one. Stimuli are events in an environment that influence behavior; which is very much like the antecedent that influences the target behavior in our ABC’s. I believe stimuli are a very large part of behavior modification, for stimuli can serve many purposes.
I chose this particular topic after reading our latest assignments and also the fact that Dr. Maclin stated in class that we are all under a stimulus control of some sort. Whether we are conditioned to rip off the edges of our papers before handing them in or we stop at a red stoplight. I found the idea of stimulus control to be interesting and wanted to learn more. As I was looking for sources I became very intrigued by some of the examples given for stimulus control, for I realized that I was unknowingly under some of them.
Reading through my sources, I learned about a few different types of stimuli. There are discriminative stimuli; which is most often known as the stimulus that influences a particular response. Furthermore a discriminative stimulus initiates a response that is likely associated with reinforcement or punishment. For stimulus control, the discriminative stimulus is the most likely to elicit changes in the operant response. There are eliciting stimuli; which is a change in the environment that correlates with the later responses. Eliciting stimuli are a part of Pavlov’s classical conditioning. Other types mentioned are emotional stimuli, reinforcing stimuli, nominal stimuli, and functional stimuli. All of which are very similar, but distinct in definition.
I also learned about a term not in our class readings, called stimulus delta. From the source, it states that stimulus delta is “a stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will not be reinforced.” What I took from the reading was that stimulus delta is the opposite of the discriminate stimulus or the “incorrect answer.” I imagine this term isn’t often used or at least not where we stand now in our psychology knowledge. Nevertheless, I thought it was interesting.
Stimulus control is essentially situations that a target behavior is influenced by a stimulus. In operant conditioning, the stimulus is an antecedent to the behavior. In classical conditioning, the stimulus can be learned thus changing a behavior.
Terms: stimulus control, operant conditioning, classical conditioning, antecedent, target behavior, discriminative stimulus, eliciting, conditioning, Pavlov
http://www.educateautism.com/applied-behaviour-analysis/discriminative-stimulus-and-stimulus-delta.html#1
http://www.intropsych.com/ch05_conditioning/stimulus_control.html
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/stimuli.html
I chose to further research on the topic of conditioned taste aversion. I found this to be one of the most interesting topics in the reading this week and wanted to better understand what the concept was all about. After reading through a few articles, I found that many people, especially young children, apply this concept in their daily lives.
Conditioned taste aversion is a form of classical conditioning. A conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (typically nausea) to avoid specific food or drinks that cause this response in the future. For example, an article explained that the new medicine, Chantix, which has been recently marketed for the aide in quitting smoking, applies conditioned taste aversion by the side effect of nausea produced from the medication. The taste of tobacco becomes associated with nausea, which dramatically reduces smoking. Another example that may hit home for some is a bad experience, such as food poisoning, and then avoiding that food for the rest of their life. A personal example of this concept for me is noodles. I am very sensitive to textures so I will not eat any type of noodles because I can’t stand the texture of them.
An interesting fact that I read regarding conditioned taste aversion and classical conditioning is that the former doesn’t have to be repeatedly done to result in avoiding the food/drink. It can happen with just one bad experience, unlike classical conditioning, which can take a long time to get to an ideal state.
Terms: Conditioned Taste Aversion, Classical Conditioning, Conditioned Stimulus, Unconditioned Stimulus, Ideal State
http://theconversation.edu.au/breaking-bad-habits-classical-conditioning-and-smoking-11578
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/murp0625/myblog/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11682112
What I wanted to look into specifically was experimental neurosis. I thought this was interesting because it is the animal’s reaction to not being able to deal with the fact that they can’t distinguish between two of the conditioned stimuli. This was observed when Pavlov did his experiments with the dogs. He had conditioned them that when they saw one shape they would either emit a drooling behavior because they knew food was coming or they wouldn’t emit a drooling response because they understood there would be no food. However when Pavlov made the shapes harder the discriminate between, the dogs would become agitated because they didn’t know if food was coming or not. All the articles I skimmed mentioned Pavlov of course and his experiment that I have briefly described. Most of the articles I looked into were conducted on animals. Quite a few seemed to be conducted on cats. One experiment even used alcohol to try and calm the neurotic cat’s behaviors down. The booze also seemed to prevent the cats from developing the neurotic behavior in the first place. As well as alcohol, drugs were also administered to control various animals’ experimental neurosis. Rats, cats and dogs have all been used in experiments but what about humans? In one experiment I found researchers used college males and reduced their calorie intake by great amounts so the men would feel like they were starving. The men showed many physical symptoms to the food deprivation but also showed quite a few psychological symptoms or neurosis as well. These included things like depression, irritability, increased introversion and deceased interest in participating in activities. Some men even experienced even more traumatic symptoms of the stress the experiment caused. The men were given treatment to reverse the neurosis and were able to get back to steady diets. This Study was done quite some time ago and I’m not entirely sure it would be ethical by today’s standards. However it is quite an interesting experiment and it does show that many behaviors that animals go through humans can go through as well. Behavior many times it seems can apply to a great number of organisms.
http://books.google.com/books?id=FT4rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=experimental+neurosis+example&source=bl&ots=F5O0xgw4Iq&sig=8816TmdZRxKbfIOiwnBLZX4EtxY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3oM5UZMbx-bYBZLFgdAD&ved=0CGsQ6AEwCQ
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/10/1/31.full.pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0773.1955.tb00210.x/abstract
Terms: emit, experimental neurosis, behavior, depravation, conditioned stimuli.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMZ5o2uruXY
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html
http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/agoraphobia-discussions/general-support/3623082-flooding-vs-systematic-desensitization
My topic is systematic desensitization which is found and discussed in Section 3.4. I choose this topic because I always thought phobias were strange, and fascinating that there is a possibility to get over these phobias. Systematic desensitization is defined as a behavioral method used to help people overcome their phobias. This process is based off of classical conditioning and by applying a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus this gradually decreases the fear response. It is important to make sure the patient is relaxed and it could also be helpful to let the patient practice thoughtful breathing, visualization, and meditation. After this state of relaxation has been reached then it is time to begin. This is most successfully done by forming a hierarchy of fear which ranks the least fearful to the most fearful. The patient then works their way up, slowly exposing themselves to the least aversive, to the second least aversive etc… Once the patient is comfortable they continue on to the next step. Exposure can be done in two ways- imagining or actually experiencing the phobia.
In the video Jackie has a phobia of birds and feathers. She goes to see a psychologist who tells her that she will not be harmed by the feather and about twenty minutes into the session he pulls a small one out to see how she will react. Jackie’s anxiety spikes but the psychologist knows it will eventually plateau and tells her to calm down. Once she is okay with that feather he grabs a slightly bigger feather which she eventually gets used to as well. Then the psychologist pushes the feather towards her and finally 40 minutes later she is able to hold it. After this session she has made a connection between the feathers and the harmlessness of them. The psychologist is able to use the hierarchy of fear to carefully and gradually expose Jackie to the feathers until she is comfortable at each level and then he moved up to the next one.
Terms I Used:
Systematic desensitization, phobias, conditional stimulus, classical conditioning, aversive, hierarchy of fear
I choose to do some extra readings on the Little Albert experiment. This experiment was done by Psychologist John B. Watson. This experiment was done because Watson wanted to know if he could condition fear into a child. Watson also said from the in class readings that a child only has three emotions fear, rage, and love. So he was willing to test his hypothesis using one of the fundamental emotions. This fits into what we are talking about in class because it is an example about generalization and generalizing information is a part of behavior modification that many children do at young ages. For example children may refer to a horse as a “big dog” because to them a dog is a four legged animal with soft fur. The information I found regarding this topic was talking about the ethical issues of this experiment and how it would not be a legitimately experiment in today’s society. The website Helium.com listed four reasons why the Little Albert experiment would not be ethical today. The reasoning’s are Confidentiality, Informed Consent, Provision for Access, and Honesty. Participants in experiments need to be fully aware of the regulations and the possible outcomes of the experiment they are going to be a part of, also the participants need to be able to know that their identify will be protected and they will not be embarrassed or criticized for the experiment. Informed consent is a big deal and it goes along with honesty the experimenter needs to be honest to the experimenters so that when they sign a consent form they are taken off guard. The topic interests me because it shows a generational change in the progression of the psychology world. At the time of this experiment Watson was praised for his ability to condition a child to fear furry white objects, but once further research was done to see how little Albert was adjusting to life it was published that Albert was actually Douglas Merritte and the child had actually had hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is a disease the child had had since birth, which diminished Watson’s creditability because Watson had stated the Albert was a healthy baby with little fear. There is no way I would ever volunteer my child to be a part of an experiment where my child could potential leave with an infinite fear of white and furry objects. I would not feel that my child’s well being is worth a psychological advance. Watching the video about this experiment makes me sad because you can clearly see that Albert’s behavior changes from when first seeing the animals and then interact with them while the hammer strikes the metal. This experiment resulted in a conditioned emotional response from Albert when he was around white or furry animals or objects, even a fur coat, these objects were made aversive to Albert. This experiment should have been evaluated more before it was able to be executed.
Terms: behavior, conditioned emotional response, generalization, aversive, experiment, conditioned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACsOI
http://www.helium.com/items/2044559-ethics-in-research-research-design-little-albert
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment.htm
I chose to write about punishment for this week’s assignment. Punishment fits into what we have already talked about thus far in class because behavior modification involves a lot of reinforcement and punishment. Punishment helps change people’s behavior because it involves reducing the amount of times a certain behavior occurs. To me, anything involving behavior modification is interesting. Having the tools to be able to actually change someone’s behavior is fascinating, and punishment is just one of the techniques used to do so.
Punishment refers to the consequences to a certain behavior being so aversive, that it reduces the likelihood of that behavior happening again. It is only considered punishment if the behavior does in fact occur less often. There are two types of punishment according to B.F. Skinner—positive and negative punishment. Positive punishment involves the addition of something as a consequence that still reduces the likelihood of a behavior occurring. An example of positive punishment would be if a kid broke curfew and his mother yelled at him in hopes of him never breaking his curfew again. The yelling is the addition of something aversive, and the behavior of breaking curfew should be reduced so that child doesn’t have to get yelled at by his mom anymore. Negative punishment involves the removal of something that results in a behavior occurring less often. An example of negative punishment would be, using the same scenario, a child who breaks curfew, and his mother takes away his Xbox to ‘punish’ him. The removal of the Xbox will lead to the child breaking curfew less often, which means this is negative punishment. Both positive and negative punishment seem to be effective in stopping behavior that is unwanted. Many people confuse punishment with negative reinforcement, but it is important to remember that punishment is only punishment if it reduces the likelihood of a certain behavior occurring. Reinforcement is the opposite. Reinforcement results in a certain behavior occurring more often. Negative reinforcement simply means removing something that results in a behavior more often. Punishment and negative reinforcement should not be confused.
http://psychology.about.com/od/operantconditioning/f/punishment.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9yOWXo1W8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punishment
Terms: punishment, reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, negative reinforcement, aversive, consequence, behavior,
For this assignment I chose to write on positive reinforcement as it relates to the U.S. prison system. I want to focus on rehabilitating offenders within the prisons by implementing more positive reinforcement strategies. I found two common areas of the rehabilitation system where positive reinforcement is needed. Drug rehab programs are seemly common functions offered in the prison. However, the method in which they seek to elicit the target behavior of inmates recovering from substance use has miserably failed. Second, education of prison inmates has been the focus of media attention for years. The results of the reinforcement techniques used to help inmates to be better educated on release has seen good results. Lastly, I found a website where they showed how the prison system can be transformed into a safer, better functioning facility for offenders through the simple practice of positive reinforcement. This topic is of interest to me because of what I have been studying in some of my other courses. It has been awesome to see how the behavior modification techniques that we are learning about in this class, easily transfer into my other classes. This makes it more realistic to see the techniques in use in situations that I will be working around in the future. Learning about positive reinforcement from this class has shown me how it can be used even in treating the most aversive behaviors from the most violent offenders in some of the worst prisons across America.
For drug assistance programs in the prison system, there is very little positive reinforcement in place. The inmates are usually forced to enroll and restrictions on their already limited freedoms within the prison are often enforced if they do not participate in the programs or if they fail to advance within the program. However, there was a program titled Project BRITE (Behavioral Reinforcement to Increase Treatment Engagement) that was tested to see if positive reinforcement would help increase the amount of inmates successfully completing the program. They decided to set up a reward system within the 12-step program to encourage inmates to emit the target behavior. Needless to say, they found many positive results of using positive reinforcement in the drug recovery program.
The last area I looked at was the education system within prisons. This area of the criminal justice system has actually seen positive reinforcement implemented to some extent in recent years. The recidivism rates for former inmates that have pursued education while they were in prison is much lower than for their counter parts who did not continue their education. Education in itself can be the positive reinforcement in some cases. Prisons can use education as a means to elicit positive behavior from inmates. They could offer sentence reduction programs for those who complete a certain level of education while in prison. They could also offer other incentives for the inmates if they volunteer to pursue education and show advancement in such areas.
The problem facing many prison systems today is financial freedom to implement more positive reinforcement based programs to use in the rehabilitation of violent offenders. I think many people are aware of the problems facing the way the U.S. Criminal Justice System has previously rehabilitated offenders and what types of strategies are being used. I think awareness will help more reinforcement based behavior modification techniques to be implemented over the next few years.
http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=dc298d3f-883f-4aae-9e57-174c73abf4ad%40sessionmgr111&vid=2&hid=126
http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5619fd3a-2eea-4d83-bbf9-4fdb1482d99b%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=126
http://www.visionproject.org/images/img_magazine/pdfs/american_prisons.pdf
Terms: Behavior modification, positive reinforcement, aversive, elicit, emit, target behavior
The topic I chose from the sections was systematic desensitization, developed by John Wolpe in the 1950s. I myself do not have any strong phobias, but I do have small preferences for not wanting to be exposed to certain things. Snakes, spiders, deer, butterflies, small spaces, and flying are all examples of my own small fears. I suppose the most interesting fear I have is butterflies, which is due to a bad childhood experience where I got separated from my parents in a butterfly house. I experienced a butterfly overload and I almost threw up, running out the exit alone and having to wait for my family outside. Watching a lot of shows like Maury when I was younger, there were many episodes on television where they would show examples of desensitization. Some examples of the phobias I remember from there are: peaches, pickles, balloons, clowns, and spiders. Most of the phobia victims were unaware of what had caused them to be afraid in the first place. Perhaps something happened with these items before they were old enough to remember, or before the age of 3. The goal of systematic desensitization is to relieve someone of their phobia by being exposed to it and being forced to face it. A more specific process, referred to as the hierarchy of fear, is starting with the action that creates the smallest amount of anxiety and working toward the larger ones. A good example I found was exposure first to a small, slow moving spider and eventually moving the patient up to a larger and faster spider. Many people with these phobias experience panic attacks and anxiety when exposed. I had a friend in elementary school who hated the dark. We had a slumber party and she was embarrassed to say so, so we turned off the light. Right away she began crying and experiencing a small panic attack. Some tools they are given to help cope with this are called relaxation techniques. Deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and meditation are three very common techniques that I found in my research. Personally, when I experience anxiety, I do all three at the same time, and it really helps a lot. Meditation and visualization can be very soothing, especially when you are under a lot of stress; I like to imagine myself on my own personal island, free from any obligation.
I also found out that the typical time it takes to get rid of a phobia is only ten hours, which seems well worth it if your phobia is inhibiting your daily life. I was afraid of the dark when I was little, and my mom got sick of it so she put me in my room and turned off the light. She told me I wasn’t allowed to turn it back on. I cried for about an hour and eventually went to sleep, and have been pretty okay sleeping in the dark from then on. I also found that one can also emit the treatment on themselves, on their own. You must first begin by using relaxation techniques, and getting into the rhythm of using them. A second step is moving up the hierarchy of fear and exposing yourself to different levels of anxiety within the phobia. Some thoughts I had on the topic are whether someone can re-develop the phobia, or in a sense, “relapse.” Do people with phobias that receive successful systematic desensitization treatment ever truly get over their fears, or is it always in the back of their mind? And, is it only necessary to emit systematic desensitization on those who are being held back in life because of their phobias? These are all questions that have crossed my mind while researching that I am still looking for answers to.
Terms: systematic desensitization, phobias, fears, hierarchy of fear, exposure, relaxation techniques, deep breathing, muscle relaxation, meditation, visualization, treatment
http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/treatments/a/SystemDesen.htm I chose this source because it had some information on relaxation techniques that related to the chapter well.
http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/185 This article discussed the process of self-desensitization, which was knew to me and interesting to learn about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcojyGx8q9U A psychologist discusses the hierarchy of fear as well as her thoughts on self-desensitization.
The topic I chose to find research on was weight loss, the more I researched over this subject the more and more terms we have covered in class come up. A few of the main terms are reinforcement schedule, positive reinforcements, token economy, discriminatory stimuli, base line and keeping track of progress.
A few of these terms we have not gone over yet in class, but I remember their meanings from last semester. Although their meaning are not complicated to understand, for example baseline, this is when an individual keeps track of the target behavior they want to change before they emit the intervention to change the target behavior. In all the websites I found for this exercise they all discussed the importance of taking a base. Taking a baseline helps the individual discover how much they are emitting the unwanted target behavior. This also helps the individual decide where and how they might want to place a punishment or positive reinforcement or in some cases a scheduled reinforcement. Applying these to eating behaviors have
shown to help promote and maintain weight loss.
The first website also describes the use of discriminatory stimuli for example, people who were in the behavior modification program were asked to use distinctive table setting, including vibrant colors and placement of napkins and silverware making eating a meal a whole experience. Another source describes how making the individual eat slower helps the individual not over eat. Another behavior option could be using a token economy approach, in which the individual gains and loses points based on what they eat. At the end of the week the individual gets to exchange their points for prizes such as an extra rest day from working out to small amounts of money.
I enjoyed doing this assignment thinking of different behavior modifications techniques to apply when trying to lose weight other than just exercising more. I hope to be able to apply some of these techniques as the semester goes one and i learn more about token economy.
Terms: behavior modification, token economy, discriminatory stimuli, positive reinforcement, scheduled reinforcement, emitting, emits, target behavior
http://www.psychosmaticmedicine.org/content/33/1/49.full.pdf+html
http://www.ehow.com/way_5143841_behavior-modification-techniques-weight-loss.html
http://journal.diabetes.org/diabetesspectrum/00v13n3/pg142.htm
The topic I chose to find research on was weight loss, the more I researched over this subject the more and more terms we have covered in class come up. A few of the main terms are reinforcement schedule, positive reinforcements, token economy, discriminatory stimuli, base line and keeping track of progress.
A few of these terms we have not gone over yet in class, but I remember their meanings from last semester. Although their meaning are not complicated to understand, for example baseline, this is when an individual keeps track of the target behavior they want to change before they emit the intervention to change the target behavior. In all the websites I found for this exercise they all discussed the importance of taking a base. Taking a baseline helps the individual discover how much they are emitting the unwanted target behavior. This also helps the individual decide where and how they might want to place a punishment or positive reinforcement or in some cases a scheduled reinforcement. Applying these to eating behaviors have
shown to help promote and maintain weight loss.
The first website also describes the use of discriminatory stimuli for example, people who were in the behavior modification program were asked to use distinctive table setting, including vibrant colors and placement of napkins and silverware making eating a meal a whole experience. Another source describes how making the individual eat slower helps the individual not over eat. Another behavior option could be using a token economy approach, in which the individual gains and loses points based on what they eat. At the end of the week the individual gets to exchange their points for prizes such as an extra rest day from working out to small amounts of money.
I enjoyed doing this assignment thinking of different behavior modifications techniques to apply when trying to lose weight other than just exercising more. I hope to be able to apply some of these techniques as the semester goes one and i learn more about token economy.
Terms: behavior modification, token economy, discriminatory stimuli, positive reinforcement, scheduled reinforcement, emitting, emits, target behavior
http://www.psychosmaticmedicine.org/content/33/1/49.full.pdf+html
http://www.ehow.com/way_5143841_behavior-modification-techniques-weight-loss.html
http://journal.diabetes.org/diabetesspectrum/00v13n3/pg142.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/09/opinion/sendek-corporal-punishment
http://http.www.opposingviews.com/i/physical-punishment-not-shown-to-improve-child-behavior
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/family-affair/200809/rewards-are-better-punishment-here-s-why
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0AMlPoDj6c
The topic I decided to research for class was punishment. Ive found it to be very interesting throughout the class. There are numerous different ways to punish people. Some of the ways are productive while others are counterprodutive. I find it fascinating how different approaches can work so differently. I also found it interesting how different age groups handle punishment differently. While comparing these articles I found a few similarities between them. Although punishment is necessary at times its found that physical punihsment amoung children can actuall yhave negative effects long term. Research shows that abuse/punishment could increase the likelyhood of antisocial behavior, depression, future aggression and emotional withdrawl from their parents. Some reseach shows that ignoring the bad behaviors and rewarding the good behaviors is the most beneifical type of reward/punuishment system. Another approach that is discussed is holding them accountable as their punishment. For example, if your child were to steal something from a store make him earn the money it would have cost to pay for the item and then have him return it to the store. This doesn’t involve. Based on a research study involving 8-9 yr olds and 10-11 yr olds very different findings were discovered. When the younger group was told they did something right they responded better than when they were given negative feedback. While the older group was the opposite. They recovered more quickly when they were punished for their mistakes rather than rewarded for doing it correctly. There could be a number of reasons why this hold to be true. I think that the older group is more aware of punishment and realize that being correct is great but fixing the wrong will vkeep them away from punishment. Each way of punishment is a form of operant conditioning. Throughout the research studies they have found that mistakes are forms of misjudgement and they need to be redirected and explained in order to fix the action.
Terms: Operant conditioning, punishment, reward, negative feedback
"When you know what you have done is wrong, punishment is not so painful because it feels deserved and serves to improve you. More often, though, we don't properly connect the action with the consequence, and all hope of improvement is lost."
It is sometimes difficult to admit that punishment can be and is considered as positive. Punishment is often used in behavior modification when you are trying to change a person's behavior. Most often is the contrast of Reinforcement. Positive punishment can be used as an attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring in the future, an operant response is followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus. Sometime punishment can be confused with positive punishment either one is part if not the whole, punishment, which is very a useful tool. When you are trying to change the behavior in a young child whose behavior or pattern has already been established or has already been implemented in their mind; it is difficult to change that behavior through any other way other than punishment. For example, if a parent allows a child to eat in the living room for a least a period of 5 or more but now after all this time has decided that NO ONE will eat in the living room because of new carpet. The likelihood or the chances are that your child, out of mire habit not of disobedience will forget and eat in the living room. This will probably go on and on with nothing changing especially if there is no punishment. First time, lecture, second time they do it possibly getting yelled at or lectured again. Either way nothing will probably change. But if you take their phone away or turn the TV off for one day which is a tangent punishment or consequence for breaking the rule they will remember that more so than just a verbal warning or lecture. The behavior you will be trying to establish can be referred to as the target behavior.
People automatically think that punishment is physical but as you can see from the example it is not a physical punishment but rather one that removed something that they found desirable therefore they did not want to experience that punishment again. This is punishment is the truest form.
From personal experience as well as the information on the livestrong.com website you should not use punishment more than you reinforce children. Children need to be reinforced and should only be punished as a last resort or as the last option if all other avenues have been exhausted. Punishment can be associated with behaviorism, which involves Watson then B.F.Skinner as well. In fact it was Skinner that said that the mind and mental processes are “metaphors and fictions” and that “behavior is simply part of the biology of the organism.“ There have been many people that believe that Skinner wanted behaviorism to be the basis for manipulating patients, students, and whole societies.
Punishment is something that I am interested in because it plays a large role in the behavior modification process. It is merely an opinion to say that punishment will be at one point or another used in modifying behaviors in the future. I do believe that other techniques should be tried and experimented with before going right into punishment. As well as seeking outside consultation or other people's perspective before assessing a punishment especially if it is a harsh one. Who determines the severity of punishment? Sometimes the law if you physically hurt someone through punishment by physical means. Once again, you have to be very careful when using punishment as a behavior modification tool.
Terms: Punishment, positive punishment, behavior modification, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, behavior, operant response, reinforce, target behavior, aversive stimulus, behaviorist, consequence, B.F. Skinner, Watson, mental processors, behaviorism, patients, reinforced and experiments.
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/15/punishment-a-cultural-phenomenon/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/515235-positive-punishment-with-children/
http://www.mysticmadness.com/positive-punishment-examples.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwOh37DEHLk