The Psych Files Podcast » Behaviorism

Episode 73: On the Folly of….Politics

Michael — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:08:47 +0000

"On The Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping For B" is a well known article by Steven Kerr that appeared in The Academy of Management Executive. Want an example of how insightful Steven Kerr was with this article that is still relevant today? Look no further than the US election and Comedy Central.

In the "On The Folly…" article, Kerr states that,

Whether dealing with monkeys, rats or human beings…most organisms seek information concerning what activities are rewarded and then seek to do (or at least pretend to do) those things often to the virtual exclusion of activities not rewarded.

In politics, official goals…may be relied on to offend absolutely no one…The American voter typically punishes (withholds support from) candidates who frankly discuss where the money will come from, rewards politicians who speak only of official goals but hopes that candidates (despite the reward system) will discuss the issues operatively [i.e., with specifics].

As an example of Steven Kerr’s insight into how rewards and punishment affect politics, take a look at this video from Comedy Central. Stewart’s "Generic-Off" shows how politicians are reluctant to talk specifics.

Here is another video from The Daily Show in which Stewart points out that in Obama’s acceptance speech, he makes many, many promises with no specifics (the section of interest starts around 1:00 and goes for about a minute):

Another example might be when presidential candidate John McCain attempted to answer a very difficult question. In this video, is he trying to think of an answer to the question, or is he – like most politicians who understand how Americans reward and punishment politicians – trying to think of a way to answer the question so that the answer contains no specifics?

Resources for this Episode

Here is where you can read the Kerr article online: On The Folly of Rewarding A While Hoping For B

Additional Resources

ProCon.org is a website where you can see exactly where the presidential candidates stand on a variety of issues. Click on Election 2008.
GlassBooth.org "connects you to the 2008 presidential candidate that represents your beliefs the best" – in other words, you fill out a brief survey of where you stand on various issues, and then this site helps you determine which candidate is most like you.

Episode 47: The Little Albert Study: What You Know is…Mostly Wrong

Michael — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:30:16 +0000

What happened to Little Albert? If you think you know a lot about the little Albert experiment conducted by John Watson? Well, guess what – you’d be surprised at how much of the story is simply not true. If you’re wondering whatever happened to little Albert, whether the little Albert study created a lasting phobia in a small boy, or even what place this story has in the history of behaviorism, then I suggest you take a listen to this episode of The Psych Files and get the facts on this fascinating part of psychology’s history.

"Little Albert"’s real name has been identified! Go to video episode 114 to learn more about who was Little Albert.

Notes Regarding Little Albert’s "Phobia"

When Albert was conditioned again to the rat, 10 days after the initial trials, Albert…

..fell over to the left side, got up on all fours and started to crawl away. On this occasion there was no crying but strange to say, as he started away he began to gurgle and coo, even while leaning far over to the left side to avoid the rat…

– in addition, on this same day he was again conditioned to fear the rabbit, albert’s response was reported as,

…fear reaction slight. Turned to the left and kept face away from the animal but the reaction was never pronounced.
31 days after being shown the rat, Watson reports that when in the same room as the rat "He allowed the rat to crawl towards him without withdrawing"
On the final day of testing when albert was exposed to the rabbit to which he had been conditioned to fear, he did not avoid the rabbit at all. Watson (1920) reports:

..after about a minute he [Albert] reached out tentatively and …touched the rabbit’s ear with his right hand…

Objects Albert was supposedly afraid of, but for which there is no evidence:

Cats
Fur muffs
White furry gloves
Albert’s aunt (who wore fur)
Albert’s mother’s fur coat
A teddy bear

Most overlooked facts:

The study is not an experiment (an experiment requires at least two levels of an independent variable). It is a pilot study at best.
The study had only one subject.
The study has never been replicated.

Resources for This Episode on Little Albert

Harris, B. (1979). Whatever Happened to Little Albert? American Psychologist, 34 (2), 151-160. Click here to download the article to your desktop.
Samuelson , F. (1980). J.B. Watson’s Little Albert, Cyril Burt’s Twins, and the Need for a Critical Science. American Psychologist, 35 (7).
Watson, J.B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned Emotional Reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14. This article is available online at Christopher Green’s excellent Psych Classics site.
If you’re interested in learning more about the history of psychology, Chris Green’s excellent podcast (which is no longer being produced but which is still available in iTunes) is called This Week In The History of Psychology.
Watson’s video of the little albert study is available on YouTube in several versions. Here’s one.

Episode 11: What Does Your Bowling Style Say About You?

Michael — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:35:47 +0000

In this video episode we look at what your bowling style says about you and about human nature in general. Your bowling style actually might say something about how operant conditioning works. Take a look at the video and find out (and by the way, why do you keep pressing that elevator button?).

Watch episode 11 showing how principles of behaviorism can explain your bowling style. Click the video below.

Resources for this episode

Go to the book Forty Studies that Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research at Amazon.

Watch a great video on YouTube which shows how the principles of behaviorism were used to train a parakeet to play golf and basketball.

From Academic Earth: Professor Bloom opens with a brief discussion of the value and evolutionary basis of unconscious processing. The rest of this lecture introduces students to the theory of Behaviorism, particularly the work of prominent behaviorist, B. F. Skinner. Different types of learning are discussed in detail, as well as reasons why behaviorism has been largely displaced as an adequate theory of human mental life.

Episode #2: Rewards and Punishments

Michael — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:13:46 +0000

Image via Wikipedia Today’s Question: “Do you believe in spanking children to get to them to behave?”

That’s the question addressed in today’s podcast called “Rewards and Punishments”. We’ll look at this issue, along with a few others in this podcast. Join host Michael Britt in examining this controversial issue and you’ll also learn how to tell the difference between B.F. Skinner’s concepts of positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment (“positive punishment”? – you’ll have to tune in to figure that one out).

Examples of Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Goal: Increase a Desired Behavior

Positive Reinforcement (giving someone something pleasant):

The paycheck you get from work
When a teacher gives a child a candy for answering a question correctly

Negative Reinforcement (taking something unpleasant away):

A teacher promises to take away homework if the students work together quietly.
Going to a driver safety class to get points taken off your license

Goal: Decrease an Undesired Behavior

Positive Punishment (giving someone something unpleasant):

Spanking a child when he/she lies
Spraying a cat in the face with water when he scratches the furniture
Getting a speeding ticket

Negative Punishment (taking something pleasant away):

Time out (you’re taking the child away from some enjoyable activity)
Not letting a child have a nightly snack because he/she lied
Taking a child’s toy away for a time because he/she didn’t share with other children
A teacher who doesn’t allow students to have recess because the class didn’t behave well.

Articles in the Popular Press

Here’s an article that appeared on the ABC online news site entitled, Should Spanking Your Child Be Illegal? An interesting article.

Here’s another article about a study showing how spanking a child does not work

Related Episodes

Since this podcast I’ve done a number of episodes that address the effectiveness of rewards, punishment, spanking, and timeout on a child’s behavior. If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, check out these episodes:

Episode 28 called Is Timeout Really Effective?
Episode 33 on Timeout Revisited: Dealing with Challenging Kids Part 1
Episode 34, called Timeout Revisited: Dealing with Challenging Kids Part 2.

If you’d like to download the concept map that accompanies this podcast, click the small image below to view the map, then drag it to your desktop (or right click and use “save as”).

3D Concept Map

I made a crazy 3D version of the concepts in this concept map, which you can play with. Let me know what you think. Click on the link below.

Rewards and Punishments 3D Map

I’ve been reading a couple excellent books on the topic of alternative ways to get children to behave (alternatives to spankings that is). The approach is called Positive Discipline. You can find it at Amazon. Excellent advice for both parents and teachers. Positive Discipline
Another one of Jane Nelson’s books on positive discipline techniques has to do with effective ways to do timeout. Check out her book, also on Amazon.Positive Time-Out: And Over 50 Ways to Avoid Power Struggles in the Home and the Classroom

Teaching about pigeon’s playing ping pong and other oddities of psychology