As much as Pavlov’s dogs, Skinner’s pigeons, and Milgram’s obedience experiments, the conditioning of Albert is the face of psychology. To many, Little Albert embodies the promise and, to some, the dangers inherent in the scientific study of behavior” – Beck, et al, p. 613

Resources for this Episode

• Beck, H. P., Levinson, S., & Irons, G. (2009). Finding Little Albert: A Journey to John B. Watson’s Infant Laboratory. American Psychologist, 64, 605-614.
• Many thanks to Hall Beck for his support, background information and photos that appear at the end of this episode. Professor Hall Beck‘s homepage at Appalachian State University.
• More information on the myths and truths of the famous Little Albert Study can be found here in episode 47.
• I am happy to share the slides I used in the video. The slides were created in Apple Keynote, which you can download by clicking here: Finding Little Albert. A PowerPoint version can be downloaded by clicking here: Finding Little Albert, and a pdf version is available by clicking here: Finding Little Albert.
]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2010/01/episode-114-video-finding-little-albert/feed/ 6 http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/09/episode-73-on-the-folly-ofpolitics/ http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/09/episode-73-on-the-folly-ofpolitics/#comments Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:08:47 +0000 Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=193 "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.
]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/09/episode-73-on-the-folly-ofpolitics/feed/ 0 Behaviorism 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? 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. Michael Britt no http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/02/episode-47-the-little-albert-study-what-you-know-ismostly-wrong/ http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/02/episode-47-the-little-albert-study-what-you-know-ismostly-wrong/#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:30:16 +0000 Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/02/19/episode-47-the-little-albert-study-what-you-know-ismostly-wrong/ 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.

]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2008/02/episode-47-the-little-albert-study-what-you-know-ismostly-wrong/feed/ 27 Behaviorism 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, 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, then I suggest you take a listen to this episode and get the facts on this fascinating story. Michael Britt no http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/09/episode-28-is-time-out-really-effective/ http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/09/episode-28-is-time-out-really-effective/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:19:43 +0000 Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/09/05/episode-28-is-time-out-really-effective/ Everybody advocates the use of time out over forms of punishments like spankings, but how exactly do you administer time out in a way that is effective? Could we be doing it all wrong? Is time out even something we should be doing at all? Join me as I explore this topic.

Resources and Links for this Episode

• Listen to Jane Nelson (author of Positive Discipline) talk about her views on time out and spanking. This is an mp3 file from episode 28 of the Focusing on Solutions podcast.
• Here is the link to the Positive Discipline website, and here is the link to their podcast.
• Here is a link to the book Positive Time-Out: And Over 50 Ways to Avoid Power Struggles in the Home and the Classroom.
• Here’s the link to 1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 (123 Magic)
• Here’s the link to Smart Love
• If time out has not worked for you, consider this book: The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children

Quotes of Interest

From Positive Time Out (Nelson):

• Where did we ever get the idea that we have to make children feel bad in order for them to act good?

From Smart Love (Pieper and Pieper):

• We believe that discipline makes children miserable without offering them any genuine benefit, because punishing children whose behavior is out of control actually interferes with their ability to learn self governance. We advocate the use of loving regulation, a way for parents to guide their children away from missteps without adding to their unhappiness or interfering with their development of inner happiness.
• The best way to respond to a child’s harmful or dangerous behavior is to stop it without imposing added unpleasantness.
• Parents are frequently advised to tell their child that her behavior makes them angry. But children cannot distinguish between their parent’s anger at the behavior and their parent’s feelings about them. When children repeatedly experience their parents as being angry at them, they copy their parents and develop needs to feel angry at themselves.
• Unfortunately, most people don’t recognize that many of the vulnerabilities and out of control behaviors that children engage in are both temporary and appropriate for their age (you can’t expect children to act like adults).

The Explosive Child:

These authors discuss children whom they refer to as “inflexible-explosive”: children who find it difficult to “go with the flow”. These children get “locked up” and don’t handle change easily. Also, typical disciplinary procedures such as time-out only lead to a deterioration of their condition and probably a “melt-down”. The authors encourage a more problem solving approach to working with such children. I encourage you to take a look at two web sites related to their work:

• Find out more about their approach at the Center for Collaborate Problem Solving.
• The authors have established a non-profit institute called “Think Kids” and I encourage you to visit this site.

Related Episodes

Be sure to listen to the Interview with Stuart Ablon called “Timeout Revisited”: dealing with challenging kids:

• Part 1 of the interview on timeout revisited.

• Part 2 of the interview on timeout revisited.

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• Should Spanking Your Child Be Illegal?

]]> http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/09/episode-28-is-time-out-really-effective/feed/ 0 Behaviorism,Parenting/Childcare,Timeout Everybody advocates the use of time out over forms of punishments like spankings, but how exactly do you administer time out in a way that is effective? Could we be doing it all wrong? Is time out even something we should be doing at all? Everybody advocates the use of time out over forms of punishments like spankings, but how exactly do you administer time out in a way that is effective? Could we be doing it all wrong? Is time out even something we should be doing at all? Michael Britt no http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/04/episode-11-your-bowling-style/ http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/04/episode-11-your-bowling-style/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:35:47 +0000 Michael http://www.thepsychfiles.com/?p=46 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.

Image via Wikipedia

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

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