Operant Conditioning

1. After reading this article, see if you can find an instance similar to this where operant conditioning was happening to you and you didn't know it. Was it positive/negative or reinforcement/punishment? Explain what you actually learned from the experience.
         

          Similar to the wife in this article changing her method of nagging the husband to positively reinforcing the husband, I was positively reinforced with homework completion. Early on in my junior year, my teacher was unhappy that his students were not doing the homework that he assigned, mainly because he never checked them and they were not worth any points. Until one day, when he came up with the solution to start grading them for accuracy, instead of not giving any value to whether his students completed them. Once we realized that he was grading us on our homework, we began completing the assignments. Our math teacher operantly conditioned us to complete all of our homework assignments by positively reinforcing us. The reinforcement was receiving a higher grade in the class. In addition to learning the material from the homework, we also received higher grades on the test. In this case, positive reinforcement was a very effective way for the teacher to make his students complete the homework assignments

Classic Conditioning

1. Have you known someone who experienced classical conditioning via trauma in a way similar or dissimilar to the victim in the article? Explain the situation and how it connects to classical conditioning. Please keep the event anonymous.

            There once was a little boy who believed he had no fears.  He thought that nothing could hurt him or ever would.  However, one day, when he saw a spider in his garage.  Being the fearless boy that he was, he walked over to the spider and decided to pick it up.  Shortly after he had picked it up, it was crawling around his hand and tickling him with his hairy legs.  The little boy wanted to show the spider to his parents, but as soon as he began to walk from the garage into the house, the spider bit him.  He immediately shook his hand, causing the spider to fall off of his hand, screamed in pain, and began to cry.  Ever since that tragic event, this little boy has had a fear of spiders that hopefully one day will cease to exist.

            This story connects to classical conditioning because the young boy modified his behavior because of a stimulus.  The boy, originally not afraid of spiders, was bitten by a spider and became arachnophobic.  Similar to the females in Trauma As Classical Conditioning, the little boy gained the fear after just one exposure to the stimulus, because of how traumatizing the one spider bite was to him.

Subliminal Persuasion

1. Of the five factors mentioned in the Pratkanis report, which one do you think is the strongest explanation for why people fall "victim" to so-called subliminal influence. Explain why.

            In my opinion, the most influential explanation for why so many people fall under subliminal influence is Pratkanis' factor of " The Devil Made Me Do It."  In order to achieve maximum profits, companies undergo rigorous testing to see  how they can make customers purchase their product.  In some instances, I believe that companies dwell into the unconscious minds of customers, secretly forcing them to invest in their company.  As we go further into the future, the leading companies of the nation are slowly gaining more control on our purchasing power.

2. Which factor do you think is the weakest of Pratkanis' arguments? Explain why.

            I believe that "The Witch Test" is the weakest of Pratkanis' arguments.  Although he creates a valid point stating that if subliminal messages did not work, then they would not be in use, his other arguments are stronger because he fails to explain how people with an intelligence level that is above the average intelligence level will question the statements of the advertisement.

3. Do you believe subliminal advertising exists? Have Pratkanis influenced your opinion. Why or why not?

            I firmly believe that subliminal advertising exists.  I think that there are individuals who are subliminally influenced into purchasing a project because they lack the skill to ignore these subliminal messages.  For example, a few years ago my father purchased a mop that he was convinced would help us keep our home clean on numerous occasions.  However, the mop has yet to be used.  My father was under the impression that we "needed" this mop because of how helpful it would be, which directly correlates with Pratkanis'  fifth factor, "The Devil Made Me Do It."  Pratkanis' has caused my belief of the existence of subliminal advertising to increase because of his five, well thought-out factors.

Sensation vs. Perception

Defining Sensation and Perception:
          Although sensation and perception have a significant relationship with each other, they are also quite different. Sensation is the way that our sensory receptors and nervous system represent a stimulus that is from our environment; while perception is the process by which we organize and interpret sensory information.  I think that a good way to differentiate the two is to think of sensation as when our body receives the stimulus from the environment, as with smell, taste, touch, hearing, or vision.  And perception is the way that the our senses are analyzed and interpreted in our brain.  Perception defines what we smelt, tasted, felt, heard, or saw and it is what happens after sensation.

Example:
          An example of sensation and perception is when a person drinks water after a long run and he feels exhausted and dehydrated.  While he is voraciously devouring the water, he feels the water going into his body, which would be the sensation component.  As he feels the water enter his system, he begins analyzing what the water is doing to him, the perceiving part.  The runner analyzes that the water is causing him to feel refreshed after his run and thus no longer have the need to quench his thirst.  The bottom-up process occurs when he begins drinking water and realizes that his desire for water is disappearing.  However, the top-down process occurs when he decides to drink water because the runner knows that it will get rid of his dehydration.

Phrenology

          Phrenology is the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.  Franz Gall brought about this study and believed that certain parts of the skull held certain characteristics, such as friendship, imitation, hope, and wit.  His theory was originally thought to be accurate, partially because it was very difficult to prove wrong.  Although his theory has many flaws, I find the idea of certain components defining one's character to be rather intriguing.  If phrenology was entirely accurate, phrenologists could determine a person's personality simply by looking at their skull which would be an amazing aid to society.  Unfortunately, it may have brought about the idea judging one another based on physical characteristics.
          However, I think that Gall's erroneous theory of phrenology helped pave the way for the further understanding of the brain.  From Gall came a deeper interest into what the brain was all about which, in turn, brought about the Computed Tomography Scan, the Positron Emission Tomography Scan, and the Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan.  With brain scans, neuroscientists now have the ability to create brain maps and to discover the function of each brain part.  Without Gall, I do not believe that we would have all the information about the brain and its individual functions that we have now.

The Origin of Blue Eyes

            I found the origin of blue eyes to be incredibly intriguing.  It had never occurred to me that blue eyes were a relatively new eye color, because I had always thought of them in the same way as any other eye color.  Additionally, I am surprised of the rarity of blue eyes in the United States.  Since Denmark's immigration caused the blue eyed population to increase from 8% to 11%, it would seem that the U.S. would have also experienced an increase in blue eye color, because of our frequent immigration.  However, since the 1950s, the percentage of blue eyes in the United States has decreased from 35% to 17%.  In addition, similar to the fact that Mr. Womack and Kristyn are related, all blue eyed people can be traced back to a common ancestor generations back, which I found rather interesting.

 1.) While our genotype evolves into our phenotype, how much of a factor do you believe genetics has on our behavior and mental processes? Scale of 1 (lowest) to 100 (highest)? What specific examples can you note?

            While our environment strongly influences our behavior and mental processes, I believe that genetics play a serious role in the determination as well.  I think that genetics is a factor that determines 50% of our behavior and mental processes.  For example, I think that obesity has much to do with one's genes.  In my opinion, it seems that relatively obese people tend to have lower self-esteems or lower confidence levels, thus causing them to make different decisions and changing their behavior.  In addition, I believe that individuals are born with set intelligence levels, which help them succeed, or fail, in life.  The intelligence level helps these individuals process problems and create solutions faster or slower than others, which affects the mental processes aspect.

2. ) How much of an effect does our environment (nurture) place on our mental processes and behaviors? Scale of 1 to 100? What specific examples can you note?

            The environment makes up the other half of the influences on mental processes and behaviors.  I believe that parents play a critical role in the behavior of their children.  Stricter parents may cause their children to follow rules regularly, or cause retaliation, while parents who do not keep track of their kids as much may cause them to choose their own path in life at a very young age, whether their decisions are good or bad.  Additionally, friends deeply affect one's behaviors.  Friends may utilize peer pressure to alter the decisions that an individual may normally make. And finally, I think that teachers play a role in the mental processes aspect of psychology.  They can cause an individual's mind to speed up its processes, slow down, or remain the same with their methods and style of teaching.

Ethics, Animal Rights, and Torture

            I was thoroughly intrigued by the pigeon experiment that was used in the Coast Guard.  It had never occurred to me how useful their eyesight could be because of the fact that they are a different species.  This example of behaviorism shows how psychology can be utilized in order to help humans by incorporating the special features of certain animals.  Additionally, I enjoyed this experiment because as far as I know, none of the animals were harmed.  They were simply awarded food for their obedience and for their spectacular eyesight.
            I think that the use of animals in experiments can be completely justifiable as long as the safety of the animals is protected, I only wish that regulations to ensure animal safety had been instituted earlier.  The current safety regulations ensure that animals will be well taken care of, but not that they are given a choice.  Although I would rather have a rat die than a human being, I hope that psychologists find a way to give the animals a choice on indulging in an experiment.
            As for the ethical considerations in psychological research, I think that the human morals must always remain intact.  Baumrind stated that when people are given false information that they  are deprived of their rights as volunteers.  Agreeing with Baumrind, I think that participants must be given informed consent, along with debriefing.  Deceiving members of psychological studies is immoral and goes against humankind to test an experiment.
            Torture is extremely different from interviews.  Torture demands answers and will stop at nothing to receive those answers.  Interviews are a simple question and answer session where harmful measures, whether it be emotional or physical, are not taken.  However, they do have certain similarities. They both attempt to reveal information about certain subjects and they both require at least two people to conduct.  Torture is not moral, or legal, in any sense and I believe that every person has the right to remain free of torture, no matter the act.