Yes, good point Marc: it does depend on how you phrase it. Are you
trying to "eat less" (in which case you're trying to stop the behavior
of eating), in which case if you "contract" to donate to a cause you
don't believe in then you're using negative punishment, or does your
contact have you "eating more healthily" (then you'd have negative
reinforcement since you're trying to increase a behavior).
Michael
Michael Britt
[email protected]
www.thepsychfiles.com
On Mar 27, 2009, at 11:31 AM, Marc Carter wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Britt [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 10:03 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: [tips] Motivation by Shame
[snip]
Sounds like simple negative reinforcement?
Wouldn't that depend on whether or not you were hoping to increase the
frequency of a behavior (say, get more exercise) or decrease the
frequency of a behavior (say, eating)?
If you're after decreasing something, then it'd be punishment....
I think!
m
--
Marc Carter, PhD
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Psychology
College of Arts & Sciences
Baker University
--
Interesting article on the front page of the Chronicle this
week called, "Falling Behind? Try Shame, Fear, and Greed".
Basically the idea is that people are trying to motivate
themselves by "taking a contract out on themselves" on a site
called, StickK (http://www.stickk.com/ ). Despite the slick
website, the idea actually seems pretty basic:
you decide that if you don't reach a certain goal (say, "lose
X amount of weight", or, more pertinent to us, let's say,
"write the introduction section to my manuscript") by X
date/time, you agree to do something negative (say, donate
money to a cause you don't really endorse). If you
accomplish your goal, the negative thing will not happen.
Michael
Michael Britt
[email protected]
www.thepsychfiles.com
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