It is, of course, true that behavior is multiply determined. The topic of discussion here is not the premature diagnosis of a real life situation but the use of a fictional episode as an illustration (not empirical evidence) of a psychological principle. Science does sometimes isolate variables in order to understand phenomena outside of their uncontrolled natural environment. I think it is acceptable to use simplified examples of such principles to illustrate the concepts. Real life (and good science) does a pretty good job of reminding us that nothing is as simple as it might appear in such an illustration but if all we do is tell people, "there are so many variables impinging on this situation as to make it incomprehensible," there is no room left for elucidation of psychological principles.
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology Box 3519 John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> (479) 524-7295 http://bit.ly/DrFroman "The LORD detests both Type I and Type II errors." Proverbs 17:15<http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs%2017:15&version=NIV> From: Mike Palij [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 8:39 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Cc: Michael Palij Subject: RE: [tips] Funny Example of Extinction I always cringe when someone suggests a "real life" example of operant conditioning because life is not a "Skinner box" where the "Grand Researcher" maintains a particular schedule of reinforcement for specific behaviors or chains of behaviors. Trying to explain why a behavior occurs or is maintained requires one to know *all* of the schedules of reinforcement that are operating and in real life these schedules can be quite complex, possibly with concurrent schedules with variable modes (i.e., ratio and interval) of reinforcement. I can understand why some people might want to oversimplify situations and to present it as a simple example but this would be misleading. I suggest taking at look at the following article for an example of the issues involved: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1901/jeab.1992.57-317/abstract And one can get the article here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1323233/pdf/jeabehav00010-0080.pdf I leave it to Tipsters to decide when "oversimplification" becomes "misinformation". -Mike Palij New York University [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> -----Original Message----- On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 05:51:00 -0700, Rick Froman wrote: I agree but I would choose to take the illustration a bit further, even for intro students, to note that what might be intended as extinction can, when it fails, produce a more extinction-resistant strain of reinforcement. Rick Proverbs 14:15 "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." -----Original Message----- From: Michael Britt [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]> Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 7:14 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Funny Example of Extinction It seems that whenever a post appears on TIPS about behavioral principles - such as my own regarding the Family Guy YouTube video - there is a back and forth about which aspect of behavioral theory the idea represents. It makes you want to not post anything on TIPS that is behaviorally related just to avoid these kinds of back and forths in which, in the end, it's hard to know what to think anymore (I'm sure there's an example of a behavioral principle at work right there - but I don't want to go into that). So let me ask this: can we agree that the video (http://youtu.be/aOLxQGLJouI) could be used in an introductory psychology class as an example of how a mother who wants to take a nap is attempting to extinguish her child's interruption behavior by not responding to it (i.e, reinforcing it)? Yes, her attempt fails in the end when she clearly and understandably loses patience with the child, but that just shows how difficult the extinction process can be. Could the video serve as a (funny) illustration of the extinction process? Remember - we're talking about introductory psychology students - many of whom will not go on to become psychology majors. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5f8a&n=T&l=tips&o=29089 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-29089-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu<mailto:leave-29089-13039.37a56d458b5e856d05bcfb3322db5...@fsulist.frostburg.edu> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=29090 or send a blank email to leave-29090-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
