(POST) = Post Papers and Commentaries in Forum

An Exercise in Critical Thinking
Moral vs Empirical Evidence 

The 1st hour of this class will be devoted to a general discussion of the arguments presented by Staddon and Swartz about moral judgments vs. empirical evidence. The 2nd hour will consider your group’s views on the question you considered.

Talking Points

• What makes something a science? 

• Distinguish among scientific fact, moral judgment and religious dogma.

• Summarize, in one sentence, Staddon’s main point about a science of behavior.

• If physical events are caused (think gravity, sea tides, regulation of vital functions such as blood pressure and temperature), wouldn’t behavior be caused too?  

• Have you ever said, “That’s just human nature?” What did you mean by that?

Analysis Question

If behavior has discoverable causes, is your behavior therefore predictable? If it is, what does this suggest about autonomy and free will?  Try to summarize your personal evidence for the existence of “free will” in one sentence.

Your Group Analysis

A Critical Analysis of a Contentious Issue (POST 1)

Thornhill and Palmer HR1

Read about sociobiology and evolutionary psychology
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/seltin.html
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/sociobiology.html

➢    Next week you will get out about town and ask people whether they think a male can be turned into a female

Talking Points

• Do see any flaws in the Thornhill & Palmer analysis of rape?
  

• Why don’t women rape men?  

• What does it mean that men account for 90% of violent crimes?

Analysis Question

Be prepared to Defend your analysis of why men rape.

Karen R3
Gallagher R4
Various News Pieces R5-6

Bring to class an example of how psychoanalytic thinking impacted arts and science thinking in our culture.

Psychoanalysis changed the way we understood the causes of behavior. No longer “divine innocents”, we had a dark side. Some dismiss psychoanalysis as a somber fictional account of behavioral causality and the formation of self; others champion this account of human behavior as the work of genius.

What was Freud trying to explain? Why was it necessary for him to introduce such radically different concepts like the unconscious to explain behavior? How were mental disorders treated prior to Freud? How did you acquire your own defense mechanisms? Did Freud eroticize children? Do you really want to sleep with your father/mother? What role did women play in the development of Freud’s thinking? Can you see any Freud in your own behavior? What are the strengths and limitations of a Freudian approach?

Be thoughtful about what Freud means to you.  At the end of the class, you will see what it meant to writer Mary Rogan.

Talking Points

• Is there a primary life force motivating us or do we just sort of move around from one life event to another?  Would sex be such a primary force?

• Is there an unconscious mind? What convinces you one way or the other?

• Google “defense mechanisms. What is their purpose and where do they come from? Be introspective and offer up one of your own.

Analysis Question

Offer your example of a way psychoanalytic thought affected our culture.

Why did such thinking flourish primarily in Western culture?

Psychoanalysis, the Adaptive Unconscious and Subliminal Perception
(POST 2)

Leahey R9
Swartz R10
Pinker on Determinism HR3
Skinner’s "Beyond Freedom & Dignity"  HR4

Behaviorism represented the search for "external causes" of behavior. There were no internal mechanisms needed to explain us. The behaviorist movement found answers in the controlling factors of our everyday social environment.

The leading proponent of behaviorism, B. F. Skinner, believed psychology needed to focus its study on observable behavior rather than internal explanations like mind or brain. The Leahey chapter gives you an overview of the basic Skinner while Swartz gives you his views on the virtues of behaviorism. Skinner presents his own case for environmental determinism in excerpts from his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity.

Do you really think you’re more complicated than a rat? Read more in the links.

• For next week, you’ll perform a social reinforcement experiment. Bring your results to class.

Talking Points

• Why do most of us seem comfortable with a biological determinism but not with a behavioral determinism?

• Does reinforcement and environmental stimuli produce behavioral control only for non-human animals? Why not humans as well?

• We typically consider internal causes (like mind, brain, soul,) more fundamental and significant than external causes  (environmental causes). Why?

Analysis Question

If someone knew you well enough, could they predict what you will do when confronted with a choice? What does this say about behavioral causation and free will? Is the illusion of free will as good as the real thing?

Skinner’s “Walden Two”

(POST 3)

You will receive an additional Readings Pak for this topic HR5

Jonah Lehrer "Don't" HR6

Walden Two is a novel published in 1948 by B. F. Skinner describing a fictional community designed around behavioral principles. This utopian community thrived on a level of productivity and happiness of its citizens far in advance of that in the outside world due to its practice of scientific social planning and the use of operant conditioning principles in the raising of children. Walden Two championed a lifestyle that didn’t foster competition and social strife and didn’t support war. It favored and encouraged a lifestyle of minimal consumption, rich social relationships, personal happiness, satisfying work and leisure. The community was minimally consuming and minimally polluting, and it is egalitarian in the division of work. Its most controversial aspect is the communal raising of children and the educational system, which teaches patience and how to handle destructive emotions such as jealousy along with normal academic subjects.(description adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_Two)

Skinner wrote ...It is now widely recognized that great changes must be made in the American way of life [...] The choice is clear: either we do nothing and allow a miserable and probably catastrophic future to overtake us, or we use our knowledge about human behavior to create a social environment in which he shall live productive and creative lives and do so without jeopardizing the chances that those who follow us will be able to do the same. Something like a Walden Two would not be a bad start.

The title is an allusion to Henry David Thoreau's book Walden. Actual communities inspired by Walden Two continue to thrive today: Twin Oaks, founded in 1967 and Los Horcones, founded 1973. See them in “Related Sites” area.

We will focus on the issue of child rearing and education in Walden Two.

Talking Points

• What’s wrong with raising a baby scientifically, as in Walden Two?


• Analyze Walden Two’s method of teaching self-control (delay of gratification) seems cruel to some but doesn’t Walter Mischel’s marshmallow research suggest it’s a good idea?


• Do you agree with Skinner’s analysis of emotions and his rejection of jealousy?

Analysis Question

“Adolescence is seldom pleasant to remember; it is full of unnecessary problems unnecessary delays. It should be brief and painless, and we will make it so in Walden Two.” A good idea or not?

Hergenhahn/Olson R11
Thomas Kuhn R12
A New Germ Theory R13
Garcia & Koelling (two papers in Seligman and Hager) R14

Read: http://www.wikisummaries.org/The_Tipping_Point

The behaviorist movement dismissed untestable psychoanalytic speculation and embraced an objective analysis of behavior based on methodology and measurement - the quantitative analysis of qualitative things. But some things are easier to measure than others. For example, there are at least two different kinds of memory: recognition memory (multiple choice tests) is fundamentally different from recall memory (writing essay tests). It is easy to design good experiments to study this kind of problem. But how do we go about measuring what may be more elusive human events… like forming intimate attachments, deciding who will be an abusive parent or who is likely to develop psychological problems? We’ll see.

Does measurement = truth? Is there something fundamentally "true" about the scientific method or is it simply another belief system that we have come to accept as the best way of discovering "truth?" What is the difference between astrology and astronomy; between the palm reader and the psychiatrist? Does Dr. Phil really know what he’s talking about? Are there really "women who love too much" and "men who are addicted to sex"? 

Stanovitch T1,T2

Not all evidence is created equal. Are some kinds of explanation more influential than others? Are testimonials, stories, case histories and experiments equally convincing? Why are we so influenced by celebrity? What information do you use to decide what we believe and what you don’t believe?

Talking Points

How can you tell “junk science” from the real thing?

Does the placebo effect mean we’re stupid?

Why do we give so much weight to testimony, celebrity and stories in general?

Why is it so hard to tell whether silicone breast implants are good or bad? What accounted for the panic surrounding implants?

Analysis Question

POST your Greenspoon results in the Writing Forum

Do two things for today:

1. Conduct the experiment on verbal reinforcement described in R17 by testing two subjects; organize your data according to the class sheet and POST your data to the Writing Forum with a 100-word description of what you found.

2. Read the links for today. Then Google “recovered memory syndrome” and “repressed memory” to find out more. Think about the Greenspoon Effect, Recovered Memory Syndrome, and Repressed Memory and consider the Talking Points

Talking Points

• What is the actual evidence suggesting terrifying memories become buried in a Freudian unconscious protecting us from the debilitating effects of chronic terror?

• Did you find the Greenspoon effect? If not, why not?

Analysis Question

How can you tell whether a test is valid (that it actually measures what it purports to measure) and reliable (that it produces consistent results)? What does it mean if a test is able to predict some behavioral outcome for groups of people but not necessarily for individuals?

Everyone knows the cliché that correlations do not imply causality, but what does that really mean and what do correlation tell us? This is important since most research results are based on correlational data.

We’ll take some tests and think about how we can know what’s real and what’s junk in the world of test-taking.

Seligman HR7
Adamson, et al R19

Take Internet Test (Learned helplessness)

Remember Skinner’s emphasis on the importance of behavioral consequences? What would happen if suddenly your behavior had no consequences?  Imagine a life in which your behavior was seldom acknowledged and you grew up under extreme psychological and emotional neglect. What might that do to your development?

The phenomenon of “learned helplessness” was first demonstrated by studying animals under controlled experimental conditions and later extrapolated to clinical problems such as depression, children at risk for abuse, and even to the topic of voodoo death. We'll move from data to theory to application to speculation in exploring this fascinating topic.

Bring your test scores to class and tell us what you think they mean.

Talking Points

• Do Seligman’s dog experiments help us understanding human behavior?
  

• What implications for depression therapy are suggested by learned helplessness theory?

Analysis Question

What is the Adamson, et al attribution theory? Try explaining it to a friend.  Do you believe we all construct narratives (stories that we come to believe), out of our experiences (consciously or unconsciously) that control our actions?

Attachment Theory  (POST 5)

Stanovich T7
Harlow HR8
Attachment Theory R20
Take “Links Test

Gus Van Sant's 'Elephant' alludes to Columbine violence
The News Tribune - Tacoma, WA | May 19 2003 | ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press

CANNES, France (AP) - It starts out as a normal day at a typical American high school. Friends gossip in the cafeteria. A young photographer snaps portraits for his portfolio. A shy girl endures taunts from classmates in the locker room.

But at the end of "Elephant," Gus Van Sant's new film at the Cannes Film Festival, two students go on a shooting rampage in the hallways. And many die.

The "Good Will Hunting" director's movie, a fictional account of a school shooting, takes an intimate look at a few hours in the lives of the victims and the killers.

Van Sant doesn't offer any reasons for why school violence happens. The message is about how precious teenage lives are: He picked real high school students to act, and he captured their passions, insecurities, awkwardness and beauty.

"We tried to not really specifically explain such a ... horrific event," Van Sant said Sunday. "I was really trying to get out more a poetic impression and sort of allow the audiences' thoughts into that impression."

The movie was shot in 20 days. There were no scripted lines, and the students improvised their dialogue, with Van Sant asking them to base their characters on their own lives.

With long tracking shots, the movie shadows several students who are targeted later. One confident, athletic boy flirts with his girlfriend in the hallway. A shy girl shelves books at the library.

It also follows the two boys who eventually carry out the shooting spree. In many ways, they act like ordinary kids. They joke around with one boy's mother as she serves them pancakes. One plays Beethoven's "Fur Elise" on the piano while they hang out.

There are hints of the anger they feel. One of the boys is bullied by a student who throws spitballs at him. The other plays a violent video game. But the director's touch is light: Van Sant isn't blaming their massacre on either bullying or violent video games. Instead, he offers issues to think about.

While the movie is fiction, some details were based on the Columbine massacre, when gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and then turned their guns on themselves.

In one scene, one of the young killers walks into the evacuated school cafeteria and pauses to sip from someone's glass - an image recorded by Columbine's surveillance cameras. (Published 9:11AM, May 19th, 2003)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/books/review/Senior-t.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Behavior is complex and the design of most behavioral experiments is necessarily limited in complexity. What to do then when we know that our models of behavioral causality are more complicated than the experiments we can perform to test them?

Consider the recent medical issue of whether it is safe for post-menopausal women to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT). HRT prevents post-menopausal symptoms and seems to decrease the risk of osteoporosis and hair loss in women. Buy recent studies have linked HRT to increased risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and heart disease. It also seems likely that these risks affect only certain women. Why? Both genetic and life-style (diet, exercise) have been suggested as interactive factors. This means that several variables may have to occur together for before we assess true risk. Presumably, more elegant studies of multiple variables will clarify the conditions under which any given woman may be at risk. This is what multiple causation is about and it should affect the way you think about what causes things to happen.

We’ll use the occurrence of school shootings as a case example of multiple causation. The first recorded instance goes back to 1902 in a schoolhouse in Altona, Manitoba that killed two people.

Talking Points

• What conclusion do you draw from the list of worldwide school shootings on the following pages?

• Why is converging evidence so important in science?

Analysis Question

Are Columbine-like tragedies preventable or inevitable? What is Black Swan Theory? Is our reaction to this particular kind of violence an example of the vividness effect? Why do experts disagree so much on the causes?

This final section is about the application of behavioral science to an important social concern – child abuse. The more removed from the laboratory the harder it is to do controlled research. Yet isn’t this what we want from a scientific psychology -- answers to real life problems? Why is it more difficult to study applied problems than to do laboratory studies? You’ll do and report on an observational study of parents interacting with their children.

The course ends with preparation for your narrative analysis. You’ll analyze a movie character and your own journal entries

Attempts at Understanding Child Abuse

(POST 5)

We hear a lot about child abuse. How prevalent is it and what causes it? How do we distinguish abusive from non-abusive parenting? Is a cold, emotionally distant parent abusive? Why are some children more likely to be abused than others? Are children active participants in their own abuse? Do abused children grow up to be abusive adults? Why are some abused children “resilient” to the negative social and emotional effects of abuse?. What does it mean that abuse changes our brain structure?

Then we’ll consider whether the risk of abuse can be predicted. One theoretical approach to physical abuse suggests observations of ordinary parent-child social interactions allows for such predictions. You’ll see evidence from the Oldershaw studies supporting this claim and get a chance over reading week to make some of your own semi-formal observations.

Talking Points

• Can the four accepted forms of child abuse be operationally defined in a way that is useful to practitioners, researchers and the legal system?

• Why is it harder to define and understand psychological/emotional abuse compared to the varieties of physical abuse?

• What accounts for abuse resilience?

Analysis Question

Is the Oldershaw playroom situation too artitficial for a real-life analysis; think of arguments that suggest it may not be?

Meet with your Analysis Group. Plan your public observations of parent’s attempts to  gain compliance. Who was successful and who wasn’t? Good places to observe are  burger joints, shopping plazas, TTC, toy stores, supermarkets. Use your ingenuity and don’t be obvious or you’ll get arrested. Make your observations as a group rather than individually; observe at least four parent-child sets.

Concentrate on identifying the Oldershaw described-behaviors involved in successful and unsuccessful command-compliance Sequences.

Assemble your information using the report package given to you and dazzle us with your presentation next week. You will have a DVD player and computer projector available but bring your own computer.

Your Analysis Group will organize the collected observations and arrange a fascinating 20-minute presentation and analysis of your findings based on your observations of Parent-Child Command-Compliance Sequences (plus 5-min. for questions). Be creative and use viz aids to show us what you found.  

Were your observations valid and reliable? What problems did you confront? How do your observations differ from Oldershaw’s play-room observations?

Hand in (1) your summarized data package with the names of all group members and (2) a 3-page (one report from each person in the group) written report of the strengths and limitations of your effort.

We’ll review the factors involved in understanding your journal information and learn something about the technique of behavioral scaling.

You will receive a report package explaining how to prepare your final paper and the analysis of Martha Klein in the movie you will see next week.

An analysis of the protagonist in the movie Mostly Martha using the assessment factors involved in your personal analysis paper. Good practice for the real thing which is due next week. Practice your German and bring your own popcorn.

Movie Synopsis: German director Sandra Nettelbeck whips up a tasty entry in the burgeoning "love and food" romance genre with MOSTLY MARTHA, the tragicomic tale of an uptight professional chef who finds her world turned upside down when she becomes the caretaker for her newly orphaned niece Lina (Maxime Foerste). Martina Gedeck stars as Martha, whose obsession with precision gourmet cooking extends to discussing recipes with her bewildered therapist (August Zirner) and verbally attacking anyone at the restaurant who attempts to send her food back. When she's forced to expand her life to include Lina, her hermetic world begins to crumble. Sullen, despondent, and--worst of all--refusing to eat, Lina proves herself more than a match for Martha's iron will. Enter a boisterous, life-embracing Italian chef (Sergio Castellitto) who's been hired at the restaurant without Martha's consent, and the table is set. Sparks fly, personalities clash, and simmering, repressed emotions come bubbling to the frothy surface. Though perhaps not the most original recipe, the acting here is as impeccable as the cooking, and the cinematography, by longtime Nettlebeck-collaborator Michael Bertl, infuses the food and locales with glistening, sumptuous warmth.

Discussion of Narrative Analyses and Tearful Goodbyes

Our final class considers your narrative analysis assessment of Martha and your own head. Hand-in your personal analysis paper package.