The Role of Research and Statistics in the Field of Psychology

Skinner discounted the view that man was free to choose his or her path. He believed man was merely reactionary in their behaviors. Rogers, on the other hand, believed that man strives to be the best he can be and he will make decisions based on that desire. An example of this can be seen in our educational system. Skinner would state that children are in a controlled environment and their behavior is based on the external events they encounter. If the teacher tells the students to line up for recess, the children will line up in accordance with the teacher’s wishes because they have received positive feedback in the past from doing what the teacher asks. They are merely reacting. Rogers would say that the children are choosing to do as the teacher says as it will help them in their pursuit of self. In this situation, Skinner fails to explain those children who have chosen a different path. One may choose to disregard the teacher and continue with his work. This child has made a choice. This can be further explained in the example of my father’s family. Raised in a poor family, with little education, four of the five brothers failed to graduate from high school; failed at their marriages; failed at maintaining employment and several even went to jail. This was a part of

Thereby, Skinner produced experiments whereby rats would navigate through mazes to achieve the goal of a box containing food. His interest was the behaviour of the rat, taking the right turn to achieve the desired result, food. To begin with the rats would take the wrong turn but with experience, they became more skilful. The rats learning behaviour was measured in two ways, firstly the length of time it took from start to end and secondly, the reduction in errors. This was a lengthy experiment which led Skinner to produce ‘the Skinner box’. Whereby, rats learnt to press a lever and pigeons learnt to peck a key in order to attain food, also known as behaviour shaping. This experiment lacks ecological validity as the animals are kept in a controlled environment which is dissimilar to their natural habitat. However, the results which were attained could not have been possible in natural circumstances. Skinner wanted to observe if behaviour could be learned through reaching a desired outcome such as positive reinforcement which needed to be

B.F. Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning has at its foundation a desire to demonstrate a “cause and

Are you a cat person? Well I am! one of my cats was propped up against the other one and they looked so cute on their little green blanket, “awwwwww” you could hear purring, you could also hear their tails flopping against the ground. You could smell the cat fud coming off the cat from when they have their daily chow-down.If you Were curious enough to come up and touch one or both of them you would feel soft fur and a raggedy old blanket under them.

own kitties. You've almost certainly seen tons of videos of frenzied felines losing their minds

At the bottom of the robot there is a square like opening that has brush like bristle walls on each side. Inside those bristles there are tine tubes that suck up all the acces cat hair left in the bristles and brings them to the cat hair bin. The cat walks through the square like opening, rubs against the bristle walls. Whe the cat rubbs agains the bristle walls it is brushing them at the same time without leaving a mess.

In the first chapter of her novel, Opening Skinner’s Box, Lauren Slater introduces B.F. Skinner, a neo-behaviorist who believed heavily in the power of reinforcement. He is most famous for his “Skinner boxes”, in which he would reward a rat with food whenever they accidentally pressed down on a lever. After a while, the rats would intentionally step of the levers, yet Skinner would alter the rate in which they received a reward for it, sometimes removing the incentives altogether. Skinner’s most significant discovery came from “variable schedules of reinforcement”, in which he intermittently rewarded the rats, where they would press the level but often walk away with nothing. By doing this, Skinner

It's always fun to see an excited dog waiting for you when you come home from a long day's work. This is not something that cat owners are usually able to experience.

Three major events in the early twentieth century greatly influenced Skinner’s work: Darwin’s theory of evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, and Pavlov’s approach to conditioning. Darwin asserted that all life forms evolved from simple forms and that the selection of characteristics contribute to the survival of each individual. Skinner believed that Darwin’s ideas could be applied to behaviorism and coined the idea of “selection by consequences” to explain why people act how they act. Psychoanalysis began in the early 1900s and Freud focused on the idea that people are driven by their unconscious and that adult behaviors are formed in childhood. Skinner agreed with a few of Freud’s ideas; both psychologists believed that behavior has predictable effects and is not a result of free will. However, Skinner rejected Freud’s idea that the id, ego, and superego cause behavior. Pavlov’s

and the cats you've had all their lives will be just as struck with awed fascination. So how to

Our one-minute small scale video records a series of the cat’s movement in one shot, starting from eating, to walking, then jumping and catching the ball of socks, finally walking back to eating. The reason why we took this video is to let viewers to pay more attention with their pets in daily life. We want to show that the cat wants to play with his master; however, he back to his food again. That is the point to make viewers to think. Why the cat still wants to eat, instead of playing with the master. During the busy working or studying life, we may only pay more attention with ourselves’ life, while ignore the pets. Actually, they need care. The video is only one minute. And it looks very simple. While, the meaning behind the video is to put the viewers a deep thinking. May it will change the viewers and spend more time with their lovely pets.

Pets sometimes respond easily to commands of their owner. For example, consider dogs. All it takes for your dog to do such tricks as playing dead, rolling over, or fetching a stick, is a simple word or even a couple of claps. However, cats have no use for such a reminder. Even if it's far they can generally find their goal. It is unfortunate that this pet-human parent relationship is not equal. As close as we might feel to our pets the bottom line is that the only way they can tell us that they are feeling bad is through changes in their behavior.

piece Freedom and Necessity and his beliefs on free will and compulsion. I believe that addiction

Extinction refers to the removal of the reinforcer that results in the decrease in responding. In operant conditioning extinction happens when a response is no longer reinforced. Extinction is seen as a process that can either reverse the original S-R association or establish new competing associations (CITE). One of these competing theories is the reversal

Behaviours that produce favourable consequences are repeated and become habits, but those that produce unfavourable consequences tend not to recur (Ouellette and Wood, 1998 as cited in Martin et.al, 2006). Experience changes the probability of repeating certain behaviours indicating that learning involves adaptation. As time goes on, old behaviours are eliminated and new behaviours are learned. Pavlov discovered and formalized many of the most important laws of classical behaviour, B.F.Skinner (1938) investigated and formalized may of the basic laws of operant