The Use Of Psychological Tactics On Human Behavior

Psychology has revealed how the learning perspective is concerned with the environment and experiences leading to effects on a person’s actions. Within this perspective, behaviorists focus on the environmental rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage specific behaviors. B.F. Skinner once stated, I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting. (Skinner, 1983). In the average college classroom, behaviorism effects students’ way of learning in that their behavior is shaped by either positive or negative reinforcement.

The basic assumption of the behaviourist approach is that all behaviour is learned through experiences a person has in their environment. From this we know that behaviourists are on the side of nature in the “nature vs. nurture” debate. In comparison bio psychologists will be firmly on the side of nurture.

Berry begins the article by pointing out the consumer’s ignorance as they do not realize the connection they have with the agricultural cycle. Many believe that eating is an agriculture act, however, they do not associate themselves with this act because they do not have direct contact with the actual food production process. Berry explains that the reason why people think this way is because “they just buy what they want - or what they have been persuaded to want” without a second thought on the qualities and the states of the products (3). He appeals to the reader’s emotions as he describes the nature of the consumers because it demonstrates the reality of how little people nowadays care what they consume into their body. Berry further enforces his appeal on the audience’s emotions by claiming that “food is pretty much an abstract idea” to most of the urban shoppers (4). Shoppers understand that food is produced on farms, but have no knowledge on the locations of the farms, the type of farms, and the techniques that are involved in farming. This statement supports Berry’s claims on the consumer’s ignorance because it points out the important role that consumers actually play

Everything was fine, would continue to be fine, would eventually get better as long as the supermarket did not slip” (170). The supermarket is an analogy for the human spirit. It represents an undeniable marker of human growth, a reminder that humans are safer from death than ever. The supermarket protects people from the real world because it removes the barriers between humans and a basic component for survival, food. This erasure of a struggle to obtain food does not give humans more time to think because people welcome of the distraction of consumerism. Supermarkets may help ensure the physical survival of humans, but does nothing to improve people's mental states. People cannot come to terms with death whilst buying a bag of pork rinds.

A school based therapeutic mentoring program will be more effective using psychodynamic supportive therapy than cognitive behavioral therapy in reducing problematic behaviors in youth in foster care.

In Marion Nestle’s essay, The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate, she claims ” From their (supermarkets’) prospective, it is your problem if what you buy makes you eat more food than you need and more of the wrong kinds of foods in particular” (62). Nestle introduces several tactics that supermarkets use to increase their profits, for example, particular ways of they put the products, surveys or membership cards that they give to customers and even coordination’s with food companies. From my perspective, these tactics are all justifiable, since the supermarkets can operate better and gain profits by applying these strategies. Firms’ higher payoffs may lead to positive outcomes: higher salaries and better welfare programs for their workers, donations to charities or higher national GDP. Because society is a large context, even there might be some worse off situation for some people, but considering the whole, people still become better off.

“We now spend nearly two-thirds of our $11 trillion economy on consumer goods. For example, we spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion) than on higher education ($99 billion)” (Graaf, Wann, and Naylor 13). To be honest, even though I don't think I am infected with affluenza, I suffer from running out of room to store my stuff. In addition, there are many people in debt because of their uncontrollable urge to purchase what is not necessarily needed in today’s economic way of life. Consumers are affected by affluenza buying things for the wrong reasons because they often seek validation from others by modeling their expensive

Modern retail stores have to use a variety of techniques in order to lure and keep customers inside their stores. Without paying customers there is no retail store. This shows the importance of the consumer and how much influence they have over modern retail companies. These Fortune 500 companies pay top dollar to know how they can maximize product sales in every way possible. In The Science of Shopping Malcolm Gladwell interviews Paco Underhill, a retail anthropologist who's sole purpose is to study consumers' shopping habits and to determine the best store design for maximum profit. Over the years Paco has noticed various human tendencies that, if used properly, will increase a retail stores sales. Tendencies like: the Invariant right, Petting, and the Decompression Zone. I visited a local Walmart looking for evidence of Pacos work and recorded my findings.

Utilizing behaviorist theory in the classroom can be rewarding for both students and edifiers. Behavioral change occurs for a reason; many students work for things that bring them positive feelings, and for approbation from their peers. They may transmute their comportments to slake the desires they have learned to value. They generally evade demeanors they associate with unpleasantness and develop habitual deportments from those that are reiterated often . The entire rationale of deportment modification is that most demeanor is learned. If deportments can be learned, then they can withal be unlearned or relearned. Demeanor is something that an individual has learned and does perpetually. When there is a transmutation or interruption in their

In the future, millennials will make up 70% of the workforce, thus driving the economy (FMI, 2016). We live in a society where things are catered to the technologically inclined. Currently, as a millennial consumer myself, we are living in a 360 degree media society, where there are ads on cell phones, TVs, and computers. Everything we come into contact with is a form of marketing to persuade us. To further demonstrate this trend, there has been a surge of dead malls across America. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, adolescents used to spend some time with their friends at the malls. As a result, I hypothesize that within the next decade or so, trips to the grocery store would follow the same trend. In contrast to our evolutionary history, we used to come into direct contact with food through foraging in our distant past as hunters and gatherers (Horwitz, 2016). As it stands, from harvest to production, we only come into contact with food at the time of purchase. As culture is currently shifting to farm to table, it will soon be warehouse to table. Moreover, meat from livestock would be able to be made in labs. Perception would have to shift, but this is one method to accommodate the growing population into the future. I predict that developed countries would experience this first, then developing would follow the demographic transition

Imagine walking into a grocery store. What does one see? Fruits and beautiful flowers? Popular brands front and center? Products you enjoy at eye level? Grocery stores redundantly have the same layout across the board. Whether it is Safeway, Fred Meyer, QFC, Albertson’s, or even Walmart, these stores conform to the corporation’s needs of shelf space in order to not only contribute to the engrossing profit of the corporations, but also engage the consumer growth and profit, for the store itself. Regulations allow corporations buying out shelf space in which manipulate consumers in to buying their products. By looking at the facts of how different parts of the store influence the consumers’ choices in purchase, asking the questions how can consumers make healthier decisions, as well as how can the

Today’s adults and youth alike are being manipulated by the advertising industry, and are ever increasingly becoming puppets of this massive economic monster where they manipulate this world using your subconscious against you without your knowledge of it or authority. Hoping to break this mold by informing all unaware world citizens and giving them tools to see through the gimmicks and make rational decisions based on facts not manipulation. By the same token, using valuable information gathered by Tom Stafford, Director of Public Engagement and lecturer in Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Sheffiel, claims and passes on valuable information about Ran Hassin, known

Consumerism is the center of American culture. Americans tend to confuse their wants with their needs. With new advances in technology, as well as the help of advertisers, people are provided with easy access to new products that seem essential to their everyday life, even though they have survived this long without them. People cannot live without food, clothing, and shelter. But realistically, according to people's different lifestyles, more than food, clothing, and shelter are needed. Most people need to work to survive. Unless a job is either in their own home, or within walking distance, a means of transportation is needed. Whether it be a vehicle, money for a taxi-cab, or a token for a ride on the subway, money must be spent

NB – check for changes to this in weeks 10, 11 and 13 due to the Bank Holidays.

Inside the front doors of a grocery store, customers are presented with a diverse, vibrant display of fresh fruits and vegetables. With its inviting rainbow of bright colors, the produce section leads past the wafting, sweets smells of bread and pastries in the bakery and through winding aisles stocked with an assortment of goods. Linings the aisles and fillings shelves are rows and rows of boxes of pasta, pre-made meals, processed foods, and more snacks and sweets than one would know what to do with. Grocery stores present shoppers with a myriad of choices. The shelves and displays are filled with a variety of different brands and options to choose from, which offers customers a tough and potentially stressful decision when shopping. However, before a customer decides upon a specific brand or item, whether that happens to be a name-brand product, competitor, or store-brand, they are faced with an even more important choice; they must first make a decision on whether they want to buy whole foods and produce, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other healthy choices, or more processed “junk” foods like sugary drinks and snacks or enriched breads and pasta. Not only must costumers decide between specific brands and deals, but they must also choose which of these types of food is best for them and their interests. Consumers must constantly weigh the different factors that are presented when comparing foods; between price, ingredients, health, availability, and overall