[David Goldstein (2013.07.10.22:210]
Dear Friends, my attempt at answering the study guide questions. I enjoyed Fred’s answers, and hope to see some more.
Chapter 1: Dilemmas of behaviorism.
The chapter starts with a declaration that the book
represents a break from traditional psychologies and then goes on to describe
behaviorism as the traditional psychology from which the book breaks.
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Was
the use of âbehaviorismâ? as the representative of âtraditional
psychologiesâ? too restrictive? Hint: Read the whole first paragraph
carefully.
If one believes that all other psychological theories have as their
underlying conceptual model, the idea of stimulus causes response, then the
answer is yes. Otherwise, no. I am not sure that the psychoanalytic model of
Freud, or the humanistic theory of Rogers and Maslow follow this model.
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There
is a lot of talk about psychological experimentation in this chapter. What
is the relevance of the problems of experimental psychology to the theory
to be described in the book? Hint:
What is the underlying model of experimental psychology as described in
this chapter.
···
The general linear model, as in the statistical procedure called the
Analysis of Variance. A personâs
response is a function of the current stimuli and past stimuli which are stored
in the person or which have changed the person.
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The
final part of the chapter finally broaches the idea of what is missing
from the model of behavior accepted by âtraditional psychologiesâ?:
purpose. How, according to this chapter, have psychologists dealt with
purpose? Hint: Look to the environment.
They ignore it. For example, all psychological experiments involve
instructions that are given to a person. This is the personâs purpose during
this study. There is usually no recognition that this is a personâs purpose
during the study.
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What
are the dilemmas referred to in the chapter title?
Dilemma suggests to me conflict. Behaviorists want to stick to things
that can be observed publicly. Purpose involves something that is not public.
For example, if the task is to say as quickly as possible whether a digit that
an E says is odd or even, there is no way to observe what goes on inside a
person before he/she answers. One can obtain a verbal report of a person, but
one cannot go inside the person.
This quote from Bill
summarizes the chapter for me: Quote from Bill: â
all behavior is purposive
all off the time, and the purposes are selected by the brain, not by the
environment: the illusion is no illusion, but it will take a while yet to prove
that.â?
Also, please try to answer the four âLeading Questionsâ? at
the end of Chapter 1 (p.10).
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Still upward, but less
strong than before.
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Away from the school door.
The boy is described as âreluctant.â?
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No. If a machine
objectively converted the distance between the spot and finger as a pitch.
And if the closer the distance of the finger to the spot, the lower the
pitch. The personâs goal is to lower the pitch as much as possible. The
person is controlling for pitch, which correlates perfectly with distance
between the spot and finger. The perceived pitch is the effective
stimulus. The movement of the finger in space is the response. These two
perceptions are not independent. No. A change in the finger would change
the pitch.
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He will stop trying to
move the car. It would cause the car to deviate from the correct path.