Page 283 - Understanding Psychology

Psychology Projects
1. Classical Conditioning Select some particular task that you find difficult or unpleasant. Whenever you begin to work at this task, play one of your favorite tapes or CDs. Do this for two weeks and then analyze your reactions. Have your feelings toward the music become associated with the task? Do you find it easier to work and com- plete the task? Write a report that explains your findings in light of what you know about condi- tioning techniques.
2. Operant Conditioning Go to a public place where you can watch parents and children inter- acting. Watch a parent-child interaction long enough to identify an aversive stimulus the parent or child may be using to control behavior. What particular behavior of the child is the parent attempting to change? What particular behavior of the parent is the child attempting to change? Are they successful? Collect your observations and conclusions in a report.
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Technology Activity
Use the Internet to locate the Web
Assessment
site of a self-help or support group at which self-control and other self-improvement techniques are taught. You should look for the fol- lowing stages/techniques: definition of the problem, establishment of behavioral contracts, and applica- tion of reinforcers in a program of successive approximations. Evaluate the site and summarize
your findings in a brief report.
Psychology Journal
Reread the journal entry in which you
described your attempts to teach a skill or task. Did you use classical conditioning, operant con- ditioning, or social learning techniques? Make a new entry, describing and identifying your learning tech- niques. Explain why your teaching strategy was suc- cessful or unsuccessful.
Building Skills
Interpreting a Chart Review the chart of O. Hobart Mowrer’s experiment to stop bed-wetting below. Then answer the questions that follow.
Practice and assess key social
studies skills with Glencoe Skillbuilder Interactive Workbook CD-ROM, Level 2.
Mowrer’s Experiment
Before Conditioning
During Conditioning
After Conditioning
1. What happened in the above experiment? What things were paired to lead to awakening?
2. Explain how the CS, UCS, CR, and UCR relate to the end result (awakening).
3. Which type of learning is displayed in this chart?
See the Skills Handbook, page 628, for an explanation of interpreting charts.
Stimulus
Full Bladder (neutral stimulus) Alarm (UCS)
Full Bladder (CS) paired with Alarm (UCS)
Full Bladder (CS)
Response
No awakening Awakening (UCR)
Awakening (UCR)
Awakening (CR)
Chapter 9 / Learning: Principles and Applications 269