Just for fun (-:
One last, with Gosling, of course.
Tag Archives: psychology
Entry #7: Pavlov Classics
Topic: classical conditioning
In 1902, Ivan Pavlov, with the assistance with Ivan Tolochinov, studied the basis for what is now known as classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning)1.
He noticed that his dog salivated when presented with food. If he rung a bell and presented the dog with food, the dog would of course salivate. He learned, however, that after some time of ringing the bell and presenting the dog with food, ringing the bell alone would cause the dog to salivate.
At a more abstract level, classical conditioning is a form of learning, in which a conditioned stimulus (CS), signals the occurrence of an unconditioned stimulus (US). Initially the CS usually results in no response, but after repeated trials it elicits a conditioned response (CR)2.
Schematically:
|
Food (US) |
→ |
Salivation (UR) |
||
|
Bell (CS) |
+ |
Food (US) |
→ |
Salivation( UR) |
|
Bell (CS) |
+ |
→ |
Salivation (CR) |
1) Food, the Unconditioned Stimulus, would lead to salivation, the Unconditioned Response
2) Ringing a bell (Conditioned Stimulus), and presenting food (US) would lead to salivation (UR)
3) Eventually, only ringing the bell (CS) would cause the dog to salivate (CR)
In this way, the dog had been “conditioned” to expect something to follow a certain stimulus.
~
Now that the basics have been delineated. Let’s look at a few (humorous) examples.
- CS: “That Was Easy” sound effect
- US: Shooting with air soft gun
- UR: flinching
- CR: flinching when hearing “that was easy” sound effect alone
~
~
~
~
And one last example from The Office
- CS: Sound effect
- US: Asking Dwight if he wants a mint
- UR: Holding out hand
- CR: holding hand out when hearing sound, and bad taste in mouth
1 Ivan Pavlov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 21, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov
2 Classical Conditioning – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 21, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
Entry #3: Taking the Uncertainty out of Love
Topic: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
“Are you tired of sitting around waiting for love? Your days of watching and wondering are over. Say goodbye to heartache and disappointment. Now you can be on the clock – true love on a schedule. Introducing TiMER, a revolutionary device that tells you not only who your soul mate is, but when you’ll meet him. TiMER, take the guess-work out of love.”
If a clock could count down to the precise moment when you meet your soul mate, would you want to know?
The premise is elegantly simple. The TiMER Corporation specializes in a device, a countdown timer that counts down to the very moment when a customer comes into contact with his or her soul mate. The timer reaches zero the night before one will meet his soul mate, and will beep when the destined couple meets the following day. For over 15 years, this company had been successfully matching couples, with an approval rating of 98%.
For Oona, a thirty-something dentist looking for love-a love that is scientifically proven to last- however, it’s a different story. Though she has a timer implanted in her wrist, hers is blank, meaning that her soul mate has not gotten a timer yet.
A timer is ideal. With one, there is no guesswork with love. There are no more terrible first dates, no trial and error, no falling for the wrong person: no heartbreak. The timer’s take all the uncertainty about love, and dilute it down to an Aha! Moment, when your time counts down on that final day, and within 24 hours you are set for love. Upon eye contact with your soul mate, your timers start beeping erratically, and there it is: true love, your happily ever after.
Like many in this modern-day world, Oona believes in the Timer. She believes that it will lead her to her only and only, and behaves accordingly. She strictly dates men without timers. A few dates in, she takes them to get a timer with the hope that hers will begin a countdown, and she will finally have her soul mate.
Though Oona is unwilling to give up on her quest to find her soul mate, she being to question the certainty of the timers because of a younger, unsuccessful grocery clerk, Mikey, who dares her to live in the present.
“You’re sweating your future right? It’s a shame because you could have more exciting present if you really wanted.”
Mikey, who already has a timer, is supposed to meet his soul mate in only a couple of months, which complicates his relationship with Oona, since she is reluctant and cautious about dating someone when she knows it won’t last. Even in caution, however, Oona learns that she doesn’t have to wait around for her soul mate in order to live fully. Further into the story, Oona discovers that Mikey’s timer is a fake.
In an effort to understand the timer phenomenon better, Oona goes to visit her biological father. Her parents had been divorced soon after Oona’s childhood. She meets her father’s current lover, a young woman, who had her timer removed. When Oona asks her why she removed her timer the young woman replies that she was in love with Oona’s father, and that was all she needed to know. Oona learns that her parents were divorced only after Oona’s mother got a timer and it told her that she would not meet her soul mate until more time had elapsed, and not because Oona’s father refused to get a timer himself, or problems within their relationship beforehand. He admits, in an attempt to keep their relationship going, he got a timer himself, but that Oona’s mom had already made up her mind.
Clearly questioning the efficacy of the timer, Oona decides to have hers removed, claiming that it did not matter what the timer said.
Just as Oona is about to get her timer removed, her countdown finally begins. Having waited for that moment for 16 years, Oona decides to keep her timer. The next day, she makes eye contact with Dan, the guy Oona’s step sister was seeing, for the first time, and both of their timer’s start beeping. Oona later goes to see Mikey, showing him that she did have her timer removed after all. The gesture, though nice, wasn’t enough to erase the fact that she had already zeroed out, and she already me the one who is supposed to be hers. Mikey and Oona decide to end their relationship.
There was this point in the movie when Oona questions, “[does] the timer actually work, or is it just a self-fulfilling prophecy?”
The self-fulfilling prophecy is a three-step cycle summarized in the following graphic. Once in this cycle, it is difficult to get rid of the first impressions.
In the context of TiMERS, the self-fulfilling prophecy is this:
Oona’s relationship with Mikey is working (I mean before they break up). Her only reservation about their relationship is the timer. She knows that Mikey isn’t her soul mate, because his timer says so. Because she knows he isn’t for her, she is cautious in their relationship, hesitant about falling for someone when she knows that it won’t last. She knows she has feelings towards Mikey, but there is always this thought in her mind, that according to her Timer, this isn’t her true love. She should be worrying and preparing for her future love, the one that her timer says will last.
Only adding to the confusion is Oona’s parent’s history. They fell in love in a time before the timer. When Oona’s mom got a timer and it told her she had yet to meet her soul mate, only then did Oona’s mother file for a divorce.
Oona, who had been living by the timer code since she got hers implanted just after puberty, can’t decide if the timer actually works, if it is truly, unmistakably science, or if it’s just the knowledge, the supposed “truth” that you will meet your soul mate at a certain date, what makes the timers work. It is really true love, or is it a belief in that the timers aren’t fallible to the mistakes people can make when forming romantic partnerships?
Entry #2: We Fed the Hippos. You?
Topic: Attribution Error. In group/out group biases.
“Everything I do, and everything I do professionally,” Ernest Sirolli begins in his Ted Talk Want to help someone? Shut up and Listen! in November of 2012, “my life, has been shaped by seven years of work I did as a young man in Africa from 1971 through 1977.”
I look young, but I’m not, he jokes.
I worked in Zanya, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Somalia in projects of technical corporation with African countries. I worked for an Italian NGO.
And every single project we set up in Africa, (pausing for a moment) failed.
And I was distraught. I thought, age 21, that we Italians were good people, and we were doing good work in Africa. Instead everything we touched, we killed.
Our first project, the one that inspired my first book, was a project where we Italians decided to teach Zambian people how to grow food.
So we arrived there with Italian seeds in Southern Zambia, in this absolutely magnificent valley, going down to the Zambesi River.
And we taught the local people how to grow Italian tomatoes and zucchini.
Of course the local people had absolutely no interest in doing that, so we paid them to come and work. Sometimes they would show up.
“And we were amazed that the local people, in such a fertile valley would not have any agriculture.”
But instead of asking how come they were not growing anything, we simply said “Thank God we are here! Just in the nick of time to save the Zambian people from Starvation!”
And of course everything in Africa grew beautifully. We had these magnificent tomatoes. In Italy, a tomato will grow to this size, and in Africa to this size. (gesturing the size difference with his hands.)
When the tomatoes were nice and ripe and red, overnight some 200 hippos came out of the river, and they ate everything.
And we said to the Zambians:
“My God! The Hippos!
And the Zambians said:
“Yes, that’s why we have no agriculture here.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?
“You never asked.”
I thought it was only us Italians blundering around Africa. But then I saw what the American’s were doing, the English were doing, the French were doing. And after seeing what they were doing. I became quite proud about our project in Zambia, because you see, at least we fed the hippos.
…
We western countries have given the African continent two trillion in American, in the last 50 years. I will not tell you the damage the money has done.
We western people are imperialists. Colonialists. Missionaries. And there are only two ways we deal with people, we either patronize or we are paternalistic. The two words come from the Latin root Patr meaning ‘Father.’ But they mean two different things. Paternalist: I treat anybody from a different culture as though they were my children. Patronizing, I treat everyone from another culture as though they are my servants….”
– The rest of this talk can be found on iTunes. below
Already within this snippet of Sirolli’s talk, we see many social psychology concepts. One illustrated concept is attribution error (the tendency to overestimate the internal and underestimate the external factors when explaining the behaviors of other people) . Sirolli’s group tried to bring agriculture to a valley in Zambia. They assumed that the Zambians did not know how to plant and maintain crops (internal attribution error: lack of knowledge), but failed to consider that maybe the Zambians had already tried agriculture, and found that it did not work in that area (an external attribution: the local environment was not ideal for sustaining agriculture). The thought, according to the Italians, was that they were saving the Zambians from starvation without taking into consideration what had already been tried, and what the Zambians, who lived in the area and thus knew it better than the Italians, wanted to do to grow their local economy. Here we see a self-serving bias, the idea that there is an inherent goodness in the Italians because they are so willing to give up their time and financial resources to help another culture. Yet, from the perspective of the Zambians, and the other African groups the Italians tried to “help,” all the aid was intrusive, and often backfired. Yet, there is a sustained view that western civilizations think they know everything and can solve every “problem,” or the cultural aspect they consider a problem.
Another concept found in Sirolli’s talk is the perceiving of in groups and out groups. Throughout his talk, Sirolli referred to Italians as “we” Italians, distinguishing himself from the culture and people whom he was attempting to help in Africa. He also references other western superpowers who have tried to aid Africa. There is a clear distinction between who is helping and who is being helped, who can give help and who needs help.
Entry #1: Bookstore Seduction
Topic: How Social Psychology is related to business, advertising and consumer behavior.
Last weekend, as I settled into my apartment, unpacked my suitcase, and settled into the lazy Sunday afternoon that rolled in, I found myself heading to Wynnewood, to pick up a few home items at Bed Bath & Beyond. Just across the sidewalk was a newly opened bookstore that I had not stumbled into before. Large posters hung from the windows exclaiming “Books up to 90% off. Pay Less, Read More” caught my attention. Their white, block lettering against green backgrounds clearly visible from where I was standing.
I felt that familiar pull to find my own treasure among what would turn out to be a plethora of books I had never heard of, of authors who were as unknown as the names of the various cities sprinkling Pennsylvania (I am not a PA native). I knew that in order to save money, I would have to spend money, which is trick #1. The best way to save money is to not spend it in the first place. But the people who make advertisements use attention grabbing statements like “up to 90% off” to give the illusion that the consumer is getting a great bargain for their product of choice. Businesses know that by selling their products at a lower price, they can get the consumer to purchase more items than they would have originally. For instance, I would have been less inclined to buy the five books I ended up buying, if I were to pay for them at their full price. I would have opted for one or two, instead. By selling at a lower price, businesses give the consumer the impression that they can buy more with their money, and it is often the case that the consumers spends more than he originally intended. Smart move.
I went into the bookstore, and browsed the first level, which contained mainly children’s books, DIY books, Photography, geography and health books. Essentially, the first floor was stalked with books that I wasn’t particularly interested in. It was the second floor that was stocked with the classic books, the fiction books, and poetry books. This is key product placement, Trick #2. This business stocked the first floor with a few attention grabbing books, books that would easily capture the interest of a child, but placed the more substantial books on the second floor, such that the consumer would have to further invest in their investigation for a good book by travelling up the stairs of the facility. By this time, the business has had you, the consumer in their store for at least twenty minutes. For the consumer, it may seem irrelevant whether you are in a store for five minutes or an hour, as long as you purchase something. But from the retailer’s perspective, the longer the consumer stays in the store, the more likely the consumer will buy additional products, that may have otherwise gone overlooked. Separating books by level, not only keeps the consumer in the store longer, but it adds to the adventure of finding an unexpected treasure.
One of the best, if not the best, ways to keep a customer in the store longer is to have a friendly and knowledgeable staff. As I browsed the titles on the second floor, taking in the layout and the posters that sectioned off the language books from the poetry books, I was approached by a sales clerk, asking if I was looking for anything in particular. Smiling, I said that I was just browsing. Motioning for me to follow, he led me to the poetry section to a specific island of books. He began talking about the layout of the island, and how there were a few books, classics, that the store only had one copy of, those books were often displayed in a different layout than the books of which there were many copies. He picked up a few that were standing upright, “see these. Here we have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Great Expectations…” (he named a few others), “so if you see books that are standing upright, you know that they are most likely going to be better books.” He looked up at me again, “are you a fan of Jane Austen?” I nodded, in sincere interest. And he led me to another section, the romance novels, and handed me a book about a continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (My life with Mr. Darcy, I think it was titled). He explained a few more details about those books, and how they were group by author when possible. Fully knowing that, as a result of all this exploration, I was going to buy more books than I had originally intended, I continued my browsing as he continued his explanation about how to find the better books, and a somewhat coherent way to which the books were ordered. He paused at another island, and commented how he arranged two sets of books by two authors who were married to each other (I’ve forgotten the author’s names, but I know where to find them in that bookstore). He commented on their writing style, and gave a few opinions on the content of the books. It was helpful, admittedly, and completely seductive in the sense that I was drawn to the information, drawn to the allure of knowing my surroundings and being able to navigate the bookstore effectively, and find books that suited my fancy.
What had started as a whim, going into a store I didn’t know existed up until forty-five minutes beforehand, had become more than a whim. I knew I was being manipulated by the design, the advertisements, the friendliness of the staff, and it worked, well.
To end, social manipulations are employed everywhere, and when used correctly can be very effective.
Survey in Social Psychology 