“Suppose you suddenly found it possible to control the behavior of men as you wished,” Frazier spoke frankly to Castle. Continuing on, Frazier asked, “What would you do?” (pg. 31). This question, which Frazier acknowledged and cautioned as more terrifying than life’s other inquiries, acted as a catalyst to a passionate debate between the Walden Two cofounder and the community’s visiting narrow-minded contrarian. On page 32, Frazier, who is the literature’s manifestation of B.F. Skinner and his studies and perspectives, requests Castle give him “a concrete case.” By this, Frazier is appealing to Castle to describe an instance in which freedom exists in a definitive and concrete situation. As in, there is no interference of conditioning or learned
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They do not don’t belong no place” (Steinbeck 13). The society in Of Mice and Men is on a smaller and simpler level but has the same principles: Work hard which shows (functionality), stay in line which shows (strict conformity), and keep your head down which shows the (intolerance for the unique). That is all society expects from the population. There are no laws or “Amendments” to enforce these expectations. Instead society controls the population through peer pressure and desire to conform. If someone were to stand out as an individual they would be punished in the form of examination, judgement, and exposement to others who will also examine and judge the individual. This is seen as a terrifying process to the individual and therefore avoided by conforming. “ I don’t know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damn world is scared of each other” (35). Individuals fear others will see something about them themselves that makes them different. And to be different means to stand out, which results in society taking notice. When society takes notice of that individual it will begin the process of: examination, judgement, and exposement. The reason the ranchers fear each other can be a simple primal fear of physical pain. But on a larger deeper level it is a fear of judgment and being found lacking, or simply different. The society found in Harrison Bergeron is similar to that of Of Mice and Men in the representation of society being focused around strict conformity, intolerance for the unique, and functionality. The society of Harrison Bergeron is different from Of Mice and Men because of the militant portrayal of society. Whereas Of Mice and Men shows society in a more traditional
Stashia L. Emanuel is an African American female that presents for a career and life history interview. She is a college graduate. She is 46 years old and married with one child, a daughter. Both she and her husband are dual earners as they work full-time. She works for state university in Nashville, Tennessee.
“You never know whose is watching” This quote by one of the great baseball players in the MLB Todd Frazier who should be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Who is Todd, Frazier? Well, Todd Frazier is a great all around athlete who grew up in Toms River, NJ. Todd exceeded at baseball in his hometown and is still exceeding in the MLB. He has won many awards such as the Golden Glove award in 2015 and the Heart and Hustle award last year. Todd is a great influence for all ages in our community no matter their age.
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
“From a scene of constraint and confinement, ill-suited to my years and inclination, I have just launched into society. My heart beats high in expectation of its fancied joys. My sanguine imagination paints, in alluring colors, the charms of youth and freedom, regulated by virtue and innocence. Of these, I wish to partake. While I own myself under obligations for the esteem which you are pleased to profess for me, and in return, acknowledge, that neither your person nor manners are disagreeable to me, I recoil at the thought of immediately forming a connection, which must confine me to the duties of domestic life, and make me dependent for happiness, perhaps too, for subsistence, upon a class of people, who will claim the right of scrutinizing every part of my conduct; and by censuring those foibles, which I am conscious of not having prudence to avoid, may render me completely miserable” (Foster, 29).
Frazier replies that a great deal of time is wasted in the outside world: the second half of an eight-hour day is less productive than the first; people work less well when they are working for a boss than when they are working for themselves; many people who could work are unemployed; and many of the people who are working are doing so in capacities that are not needed at the society of Walden Two, such as banking, advertising, etc. Furthermore, women can do work that helps the community since their domestic duties are reduced or nonexistent. The members of the society of Walden Two also consume less than members of the outside world. Castle agrees that Frazier has made his
(133). While the members have some limitations, most, if not all, are of a practical nature, such as the parts of the Walden Code that preserves peace in the community and allow for crowd control. (135) These limitations are much less severe than those in the non-Walden-world and therefore seem
Among any community there is a set of boundaries that must be respected under penalty of being labeled as deviant. Consequently, a community will create agencies of control in order to punish and fight against all the forms of behavior considered as deviant. In his Study in the Sociology of Deviance, Kai T. Erikson defends the point that deviant forms of behavior are a natural and beneficial part of social life. One of his main arguments is that, in our modern society, “the agencies of control often seem to define their job as that of keeping deviance within bounds rather than obliterating it altogether” (Wayward Puritans 24:2). Now, what if society gave to its agencies of control the role of annihilating deviance? What if the set of
They have group sleeping areas that are similar in principle to the infants' cribs. The visitors see a small group of children leaving for a picnic and Castle wonders whether the other children are jealous as he says “Don’t the children who stay home feel unhappy about it.” (Skinner, 91) . Frazier says that jealousy is largely unknown at the society of Walden Two; in a planned community, competitive emotions are useless.” In a cooperative society there’s no jealousy because there’s no need for jealousy” (Skinner, 93). He says, society is always in conflict with the individual. From the moment a child is born, society tries to shape his desires so that he will act in the best interest of the
Just as Freud is known as the father of Psychoanalysis, B.F. Skinner is often referred to ask the “the father of operant conditioning.” B.F. Skinner is also known for major contributions to the field of psychology (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner was a prolific author, publishing nearly 200 articles and more than 20 books. Skinner was most known for his work in behavior psychology. Behavioral psychology is the psychological practice that focuses on learning new behaviors and how to modify our existing behavior and how that takes place (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). One of his major contributions was his theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning means roughly, the changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement, either positive or negative, and which these reinforcements are given after the desired response (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.
According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response
In chapter 1, Opening Skinner’s Box, Slater talks about a psychologist named B. F. Skinner. Skinner shows us how easily operant conditioning can be done. He believed that you have a better outcome if you study observable behavior instead of studying mental events. Skinner’s work focused on operant conditioning. People and animals were the subjects of his studies.
B.F. Skinner argues the reality of freedom or free will in people. He explains it as our actions being a result to a stimulus. For example a person that gets burned under the hot sun learns to avoid the sun in order to not receive the burn. He argues that we do not behave the way we do because of our philosophy but because we respond to our environment. It’s not freedom or the liberty to do what we want, we act the way we do to avoid punishment or receive rewards. Skinner makes emphasis on how environment helps shape the way we are. Another problem we face understanding our freedom is “self-control,” defined as the ability to control our behaviors when presented a stimulus and necessary in order to achieve what an individual desires. “A person eats too much and gets sick but survives to eat too much again.” The person isn’t executing his ability of self-control, the food is controlling what he does therefore eating again and repeating the
Close inspection of these rules give insight into how More may have really viewed human nature. In the following excerpts we find evidence that More may have found man untrustworthy and in need of social control, or at the very least spiritual control.
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