Skinner Assignment Ch 10, McTighe and Moody
Elizabeth McTighe
1. What does Skinner say is the difference between the scientific
analysis of emotion and the layman's analysis of emotion?
Laymen normally attribute actions to emotions and emotions to past
experiences. They ‘feel’ emotion or ‘express’ emotion, and they can
use circumstance to distinguish between emotions. Scientists, however,
approach emotion as a set of physiological changes: activity of the
glands, smooth muscle, or facial expressions. This approach makes it
difficult to make clear cut distinctions between emotions, because
many of the biological responses that are characteristic of different
emotions overlap a great deal, making it harder to classify emotions.
2. How does Skinner explain emotion as an operant learned behavior?
Responses to emotion are reinforced because we feel good when we
fulfill that emotion (I am violent and spiteful when I’m angry because
it feels good when I harm others). The operants are the emotional
actions (screaming, hitting...) and the reinforcement is a beneficial
change in environment. The behavior attached to an emotional response
is one that an individual has learned may satisfy a desire.
3. According to Skinner, why is it difficult to categorize emotional
behaviors?
It is hard to categorize emotions because they vary based on the
conditions. There are different sets of responses and different
intensity of responses for the same emotion and there are mixtures of
emotions in each situation. Different cultures exhibit emotions
differently as well, with certain physical manifestations (such as
laughing) differing slightly between cultures.
4. What is the relationship between emotion and deprivation?
Humans are often emotional when they are deprived of reinforcement -
socially, materially, or in the environment. Deprivation of a person
or place from which one usually receives reinforcement can cause
loneliness or nostalgia, as deprivation of food would cause anger.
5. What does Skinner mean by "total emotion?"
Total emotion includes all physiological responses and behavioral
responses associated with a circumstance, conditioned and
unconditioned. A total emotional response would effect the total
operation of the individual, causing a change with the introduction of
the stimulus that continues even when the stimulus is no longer
present.
6. Why does Skinner say that emotions are not causes?
Emotions make people more likely to behave in a certain way, but don’t
actually cause these behaviors. While in a state of worry someone
might not do work, but he doesn’t act this way because he is worried.
Instead he might do it because he is preoccupied with a sick family
member. The external circumstances are the true cause of the behavior,
the emotion just accompanies the behavior.
7. How can we use emotion to benefit people?
We can alter emotional reflexes (like crying, shaking hands, or
laughing) and emotional predispositions (like level of anger) to
elicit favorable conditions. Drugs prevent anxious reflexes that harm
soldiers’ abilities to fight and interrogators use anxious/angry
predisposition to get suspects to talk. By understanding emotion, it
is possible to manipulate them in order to achieve a desired response.