WK2Assgn
Welling T
September 8, 2019
Dr. Melody
Moore
Survey Review
Reading about a survey done in the late 1980s, in rural Indiana with
some participants taking part in one of a dozen large colleges in LA. The results
were both shocking and to this student annoying at best. The study was based on
the work of B.F. Skinner, a person who in the last century has had his work for
the most part proven incorrect at least a large portion of his theories
incorrect three separate times. However, in a few years his ideas are going to
become popular again, and again patents will be damaged massively, and then
studies to find out why the trauma exists, and again his theories will prove
themselves to be the incorrect therapy for a large percentage of those seeking
mental health. But it is the hope of the behavioralist that on the next try,
their ideas will be used correctly on the masses and Skinners work will be
finally proven. Which itself is on the serial side of unethical, amoral, and in
most cases really nasty to do. But never get between
the answer they want and the equations coming up badly for arrogance and egoistical
scholars. They will and have on countless occasions altered the numbers to
prove their work good, when in all hard reality when their studies are examined
it is obvious the data is fiction. This study is one such examination of said
information. The conclusions drawn were from a set of criteria which is only
accurate when the reader and scholastic ignore huge amounts of relevant
details. This study did not shock or surprise in the least, not the first
dozenth study read which presented the same information. They were just as
flawed as this study.
Demographics
The differences between females and males, rural versus urban,
teacher versus students was not at all outside of what was expected (Ambrose,
Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, & Norman, 2010). The study was rigged to produce
a specific answer, which did not work because the one LA school chosen the
students responded in an almost identical way as the rural Indiana school did.
More than 80% of those participants disapproved of the entire situation.
Reactions
to the Questions
According to the scientific method the test was based on the ideas
and concepts of B.F. Skinner, whose hypothesis/ ideas have been disqualified as
valid twice in the last half century (Luciano, Valverde, & Catania, 2008) once
from 1900-1950. These tests were mostly based on his work, which by default is
not all that ethical or moral to begin with. The tests did provide a profoundly
large amount of data about the different stages of animal behavior (Corty, 2008). Clearly representing the different types of
thinking from the medulla oblongata, up to the highest level of thinking each
human brain is capable of (Chen, Gu, Fan, Zhang, Sun, Chen, …& Lai, 2019).
The reactions to this study are for the most part offensive, cruel,
nasty, in some cases disgusting valuable information at its base. But for the
most part entirely ethical and impossible to perform said actions in a moral
and ethical academic setting. Not in essence different from the actions and
reactions recorded by Milgram in his experiments (Kaposi, 2017). Very
interesting how easily some ethical people can be convinced to perform
unethical behaviors based on the correct “Skinner Box” stimulations.
Elements
of the Ethics Study
It appears that most of the studies presented were based on trying
to obtain a visceral/violent reaction from at least some of the participants. The
point is to do something unethical to something or someone, then present said
information to the group to create a socially unacceptable reaction from the
group. Be that a making a scene by storming out, or by staying and watching
unethical behavior.
How each individual’s social rules of
acceptable order behavior patterns going to react to the given events
presented. The results of the experiments are for both the test subjects and
the students paying attention. In some ways those tests are also for the
teachers and admin to have an accurate measurement of what they are willing to
do in their classrooms (Stavredes, 2011). Their
behavior patterns are also part of the Skinner Box. However, students similar to myself, we break the patterns of reaction. We can
see beyond the initial issues and see the big picture. Of which we usually get
upset and offended by being used as a pawn in large studies we did not agree
to. Even if we agreed to participate,
our behaviors still usually fall outside the bell curve of social norms. What
shocked the most, how few in those studies understand they are also a rat in
the maze of the study itself.
Responses
to the Ethics Survey
This survey did not bring me insights into anything other than the
people who gave it. The Skinner Box aspects of this study and this paper annoy
me. They annoy me because it is not actually a good measurement of how to teach
in a class, it is a solid psychological test to determine aspects of each participant
(that would be each student writing this paper) behavior patterns of how
specifically the author of this paper was offended.
Based on the studies performed, most of the more radical ones were
performed previous to 1970. Ethical laws were passed
post which did not allow for said types of unethical treatment of animals. Or
perhaps some of them could have been done in much less developed nations which
in the present are attempting to compete on the world scientific stage. but
repeating experiments ruled unethical in the west half a century ago (American
Psychological Association. (2010).
Responses
to the ethics survey
The responses in the ethical study were mostly from students who
had literally no idea they too were being the subjects of a much larger and
more complex Skinner Box study. They might have answered a long sequence of
questions, but that small survey is part of a much larger and more complex
study revolving around the application and concepts of what exactly the morals
and ethics of any one given culture are.
Implications
In my future classes, there is no need for stupid or dominant
submissive games. Approaching the students with a solid understanding of the
subject, being able to relate the information in an entertaining way and to
behave in an ethical manner. Over time if the subject becomes interesting and
the students engage in a learning environment that is how to teach, let the
students become lost in the information, not the ego and arrogance of the
teacher. The teacher’s job is to be a vessel for the information, not to be
worshipped as the holder of knowledge. But simply a vessel for the students to
absorb the infuriation through.
The bottom of the survey is just as unethical to the rest of it. Most
of the students found the layers and layers of experiments to be unethical and
in most ways repugnant.
“Rather than adversaries, it appears that professors have allies in their students when it comes to expectations of appropriate ethical
behavior.” page 161(
Keith-Spiegel, Tabachnick, & Allen,
1991). As the rest of the beginning of that chapter points out, that students
and teacher alike in this survey and clinical study were for the most part not
happy with its results. Most all involved united behind the common goal, this
was a bad experience.
Showing direct evidence that by the time students enter college, for
the most part their ethics, morals, and character are set. What they find good
and/or bad has been determined. Of course, this study was done at a very
specific time in select campuses.
This study was published out of Ball State, which is in a semi-rural
area of Indiana. A state that has been known for a very long time as a cradle
of conservative culture. Ohio to the east which for a considerable amount of
its pre 1910 history some of the politicians involved were to varying degrees
pro slavery. Illinois to the west which outside of Chicago the rural of said
state are on the rather extreme side of conservative. Indiana is bordered to
the south by Kentucky, which outside of Oklahoma is a state which advertises
how conservative the culture has been since its founding when it was a territory.
The study itself was created in an area where unethical behavior
is based on puritan values. Most of those hard-core puritan aka Great Awakening
aka Born Again Christian values are set in by late adolescence. Middle teen
years do not change the ethical and moral compass of those who choose to live
in said culture. Now if this study was done at say Berkley, Columbia, Oxford, Dublin,
etc. the results could and very likely would be different. There are about a
dozen colleges and universities in Los Angles, there is no way to determine
which of the dozen colleges in LA was chosen. Choose a college with a specific
bent in any one given direction of other, and the results are skewed into the
fiction realm. It is just assumed it was UCLA, but Cal Tec is just as large.
Evidence in the three decades since this study was conducted the
American culture is still fighting against unethical behavior which might
affect them but ignoring unethical and amoral behavior which does or will not
have a direct effect on them.
It is easy to fight against an issue when today a group of people
in a class might be given all As, and everyone else given all Cs. That is easy,
since tomorrows class or next week’s class you might be in the group who are given
all Cs. Real ethics, real moral behavior is to fight just as hard for items
which have not slightest effect on your life. You will personally not be
affected by the unethical behavior in almost any way; however, others will be. So,
where is the moral outrage to subjects which do not harm you and have almost no
real ability to bring you personal harm.
Conclusion
This study review is one of the more
difficult assignments completed period. It was difficult because of the inherent
unethicalness of the Skinner Box, the amoral aspects of the foundation of the
study itself. The actions in the classrooms in the last 1980s, and the events
in real life in the decades since have proved beyond a doubt there are serious separations
between what happens in an academic environment and what happens in real life. The
only thing about this study which shocked is how blatantly obvious the study
parameters were set up to come to a specific conclusion. This study is a
perfect example of what never ever to do in a classroom. Not much if anything about
this study was ethical or found accurate information which can be applied to anything
other the fixed parameters, which have very little impact on the field of
psychology. This is not the way to teach, not the way to conduct studies, and absolutely not acceptable in any way to pass any type of ethical
guidelines.
References
Ambrose, S. A., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M. C., &
Norman, M. K. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart
teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Ethical principles of
psychologists and code of conduct: Including 2010 amendments. Retrieved from
http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx
Chapter 17, “Strategies for Managing Ethical and Legal Issues”
(pp. 223–240)
Chapter 2, “How Does the Way Students Organize Knowledge Affect
Their Learning?” (pp. 40–65)
Chen, Z., Gu, D., Fan, L., Zhang, W., Sun, L., Chen, H., … Lai, K.
(2019). Neuronal activity of the medulla oblongata revealed by
manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in a rat model of
gastroesophageal reflux-related cough. Physiological Research, 68(1),
119–127. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mnh&AN=30433807&site=eds-live&scope=site
Corty, E. W. (2008). Resolving a conflict between APA learning goals
and APA ethical principles. Teaching of Psychology, 35(3), 223–225.
Kaposi, D. (2017). The resistance experiments: Morality, authority
and obedience in Stanley Milgram’s account. Journal for the Theory of
Social Behaviour, 47(4), 382–401. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/jtsb.12137
Keith-Spiegel, P. C., Tabachnick, B. C.,
& Allen, M. (1991). Ethics in academia: Students view of professor’s
actions. Ethics and Behavior,3(2), 149-162. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc Inc.
Luciano, C., Valverde, M. R., & Catania, A. C. (2008).
Presentation to the series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the book Verbal
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Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching: Foundations and strategies
for student success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Svinicki, M., & McKeachie, W. J.
(2014). The ethics of teaching. In McKeachie's
teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university
teachers (14th ed., pp. 319–327). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Tabachnick, B. G., Keith-Spiegal, P., & Pope,
K. S. (1991). Ethics of teaching: Beliefs and behaviors of psychologists as
educators. American Psychologist, 46(5), 506–515.