Operant Conditioning: Cool Hand Luke

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Justin Jones 5/23/12 Period C “He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.” – Dragline (Cool Hand Luke 1967). This is the final line of the film as the camera pans away from Dragline, who has a set of leg chains attached to his ankles. At the beginning of the film, Dragline was a pristine and model prisoner, following all of the rules and making sure the others followed them as well. How did he end up with a set of leg chains which are only given when a prisoner attempts to escape from the prison? “Cool Hand Luke”, as Dragline named him, is responsible for the drastic change in Dragline’s behavior. Over the course of the film, Dragline changed from the uptight, role model prisoner, to a more rebellious type through Luke’s conditioning. For the sake of getting out of prison, his choices weren’t in the odds of his well-being, but for the of shaping his personality, they were. When Cool Hand Luke first arrived at the prison, he and Dragline weren’t exactly on friendly terms. In fact, at one point during the film, the pair were working with the chain gang on the long, country road while a beautiful woman was washing her car (stimulus). The prisoners watched her while they worked (spontaneous behavior), and Dragline became obsessed with the woman, who he named “Lucille”, his reason behind this being “Anything so innocent and built like that just gotta be named Lucille.” That night as the prisoners were falling asleep, Luke insulted Dragline about how he kept “Beatin’ it” about the lady washing her car. This resulted in the two competing in a boxing match the next afternoon. Dragline
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