Unit 9 Assignment 1 Psychology

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Unit 9 Project Name University PS 124: Psychology Instructor 6/20/11 This paper will attempt to answer a few questions to satisfy our unit 9 assignment requirements. I have learned that psychology plays an important role in nearly every aspect of life. Dealing with alcohol treatment is a challenging topic to tackle. It usually requires more than one modality to assist in alleviating the problem. It would be so exciting to do an actual investigation on the relationship between alcohol and violence. The timing of this assignment is absolutely stunning because I am currently going through this exact scenario. My closest friend and I were having a few drinks with our wives and before I knew it, he was on the floor with his wife in a…show more content…
According to our reading in Schacter, chapter 2, this is “a technique for establishing the casual relationship between variables. The best way to understand how experiments accomplish this amazing feat is by examining their two key features: manipulation and randomization.” It is important with this type of research to keep in mind that variables play a role in the results. The example our reading gives us is about children watching televised violence but I will change this to relate to this discussion. The possible variables that could cloud the experiment or give inaccurate results would be, for example, were there also loud music at the time of the violence? If there was violence, we need to investigate if the violence took place after a specific food ingested that may have caused an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. I know that these variables that I am giving are far fetch, but in order to do a thorough and precise investigation, we must take into consideration those things that would interfere with our…show more content…
In today’s seminar and in chapter 5 of our reading, positive reinforcement is described as rewarding the behavior or giving something to the participant after the behavior is performed. In contrast, negative reinforcements are punishing or taking away something as a result of the behavior in which the participants display. I use both of these methods quite frequently because I have two children ages 4 and 6. In the seminar, the professor stated that positive reinforcements are better at producing the behavior more frequently. An example of my experience of negative reinforcement is simple. When I was in elementary school, we were one of the few schools that the disciplinary counselor gave beatings to the students when the behavior was poor. The counselor used a large wooden paddle that had holes in it (and I believe that the holes were help the paddle gain speed). Allow me to paint a picture for my readers as to this setting. The cafeteria was large enough to house half the school, since there was only “lunch one” and “lunch two.” The counselor would wait until the student’s lunch time and walk the child onto the stage, which was located in the front of the cafeteria. From this spot, the entire lunchroom had a clear visual of the upcoming event. The counselor would get onto his blow horn to announce to the lunchroom that your behavior was unacceptable before he began
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