Chapter 1: Opening Skinner's BoxSummary
The chapter opens up stating that B.F. Skinner is the leading neo-behaviorist famous for animal experiments where he demonstrated the power of rewards and reinforcement to encourage a certain behavior. She continues to discuss the view the media had on Skinner, often the myths that were associated with his work, and a biography of his life and works. The author then shifts to her visit to see Jerome Kagan a contemporary of Skinner's work. She also mentions Stephen Kosslyn and how his operant repertoire is still used to treat phobias and panic disorders are still used today. The author then personalizes her information about Skinner's work in how she would respond to her child's crying. In turn discussing some of the archived boxes at Harvard and her findings in seeing them. She ends that thought talking about the story of the "baby in the box" which leads her to look into contacting his daughters. She has a conversation with Julia which recommends that she reads a book called Beyond Freedom and Dignity, finding how it influenced Skinner's work. In closing she gets to visit the Skinner's old house which she finds many of his things as he left him prior to his death.
Discussion
I found this introduction to be different than I expected. I enjoyed not only reading about Skinner's works, but also getting the personal application, as well as encounters with his daughter. This reminds me how different the media and the general public can have one view of a particular person, but if you were to talk with their family members you would more than likely get another perspective. Perhaps I'm just fascinated with learning about people (whether through their own thoughts or people that know them well), but I think this book does a good job of providing factual information from his experiments as well as a personal experience.
Chapter 2: Obscura
Summary
This chapter begins by discussing one of the well-known experiments done by Stanley Milgram, testing his obedience to authority. The author then decides to find people who were involved with the experiment as well as his wife; where she looks into answering the question of the possibility of there being a characteristic or personality trait that can link to a person be obedient or defiant. Where many people, and the author try to answer why the results came out the way they did. In the interviews with people she finds out more about Stanley Milgram's life from his wife and more about some of the participants of the study and their views on the experiment.
Discussion
I've heard about this experiment before but it never fails to make me question myself and how I would have responded had I been in that situation. While the author notes that she thought she would get a morality response from some people, only to see it was perhaps in the interest of themselves and not others, I do believe that's a valid point. I think you can be a person with morals and even a person that affiliates with a religion or particular faith, and not necessarily be defiant to answering to your authority, even if it means not for the good of other people. I noticed how she parallels a smaller case, such as working more and sacrificing your family in the process. I can see the relationship between the two cases and it's true. We all yield to our authority and give our authority our unreserved 'yes'. So, maybe you're wondering, "what about your strong sense of morality or beliefs?" Oh, it's still there, it just happens to get overshadowed by other things. Just think about all the things we obsess over in our lives, and how many times those things have taken priority in our lives. It's like putting our hand really close to our face. Our hand seems huge, but in reality, if we would just pull our hand away we'd see it's not that big, but our perspective of it was; and it's the same with our priorities. While I would love to say, I would have been defiant in that experiment, and perhaps I would have been, I know I'm human (prone to error) and I gravitate towards answering to 'my authority', sometimes being selfish the process. Honestly it's something that I have to evaluate and work on daily in order to make sure that I strive to keep all the parts of my life in perspective.
And with that said, I'll close with one of quotes that's influenced my life and way of living, "Because what you care about is what you think about, and what you think about is what you chase." (B.C. Stuart).
Chapter 3: On Being Sane in Insane Places
Summary
This chapter talks about the experimenting with psychiatric diagnosis. The chapter opens up to Thomas Szasz writing on the myth of mental illness and then Rosenhan decided to try out an experiment. In his experiment he goes to the admissions of a mental hospital and told them he was hearing a voice where he was actually admitted into the facility. He expands on how he was treated and his views from his time being there which lead to his paper "Being sane in insane places." The author then transitioned to what thought about psychiatry and also decides to try the same experiment 6 times. She leads to discuss the difference of the studies between the two different times.
Discussion
I found this chapter both interesting and sometimes a bit disturbing to think about. I think it mirrors greatly how we've changed in our thoughts on medical illnesses and how people were viewed and treated. Clearly this study was originally done in 1970 while she tried it at a later time. We've advanced in medicine and ways of medical practice. Just looking at how people in older times and even sometimes in Biblical times there was an interpretation that perhaps they viewed things such as epilepsy as demonic, where as now we recognize it as an brain disorder that can be treated.
Chapter 4: In the Unlikely Event of Water Landing
Summary
This chapter goes through the five stage approach when it comes to acting in a crisis or situation. The first one is you, the potential helper must notice an event is occurring. The author discusses that she ordered a gas mask in an effort to prevent getting a virus that could possibly be spread by a particular mailed out package. This event lead her to discuss Darley and Latane's case. The second step is to interpret the event as one in which help is needed and she discusses the death of Catherine Genovese. The third step mentioned is that you must assume responsibility. In a study that they did to parallel the Catherine Genovese case was to have a 'person' (recording) from another room, converse in a conversation with a person in the room next to them. However during their time the person began to have a seizure and requesting help. They realized that a large percentage didn't go and request for help. Then the fourth step you need to do is decide which action to take. She then expands on the concept of social cues. The last step would be to take an action.
Discussion
I have heard of this action process before, except for when it came to an emergancy situation, for example someone drowning. It's true that a lot of people in a group wouldn't go but conform to be like the group. The best way I see to apply this chapter is to remember the value of being specific (for example, telling someone "You call 911" versus "someone call 911". It's a lot more effective and user friendly.
Chapter 4: Quieting the Mind
Summary
The author begins the chapter talking about the experiments of Leon Festinger and his best-known work Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, which is defined as the adjustment of one's behavior to fit one's belief. The author discusses how dissonance is evident in people like Marion Keech and her involvement with a cult. Then observed how some people who went under cover to enter into a cult. She explains a little bit about Festinger and some of the other areas he expanded his work on dissonance. Festinger had several forms of dissonance cults were associated with belief/disconfirmation paradigm, lying for money was the insufficient rewards paradigm, and induced compliance paradigm. That one was discovered based on a college student getting into a fraternity. She points out the difference between Skinner finding and Festinger. Skinner was based on rewarding good behavior, but Festinger shows that people are driven by punishment. She then transitions to a more personal story of Linda Santo and how her faith is distorted by her experiences with her daughter, believing that her daughter can perform miracles. She closes out the chapter talking about her returning visit to see Linda and how she found it funny that Christianity could be categorized with dissonance.
Discussion
This chapter was interesting, something that I've thought of before. I definitely think it's possible to become extremest and take beliefs to all the wrong places. I was able to relate to the personal story. I grew up Catholic and while I'm not catholic anymore a lot of my family still is. I understand and have witnessed how people can digress to "listianity" and think that actions and rituals or other people are what saves you. It would have been interesting to learn more about Festinger's experiments.
Chapter 6: Monkey Love
Summary
In an effort to determine the reason a monkey loves their mother Harry Harlow's experiments consisted of a soft surrogate mother and a metal milk-bearing one. The chapter opens up discussing about his son reflecting on time with his father, then proceeds to talk about Harlow's childhood, and how he got involved in research with monkeys. Through realizing how the monkeys were very disturbed he admitted to making a mistake and finding that there were three variables to love: touch, motion and play. Even as disturbed as they were they found that as they got older and interacted with one another they were seen as almost normal. The chapter continues to explain how his current wife had cancer and how that impacted him as a scientist. The chapter continues to discuss how he continues in his experiments and how his way of thinking impacted how he did and presented his work. The chapter than transitions to Roger Fouts who is a psychologist and also an animal activist. The chapter nears the end talking about his views of research on animals and how Harlow's life continued after his wife's death. At teh end of the chapter we see the author of the book going into his lab and interacting with the monkeys and her thoughts about the experiments and Harlow's reasoning.
Discussion
I found this chapter somewhat sad. I'm sure it's made an impact in research for psychology and there has been some good findings from it, but I feel as thought Harlow was very disturbed as a person and in turn did whatever needed to be done in efforts to answer his research questions. I definitely see the value in why we need 'community' with one another and this prompts me to realize that we too are impacted by our parents and how they raised us, or the world we lived in growing up. It would have been neat to know more about what research is now conducted in the Harlow's lab since the author did go for a visit.
Chapter 7: Rat Park
Summary
The 1960s and 1970s mark the research that was focused in the nature of addiction. One of the people who focused on this study is Dr. Bruce Alexander and Robert Coambs. He strongly believed that no such chemical causes addiction. His two claims were there is nothing "inherently addictive" about any drugs; and two, repeated exposures to even the most enticing drugs do not usually cause problems. This chapter begins by covering his claims and continues talking about the authors interaction with him. Then it transitions to talking about his upbringing and experiences. In order to get evidence of his claims he created what he called the "rat park." In one of their first experiments was the cramped rats were known to consume more of the drug versus the ones in the 'park'. He shortly realized that the experiment was not complete. and so over the next fifty-seven days they only gave them the drug water and then later provided them both clean and drug water as an option. They found that even though they were already addicted they didn't choose the water, even with the withdrawal symptoms. Thus he tried to suggest that addiction is connected to free will. The remaining of the chapter discusses Kleber's view and the authors concluding view that the 'rat park' wasn't a normal environment but rather a perfect one that is unrealistic to our world today.
Discussion
I found this chapter to be intriguing with its various views. I think it brought up some valid points and ways to look at addictions. I personally think that it's a combination of chemical influence and an individual. I've understood that some people are more prone to different addictions versus others. I don't think biology is the only answer to addictions and think it has a lot to do with the choices one makes and what they expose themselves too, but I don't doubt that once exposed to a chemical substance the body sometimes responds in addiction.
Chapter 8: Lost in the Mall
Summary
This chapter expands on the work of Elizabeth Loftus in her effort to scientifically prove that it is capable to create false memories based on the information you are exposed to. She uses this effort in performing various experiments and in turn using her finding to try and help people who she feels were falsely accused and are facing a sentence they didn't commit. She did receive a lot of scrutiny for her work, but at the end she was asked what she has to hold on to when she believes that thoughts are true and she closes with a letter to her mother about what she doesn't have and wish she did.
Discussion
I found this chapter to be interesting. At the beginning I was in support of the direction Elizabeth was going in because I do feel that in a sense we can forget small details about people we have encounters with, especially if it is a stressful situation, but to see her expand on full events like getting lost in the mall was a bit much. I think perhaps you could persuade a kid that things like that happened, but in the end truth prevails and the story doesn't stick.
Chapter 9: Memory Inc.
Summary
This chapter expands on the experiments of Eric Kandel which began with working on sea slugs in an effort to find where memory was located in the brain. He in turn began to work on the hippocampus to aid in memory loss as demonstrated in the case of HM. The author then explains about the protein CREB that works with memory connections helping with memory loss.
Discussion
I found this chapter to be somewhat interesting. I've always wondered how our brain works with memory, since I've had a lot of friends or family members that have suffered from Alzheimer's. I think that a medication that can make you lose your memories is a little far fetch and I wouldn't want to take that, but it was an interesting concept presented.
Chapter 10: Chipped
Summary
This chapter discusses the history of psycho-surgery which is known by Anonio Egas Moniz, the father of lobotomy. The chapter begins discussing some of the earlier cases and then some of the later procedures that were done in aiding people with various metal disorders. The author presents some of the positive aspects, but also presents some of the negative consequences of such a procedure.
Discussion
In my opinion this chapter presents a medical procedure which is very risky and dangerous. While I'm sure science has continued to expand and we're getting better at understanding how the brain works and where things are stored I still don't think I'd feel comfortable with people physically altering my brain. I personally think that the brain is such a complex organ that it's difficult to fully comprehend. Even in just looking at how people try to simulate neural networks in Artificial Intelligence it's not something that has been the answer to solving all issues as they try to present in the Spielberg movie AI.
