Diagnosing Lionel Tate Using Different Psychological Theories On January 26, 2001, 13-year-old Lionel Tate was convicted in the first-degree murder of Tiffany Eunick. The incident occurred in July of 1999 in Pembroke Park, Florida. Tate, then twelve, claimed he was imitating pro wrestlers when he killed six-year-old Eunick. He claimed to have picked the girl up and accidentally thrown her into a stair handrail and wall while trying to throw her onto a sofa. Experts all agreed that Eunick was beaten for a period of time. The autopsy report showed that the girl suffered a fractured skull, lacerated liver, broken rib, internal hemorrhaging, and cuts and bruises. One expert said her injuries were comparable to falling from a three-story building. Tate was much larger than Eunick – 170 pounds compared to her forty-eight. Not even his defense could claim that he did not beat the girl to death, although they did stick to the claim that professional wrestling was the central issue in Eunick’s death. They said Tate was immature and did not understand that pro wrestlers were trained to look as though they beat each other without hurting each other. A spokesman for the World Wrestling Federation claimed, “A twelve-year-old knows the difference between the real world and entertainment and can make that distinction.” The jury obviously agreed, because after only a three-hour deliberation, they returned with a guilty verdict. B.F. Skinner, a behaviorist, claims that people tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes. He goes further to say that they tend not to repeat responses that are followed by a negative or neutral response. If Skinner were looking at the case of Lionel Tate, he would say that Tate must hav... ... middle of paper ... ... what Lionel Tate did, I’d say that the motive comes from a combination of Skinner’s, Freud’s, and Rogers’ schools of thought. Tate was probably praised in some way for his size and strength, maybe by his friends, as Skinner would have said. Although I’m not sure that I agree that Tate is still clinging to the Oedipus complex as Freud may have said, I do think that the absence of a father may have contributed somewhat. While there are always children who get along just fine without a father, there are many who don’t. Tate may be one. I also agree with Rogers that maybe his mother conditioned his love, or at least Tate believed she did. I do feel that Lionel Tate knew what he was doing when he killed Tiffany Eunick. He was completely aware he was that hurting her, and blaming the WWF is just an excuse. I believe his conviction of first-degree murder was just.
Skinner, B.F. A Brief Survey of Operant Behavior. Cambridge, MA: B. F. Skinner Foundation. 1938
Upon analyzing his experiment, Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, concludes that people will drive to great lengths to obey orders given by a higher authority. The experiment, which included ordinary people delivering “shocks” to an unknown subject, has raised many questions in the psychological world. Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California and one of Milgram’s colleagues, attacks Milgram’s ethics after he completes his experiment in her review. She deems Milgram as being unethical towards the subjects he uses for testing and claims that his experiment is irrelevant to obedience. In contrast, Ian Parker, a writer for New Yorker and Human Sciences, asserts Milgram’s experiments hold validity in the psychological world. While Baumrind focuses on Milgram’s ethics, Parker concentrates more on the reactions, both immediate and long-term, to his experiments.
When Elizabeth Shorts body was found, it was cut cleanly in half at the waist. Her bottom half was shifted and one foot from her upper half, with her intestines tucked under her buttocks. Her internal organs had been removed [3]. Her body had multiple other mutilations including 3 inch cuts from the corners of her mouth reaching up towards her ears creating the famous Glasgow or “joker” smile [2]. She also had multiple cuts on her breasts and thighs where whole portions of skin were removed [1]. Her body was posed with her legs spread and her hands over her head at 45 degree angles. Her body had been bathed and thoroughly washed before being placed, it was also completely drained of blood [2].
Also, in Marjie Lundstrom’s brief article entitled, Kids Are Kids-Until They Commit Crimes, she centers on the case of twelve year old Lionel Tate and his punishment for committing murder. For instance, Lundstrom states how Tate at the age of twelve savagely beat to death a young girl while he was trying to mimic one of his ‘World Wrestling Heroes” which he saw on television and at the age of fourteen became convicted as an adult of first degree murder (Lundstrom). At the time he was only twelve when he committed the crime and still to this day is getting punished for a heinous crime he committed at such a young age. Although Tate did commit a cruel crime and should receive some sort of punishment for it, the fact that he is under age should
Operant conditioning can be attributed with behaviorist Edward Thorndike and his Law of Effect, which states that behaviors associated with good consequences are more likely to occur again in the future, while behaviors associate with bad consequences are less likely to occur (EdPsych Modules, p. 161). Behaviorist B.F. Skinner expanded on these ideas to form a three phase model of operant conditioning known as The ABC’s
Another interesting fact came out in this case regarding Johnson. During the investigation it was found out that Johnson had nickname called murder man. He did not deny these allegations that was his name on the street. Officers ask Johnson if he ever enter the premises of where the murder occur. Johnson confirm that he had enter the location of where the murder occurred. There was also men clothing located at the property implying further that Johnson may have murder the victims Heather Camp and Nicole Sartell. Ardentric Johnson did admit as well during the integration with officers that he had seen the victim Heather Camp previously before she was murder. Evidence also points out that Johnson may have locked up the second victim Nicole Sartell for 46 hours and force her to smoke crack cocaine. Sartell body was found in the closet few days after the first victim, Heather Camp body had appeared. With this accumulating evidence against the accuser Ardentric Johnson, he has been charged with the two murders of Heather Camp and Nicole Sarell. END OF
Unlike many other killers, Jeffreys parents were not abusive. Joyce had some relatively mild psychological problems, but Lionel tried to be as loving a father as possible, struggling to reach his quiet and isolated son.
On August 20th, 1989 Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their parents inside their Beverly Hills home with fifteen shot gun blasts after years of alleged “sexual, psychological, and corporal abuse” (Berns 25). According to the author of “Murder as Therapy”, “The defense has done a marvelous job of assisting the brothers in playing up their victim roles” (Goldman 1). Because there was so much evidence piled up against the brothers, the defense team was forced to play to the jurors’ emotions if they wanted a chance at an acquittal. Prosecutor Pamela Bozanich was forced to concede that “Jose and Kitty obviously had terrific flaws-most people do in the course of reminding jurors that the case was about murder, not child abuse” (Adler 103). Bozanich “cast the details of abuse as cool, calculated lies” (Smolowe 48)...
B.F Skinner developed operant conditioning. It’s the theory that one’s behavior is influenced by the actions that follow afterward. If the actions that follow afterward are consequences, then the behavior according to the theory will fade away. If the actions afterward is a positive action like a reward the behavior will continue on.
Reinforcement, punishment, and extinction are three important concepts in Skinner’s theory. Primary reinforcement is the human's basic needs in order to survive. This is a natural and biological instinct in which forces us to search for these demands such as water, oxygen, food, and shelter. On the other hand, secondary reinforcement must be paired with primary reinforcement in order to occur. Therefore, a secondary reinforce is crea...
Hewstone, M. Fincham, F. and Foster, J (2005). Psychology. Oxford: The British Psychological Society, and Blackwell Publishing. P3-23.
John Watson was the founder of behaviorism in the Unites States. He extended classical conditioning by accounting for a greater variety of learning. Watson formulated two ...
Edited by Raymond J. Corsini. Encyclopedia of Psychology, Second Edition, Volume 3. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
This essay will first explore what classical conditioning is by using Ivan Pavlov’s famous experiment with dogs to explain how it works. It will then go on to describe how classical conditioning led to more research by Edward L. Thorndike and B.F. Skinner in the study of instrumental behaviour (Gleitman et al. 2011). It will also mention briefly what similarities can be found between operant and classical conditioning before explaining in detail what operant conditioning is (Skinner’s experiment with the operant
Psychologist B F Skinner was interested in learning and behavior. Like teachers who have depended on behaviors to tell them what’s going on inside a person , Skinner believed that observing people’s behavior was the best way to figure them out.in skinners branch of psychology, learning is about changing behavior and begins to listen, he has learned to listen. Likewise, if you are explaining to students how to add numbers and the students consistently answers with the wrong answers but then begins to answer with the right ones, his behavior shows you that he has learned how to add. Skinner believed that people learn two different ways: they learn to avoid negative things and strive for positive things. So according to B F Skinner , if you give a child a piece of candy each time he gets an answer right, he will learn to figure out the right answer in order to get the candy because he is striving for positive things. On the other hand, if you give a child detention every time he gets the answer wrong, he will also learn to figure out how to get the right answer, this time in order to avoid negative things