Positive reinforcement works by presenting something positive to the person after a desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future (McAdams, 2009). An example of this could be when a child helps their mother with the dishes and the mothers rewards the child with ice cream. Negative reinforcement, is when a behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus (McAdams, 2009). An example of this could be when the light goes green at a traffic light, the car in front of a person does not move. The person hates when this happens and from experience knows that honking the car’s horn gets cars that are in front of them to go
Harold’s persistent “suicides” can be
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Two of them can be seen specifically in Harold, identity vs. role confusion and intimacy vs. isolation. Identity vs. role confusion is the psychosocial stage of development that Erikson said that adolescents go through. Identity in this stage of development is usually seen when adolescent define who they are and figure out what they value and direction in life. This can also be seen in personal relationships, sexual orientation, and ideals in adolescents (McAdams, 2009). Role confusion can be seen if an adolescent has lack of direction and definition of self or they seem unprepared for adulthood (McAdams, 2009). Harold can be seen to have role confusion throughout the movie. Harold does not seem to have a specific direction that he wants to take his life, other than faking suicides and attending strangers funerals. Harold seems extremely unprepared for adulthood, he shows no signs of looking for a job or a way to make money, he still acts rather childish, as his mother puts it. The only real self definition that Harold that could be seen as identity, is that he is preoccupied with …show more content…
despair is the psychosocial stage of development that can be seen from ages 65 to death. Ego integrity is when an adult feels a sense of fulfillment about life and accepts death as an unavoidable reality. Despair is when individuals who do not have the feeling of fulfillment and completeness. They often will despair and fear death (McAdams, 2009). Maude fits into the ego integrity part of this stage. Maude knows who she is and has enjoyed her life to the fullest. She feels fulfilled by the way she lives her life and she literally welcomes death with open arms. On Maude’s 80th birthday, she takes an overdose of pills to end her life because she does not want to live life as an old
The Film, Harold and Maude, which was released in the year 1971, follows a 20 year old boy, Harold, with a narrow view on life. He spends his time attending funerals of people he does not know and faking suicides in attempts for his mother’s attention. She however finds his actions immature and foolish, thus showing the strain on their relationship. One day however, at a random funeral, Harold meets Maude, a 79 year old women with a zest for life. She is fun-loving and happy at all times. Their friendship grows as Harold’s mother simultaneously tries to find him a wife. Harold soon develops an intimate love for Maude that she reciprocates. Harold’s spirits are lifted and he breaks from his unhappy existence by leaving his mother to marry Maude.
If a behavior is desirable, consequences called reinforcers are used to encourage the behavior in the future, via the process of reinforcement. Reinforcement can be positive (presenting reinforcing stimulus) or negative (removing a negative stimulus). However, if a behavior is undesired, a negative consequence can be used to discourage the behavior, through the process of either positive or negative punishment. In positive punishment, a negative consequence is presented after the undesired behavior occurs. When negative punishment it used the idea is the same “to discourage future display of undesired behavior,” but instead of presenting a negative stimulus, a desired stimulus is removed following the behavior.
Role Confusion is the main stage that can be observed. Identity vs. Role confusion takes place from around 12 to 18. The four boys in this movie are all around 18 or so and are trying to figure out where to go from high school. Ego identity is one’s self-image, it integrates our ideas of what we are and what we would like to be whereas the identity confusion is looked at as failure to bring together previous developments into a consistent self-image. This confusion often results in feelings of worthlessness. Out of this stage of Erikson’s theory comes the virtue of fidelity, or the, “faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support” (Dictionary).
... of ego integrity versus despair. As time goes by, they lose their jobs, physical strengths, spouses, and friends (Crain 171). The mission for this stage is to bind together all the experiences they have and accept the death (Gross 63). They will be more enjoy their life if they did it, rather than fear death every day.
grew up in Europe and spent his young adult life under the direction of Freud. In 1933
Out of positive reinforcement and punishment only the reinforcement was successful for my behaviour modification. I believe this was the case for a number of reasons but dominantly because the positive punishment had a lack of severity. The reason I came to this conclusion was because I realized in the case of positive reinforcement if I committed the operant response at least once my entire day of hard work would be ruined. When I made the switch to positive punishment I realized in the eventuality I performed the operant response I could just do the 50 push ups and be done with it. Upon comparison of my success and failure I reflected and realized if the punishment was more severe than 50 push ups I would not do it for actual fear and reluctance of doing the positive punishment. For example if the punishment was a 1000 push ups each repeated operant response I would most likely not bite my nails. I did enjoy the modified behaviour as my nails seemed fuller and less scarred but it was not long of an experiment enough so refraining from biting my nails was still a conscious action and took a lot of effort.
Erik Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages that occur through life. These stages help parents of younger children understand what the child is thinking and why they are acting the way that they do. For a person to become a well-rounded adult they need to succeed in each level. This essay will discuss the first six stages into young adulthood.
According to Denborough,(2014) “Everyone has the right to have their life understood in the context of their relationships with others” pg.9). By being accepted, cared for and loved by Maude, Harold was able to send the hearse to its final resting place, move past his hurt and gain a better self-image in the process. Denborough (2014) discusses another theme central to narrative theory: legacy. Maude’s legacy was the appreciation of life, and living to the fullest extent. She stressed and not letting others mold you into what they want you to be. An excerpt from the movie clues viewers into Maude’s existential
The purpose of this paper is to apply two developmental concepts, as proposed by Erikson, to the real life experiences of Joe Smith. This paper will emphasize the influence of social structures expressed as risk or protective factors and any traumatic experiences that have shaped his developmental outcomes. Concept #1 will include an exploration of Joe’s psychosocial development during puberty, tied in with Erikson's fifth stage of development; identity versus identity confusion. Concept #2 will include an exploration of Joe’s psychosocial development in middle adulthood, tied in with Erikson's seventh stage of development; generativity versus stagnation. The goal of my interview with Joe Smith will be to assess the correlations between his experiences during his teenage years with that of his experiences in middle adulthood.
This assignment’s main focus will be centred on Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, which consists of eight stages however only the fifth stage ‘identity versus role confusion’ will be discussed. Aspects such as identity crises, exploration of autonomy whilst developing a sense of self, factors that may contribute to identity formation as well as the successful/unsuccessful resolution of this particular stage will be discussed thoroughly. Erikson’s theory was also expanded by James Marcia, who identified certain identity statuses. The discussion will then progress to the psychosocial development of a case study based on Anna Monroe in connection to the difficulties she faced, such as gender, sexuality, peer pressure,
The film “Good Will Hunting” follows the story of Will Hunting (Matt Damon) a self-taught genius who works at one of the most prestigious technology schools; MIT, as a janitor. Will is an orphan with a criminal record of Assault, grand theft auto, assaulting a police officer, etc. Will solves a complex math problem, which leads to him being discovered by professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) as a genius. Professor Lambeau makes a deal with the judge when Will is incarcerated to be on parole under Lambeau’s supervision and Will is ordered to see a therapist once a week. Will Outsmarts many of the therapists, which forces Lambeau to go to his last resort, college friend and psychology teacher Sean Macguire (Robin Williams).
First of all, I was highly interested in the concept and various factors that together make up positive reinforcement. I had a premise that I could do some experimental work on the three children for whom I baby-sit during the week after school. They leave school full of energy and it is my job to get them to complete a series of tasks before the end of the evening. I imagined that some positive reinforcement might get them on their way to handling their responsibilities in a timelier manner. My first step was to come up with a specific instrumental response that would produce reinforcement. This took no time at all because by far the most painfully difficult thing for me to do is get the children to sit down and do their homework. I then spoke specifically to each child and asked them what they would rather choose as an after school activity. They named video games, television, and going to play with other neighborhood children. I had expected these types of answers from the children and made them into the positive reinforcers that would be contingent on the children’s performance of the instrumental response; namely completing their homework. I explained to the children that if they behaved and finished their homework, then directly following they could spend an hour doing an activity of their choice.
In this paper I will be focusing on Erikson’s Theory mainly about identity versus role confusion. Finding one’s identity is not always an easy task. Everyone at some point in his or her life has had, as Erikson puts it, an identity crisis. Everyone experiences different struggles that can have either a positive or negative impact on their identity. On my path to identity, I have reached identity achievement, which means I have explored and made commitments. I will also be focusing on two articles highlighting a fifth possible outcome regarding identity and looking at identity statuses as developmental trajectories.
It is the stage where an adolescent re-examines their identity. To be precise, the individual tries to find out exactly who they are. According to Erikson, there are two identities involved in this stage. They are; the occupational and the sexual (McLeod, 2017). The adolescent may be uncomfortable with their looks or body, but with time they adapt to the bodily changes. The experiences of this stage result in the virtue of fidelity. The meaning of fidelity is one’s ability to commit their self to others by accepting other people despite their ideologies being different (McLeod, 2017). In this stage, the person explores the possibilities and starts to form their own identity basing upon the outcomes from their explorations. However, a failure to determine a sense of identity in a society does lead to role confusion (Kroger & Marcia, 2011). The adolescent has not established what they want to be when they grow up. Specifically, role confusion entails a person, not sure about their place in society or even themselves. While responding to the role confusion, the adolescent starts to experiment with various lifestyles such as education, work, and other activities. Notably, pressuring someone with identity crisis can lead to a rebellion that can lead to he or she forming a negative identity. Additionally, the confusion and
However, family upbringing itself influenced education, norms/cultural, environmental, social, economic and belongs to the family members. If the family provides a strict upbringing his will influence behavior. Adolescents will tend to be low and vice versa". Supported qualitative results which stated that the expectations of parents review their child to be given hope, and activities that support positive. Understanding of what an adolescent is experiencing when searching for identity, tend to be very easily unstable. Adolescents experience various emotional states. Nothing to worry about, but the adolescent may feel it is the most critical issue they are faced with in life. Erik Erikson begin this journey because of his own subjective experiences of feeling confused, and shameful, and deceived by his own parents. In search of his identity was the driving force of the Identity crisis concept. Each psychosocial stage of Erikson’s theory has played an intricate part of one’s life span. The fifth stage identity vs. role is one of the most crucial stages of life. The teen years are a time of personal exploration. The adolescent years are like exploratory surgery. Those who can successfully establish a healthy identity develop a sense of loyalty. Those who do not complete this stage well may be left feeling confused about their role and