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Psychoanalytic literary theory essay
Psychoanalytic literary theory essay
The strength and weakness of psychoanalysis in literary theory
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One of Laurie’s favorite past-times is reading, especially now that she is unemployed and has time to follow her favorite authors. If you were to watch Laurie read, you would be able to tell when a book is getting really interesting or exciting, because Laurie will start biting her nails until she has worn them down to the quick and they start hurting her. According to Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory, Laurie’s predilection for biting her nails is a result of unresolved sexual urges that occurred during the first of five stages of development, the oral stage. Freud’s five stages of psychosexual development are the oral stage, occurring from birth to 1 ½ years, the anal stage from 1 ½ to 3 years, the phallic stage from 3 to 6 years, the
F. Skinner focuses on behaviorism which primarily deals with what can be observed and measured. B.F. Skinner believes through operant conditioning you can create desired (or undesired) behaviors in anyone. Operant conditioning is changing behavior through the use of reinforcement after the desired action is given; a behavior that is rewarded positively is more likely to continue and a behavior that is rewarded negatively would likely stop occurring (Santrock,2014). In addition to reinforcement, Skinner also talks about punishment. Reinforcement increases the probability an action or behavior will be repeated, while punishment is intended to decrease a behavior (McLeod, 2015). When Laurie was younger, she thought she was being sent to school every day to socialize with her friends and that learning was a secondary, unintentional happenstance. In third grade, compared to the other students in her class, she was falling short in reading and math. She couldn’t pay attention and often disrupted the class by talking with the people around her. Laurie’s third grade teacher got fed up with her behavior, so she placed Laurie’s desk next to her own in front of the class and then slapped Laurie’s desk with the ruler every time she caught her not paying attention. After a couple months, Laurie no longer required a slap on the desk to pay attention. According to Skinner, this behavior modification is punishment, not reinforcement, as the teacher was trying to decrease Laurie’s preference for daydreaming. However, as a result of not daydreaming, Laurie’s grades improved. Her parent’s began to reward her with $3 for every A she earned, using positive reinforcement to get Laurie to continue performing well. Due to operant conditioning, Laurie passed third grade and remained a top student the rest of her life, graduating from college with honors. If you ask Laurie to
(Biography.com, 2014) Skinner believed that the best way to understand behaviours was through looking at the causes and consequences. He called this approach Operant Conditioning. (McLeod, 2014) Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow responses. The first one being neutral operant 's, whereby the response from the environment will have no affect on the probability of the behaviour being repeated. Second type he says is reinforcer’s, whereby the response from the environment can affect the probability of the behaviour being repeated depending on the reinforcement being a positive or negative one, through this behaviours can be learned or unlearned. Third type Skinner mentioned was responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated, therefore punishment is weakening the
Skinners studies included the study of pigeons that helped develop the idea of operant conditioning and shaping of behavior. His study entailed making goals for pigeons, if the goal for the pigeon is to turn to the left, a reward is given for any movement to the left, the rewards are supposed to encourage the left turn. Skinner believed complicated tasks could be broken down in this way and taught until mastered. The main belief of Skinner is everything we do is because of punishment and reward (B.F. Skinner).
In the 1950's, psychologist B.F Skinner began researching the theory of operant conditioning (Boeree, 1998). This theory, also known as instrumental learning, is learning based on the consequences of responding (Coon & Mitterer, 2011, p. 259). The operant conditioning law of effect is the basic principle that "responses that lead to desirable effects are repeated while those that produce undesirable results are not" (Coon & Mitterer, 2011, p. 259). This principle directly influenced Skinner and his research. Perhaps his most well known experiment, Skinner placed a rat in what became known as the "Skinner box." In the box, there was a bar that when pushed would release pellets of food. The story goes that Skinner was running low on food during an experiment when he discovered the schedules of partial reinforcement. In order to save pellets, Skinner cut back on the amount and frequency that he fed the rats. Instead of the rats' operant behavior decreasing, it remained stable even with the change in feeding schedule (Boeree, 1998). This "accident" led Skinner to his discovery of the four schedules of partial reinforcement: fixed ratio (FR), variable ratio (VR), fixed interval (FI), and variable interval (VI). Skinner discovered that giving partial reinforcement with these schedules was actually more effective than giving continuous reinforcement. It is because of this discovery that psychologists are able to better predict and control behavior and learning. Today, these findings are especially helpful in understanding exercise.
1984 best reflects the behavioral studies of B.F. Skinner for operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is “the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organism’s tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.” Skinner created an operant chamber, better known as the Skinner Box, which observed how rats responded to this conditioning and how, in relation, it could be applied to humans and not just animals. Skinner discovered that in giving rewards to the rat for pushing a lever on the other side of the box, the rat was encouraged to do it more for the same response. However, when Skinner put an electric shock on the rat when it had pushed down on the lever, he saw that the rat was discouraged to do it again in order to avoid the punishment of being shocked. This concept is what Skinner called “reinforcement”. Reinforcement is considered “any event that strengthens or increases the frequency of a preceding response.” Nevertheless, there are two types of reinforcement: positive an...
Punishment takes away something a person wants or gives it something it doesn’t want. A punishment that is very common among teachers and parents is called time out from reinforcement. Therefore when a child is engaging in undesirable behavior they are denied access to what they want for a period of time. Although skinner believed that positive reinforcement and punishment are different explaining that it weakens the effect. Similar to reinforcement, punishment can work either by directly applying an unpleasant stimulus like a shock after a response or by removing a potentially rewarding stimulus. There are many problems with using punishment. One problem is punished behavior does not go away it becomes suppressed and returns when punishment is no longer existing. It doesn’t have a good effect because it creates aggression and fear of being abused and unsafe. This is especially a problem in schools with corporal punishment. Therefore punishment only tells you what not to do which skinner had learned early
Reinforcement is a strategy in which award or punishment is implemented in order to foster a desired behavior. This idea stems from the theory of behaviorism, or the theory that the behavior of different organisms are controlled external forces. In the article “Does reinforcement Facilitate Learning”, the author references B.F Skinner’s theory of operate conditioning where “ a thirsty rat presses a bar when a light flashes because this results in the delivery of a few drops of water.” In this example the flash of light is the outside is the external factor that encourages the rat to press the bar. The article also states that “According to Skinner, an event serves as reinforcement if it is contingent on an organism’s response to a stimulus
F. Skinner’s behaviour theory states Children learn from their experience. For e.g. if a child gets told-off for tearing pages from a book, he/she does not repeat the same act. In school teachers appreciate good behaviour by praise, smileys or stickers which encourages them to continue behaving well. Teachers give timeout or detentions in case child displays wrong behaviour. For e.g. pushing peers, hitting/kicking other children or throwing classroom equipment at peers, speaking rudely, disrupting the session, etc. Both positive and negative rewards become part of child’s experience and they learn about acceptable social behaviour and develop their own
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.
Skinner believes “the job of science is not just to predict but control the world” (Stevenson, p. 193). He did many experiments on animals to prove his theory. Many critics argued that just because it worked on animals it does not apply to humans, but Skinner used the animals as a symbol for humans. One of his most famous experiments includes the invention of the Skinner box. An example of this is placing an animal into a box and playing a sound and then after hearing the sound they must preform the desired activity to receive a treat and if they do not then they will be given a negative reinforcement. After a period of time when the animal heard the sound they would do the action because that is what they were trained to do. “When the environment is arranged so that reinforcer follows a certain kind of behavior then that behavior will be performed more frequently” (Stevenson, p.199). He applied this to humans to form his theory. If you reward a person for performing a certain behavior, then they will learn
Sigmund Freud proposed a theory of psychoanalytic development; he stated that early childhood experiences and practices affect later development in adulthood. Freud’s stages of psychosexual development comprised of five stages: the oral stage (0 – 1 year), the anal stage (1 – 3 years), the phallic stage (3 – 6 years), the latency period (6 – puberty) and the genital stage (puberty –
From a Freudian perspective, human development is based on psychosexual theory (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). It was Freud’s perspective that there are three components of personality (the id, ego, and superego) that become integrated into his five stage theoretical model. The id was the biological or drive component that is innate from birth. The sole purpose of the Id is satiate an individual’s internal drives (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). The ego is the conscious portion of our personality that mediates between our id and superego. Throughout development the ego reflects the child’s emerging ability to...
Long regarded as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) lives on today as an incredibly influential and powerful figure in the applied discipline of psychology. For Freud, it was his intense study of dialogue and interplay of involuntary human communication that ultimately led to his conclusions concerning the human unconscious. In contemporary studies, these conclusions have evolved into many of the distinguished, and more importantly controversial theories we associate with his name: the Oedipus complex; castration anxiety; penis envy; repetition compulsion; repression; etc. Much of the contention surrounding Freud is grounded in the belief that his works instituted notions that cannot be proven scientifically, such as personality development in infantile stages; sexuality in unconscious desire; and the unconscious drives behind human mannerism. Yet, despite the fact that many of Freud’s theories have not withstood the test of scientific scrutiny, few can argue against the fact that Freudianism is still impactful and has permeated other branches of modern theory. To prove this point, we can bring to attention the names of two modern theorists that have not only built upon Freud’s ideas in their work, but have consequently expanded his influence into other realms of literature, and other spheres of study. Harold Bloom (1930 – present) and Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) are only two notable thinkers that extend Freud’s ideas and have gained far-reaching influence in intellectual life. In response to this revival however, new opponents of Freud have found the opportunity to retaliate with their concerns and arguments. Nevertheless, the presentation of human identity and unconscious by Freud’s opponents and successors c...
Skinner. Skinner basically believed that there were three components that affect human personality and behavior: the human entity, environment, and how the human responds to his or her environment (Goddard, 2014). As opposed to talking through issues, as advocated by Freud, Skinner believed in behavior modification via a system of rewards (positive reinforcements or negative punishments) and punishments (negative reinforcements or positive punishments) (Goddard, 2012). Briefly put, these concepts can be defined as followed: rewards can include giving something pleasant (positive) upon correct response or withholding something unpleasant upon correct response, while punishments include imposing something unpleasant or withholding something pleasant upon incorrect response. In this sense, Skinner’s work resembled the noted behavior training done by Pavlov, who conditioned dogs to salivate upon hearing the ringing of a bell (McNeil, 2015). Skinner himself worked mainly with positive reinforcement as a learning tool, and developed a box that would dispense rewards to condition pupils to expect favorable treatment at small intervals of learning, thus motivating them to learn more (McNeil). Skinner, who taught for years at Harvard, is famous for trying out his methods on not only his subjects, but his own
B.F. Skinner is a major contributor to the Behavioral Theory of personality, a theory that states that our learning is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, modeling, and observation. An individual acts in a certain way, a.k.a. gives a response, and then something happens after the response. In order for an action to be repeated in the future, what happens after the response either encourages the response by offering a reward that brings pleasure or allows an escape from a negative situation. The former is known as positive reinforcement, the latter known as negative reinforcement (Sincero, 2012). A teenager who received money for getting an “A” is being positively reinforced, while an individual who skips a class presentation is being negatively reinforced by escaping from the intense fear and anxiety that would have occurred during the presentation.
The person or animal begins life with a fresh start, and throughout time behavior is framed using techniques like positive and negative reinforcement. Using techniques such as positive and negative reinforcements increase the likelihood of the preceding behavior to be repeated. B.F. Skinner himself said “The consequence of behavior determines the probability that the behavior will occur again.” In comparison to those techniques used to aid the conditioning process, there are also techniques used to decrease the probability of the preceding behavior to be repeated. One technique like this for example is using punishment. There are both positive and negative punishments; a positive punishment will show he function of a stimulus, where a negative punishment will show the confining of stimulus. B.F. Skinner’s idea of radical behaviorism was entirely different from any there behaviorist or behaviorism school at the time. The entirety of his system was based on operant conditioning, which is the approach that a behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence adjusts the person or animals impulse to repeat the