Myth as Psychology

September 17, 2012

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

“What do those who tell lies gain by it? That when they speak truth they are not believed.”

Aristotle, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

“Men bileve not lyghtly hym whiche is knowen for a lyer.”

-- William Caxton

“Teachers have used the fable as a cautionary tale about telling the truth but a recent educational experiment suggested that reading "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" increased children’s likelihood of lying. A book on George Washington and the cherry tree, on the other hand decreased childish mendacity dramatically.”

A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess (1962)

A satire portraying a future and dystopian Western society with—based on contemporary trends—a culture of extreme youth rebellion and violence: it explores the violent nature of humans, human free will to choose between good or evil, and the desolation of free will as a solution to evil. Burgess experiments with language, writing in a Russian-influenced argot called "Nadsat" used by the younger characters and the anti-hero in his first-person narration.

B.F. Skinner (1961) Harvard professor, 1958-1974

Radical behaviorism is the philosophy of the science of behavior. It seeks to understand behavior as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences. Such a functional analysis makes it capable of producing technologies of behavior (see Applied Behavior Analysis). Unlike less austere behaviorisms, it does not accept private events such as thinking, perceptions, and unobservable emotions in a causal account of an organism's behavior.

Reinforcement Continuous reinforcement — constant delivery of reinforcement

for an action; every time a specific action was performed the subject instantly and always received a reinforcement. This method is impractical to use, and the reinforced behavior is prone to extinction.

Interval (fixed/variable) reinforcement Fixed — reinforcement followed the first response after a set duration. Variable — time which must elapse before a response produces reinforcement is not set, but varies around an average value.

Ratio (fixed or variable) reinforcement Fixed — a set number of responses must occur before there is reinforcement. Variable - number of responses before reinforcement is delivered differs from the last, but has an average value.

In The Technology of Teaching, Skinner has a chapter on why teachers fail (pages 93–113): : using aversive techniques (which produce escape and avoidance and

undesirable emotional effects); relying on telling and explaining ("Unfortunately, a student does not

learn simply when he is shown or told." p. 103); failing to adapt learning tasks to the student's current level; failing to provide positive reinforcement frequently enough.Skinner suggests that any age-appropriate skill can be taught. The steps are1. Clearly specify the action or performance the student is to learn to do.2. Break down the task into small achievable steps, going from simple to

complex.3. Let the student perform each step, reinforcing correct actions.4. Adjust so that the student is always successful until finally the goal is

reached.5. Transfer to intermittent reinforcement to maintain the student's

performance.

Stanley Milgram (1964) 26 out of 40 participants administered the full range of

shocks up to 450 volts, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole series. Thus, according to Milgram, the subject shifts responsibility to another person and does not blame himself for what happens. This resembles real-life incidents in which people see themselves as merely cogs in a machine, just "doing their job," allowing them to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their actions. The shocks themselves were fake; the participant who took the place as the 'learner' in the experiment was in fact a paid actor who would simulate the effects of the shock depending on the voltage.

The Orphan Girl

“No home, no home,” said a little girl at the door of a rich man’s home. She trembling stood on the marble steps and leaned on the polished wall. Her clothes were thin and her feet were bare and the snowflakes covered her head. “Let me come in,” she feebly said. “Please give me a piece of bread.” As the little girl still trembling stood before that rich man’s door, with a frowning face he scornfully said, “No room, no bread for the poor.”

Aanhon Pa

Aanhon pa kun waray na isda han dagat? Ginanod na han salog han pagpahimulos, Katamsi han ha kagurangan, mailiw mapakain man, kun an mga puno han bukid, hinay hinay namawara.

In October 2011, a two-year-old girl, Wang Yue, was hit by a small, white van in the city of Foshan, China, then run over by a large truck when she was not moved by bystanders. A total of 18 people ignored her, some going so far as to walk around the blood, and the girl was left for 7 minutes before a recycler, Chen Xianmei, picked up the toddler and called for help. The child died eight days later

On June 16, 2008, on a country road outside Turlock, California, friends, family and strangers, including a volunteer fire chief, stood by as Sergio Aguiar methodically stomped his two-year-old son Axel Casian to death, explaining in a calm voice that he "had to get the demons out" of the boy. He stopped at one point to turn on the hazard lights on his truck. No one moved to take the child or attack Aguiar. Witnesses said they were all afraid to intervene because Aguiar "might have something in his pocket", although some people looked for rocks or boards hoping to find something to subdue him. The fire chief's fiancee called 911.Police officer Jerry Ramar arrived by helicopter and told Aguiar to stop. Aguiar gave Ramar the finger and Ramar shot him in the head. Police officers and psychologists later explained that the inaction of the crowd was justified in that "ordinary people aren't going to tackle a psychotic," that they were not "psychologically prepared" to intervene, and that being frozen in indecision and fear is a normal reaction

In April 2010 Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed to death in New York City after coming to the aid of a woman who was being attacked by a robber. Yax was on the sidewalk for more than an hour before firefighters arrived. Almost twenty-five people walked by while he lay dying on a sidewalk in Queens, several stared at Yax; one of them took pictures, however none of them helped or called emergency services

John Darley and Bibb Latané (1968)

In a typical experiment, the participant is either alone or among a group of other participants or confederates. An emergency situation is then staged. The researchers then measure how long it takes the participants to act, and whether or not they intervene at all. These experiments have often found that the presence of others inhibits helping, often by a large margin.

For example, Bibb Latané and Judith Rodin staged an experiment around a woman in distress in 1969. 70 percent of the people alone called out or went to help the woman after they believed she had fallen and gotten hurt, but when there were other people in the room only 40 percent offered help.

Bystander Effect Revisited