Spoiler Alert!

4 Commentsby   |  10.25.10  |  The Schools of Psychology (Part IV)

The best part about behaviorism is that it is applicable to our lives today. You do not have to even be a psychologist to understand the benefits of reinforcement and use them to condition people’s behavior. However, it is interesting to me how few of people employ these simple concepts. The clearest example and the one that always comes to mind when I think about reinforcing behavior is child rearing. There are way too many spoiled children in America today. And why are they spoiled? They are spoiled because their parents reinforce their negative behavior time and time again. For example, when mothers take their children to the grocery store with them, the child might ask for a piece of candy. When the mom says no, the child begins to scream and cause a scene so the mom gives them the candy to make them quiet. Now the child knows that if they behave a certain way they will get what they want.  Another example is in the video clip I posted. Veruca Salt is a spoiled child in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In the film, she throws a fit whenever she doesn’t get her way and her father does what ever he can to make her happy. I believe it is mostly the parents’ fault when their children act so inappropriately. They are more concerned with getting their child to stop their behavior at that specific moment instead of thinking about long term effects.  I know it is not always easy to implement what we preach. I hope that some day when I am a parent that I will be able to use my knowledge of conditioning and reinforcement to raise children in a respectful way. Spoiled children grow up to be spoiled adults and these people are usually unpleasant to be around.

Veruca Salt

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4 Comments

  1. Rebekah Hernandez
    1:14 pm, 10.25.10

    Hello Rachel:) I loved your post. I think you present an excellent argument and that children today are most definitely most reaping the benefits that the theories of psychology make available to to parents (here behaviorism and reinforcement). I, like you, hope to one day be a mommy and hopefully a good mommy. I have even started buying “how to be a mommy” books, lol. admitting that made me think of Rugrats and How Tommy’s mom read those books by Lipshitt. Hopefully, the books I am reading are better. In hasty conclusion, I loved how you used Willy Wonka as an example. When I was young and I would act naughty my parents would tell me I was acting like Veruca and I would, without fail, modify my behavior and act better. Maybe i will show my kids Willy Wonka and employ Festinger’s social comparison theory to keep them in line (see my post for elaboration on the theory).

  2. Danielle Urias
    1:28 pm, 10.25.10

    This post made me laugh. I definitely know what you mean, and I agree. I have a 5 year old little sister and my parents swear she isn’t spoiled. I know different. But as an up close and personal viewer of a spoiled child, I definitely think you’re right, it’s all up to the parents and their decision to employ reinforcement or punishment.

  3. Jason Herrington
    1:38 pm, 10.25.10

    Your post also made me laugh and I agree that many people today do not properly reinforce their children in the right areas. I think that many parents are not aware of how crippling it can be to a child when there negative behavior is awarded. They think that it will fix the temporary problem when actually they are creating a permanent one.

  4. Ian Robertson
    2:05 pm, 10.25.10

    I think the major problem with trying to raise unspoiled children is that in fact the parents themselves are spoiled. The hardest part with trying to change a parents style of children is telling them they are wrong, or that the problems that their children are having are their own problems. Its one thing to tell a parent that their is something they need to change about their child, but when you tell them they need to change something about themselves they get bent out of shape. Not to mention there are so many quacks out there telling people “pop psychology” ideas that sound logical on the surface but lack any evidence or results.

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