TEST PREPARATION

This weekend I am expecting questions on what you need further guidance on in preparation for the test on monday. Please take this opportunity. Also remember to review our discussions on this blog.

Good weekend

REINFORCEMENT AND HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

 John’s mother says that each time his bedroom is tidy at the end of the week; he will receive an extra dollar in his weekend spending money.

a) i.) What schedule of reinforcement is John’s mother using to encourage him to keep his room tidy?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    [1]

ii) Based on this schedule, when is John’s room likely to be most tidy? Explain.                                                                                                                             [2]

b) .Which reinforcement schedule could John’s mother use to encourage him to keep his room tidy all week? Explain why this schedule should result in more consistent tidiness.                                                                                                                                   [2]

Considering what you have learnt so far, lets debate on the topic  Human behaviour is solely controlled by our biological function, justifying our arguments.                      

JUST A LITTLE PRACTICE

 A parent with a child who is always stealing sweets from the nearby shop can take the following action

i) Buy the child sweets when possible

ii). Shout or beat the child

iii).Stop the child from going to the shops.

For each action above state whether it is positive /negative reinforcement or positive / negative punishment. Give reasons for your answers.

Based on Freud‘s defense mechanisms, indicate the mechanism being displayed in each of the examples given below 

1. A woman is unable to recall that she was raped.

2. A boss has a temper tantrum when an employee makes a mistake.

3. A brother yells at his younger sister after a teacher gives him a bad grade

4. A student who goes out drinking the night before a big test rationalises his behaviour by saying that the test isn’t all that important.

5. A student refuses to believe that he has flunked a course.

6. A man who is unfaithful to his wife and feels guilty suspects that his wife is unfaithful.

7. A person with strong feelings of aggression becomes a solider.
8. A mother who unconsciously resents her child acts in an overly loving way toward the child.                                                                                               

HOW DIFFERENT ARE WE

What do think is personality?

Write down three words to describe your personality and keep them a secret, bring that paper to our next lesson.

Where does personality come from?

TAKE THE FOLLOWING TEST AND KEEP THE ANSWERS IN YOUR NOTES

1. Favourite world: What do you prefer?

E. Go out, action oriented, seeks a lot of knowledge, frequent interaction and gets energy from spending time with people.

I. Reflective, thought oriented, seeks depth of knowledge, substantial interaction and gets energy from spending time alone.

2. Information: How do you take in information and what do you normally pay attention to? Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? 

S. Live in the present, uses five senses for practical and real solutions, memory recall is rich in detail, improvises from past experiences, comfortable with clear and concrete information.

N. – Live in the future, look beyond the five senses for imagination and new solutions, memory recall emphasizes patterns and contexts (bigger picture), improvises from theoretical understanding, comfortable with unclear and fuzzy information.

3. Decisions: How do you make decisions and form judgments? When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances?

T– Instinctively search for facts and logic, naturally drawn to accomplishing tasks, able to provide objective analysis, accepts conflict as natural.

F – Instinctively look at personal feelings and empathy, naturally sensitive to people’s needs and reactions, able to seek consensus, unsettled by conflict structure.

4. In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?

J – Plan details in advance, focus on task-related action, keeps ahead of deadlines; naturally use standard procedures and organization to manage life.

P – Comfortable without details to act, likes to multi-task and have variety, tolerant to deadlines and time pressure, naturally avoid commitments which interfere with flexibility and freedom.

Share your honest thoughts

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should Heinz steal the drug? Why or why not?

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Outline the four stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development paying attention to:

Ø  Staging

Ø  Name of each stage

Ø  Major developments at each stage with examples

Ø  Age at which each stage develops

DEBATE: LANGUAGE AND THINKING

Some suggest that language (that is, words), plays an important role in thinking, but others suggests that language is the one that  determines the way we think.  Lets discuss this and support our reasoning with practical examples and facts.

Language Acquisition

Using examples from your own language describe how language develops in a growing child through the following periods

-Babbling period
-Single word period
-Telegraphic speech period
-Period of early grammar

-You are required to post your write up on this blog by friday 5th of February 2015.

SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEERS

1. At about age 2, children become less depend on their parents
2. Prefer playing with peers
3. Play is independent at first ,with focus on toys
4. Later, play becomes interactive, shaping each other’s behavior
5. At school going age ,interactions become more frequent
6. Playing elaborate games with rules
7. This allows them to be socially competent and to learn to get opinions from others