I found this article to be interesting: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/862347?nlid=104025_3901&src=wnl_newsalrt_160422_MSCPEDIT&uac=74182ET&impID=1070126&faf=1
It was posted on Medscape, and if you don't want or don't have access to Medscape, it discusses electrical stimulation devices (ESDs). I am copying and pasting an exerpt from the Medscape post here because I believe it to be relevant to all sorts of teaching, including operant conditioning (positive punishment), psychological disorders, ethical treatment, and I suppose sensation and perception (though I probably wouldn't use the article for that class). ESDs give electrical shocks via electrodes attached to the skin of individuals for the purpose of conditioning them to stop self-injurious or aggressive behavior. "The medical literature shows that ESDs present risks of a number of psychological harms including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, fear, panic, substitution of other negative behaviors, worsening of underlying symptoms, and learned helplessness (becoming unable or unwilling to respond in any way to the ESD); and the devices present the physical risks of pain, skin burns, and tissue damage," according to the FDA's proposed rule <https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/04/25/2016-09433/banned-devices-electrical-stimulation-devices-used-to-treat-self-injurious-or-aggressive-behavior> . Many people in whom the devices are used have intellectual or developmental disabilities that limit their ability to communicate their pain or give consent. The FDA says that because these risks cannot be eliminated by changes to the labeling, it is necessary to ban the devices to protect public health. "Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of the individuals who are exposed to these devices," William Maisel, MD, MPH, acting director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in an agency news release. "These devices are dangerous and a risk to public health — and we believe they should not be used." The subjective experience of the exposed individual can be difficult to predict. "[V]arious...factors such as sweat, electrode placement, recent history of shocks, and body chemistry can physically affect the sensation. As a result, the intensity or pain of a particular set of shock parameters can vary greatly from patient to patient and from shock to shock" the FDA explains. "Possible adverse psychological reactions are even more loosely correlated with shock intensity in that the shock need not exceed certain physical thresholds. Rather, the shock need only be subjectively stressful enough to cause trauma or suffering. Trauma becomes more likely, for example, when the recipient does not have control over the shock or has developed a fear of future shocks, neither of which is an electrical parameter of the shock." Carol -- Carol DeVolder, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology St. Ambrose University 518 West Locust Street Davenport, Iowa 52803 563-333-6482 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=48593 or send a blank email to leave-48593-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
