On 8 June 2011 Mike Palij wrote: >I'm not sure that Skinner's "Air Crib" and rumors that his daughter >was psychotic and a suicide should be considered a "myth" of >psychology in the same sense as, say, "We only use 10% of out >brain" or even the claim that Freud use icebergs as metaphors >for the mind as he conceived it … […] >So, the assertion of deleterious effects of the air crib on >Deborah Skinner are clearly false but it is unclear who >actually believes this to be true -- I would think that a false >belief has to have some widespread acceptance for it to be >considered a "myth"
Mike raises a good point here that makes me think I was a bit glib in alluding to the story of Skinner's daughter Deborah and the supposed "Skinner box" as a "myth". Perhaps the stories that circulated might more accurately be called rumours, as Mike suggests. Nevertheless, at one time it did seem to have had what might be called semi-official warrant, as this writer indicates (writing in 2004): "When I was a freshman in college, my Psych 101 professor told us all about a psychologist who was so set on proving his theories about an 'apparatus' he had invented, that he went too far. The psychologist was none other than B.F. Skinner, the inventor of the famous 'Skinner Box.' And the story is that he locked his infant daughter in a Skinner Box for the first two years of her life, causing her to grow up psychologically damaged. Consequently, she sued him, after which she tragically committed suicide. "What blows me away is that this story was taught in my freshman psychology class, and the instructor truly appeared to believe that the story was true. I believed it was true, too, and I imagine that everyone else in the class did, too. After all, it was written up in the text book and everything." http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30372.asp Deborah Skinner Buzan also suggests the rumours circulated in US psychology classes and beyond: "The early rumours were simple, unembellished: I had gone crazy, sued my father, committed suicide. My father would come home from lecture tours to report that three people had asked him how his poor daughter was getting on. I remember family friends returning from Europe to relate that somebody they had met there had told them I had died the year before. The tale, I later learned, did the rounds of psychology classes across America. One shy schoolmate told me years later that she had shocked her college psychology professor, who was retelling the rumour about me, by banging her fist on her desk, standing up and shouting, 'She's not crazy!'" http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/mar/12/highereducation.uk Maybe a false rumour becomes a myth if widespread belief persists beyond a shortish period of time. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org ------------------------------------------------------------ From: Mike Palij <m...@nyu.edu> Subject: re: Franklin's kite and other scientific myths Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 08:21:07 -0400 On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 02:10:45 -0700, Allen Esterson wrote: [snip] >Alberto Martinez on the making of scientific myths: >"Speculations evolve into alleged anecdotes that even lead to scholarly >studies. Laypersons, scientists and history professors are all >vulnerable to the charm of 'likely stories'." > http://www.utexas.edu/know/2011/06/06/science_secrets/ > >Psychology (of course) is not immune from the dissemination of myths: > > http://www.snopes.com/science/skinner.asp I'm not sure that Skinner's "Air Crib" and rumors that his daughter was psychotic and a suicide should be considered a "myth" of psychology in the same sense as, say, "We only use 10% of out brain" or even the claim that Freud use icebergs as metaphors for the mind as he conceived it (Scott Lilienfeld & Co list most of the common/popular myths in psychology in their book "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology). It is unclear to me who actually believed the Skinner "myth" (I have not read Lauren Slater's book and maybe she identifies relevant sources) but it was not presented in intro psych textbooks or other sources that students would have presented to them (unlike the iceberg myth) nor does it seem to be a popular belief (unlike the 10% brain usage myth). As an undergraduate I actually went and got the Ladies Home Journal article, read it, and always wondered how anyone could think it was a tool or torture or whatever (indeed, snopes make the same point which suggests that anyone who reached this conclusion on the basis of this article has some real serious intellectual/emotional issues). The "Baby in a Box" article is reprinted in Skinner's "Cumulative Record" but I believe that first edition was published in 1972 and I had searched for the article prior to 1972, Part of the problem might be with the colloquial use of the term "Skinner box". Traditionally, an operant chamber was informally referred to as a Skinner box but when people started to refer to the air crib as a Skinner box it is quite possible that people might have though Deborah Skinner was being forced to bar press or peck at a lit disk in order to get food, water, and/or attention. So, the assertion of deleterious effects of the air crib on Deborah Skinner are clearly false but it is unclear who actually believes this to be true -- I would think that a false belief has to have some widespread acceptance for it to be considered a "myth" (consider: is the belief that President Obama was born in Kenya, is a secret Muslim, and has had all of his achievements given to him instead of earning it a myth or a delusion?). -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu ________________________________________ From: Allen Esterson [allenester...@compuserve.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 4:10 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Franklin's kite and other scientific myths Benjamin Franklin ventured out on a stormy day to fly a kite with a lightning rod and a key dangling on the end of the string. ... This famous myth is one of several tall tales in science history that Alberto Martinez, associate professor of history, examines in his new book *Science Secrets: The Truth about Darwin’s Finches, Einstein's Wife, and Other Myths*. Alberto Martinez on the making of scientific myths: "Speculations evolve into alleged anecdotes that even lead to scholarly studies. Laypersons, scientists and history professors are all vulnerable to the charm of 'likely stories'." http://www.utexas.edu/know/2011/06/06/science_secrets/ Psychology (of course) is not immune from the dissemination of myths: http://www.snopes.com/science/skinner.asp Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. 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