The Daily Show did an interesting piece on a program in Salt Lake City Utah in which they are giving homes to the homeless in order to reduce the homelessness problem. As you can imagine, the idea of giving homes to the homeless raises the ire of many people (“You’re not incentivizing the homeless to make their lives better”, to “hit bottom” and then “raise themselves up by their own bootstraps”, etc.). The short video be good fodder for class discussion when it comes to talking about either learning/behaviorism/motivation. I was, in effect, left wondering what Skinner would do.
http://youtu.be/jlZKeKQ8yX0 <http://youtu.be/jlZKeKQ8yX0> I assume he would ask what contingencies were in place to either reinforce homelessness (probably not many)? Or what contingencies were not yet in place to reward this “raising of oneself by one’s bootstraps” - why wasn’t it happening? If students were, let’s say, the mayor of Salt Lake City, what plans would they put in place to reward this behavior? Along these same lines…it appeared to me that once the homeless were placed in these free homes there weren’t any programs in place to reward them for creating their own lives (getting a job, etc.). The video implies that once you put homeless people in these homes it will have a positive effect on them which might encourage them to build their lives back. Will simply changing your environment in this way cause internal changes (more respect for themselves, more pride) that will result in the homeless person doing things to change their lives for the better? Is it best to have a “wait and see” attitude? I think Skinner would say no. What might Skinner suggest we do once people are in these new homes to encourage them to rebuild their lives? Michael Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. mich...@thepsychfiles.com http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: @mbritt --- 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=41472 or send a blank email to leave-41472-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
