Laboratory Studies of Aggressive Behavior - Essay Example

?PSYCHOLOGY al Affiliation) Laboratory-based research refers to the research work conducted in a given environment in order to see the changes incurred due to different effects imposed in an object or an animal. This may be related to the given environment and is mainly used to determine the causes of certain happenings and also the solutions and shows the relationships in order to input new applications. Real life is the current situation in a given individual, society or the surrounding environment , and can also be termed as the present happenings applicable to date. Stanley Milgram’s Laboratory-based Research on Real life Situation Stanley Milgram’s experiment on the Obedience study was developed by investigating the effect of punishment on learning. He used the teacher student experiment the teacher used to input the punishment when the student fails by the use of shock. These shock generators varied in the voltage capacity from 15volts to 450 volts. The first experiment showed that through the sounds made by the student after failing the question led to fear among the individuals as he showed the pain subjected and opted to give up. He later used different groups of people and asked them on taking the challenge. The individuals from the ordinary groups refused to be administered. This was different in the case of professionals whereby they accepted to take up the challenge and agreed not to give up during the session. This tried to show how far people can go testing their psychology as it was just a tester but not a real event. The loud sounds made by the students is what scared most of the people leading to what we see as psychological. Milgram’s experiment can be related to real life situation like in schools. By imposing the punishment when a student fails an examination is beaten a number of strokes of canes depending on the number of questions failed, this makes them work harder in classes, through this or some form of punishment like being told to remain behind for class revision during play time will make them work harder in order to avoid being caught. Though it is seen as a positive effect it can also lead negative impacts to the students. Consistency in failure in the examination will lead to them being afraid of attending classes because of the punishments imposed . This therefore might lead to school dropouts, stress leading to a negative impact on punishments. B.F. Skinner’s Laboratory based Research on Real Life Situation B.F. Skinner used the principle of behaviorism in describing its effects to the real life. His research was based on Thorndike cat study with the use of food. He used the hungry rats in his experiment making them run in mazes. He then placed a goal box which had morsel food. The rat at first found difficulties in tracing the path of food but with time it learned where the food was placed and used lesser period of time in accessing to the food. He later used rats and pigeons in conducting his experiment using the mazes to which they had to use their skills of pressing the lever in order to get food. This is made harder with time and they get to learn as it becomes harder in order to find the food. Skinner tried to use controlled environment in order to determine its effect on the animals. It thereby showed that behavior changed because of the food being introduced at different time this is because the routine which was at first was cut off. This effect is also applicable to real life situation as people work in order to find food, shelter and other needs. He also used animals in checking its operation effect depending on the environment also known as Operant conditioning. Skinner also used the principle of reinforcement by showing how the behavior changes are caused by its consequences. This can be seen on the use of lever placed in order to get food. This had the positive and negative impact on reinforcement. In interpreting the positive reinforcement, he used food as a trap in tracing the behavior of the animals . Through this the animals were trained in order to get food. This was evident by the animals tried to search for food seen as a positive reinforcement. He also showed the negative reinforcement by removing what was present at first for the animals; he used the example of a bang or sound in the Skinner box to the rat. Through its training to switch the sound off it will be termed as distraction as it confuses it. By also removing the food from the Skinner box the rat will still continue pressing the lever expecting food but with time it will see no change by pressing the lever making it to reduce the number of times for pressing and eventually giving up. The giving up can then is termed as extinguished. The rats can also be trained to be given occasionally referred as partial reinforcement means that there are the numbers of times used in providing the rats with food. This can be seen in the real life situation in the case of a child as the child tries to understand a language it takes a process to learn and also taking a visit to a friend may be because of giving someone company or reducing boredom. Skinner also used punishment in showing the animal behavior by placing a sound in the number of times the rat pokes the nose will lead to the rat decreasing the number of times its poking . Through this we can see the effect of punishment on the rat. This can also be related in real life situations as people tend to avoid punishments especially when they have already been punished at a particular point. Though it is true on the punishment it can also be seen as not true in real life situation as a control to its behavior. Let’s take an example of a child who seeks attention from the teacher. The child will involve into misbehavior in order to capture the teacher’s attention the principle of reinforcement from the animals can also be seen to apply to human beings y taking the same example of the child misbehavior being reinforced through teacher’s attention it can be stated as a positive reinforcement behavior . This can be applied to the public like the prisoners, School children and others which will determine their behavior also referred as determinism. This refers to past events determining the human behavior. The past experiences are used in foretelling the current and the future events. Donald E. Broadbent Laboratory Research as an effect to Real life Situation Broadbent motivation to psychology was led by the design of the AT6 aircraft which had two levers that confused the pilots leading to mistakes in pulling the flaps one for landing while the other one used to pull the undercarriage. Broadbent used limited capacity model of attention which is a channel in which already attended information and filtered passes for its processing like the storage memory is limited to what it can store depending on the amount of information it can work for at a moment. In his experiment on dichotic listening, the participants were to be presented with information their two ears being used as stimuli. They were then to recall what they have heard in the first ear and the second ear. The dichotic listening is used to isolate different tasks in the controlled environment. Different types of stimulus that is the message or a given task that can affect the performance which may make it easier or harder were able to be manipulated in a series of studies. The use of movements taking an example of the eyes cannot be the same as the ears where they cannot move to where the sound is coming from especially in place of the headphones . Through the dichotic listening we are able to see its impact in an individual as information is passed in series one at a given time and the information which can be stored. Broadbent later used a set of digits in testing ones attention by telling the participants to write what they have heard starting with the first ear. This made it more confusing as the sets increased part of the information was stored. This showed that attention was directed to one ear and the information from the other ear was not retrieved accurately due to lack of attention. From this we can see that the information or material conveyed was from the ear that paid more attention which led to it being processed easily and also be stored. According to Brace and Byford (2012, pg. 40), this can also be related in real life situation where one person is trying to listen to two conversations at the same time. One will mainly concentrate on an interesting conversation paying attention to it forgetting the other conversation. This shows that irrelevant material is ignored. Cherry argued out that irrelevant materials are ignored when presented by relevant material on one ear and irrelevant on the other ear. This was by delivering relevant material in one ear and Irrelevant material on the other ear to which there will be the interference of information being processed in the minds . It can be seen in real life situation taking an example on the effect of the mobile phone while driving. Most of the accident occurrences are caused by drivers using mobile phones while driving. This is because the mind can attend to one thing at a given period of time. When someone is driving while using a phone, most of his attention is directed towards mobile phone. Some of the drivers mainly concentrate on safety thus their attention is taken by one thing. Brookhuist’s study showed that driving while using the mobile phones led to a decrease in swerving by the driver and increased the driver’s reaction to change in speed of the car in front. This shows that drivers put their attention to the safety reasons but a sudden brake from the front car will lead to an accident. Factors that show the Relevance of Laboratory-Based Research that might shape the Real World. The laboratory based research gives a guideline to the current situations in the real world. Through the research conducted they are useful in providing solutions to problems incurred in the current time experienced in the Real world today. These relationships show that the laboratory-based research is related to the real world life and so the results can be applied to the outside world; the laboratory research is conducted over a period of time and behaviors are able to be seen in a given period of time. Laboratory based researches are helpful as they are able to tell or determine the cause of certain real world occurrences. Research like Broadbent on attention enables people to get ideas on attention in the current world like the causes of accidents . Though the research work may be helpful it may also be deceitful or doesn’t lead to any solution. This therefore may lead to a misunderstanding to different things. Some of the Researches are not applicable in the Real life situation as they are Irrelevant. Reference Brace, N. & Byford, J. (Ends) 2012, Investigating Psychology, Oxford, Oxford University Press/Milton Keynes, the Open University.   Read More