AP Psych Summer Work Opening Skinners Box

Chp 1What is operant conditioning?

Learning in which behavior is shaped by reinforcement or punishment

Chp 1What did the Skinner Box test?

How animals responded to rewards/punishments (lever presses, food pellets, shock).

Chp 1What myth surrounded Skinners daughter?

People falsely believed she was raised in a skinner box - really, it was a climate controlled crib

Chp 1What themes are explored in Skinner’s work?

control vs. freedom, ethics of behaviorism, science vs. perception

Chp 1 What does Slater say about Skinner’s legacy?

He was misunderstood - he wanted to design better societies, not dehumanize people

Chp 2 What did Milgram’s obedience experiment show?

65% of participants obeyed authority to the point of giving “lethal” shocks

Chp 2 Why did Milgram create the experiment

To understand how ordinary people could commit atrocities like the holocaust

Chp 2 What phrases did the authority figure use to pressure participants?

“Please continue”, “The experiment requires you to continue,” “You have no choice.”

Chp 2 What are key themes of Milgrams study?

Obedience vs. morality, situational power, the banality of evil

Chp 2 How does Slater reflect on Milgrams work?

She tries obedience tests herself, realizing we are all vulnerable to authority

Chp 3 What was Rosenhan’s pseudopatient experiment?

Healthy people pretended to hear voices to test psychiatric diagnosis

Chp 3 What were the diagnoses given to the pseudopatients?

Schizophrenia or biopolar disorder

Chp 3 Who suspected the pseudopatients were not insane?

Other patients, not doctors

Chp 3 What are the themes of Rosenhan’s work?

Power of labels, subjectivity of psychiatry, blurred line between sane/insane

Chp 3 What does Slater say about her replication attempt?

She wasn’t admitted, which casts doubt and raises questions about credibility and truth in psychology.

Chp 6 What did Harlow’s monkey expierments prove?

Love and comfort are essential - monkeys preferred cloth mothers to wire mothers with food

Chp 6 What were the “pit of despair” and “monster mother” experiments?

Isolation chambers and abusive surrogate mothers used to study deprivation and rejection

Chp 6 What themes emerged from Harlow’s work?

Love as a biological need, importance of attachment, ethics of cruelty in science

Chp 6 How does Slater portray Harlow?

A paradoxical figure - he revealed the necessity of love through brutal methods

Chp 6 What was the real-world impact of Harlows research

Changed childcare, foster care, and psychology’s understanding of attachment

Chp 10 What is a lobotomy?

Surgical severing of connections in the frontal lobes to treat mental illness

Chp 10 Who invented the lobotomy and when?

António Egas Moniz, 1930; he won the Nobel Prize in 1949

Chp 10 Who popularized the lobotomy in the U.S.?

Dr. Walter Freeman (ice pick lobotomy)

Chp 10 Why was lobotomy widely used?

Overcrowded hospitals, lack of psychiatric medications, desperation for treatment.

Chp 10 What themes are present in Moniz’s story?

Cost of innovation, ethics in psychiatry, desperation in medicine

Chp 10 How does Slater view Moniz?

As ambitious but ethically blind - his compassion turned monstrous when unchecked