Stupid Textbook Tricks

[lydy]

Allow me to quote from my Psychology textbook, Essentials of Psychology by Stephen L. Franzoi. "How do you know something is a reinforcer? Simple. Observe whether it increases the behavior it follows. While 'friend play' reinforces my daughters' room-cleaning, I have learned that allowing them to watch a football game on television with me is not a reinforcer." What a boneheaded sentence. It's not a matter of not being able to guess at what he means. It's just that his sentence doesn't say that. (No, football watching had not been referenced earlier, nor is it referenced later.)

I hate textbooks. They're full of crap like this. It drives me mad.

Comments

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

I think your imagination is failing; sounds to me, from the brief report, that he's making fun of himself -- his notion that it'd be some great treat/reward/reinforcer for Daddy to let the kids sit on the couch and watch roidraging millionaires haul around a pigskin.

Would that be a big deal for some daughters? Well, yeah, it probably would. Poor kids.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Can't speak for fathers and their daughters, but it has made for great mother-and-sons bonding in this house. I can't say that it ever got them to increase their room-cleaning, though... (My bad timing, I guess.)