Author's Purpose
How Does The Process of Decision Making Work?
Slater's purpose of writing her book was for readers to be able to get an idea of the different factors that drives human behavior.
How One Makes their Judgements and Decisions
- “... the process by which... [individuals] make choices, determine judgments, and come to conclusions that guide behaviors..." (Scanzoni and Polonko 1980).
- “...vary ... depending on the type of decision, their mood, and their stage of development,” (Wundt). ,
Beliefs and Ambition
- "Judgement and Decision Making" written by Max H. Bazerman
- " “...we are biased in favor of information that is easy for our minds to retrieve, [we] are insensitive to the importance of base rates and sample sizes when we are making inferences..." (Bazerman)
"Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century"
Shaping the Human Mind
Rosenhan's Experiment - Asylum
- Rosenhan hypothesized that the employees there believed, “if the patient is there, labeled [as] a patient, then he must be crazy,” (Slater 63).
- "[the] inhumanity in asylums... [and that] psychiatry was psychiatrically sick,” (Slater 69).
Moniz's Passion - Psycho-surgery
- “Who would have had the hubris to inject the bromide into the carotid arteries of live human beings?... I’m not sure many people had thought of it before, but a man like Moniz, who let his ambitions get the better of him, he’s the one who actually did it.” (Slater 225).
- Each chapter is a different type of experiment done (by different scientists) based around the idea of psychology and the human mind/behavior
- Experiments are mainly tested on animals or humans and their behavior towards an object (ex. food, a person, etc.)
Antonio Egas Moniz
- Received the Nobel Prize in 1949 for his discovery of psycho-surgery
David Rosenhan
- Standford professor emeritus of law and psychology
Stephen Pinker on Human Nature and the Blank Slate
Pt. 1 http://www.tubechop.com/watch/8059138
Pt. 2 http://www.tubechop.com/watch/8059150
“...that the human mind is a blank slate and it’s structure comes from socialization, culture, parenting, and experience,”
"The human mind is a complex system with many parts and some of them can inhibit others"
"All humans are born with a moral sense and we have cognitive abilities that allow us to profit from the lessons of history."
Structure of Author's
Argument
- Each chapter has a different type of argument, but all relating to psychology in the end
- The way Slater structures her arguments are done inductively
THESIS
What would YOU do?
One’s decisions and behavior can be driven by their biased opinions, ambitions, and environment.
What drives one’s decisions and human behavior?
Works Cited
Bazerman, Max H. "Judgment and Decision Making."
Noba. Diener Education Fund, 2016. Web. 25 May 2016.
Slater, Lauren. Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological
Experiments of the Twentieth Century. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print.
TEDtalksDirector. "Steven Pinker: Human Nature and
theBlank Slate." YouTube. YouTube, 07 Oct. 2008. Web. 25 May 2016.
"Wundt, Wilhelm Max." Psychologists and Their Theories
for Students. Ed. Kristine Krapp. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 447-471. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 May 2016.