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The power of conditioning
Human behaviour is mostly a result of reward and punishment associations….we
do things we are rewarded for and avoid things we are punished for.
Some psychologists, the behaviourists, go as far as saying that ALL
behaviour is a result of reward and punishment . A nice illustration
of conditioning is the following short story sent to me by my friend
Avtar who received it from someone else…..“There are eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a
ladder,
leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.
Each time
a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with
ice
water, which makes them miserable. Soon, whenever a monkey attempts
to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed,
set upon him and beat him up. Eventually, none of the eight monkeys
ever attempts
to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put
in the
room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the
other
monkeys are doing the obvious, but, undaunted, he immediately begins
to
climb the ladder. All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him
silly.He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.
A
second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again
attempts
to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out
of him.
This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not
on the
receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the
other
monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the
new
monkey. One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new
monkeys are now
in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None
of them
attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat
up any
new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.”
Human beings can get conditioned to behave in accordance with the
reward/punishment outcomes in exactly the same way as animals do….in
the story above, the sad fact is that the monkeys would have continued
to punish anyone trying to climb the ladder even when the ice-water
spray was taken away…..so my coaching questions for you this week
are:
Which of your behaviour patterns give you the best rewards?
Which give you the most punishment?
Which of your behaviours are so deeply ingrained that you have forgotten
whether there is a reward or punishment attached like the monkey in
the story?JJ
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