Learning Applied To Everyday Life

Robert Fettgather holds a BA in psychology from San Jose State University as well as Masters and Doctoral degrees. He works as an associate faculty at Mission College in Santa Clara. Among his interests is the power of attention in human relationships.

Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice. Psychologists have investigated learning from a variety of perspectives. In Pavlov’s pioneering research, you may recall the presentation of meat was repeatedly paired with a metronome making a ticking noise. Eventually, the dogs developed a conditioned response as they salivated when they heard the ticking sound all by itself.

Based on his research, Thorndike devised another important principle of learning- the law of effect. The law states that if a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence it will most likely to be repeated whereas if a response is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it will tend not to be repeated. B.F. Skinner expanded on Thorndike’s ideas on effect and created the term “operant conditioning” which asserts that behavior is a function its consequences. For example, positive reinforcement is a consequence that is pleasurable and strengthens the response which proceeded it.

A final point on behaviorism might be just how terrible many of us are at applying these principles in our own lives! For example, sometimes we fail to voice appreciation for the behaviors we like from loved ones, friends and colleagues-that amounts to an extinction intervention. In other words, we are making those wonderful actions less likely to occur in the future. And in frustration, we have been known to give a lot of attention to behavior we don’t like from these very same folks. That can take the form of exasperation, complaining or a frown. With a child, it can be a scolding that provides attention and thus reinforces an undesired behavior. And of course, sometimes we resort to “scolding” friends and family too! These forms of attention can reinforce the very behavior we would like to diminish.

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A Special Player

Robert Fettgather, PhD, joined Mission College in 1979 and continues to teach psychology courses as an associate faculty member. In his spare time, he enjoys sports and the history of professional athletes.

The 1980 Raider Super Bowl team and Jim Plunkett are legendary names in the history of American football. This team was known for its tenacity, determination, and resilience, which allowed them to overcome several obstacles and emerge as champions. Plunkett was a key player in this historic victory, and his journey to the top is nothing short of inspiring.

Jim Plunkett was a quarterback who had faced several setbacks in his career before joining the Raiders. He was a former Heisman Trophy winner and a first-round draft pick, but he struggled with injuries and inconsistency, which led to him being traded multiple times. However, when he joined the Raiders in 1978, he found a team that believed in him and gave him the opportunity to showcase his skills.

In the 1980 season, the Raiders faced several challenges, including a tough schedule and a key injury to their starting quarterback, Dan Pastorini. Plunkett stepped up and led the team to victory, guiding them to a 9-2 record as a starter and helping them secure a playoff spot. In the playoffs, the Raiders defeated the Houston Oilers, Cleveland Browns, and finally, the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV, where Plunkett was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

The 1980 Raider Super Bowl team and Jim Plunkett are remembered as one of the greatest underdog stories in football history. Plunkett’s perseverance and leadership helped him overcome adversity and lead his team to the ultimate victory. The team’s success was a testament to their determination and resilience, and their legacy continues to inspire football fans to this day

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The Ebbs And Flows Of Consciousness

Robert Fettgather holds a BA in psychology from San Jose State University as well as Masters and Doctoral degrees. He works as an associate faculty at Mission College in Santa Clara, educating students in different areas of psychology and human development.

Consciousness might be defined as an individual’s awareness of the world around him or her- that is, our personal awareness of feelings, sensations, and thoughts. Waking consciousness can be described as that basic state of awareness where our thoughts and feelings are relatively organized and clear. Altered states of consciousness delineate a shift in the quality or pattern of an individual's awareness. Examples of altered states of consciousness could include using certain chemicals or drugs, daydreaming, being hypnotized, or the stages of sleeping. These states may provide special access to ideas and emotions that are typically unconscious-that is apart from everyday awareness. For example, a person might come to a novel solution to a problem while daydreaming. 

William James, American philosopher and psychologist, believed the process of consciousness to be a kind of  “stream” that provides a sense of continuity from one day to the next. That stream consists of thoughts and feelings that interweave and sometimes interrupt each other, somewhat like currents of flowing water. They may be connected by topic, by emotion, or by event, but as in altered states, they may seem to be connected by nothing much at all.

You probably have noticed that consciousness ebbs and flows throughout the day. To demonstrate how consciousness shifts throughout any 12 hour period, set a smart phone timer at 1 hour intervals and notice changes (alert or sleepy; interested or bored etc.) in your consciousness while going through part of your day. How do you think those passing states affect your life?

What Is Emotional Intelligence?

The term emotional intelligence refers to the ability to understand and adequately manage your emotions. Emotional intelligence is a term that was first used by John Mayer and Peter Salovey in 1990. Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, further developed and defined the ideas and is responsible for popularizing the term. Goleman believed that emotional intelligence is a very important aspect of leadership. He noted that beyond their intelligence quotient (IQ), which is a basic requirement, every leader must possess a significant amount of emotional intelligence if they expect to succeed.

Today, emotional intelligence (EQ) has become one of the most widely sought-after attributes of human resource (HR) managers. CareerBuilder noted 71 percent of employers would hire candidates with a relatively high EQ over candidates with a high IQ. Similarly, according to EQ training provider TalentSmart, emotional intelligence is one of the major performance indexes in the workplace today.

You can interact successfully, sympathize with anyone, and are self-aware if you have a high level of emotional intelligence. Home and work settings are influenced by how you respond to and interact with others. Living in this world entails connecting with a wide variety of individuals, as well as dealing with ongoing changes and events. How you react to the challenges of life depends in large part on how emotionally intelligent you are. EQ is also a crucial element of empathy and enables comprehension of the underlying motivations behind people’s actions, as well as their inaction.

Self-awareness, self-motivation, social skills, and self-management are the four major elements that constitute emotional intelligence. Self-awareness involves understanding how your emotions, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, and intentions impact your decisions and actions.

Self-awareness might entail checking in with yourself to find out why you might be behaving a specific way. Labeling the emotion behind this behavior and understanding its origin puts a person in a good position to cope with the situation and deal with it effectively. An example would be coming up with constructive methods to resolve an issue with a problematic coworker.

Self-motivation is another important aspect of emotional intelligence. Poorly motivated people are more prone to be risk averse, apprehensive, and quick to quit a task. They could voice unfavorable sentiments about the objectives and responsibilities of a joint project, which could be detrimental to the morale of the team.

On the flip side, those driven by success who are producing something they are pleased with are more likely to welcome criticism, track their development, push themselves, and make an ongoing effort to enhance their abilities, knowledge, and output. It is simple to understand why highly motivated individuals are beneficial to any team.

Also, you should also be able to discern social cues and situations. Social skills are skill sets such as the capacity to discern the feelings of other people and the organizational mechanisms at work. For instance, empathy is a skill set that socially adept leaders use. They make an effort to comprehend the thoughts and viewpoints of their coworkers so they may interact and work together more successfully.

Self-management also entails being able to control and adequately handle your feelings as you seek the right time and place to express them. Even people with high EQs occasionally experience unpleasant moods, impulsive behaviors, and negative emotional states bordering on stress or even rage. Self-management involves building the capacity to master these emotions instead of allowing them to fester and take full control.

Self-management could entail holding off on responding to tense or hostile situations. For instance, if you choose to wait to respond to that irate correspondence, you can do it deliberately and rationally as opposed to hastily in the heat of the moment. In addition to having an adverse effect on others around you, negative emotions and lack of impulse control can also be detrimental to your own welfare.

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