Tag Archives: psychological disorders

Moral Questions for Operant Conditioning in Animals

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Have you ever wondered why we, as humans, measure the intelligence of other organisms by their ability to mimic the characteristics or behaviors that we exhibit? For example, consider a dog. If a dog listens well, does tricks, and obeys orders given by their owners then that dog is considered to be intelligent when compared to a dog that does not obey their owners. Now, if these two dogs are the same breed and the same age it is safe to assume that one has received training, most likely in the form of operant conditioning during their raising while the other dog did not. Does the fact that one dog was taught how to do tricks through positive reinforcement, most likely, make it more intelligent than the dog that was not given the same opportunity? I would venture to say that tricks and obeying orders does not explicitly illustrate the intelligence level of animals. I would argue that tricks and obeying orders is simply a medium which trainers and psychologists use to project the intelligence of animals into a tangible scale that most people are able to understand.

Now, the question arises: is it morally right and psychologically safe to use classical and operant conditioning methods to make animals perform tricks and obey orders that they would inherently never do in nature. Granted, domesticated animals such as service dogs serve a greater purpose than ‘rolling-over’, but take this idea and extrapolate it out from domesticated animals to organisms that truly have no place in captivity.

Consider the orca whale. For over 30 years these animals have been used as show animals for organizations like SeaWorld performing tricks for crowds of people of all ages. I would recommend watching the documentary ‘Blackfish’ in regards to the details of the orcas of SeaWorld, and for those of you who have seen it you might understand my stance a bit more clearly (Blackfish, Cowperthwaite). By nature, the orca is an extremely emotional driven animal. They live in families that live and die closer than most humans do to their families. Naturally, they are extremely intelligent and highly skilled in teamwork. A short video (hyperlink: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/orca-juvenile-training-lex) shows how a family of orcas not only using teamwork to capture a seal, but using observational learning techniques with the children to try and show them how hunting works (Killer Whales). As we saw in class, the use of observational learning requires the use of mirror neurons which seem to only be found in organisms with high cognitive development such as primates and humans.

The heightened ability to learn through observation may have been a reason leading to making orcas show animals, but this has proven to have negative influences on the animals. In the film ‘Blackfish’, SeaWorld trainers explain how they used positive reinforcement to promote behavior and negative punishment to demote behaviors. On the surface this worked to train the animals to do tricks for their performances. However, just as Pavlov’s dog would do after conditioning if the trainers would make the orca do a trick and deny it a reward they would get frustrated. This frustration has led to violence and, in cases, the death of trainers.

Unfortunately, the moral questions continue. As stated before, orcas are very family based creatures. When taken from their homes and dumped into a cage with strange whales they can quickly begin to show signs of anxiety. There are cases where this anxiety has led to violence against other whales and to trainers. Over time, this anxiety has led to what seems to be similar to antisocial personality disorders and even depression. Once again I would highly recommend watching the documentary ‘Blackfish’ to get a sense of what I have talked about.

I hope this has sparked some thought into why we as humans find it necessary to psychologically shape other creatures when given the chance. In the case of orcas this forced conditioning has led to possible psychological disorders and in the case of domesticated animals it has led to the near complete dependence on humans for survival.

I encourage comments, thoughts, and criticisms.

 

Works Cited:

Blackfish. Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Dogwoof, 2013. Film.

“Killer Whales “Gang Up” to Capture Seal.” Killer Whales “Gang Up” to Capture Seal. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.

Depression

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Major Depressive Disorder, more commonly known as depression, can usually be attributed to a major loss, past or current. People with depression tend to move slowly, feel worthless, and lose interest in everything around them (Wede Lecture 17).  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States alone, 1 in 10 adults suffers from depression. That means that out of over 300 million people living in the U.S., at least 30 million are suffering from this debilitating disorder—including one of my best friends.

For the purposes of this post, I am going to refer to my friend as Jane. Jane grew up in a great home, surrounded by plenty of friends and family. Jane played soccer, volleyball, and basketball and never had any trouble making friends or finding activities to do. She was actively involved in school and church, and no one ever thought anything would be wrong with such a bubbly, bright young girl. When Jane reached middle school, things changed. She started to gain some weight, and people didn’t treat her the same way they used to. As she started to realize this, she began to turn to food to cope with the hurtful things she “knew” everyone, including her friends, was thinking about her—most of which was nowhere near true. Jane began gaining more and more weight, and quit volleyball and basketball. The only reason she didn’t quit soccer was because we as a team refused to let her. Even though we were somewhat forcing her to participate, it was keeping her from being completely inactive and alone all the time. We thought if we kept her involved in soccer, she’d start to realize how much we all cared about her and wanted her around. By our sophomore year of high school, Jane had gained around 70 pounds, and was considered overweight. She had been on antidepressants for two years now, and she wasn’t afraid to voice how she felt to a few others and myself. She told us how worthless she felt all the time and how she never wanted to do anything. She even went as far as to tell us she wanted to commit suicide. This isn’t something you can ever prepare to hear. One of my best friends was telling me they think suicide is their only way out, while I’m sitting right next to her trying to help her. She went on to say how she had stopped taking her medication, which was the last straw. We told her parents how serious her depression had gotten, and the doctors responded by changing her medication. Her parents made sure she took it every single day, like she was a child. I think this is ultimately what drove her to recovery. As depressed and worthless as Jane felt, she didn’t want help—especially theirs. All of her friends (including myself) did our best to be supportive, and she continued to play on the soccer team with us, which I also think was a great help. Every single girl on the team went out of their way to include her and make her feel a part of the group. Since then, she has gotten a lot better, but every once in a while she still feels depressed.

As far as I know, there were no triggers for her original depression other than her weight gain, though over the years each episode has been triggered by various other events. Watching Jane go through this has taught me a lot about depression, how it works, and people who suffer from it. Speaking out of my own personal experience, I can honestly say depression is an incredibly awful disorder that not only affects those suffering from it, but all those around them.

“An Estimated 1 in 10 U.S. Adults Report Depression.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31 Mar. 2011. Web. 02 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsdepression/>.