EIGHT
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
FRIDAY. ,+ 17V.itOm 9.01. lQRX
EIGHT TIlE MICHIGAN DAILY
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Fj
ehavioristie Pigreons Introduce
reshmen to Psychology Ideas..
By MERLE JACOB
How long does it take to train
a pigeon to bowl? A good pigeon
trainer can do it in 30 minutes.
And just as pigeons can be train-
ed, so can people be trained out
of mental and emotional illnesses
through behavioral psychology,
Prof., James McConnell of the psy-
chology department said yesterday
morning in his lecture on "Men,
Machines, and Madness."
McConnell was one of a series
of University professors who have
been participating in the fresh-
man orientation program of stu-
dent-faculty discussions.
"Man is a machine which when
it breaks down can be fixed by
reaching in with the proper tools,"
McConnell proposed. "Just as bio-
logical medicine did not get off
the ground until doctors adopted
the attitude that man's body was
a biological machine, neither did
psychology until it started ex-
perimenting with the human
mind."
Change
In discussing the 'science of
emotional reaction, McConnell
explained that behaviorism is just
becoming an important part of
psychology. If a man had a men-
tal breakdown 200 years ago he
was placed in an institution where
it was assumed he was out of
God's grace and infested by devils.
He was beaten and chained in
trying to cure him. Around 1900
Freud developed the theory of thel
id, ego, and super ego which has
carried psychiatry up to today,
the professor explained.
"However there is no evidence
that Freudian psychotherapy has
ever cured anyone," McConnell
stated. "Freudians would of course
refute this, but looking at the
hard core cases in our mental
wards would disprove their
claims."
Behavioral psychiatry assumes
that "there ain't nothin' - up
there," or in other words there
is no mind or soul, only behavior.
Man Machine .
McConnell said that men could
build a computer that looked like
a man and program it to speak,
think and act. They could even
program it to think it had a soul
and free will, but just because it
thought that wouldn't mean that
the computer had a soul.
"Just because men think they,
have something inside them like.
a soul, doesn't necessarily mean
that they do," he added.
McConnell explained that just
as men can teach pigeons to bowl
and mice to run through mazes
by rewarding them with food
when they do the right things, so
psychiatrists can do the same with
the mentally retarded and the
mentally disturbed.
Sick Children
"Ivar Lovaas, an assistant pro-
fessor of psychology at UCLA,
has done a number of experi-
ments with autistic children with
extremely successful results."
Autism is a form of split per-
sonality in -children in which the
child does not speak, is com-
pletely withdrawn from the real
world, generally sits in the cor-
ner and rocks himself, and is very
self-destructive.
Lovaas too reasoned that in-
stead of loving and petting these
children whenever they started to
I
injure themselves, the children
should be punished. These ,chil-
dren had learned that by harming'
themselves they would get at-
tention.
Cure
Lovaas took a child who had
been strapped to a bed for seven
years because he was so self-
destructive and released him.
When the child began to. beat
himself he was put in a room by
himself. Seven hours later the
doctors came in, cleaned up the
blood, and put him to bed. Lovaas
continued this experiment for one
week, and by the end of that time
the child was no longer beating
himself.
"The amazing thing is that
Lovaas has cured these children of
their wild behavior in a matter
of weeks, and in a few months he1
has taught them normal behavior.
Yet when he tried to extinguish
this learned behavior it took over
a. year with some children and
never with others," McConnell
said.
He concluded the lecture by
stressing his point that men are
wild and crazy machines, and
that the trouble with crazy people,
is that they act crazy. Behavioral
psychology tries to cure this be-,
havior.
McConnell has been famous for
his work with flatworms while,
studying the physiological bases
of learning and memory. In 1963,.
he. received the Research Career
Award from the National Insti-
tute of Health, made on the basis
of a nationwide competition.
McDonnel graduated f r o m
Louisiana State University in 1947
and came here in 1956.
GOALS OUTLINED,: \
English Composition
Seeks Clarity, Cogency '
By MEREDITH EIKER the audience-the instructor andE;a
fellow students-also needs an
The aim of freshman composi- imagination,
tion courses is to get students "to Dr. Schulze suggested that the ,
write clearly, cogently, and with course be thought of as one in
an awareness of what it takes to thinking with words and using
write," Prof. Earl Schulze, acting language as a tool for self-
chairman of freshmani English expression and not merely as an
classes, said yesterday. exercise in grinding out 700 words a F
In a brief -talk given as part every two weeks.
of the series of faculty lectures!- _ k.; Y-<-
for freshmen, Schulze explained 2Z 0. 0-
that the problem of poem writing
on a college level is not the re-
sult of the student's not being
able to write but of his not being'Mas
asked to write often enough. r:
Pre-college education is par-
tially to blame, Dr. Schulze ex-Aw1
plained, since there is not enough
emphasis on writing in elementary
and high schools. However, be-
cause communication today de- By PETER SARASOHN
pends more on talking than on4 ",
writing, students do not receive A University political science
enough everyday practice in ex- professor told a group of approxi-
pressing themselves on paper. mately 80 freshmen yesterday that .h
Emphasize Issues, Conflict "the sickness of the 20th century
The freshman English composi- is the sickness of moral confu-
tion courses will emphasize writ- sion, intellectual anarchy, and xH
ing on public issues and ideas of spiritual despair."
conflict so that the student will Prof. Thomas Chapman was
have the opportunity to analyze speaking as one of the participat-an cag t ie s
a problem and communicate his ing -lecturers in a series sponsored
thoughts. This is the kind of writ- by the University Activities Cen-
ing which students are asked to ter of the Union-League. His lec-
do on essay examinations and ture was titled "The Internal
papers throughout their college Crisis of Western Democracy."
careers. Man today is "gripped by fear,
Dr. Schulze also informed the as a result of alienating himself
freshmen of a new Writing Lab from God and discrediting the
located in the Bureau of Psycho- reason with which he was endowed
logical Services. Organized last by God," he said. -
year on a small experimental The tragedy is, he emphasized,
basis, the lab will enable the that "in his anxiety to escape
student who is weak in grammar, from utter futility and meaning-
spelling, or vocabulary to master less existence he is tempted to
these areas on his own. After give up his most priceless heritage
taking a diagnostic test the stu- -his freedom-to any man who
dent will attend the lab as often promises deliverance from inse-
as he feels is necessary in order curity." Man is tempted to put
to gain competence in a particular his faith in the most absurd doc-
area. trine, to submit his will to the
While the Writing Lab is open most brutal dictator, if only he
to all students at the University can find a meaning to his exist- (i N T ERNAT I ONAL G-P CHAMP IONS)
and residents of Ann Arbor, only ence, he added.
limited facilities are available and He pointed out that alienation____
therefore mostly freshmen will be as a feeling of being "cut off from
encouraged to take advantage of society," is documented in modern =
them. Dr. Schulze estimated that art as "it has no beginning, no
some ninety students will be using end, and no focus." He also cited
the lab this semester. plays by Edward Albee and Ten-
Writing-Art, Discipline nessee Williams and William
Dr. Schulze further discussed Faulkner's "Sound and the Fury"
writing as both an intellectual as examples of this alienation.
discipline and an art which re- "Some people hold that the
quires a capacity to handle in- democratic ideal 'of equality is
formation and to analyze it. He the root of the problem," Chap-
said that there are "few really man said. However, if the masses
good writers around" because good have come to power as some
writing needs both an awareness philosophers believe and "where
of the'. audience being addressed the tastes and the judgements of -
and a control of subject matter the masses become the standard of
and language. For this reason public life, the result is the
writing done in freshman composi-
'tion classes will be strictly. ex- jdeeta h oetcmo, 'T E~ 4QR ' S
pository so that the studentwill denmnatran o scom on THE WORLD'SGREATESTVALU
be well acquainted with the rhet- teoiaera onfotitudsady toAII1l Al~"\VF'T/
oric of definition. and persuasion. theaverge oiatttudevan
I However, Dr. Schulze assured average of attitudes and N TWO-WHEELED TRAN SPORTATION
the freshmen that they will need "Modern man is primarily a ',
a great deal of imagination in the consumer and in our present day "
course in order to see and to un-satst capitalism provides the an easy thumb to SPORT CENTER
derstand an issue and to recogize
a feasible approach to the problem ga utnumberuetion wyen,"he440 WASHTENA W js post Arborand)
assigned. Knowing the values of shoul have more goods. "Eco-
nomic activity has increasingly or call 761-2650
become an end in itself to which
the spiritual nature of man is
subordinated.
"Ours is a fragmented society,
Chapman said. Man has been<gF>try>Fn~;5,
analyzed out of existence; hey..1 %fyt %:'t ° '
has lost his identity with society."
0
01
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS presents its
1965 FALL PROGRAM
LECTURE SERIES of 8 outstanding speakers in
theology, law, literature, sociology, and
psychology.
Sept. 13 & 14: MILAN OPOCENSKY, Lecturer. in.
Systematic Theology, University of Prague,
Czechoslovakia.
Sept. 24: RICHARD SHAULL, Prof. of Ecumenics,
Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey
Oct. 11: WILLIAM F. LYNCH, S.J., Visiting Prof. of
Religion, Carleton College, Minn.;
faculty member, St. Peter's College.
Oct. 20, 21, and 22: HANS HOFMANN, Th.D., Writer
and lecturer in Theology and Psychology of
Religion; Sometime Professor of Harvard
Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass.
Nov. 1: WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW, LL.B., Practicing
Attorney in Harlem, Author and Lecturer.
SPECIAL CBS TV FILM:
"THE BERKELEY REBELS"
Thursday, Sept. 2:
4:15 p.m -Rackhom Auditorium
7 :30 p.m. -Multipurpose Rm.,
Undergrad Library, 3rd floor
WEDNESDAY NOON
LUNCHEON BOOK DISCUSSIONS
Beginning Sept. 1 and continuing
through November 17
Michigan League, Conference Rm. 2
12:00 Noon-1:00 p.m.
d
ontY ECONO-CAB
A
Nov. 2: C. ERIC LINCOLN, Prof. of Sociology,
Portland State College, Oregon; author:
The Black Muslims and My Face Is Black.
An International Conference on
"ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES
ON VIET NAM"
Friday, Sept. 17-Open sessions and seminars
!r
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LU .L