Visit the Places

economia-informacion.com

psicologia-informacion.com


WORKS OF THE AUTHOR:

Book:

The Theory of the Senergicons Psico-sociological aspects of the Economic Underdevelopment

Dedication, Foreword and Chapter 19 of The Theory of the Senergicons


Book:

The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income


The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income in Spanish can be download of this place starting from the following three documents:

1 The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income Instructions (English)

2 The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income (Chapters 9 to 16 and 20 Spanish)

3 The Theory of the Optimal Distribution of the Income (Complete book Spanish)


Document 3 requires key number to be open. See instructions in document 1.


The translation to the English language of The Theory of the Senergicons can be download of this place starting from the following three documents:

1 The Theory of the Senergicons Instructions

2 The Theory of the Senergicons Chapters 1 to 11

3 The Theory of the Senergicons Chapters 12 to 19


Document 3 requires key number to be open. See instructions in document 1.


The documents 1, 2 and 3 of The Neofisiocratic Theory, as well as the documents 1 and 2 and 3 of The Theory of the Senergicons open up with the program Adobe Acrobat, which is free. To acquire Acrobat Reader v4.05 you should go to the place of Adobe


TO SEND THE PAGE TO A FRIEND AND COMMENTS

To send the address of this page to a friend

Comments




FastCounter by LinkExchange
 

Section of this document:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9
 

HOME
 

19.15 RESEARCH ON PREDICTORS THAT ARE EASY TO IMPLEMENT

In a second phase of the study, correlation's could be found between the measurements obtained in the first phase, related to the physiological changes produced by the emotion of shame in the second dimension of the tricotomic attitude, and the physiological changes that other emotions may produce, for example, the emotion of anger in the third dimension of the tricotomic attitude.

The purpose of this second phase is the following: besides obtaining ways of estimating better indexes of acculturation, one of the reasons to carry out measurements of the senergicon is to try to predict what individuals have the fewest probabilities of carrying out dishonest acts, such as lying or stealing. Consequently, one of the objectives to be reached is that those instruments of measurement can be used by private industry or by the government with relative ease in order to select trustworthy personnel. The measurements obtained during the first phase of the experiment are very difficult to obtain, given the difficulties of creating realistic or believable laboratory conditions for the test subject, so that he will produce the emotions that we wish to activate and, additionally, that they can be reproduced with fidelity and ease. Therefore, it seems useful to try to find other physiologic measures that are highly correlated to the first and that are easy to reproduce and administer. These measures could be used in place of the first ones in order to predict behavior, that is, to predict what individuals have fewer probabilities of committing dishonest acts. Given that these measures would be easy to produce, they could easily be applied to select the most trusted personnel of a business.

How can we find these other emotional variables that can be easily measured and that are highly correlated to the first?
The attitude an individual has or assumes before an abstract object, such as the social norm "do not lie" or "do not steal," is not unique but, as we saw in chapter 14, tricotomic. The possibility should be explored that these three dimensions of the attitude before the social norm will be highly correlated. If they are, the magnitude of the measure of the attitude in one of these dimensions could be used as a predictor of the magnitude of the other dimensions.

In other words, we are interested in measuring, based on physiological reactions, the affective state component of the attitude of an individual before the abstract object "do not steal" or "do not lie." To be surprised in the process of violating a social norm, such as "do not steal" or "do not lie," that the individual has internalized as a value and through which, among other values, directs his behavior, produces, as we have already said, the emotion of shame as the affective state component of his attitude before such norms. On the other hand, when the individual surprises another person violating the social norm, the emotion that is produced is not that of shame, but rather that of wrath or anger. In this case, the affective state component of the attitude of anger before the norm "do not steal" or "do not lie" directs the individual's behavior towards the violator of the norm and not towards himself, as happens in the case of the emotion of shame.

Producing situations that generate the emotion shame in an individual is difficult, as we saw previously in this chapter, since the situation that is created must be sufficiently real so that the individual believes it. If it is not real or if the individual has doubts about the veracity of the situation that is presented to him, the emotion of shame will not be produced or it will be produced only partly. On the other hand, when dealing with situations where the individual is not reacting to his own actions, but rather before the action of others, it is not necessary that the situation be real in order to activate emotions. It is enough if the individual is able to identify himself with the drama with which he is presented of some situation in which there is something being stolen or some lie being told. This is the principle that underlies the soap opera industry and movie industries. Individuals react with anger to the bad guy in the film or soap opera and patiently for the outcome, when

the good guy punishes him, and that way the spectator's anger is satisfied. The general behavior component of the senergicon anger that the bad guy in the movie produced in the spectator and which is to attack him or hurt him in some way, is in the end satisfied by the good guy's punishment of this bad guy.

In order to uniformize the experience to which each individual is submitted, a movie can be made dramatizing a particular situation, and based on this movie take all of the individuals in a representative sample to see it and there measure their emotional reactions before the stealing or lying to which they are a witness as spectators.

This type of stimulus used to activate emotions is relatively easy to produce and to apply to any group of individuals under identical circumstances. Consequently, if the emotion of anger in an individual, against he who lies or steals, had a high correlation with the emotion of shame that is produced when it is that very individual himself who lies or steals, this reaction of anger could be used in place of the emotion of shame to predict the behavior, in terms of probability, of the individual when witnessing the act of lying or stealing.

Then, in this second phase of the study we would proceed to show the individuals who participated in the first phase, a film in which someone steals or lies. The participants will have the polygraph connected in such a way that when the stealing or lying takes place in the film, the senergicon anger that such a violation of the social norm will produce in the individual, can be recorded. Later, the correlation that exists between this variable of anger and the variable shame recorded in the previous phase is determined. If the correlation was high the variable anger could be used in place of the previous one of shame as a predictor of behavior. If, on the other hand, the correlation was low, this could mean two things: in effect there is not a high correlation between the installation of the values in the three dimensions of the tricotomic attitude or, the measurements that were taken did not measure what they were supposed to measure. For example, there is a possibility that the physiological response recorded by the polygraph be produced by other emotions. In other words, that the response recorded by the polygraph is not the only one that can produce in the individual the senergicon of anger caused by the disapproval of seeing another person steal, but rather a mixture of that emotion and another or others. For example, if the individual has previously experienced, in the first part of the study, having been surprised stealing, the scene where stealing takes place in the movie can produce a feeling of shame in him, as well as displeasure, by reminding him that he is before the same people that caught him stealing and that now they represent this scene.

In addition, several emotions can become mixed if the individual personally knows one of the people acting out the scene where someone steals in the movie.

Only a good experimental design can eliminate or reduce a great many of these noises produced by strange variables. To avoid the first kind of problem, the physiological changes can be recorded when the test subject is first witnessing the robbery scene and later the part where he is surprised in the act of stealing or robbing. This way the order of the parts of the experiment is reversed. Another solution would be to undergo a long series of tests with the polygraph for several months, so that the individual forgets and then perform the second part.

To eliminate the effect that knowing the actors in the movie may produce in the individual, it is recommended that people who are enrolled or working in the university where the experiment takes place not be used. The same would apply to people in the world of television performance or of cinema. In short, they should be totally unknown. We also recommend that individuals with their heads covered by a hood or their face covered be used. This way we eliminate other possible effects such as a sexual attraction to one of the characters, etc..

As may be appreciated, the purity of the emotion we manage to record will depend on the excellence of the experimental design we can create. The better that model, the better the purity will be of the emotion we can record or measure through physiological changes.

After recording the physiological changes, the subject is questioned so that he can describe which was the emotion or feeling that he experienced when watching the scenes of stealing and lying in the movie. This information will serve to corroborate if, in effect, the laboratory conditions managed to produce the singular emotion desired or if, on the contrary, there were diverse emotions.

As we pointed out previously, once the recording or measurement of the individual's physiological responses to having witnessed the scenes of someone stealing or lying have been obtained, they are correlated with the recordings carried out in the parts where the subject individual is surprised and caught in the act of stealing or lying. If the correlation is high, these recordings will serve as predictors of behavior.

In a third phase of the study a new sample can be taken of individuals to whom a video cassette is shown of the scene where someone steals and the scene where someone lies and, based on the recording that is made of the individual's physiological responses, we attempt to predict who will be surprised stealing or lying. We compare how many of the individuals who give in to temptation were indicated by the test and the percentage of right picks is calculated. This way we determine the degree of reliability of the test as a predictor of behavior.

19.15 THE INSTALLATION OF VALUES AS A TOPIC FOR RESEARCH

Up to this point in time, of the three investigative assignments to be elaborated and postulated by our theory, it is about the first two that we have discussed some ideas: to develop an index of acculturation and measure a senergicon. In this section we will present some ideas about the way we can approach the third idea: investigate how values are installed and uninstalled.

To develop this idea several strategies can be used. The first of these is the following: certain animals such as monkeys and chimpanzees can be used to install electrodes in certain specific areas of the brain and place them in a situation that will produce shame, compulsion, or anger. The purpose of the experiment is to see if we can identify a clear pattern of cerebral response for each type of senergicon and, furthermore, if it is possible to measure its intensity.

Once we are able to identify, through the placement of electrodes in the animal's brain, when it is under a particular affective state or senergicon and when it is under another, that is, when it is under the influence of shame, compulsion, or anger, it can be introduced to the presence of an object and read in the polygraph the type of affective state or senergicon that it experiences before the object. This would help us to determine when a value has been installed. For example, suppose we teach a monkey not to sit down to eat in a given spot. As soon we think we have created a value in relation to that particular spot, we place the animal in the presence of another who sits down to eat in that exact spot and we verify if in the polygraph reading we recorded the presence of the senergicon anger. This would indicate that the value in question has been installed with respect to the third dimension of the tricotomic attitude.

We could try to have the monkey violate the norm through some incentive that will serve as a temptation and will activate a senergicon that acts in a contrary sense to the abstract object provided by the norm or value that he has had installed. In addition, the contrary effect produced by the senergicon shame could be reduced or eliminated by creating or providing the circumstances where the monkey believes no one is seeing him. This way we can manage to have the monkey violate the norm by increasing the temptation on one hand and reducing the feeling of shame on the other. Once the monkey violates the norm, the trainer will suddenly arrive and check if the senergicon shame it is recorded by the polygraph. For example, we could make that spot specially pleasant for the monkey so that he will feel the temptation to use it: make it warm while the rest of the places are cold, or make it cool while the rest of the places are hot (increase of temptation or pleasant senergicon), in addition to arranging the area so that the monkey does not realize that he is being watched (reduction or elimination of the senergicon shame). During the lapse of time that the monkey still has not given in to the temptation of violating the norm, the polygraph is checked to see if we observe the recording of the compulsive senergicon anxiety. This would indicate to us that the value in question has been installed with respect to the first dimension of the tricotomic attitude. As soon as the animal violates the norm, he is surprised on the spot and we verify if the senergicon shame has been activated. This would indicate to us that the value in question has been installed with respect to the second dimension of the tricotomic attitude.

The important thing here is that we be able to rely on a method of verifying when a value has been installed. This would allow us to test multiple ways of teaching a valuation of an object to a monkey and verify through detection of the senergicon which of these multiple ways of teaching is the most effective to install the value of an object in memory bank 3 of learned values. For example, we could study the way in which punishment helps to install the value of an object versus reward; the effectiveness of the punishment and the reward in a complementary way, on the installation of the valuation of an object; if the admiration or respect towards an individual is a variable that affects the installation of a value that the individual who is admired or respected can teach or inculcate in the person who admires or respects him; if the parents of the animal have a greater influence in inculcating the value of an object than do the other animals of a herd.

All of these experiments could be tested if we had an instrument that would tell us when a value has been installed and what importance has been given to that value. In other words, if we could rely on having an instrument that could register when an individual experiment an emotion (activates a senergicon) before the presence of a specific object, what type of emotion (senergicon) has been activated and what magnitude (intensity of the senergicon experienced), then we can know, through experiments, when a value has been installed and when it has not, as well as what importance has been given to that value based on the intensity of the senergicon experienced. All of this would open the doors to verifying what the effects are that could have a number of variables on the installation of a valuation made on an object.

To do this type of experiment with human beings is impossible. Nevertheless, other strategies can be tested. For example, Dr. Angel de la Sierra, biologist at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey, has been trying to conduct an experiment whose results may be of some benefit to us. Dr. de la Sierra has the idea that the emotions experienced by a subject are reflected in facial expressions and, thus, contract a certain set of facial muscles. The idea is to read the many muscle contractions of the face that correspond to each emotion and try to prove if one can identify a pattern of contractions that is clearly defined for each type of emotion.

These experiments have not been carried out because they require the insertion of needles in the facial muscles in order to allow us to read clearly the pattern of contractions. As the reader can imagine, it is not easy to find volunteers to carry out this type of experiment and even less so if is no budget to remunerate them.

If Dr. de la Sierra's idea could be verified and we could identify through the pattern of contractions of facial muscles, as well the intensity of their contractions, the type of emotion experienced by the individual as well as its intensity, then we could carry out experiments analogous to those described in the case of animals.

As we said, the use of electrodes inserted in the brain in order to study its activity, makes the use of animals obligatory. However, the most recent psychological developments, such as the PET scan, seem a promising way of extending this type of research to human beings. A possible strategy to employ could be the following: the development of the PET scan (Positron Emission Thomografic) allows us to make maps of the brain's activity which reflect the different areas that are being used when the individual realizes different activities, as for example, listening to music, reading, etc. or when he feels emotions. This technological advancement could be used to carry out on human beings the experiments done on animals discussed previously and confirm if a pattern of activity can be identified in the brain for every emotion-a pattern that can be clearly recognized. In addition, it might allow us to measure the intensity of an emotion. Due to the high cost of such an instrument, few universities possess one and, consequently, we would have to go to them to carry out this type of research.

Another strategy to search for instruments that can determine with precision when an individual experiences a specific emotion is the following: Suppose that based on what was said at the beginning of this section we manage to install electrodes in the brain of a monkey or chimpanzee to identify when an animal experiences a specific type of emotion and with what intensity, later these areas are stimulated electrically to produce the affective state or corresponding senergicon and study how it is related to physiological changes, for example, the GSR, chemical changes in the blood, including the balance and consumption of vitamins and minerals, pupil response, etc.. In this way we would try to discover the variables that most correlate to the activation of affective states or specific senergicons and, if it is possible, with their intensity. Then we try to verify if the results can be applied to human beings. If the answer is affirmative, these correlated variables will be used to determine when an individual is experiencing a specific type of senergicon before the presence of an object and, as a result, when a value has been installed and when it has not. Consequently, the previously described experiments could be conducted to try to discover the factors that determine the installation of values in individuals.

HOME




Section of this document:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9