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Although hunger and starvation are prevalent in our nation, Americans have turned their backs to this problem. We have turned our backs because we have been conditioned and desensitized by the media, to the issue of hunger. Classical conditioning is the process by which a stimulus acquires the capacity to elicit a response through association with a stimulus that already elicits a similar or related response. Classical conditioning is like the famous case of Pavlov s dogs that we learned about in Psychology 101: The dogs learn to associate the ringing of the bell with food, and, once conditioned, the dogs could not hear the bell without salivating. The Japanese were masters at using classical conditioning with their solders. Early in World War II, Chinese prisoners were placed in a ditch on their knees with their hands bound behind them.
And one by one, a select few Japanese soldiers would go into the ditch and bayonet their prisoners to death. Up on the bank, countless other young soldiers would cheer them on in their violence. Comparatively few soldiers actually killed in these situations, but by making the others watch and cheer, the Japanese were able to use these kinds of atrocities to classically condition a very large audience to associate pleasure with human death and suffering. Immediately afterwards, the soldiers who had been spectators were treated to sake, the best meal they had in months, and so-called comfort girls.
The result? They learned to associate committing violent acts with pleasure. There are also some clear-cut examples of classical conditioning established by the media today. Our culture watches vivid pictures of human suffering and death, and we learn to associate it with our favorite soft drink and candy bar, or our girlfriend s / boyfriend s perfume / cologne . This occurs at the movies or even at home watching TV we laugh and cheer and keep right on eating popcorn and drinking pop while in front of us are images of death. We are in a generation where we have learned to associate the media with pleasure.
So it is no surprise that when we view starving people in the world we are not startled, or very upset by the images displayed. Operant conditioning is the process by which a response becomes more or less likely to occur, depending on its consequence. Children, of course cry for many valid reasons; pain, discomfort, fear, illness, fatigue and their cries deserve an adult s sympathy and attention. However, studies show that even infants only a few weeks old will also learn to cry when they are not in physical distress if adults respond to such cries. The children learn, from prior experience, that an outburst of sobbing would bring her attention and possibly the ride she wanted. This behavior is perfectly understandable because the consequence is favorable.
In the case of helping the hungry through media we seldom see improvement in other nations status. In fact many who try to help are left with the frustration and are unaware of where there money truly went to or even if it hit its final destination. As a result those that do donate money seldom donate again because it fallows one of the most basic laws of learning: Behavior becomes more or less likely, depending on its consequences. Many that have tried to help become frustrated and adopted a feeling of helplessness. This concept was first introduced two decades ago by Martin Seligman who proposed a theory of learned helplessness, which held that people become depressed their efforts to control the environment fail.
When there efforts fail their beliefs change to think, nothing good will ever happen and that they are helpless to change this bleak future. According to Carole Wade and Cool Tavris, systematic desensitization is a step-by-step process of desensitizing a [client] to a [feared object or experience] by placing the client in a relaxed atmosphere and exposing them to a systematic set of stimuli. Remember the first time you got drunk? How about your first kiss? First times always leave an impression, but as time goes on, you get used to it. You build up immunity to the experience and it takes a more intense situation to evoke a memorable reaction.
Becoming desensitized to experiences and events is a natural defense that we learn, and it is part of our evolution. Realizing that desensitization is a real phenomenon, and that it applies to almost anything, is one of the most important things you can learn. When a child is born, it has had very little sensory experience. It s brain is very sensitive, and can be easily overloaded depending on how much experience someone gets in any of life s situations, their brain can remain in this childlike state until they are exposed to enough stimuli to become desensitized. The stimuli that people are attracted to can be used as a meter to gauge their level of desensitization.
Children usually like bland, sweet food. As we become desensitized over time, we usually start seeking foods with more and more flavor. We start out eating pureed peas, progress to hamburgers and soda, and finally end up eating pork rinds and drinking barley pop. We push the sensory envelope as we become desensitized.
From my earliest memories I remember watching commercials of famine struck nations, with people in dire need of help. At one time I am sure that I was shocked at this atrocity but now I, like many others, flip right by such programs.
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