Book Review: Opening Skinner's Box Chapter 3 & 4 Summary

Reference:

Slater, Lauren. Opening Skinner's Box : Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century. New York :W.W. Norton, 2004.

Chapter 3:

Chapter 3 captivated me with its intriguing insights, further solidifying my impression that the author possesses a rather eccentric disposition. What particularly caught my attention was her candid admission of undergoing psychiatric treatment, a revelation that added layers to her narrative. Amidst this disclosure, she delved into Rosenhan's thought-provoking experiments, which cast doubt on the efficacy of mental institutions. Rosenhan's endeavor to demonstrate that individuals could be erroneously diagnosed with mental illness, despite being perfectly sane, was both audacious and enlightening. The irony reached its zenith when his detractors attempted to refute his findings, only to suffer a resounding defeat, a detail that injected a touch of humor into the narrative. The author's penchant for digressing into personal anecdotes, notably about her infant, felt somewhat tangential. Additionally, her tendency to extrapolate emotional states based solely on vocal cues added a layer of unnecessary embellishment. Nonetheless, the crux of the chapter, Rosenhan's groundbreaking experiment, left an indelible impression on me, igniting a fervent desire to delve deeper into its intricacies and implications.

Chapter 4:

In Chapter 4, I found myself engrossed in the author's elucidation of a seminal experiment and its underlying rationale. However, the tragic incident involving the untimely demise of a woman, exacerbated by the bystander effect exhibited by 35 witnesses, left a bitter aftertaste. Yet, this grim episode served as a catalyst for the groundbreaking experiment devised by John Darley and Bibb Latane. Their study sought to unravel the dynamics of group behavior and the influence of situational variables on individual responses. Among the array of experiments detailed, the one involving the gradual release of gas into a room during a test scenario stood out as particularly compelling. This poignant demonstration underscored the unsettling reality that individuals, when ensconced within a group, often relinquish personal agency in critical situations. While the chapter overall proved to be a worthwhile read, replete with thought-provoking experiments, it occasionally meandered, diluting the impact of its central thesis. Nevertheless, the insights gleaned from these experiments left an indelible mark, prompting a fervent curiosity to explore further into the intricacies of human behavior.