good behavior game

an intervention to decrease vocal interruptions, unexcused seat leaving, fighting, and other disruptive actions in elementary school classrooms. Children are divided into teams and informed of the specific behaviors that are not allowed during the game. Teachers penalize teams for misbehavior by any member and award special privileges to the teams with the most points at the game’s conclusion. The amounts of time and the situations in which the game is played are gradually extended throughout the course of the school year, until ultimately the intervention is withdrawn altogether.

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Psychology term of the day

May 8th 2024

mental chemistry

a concept proposed by John Stuart Mill as an alternative to the mental mechanics described by his father, James Mill. The concept is modeled on a common phenomenon in physical chemistry, in which two chemical substances combine to form a compound with properties not present in either of the components. Similarly, Mill held that compound ideas were not merely combinations of simpler ideas but that they possessed other qualities not present in any of the constituent ideas. Thus, such an idea could be an essentially new one. See associationism; association of ideas.