One never contemplates the difference between "living in" and "visiting" a certain place. When visiting a place, many assume that the behaviors from their hometown will be generally accepted and that others will behave similarly. After one week of living in Perugia, I have learned that this assumption is flawed. Italian behaviors differ greatly from the American culture I know so well and it has been an uphill struggle to learn and adapt to these new behaviors both literally and metaphorically.
After reading B.F. Skinner's article about selection by consequences, I found that I was able to recognize the ways in which Perugians behaved and evolved differently from Americans which helped me to better adapt to some Italian behaviors. In this article, Skinner outlines the three different types of conditioning that arise from consequences; which are respondent conditioning, operant conditioning, and social conditioning.
Respondent conditioning is described as "responses that are prepared in and can come under the control of new stimuli" (Skinner 1). This type of conditioning is what most of us would consider the evolution of organisms to become better adapted to their environment. Despite what many people think, humans in certain areas evolve within their lifetime to efficiently perform daily tasks, such as walking. Many people in Perugia do not own cars so many have to walk to their destination. Since Perugia's city center rests on top of a relatively steep hill, many locals have developed stronger leg muscles and better lung capacity than the average American. As I hoisted myself up the steep incline on my second day of classes with my legs burning and twenty- year-old lungs screaming for mercy, I observed an older man pass me with a cigarette in his hand and a spring in his step. Only then did I realize that this man and every other local had been physically conditioned to walk up and down the steep streets with ease, which made me feel slightly better about my labored breathing. I simply had not been conditioned to climb the hills of Perugia.
However, this was not the only type of conditioning I observed within this past week. On Wednesday evening, I walked into a chocolate shop and was trying to decipher the different flavors of truffles that were displayed when the store owner approached me to help assist in the search. She only spoke Italian and we both struggled to communicate using hand gestures and the limited Italian/ English vocabulary we shared. Finally, the woman's bilingual assistant intervened to help translate.
In Skinner's article, he delves deeply into the evolution of language and how it helped humans to better communicate between one another. He describes how the human species became more social once our vocal musculature became innervated and we could consciously control the types of sounds that the species made. In my aforementioned experience, the language barrier was almost a regression into a lower evolutionary stage as we both struggled to convey meaning with gestures and basic shared vocabulary. Once I returned home from the chocolate shop, I immediately started to learn the Italian words for the truffles I enjoyed and new phrases I could use to help communicate better with the store owner when I returned.
The last type of conditioning Skinner describes is social conditioning, or the behaviors that evolved from living in a social environment. This type of conditioning is seen in social norms, laws, and practices that are not necessarily the same between countries. For instance, there is an unspoken rule within Italy that a customer must finish all of their food at a restaurant or else it is implied that the customer thinks the food was bad. While in America, when a person does not finish their food it normally implies that the customer simply is full and cannot eat any more of the meal.
As a temporary resident of Perugia, I have not only learned a lot about the Italian culture and their behaviors; but I also recognize that I have much more to learn in the next couple of weeks through respondent, operant, and social conditioning. I am intrigued to continue my studies into behaviorism and look forward to learning even more about living in Italy.
Resources:
Skinner, B. F. (1981). Selection by consequences. Science, 213(4507), 501-504.
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