God is a Good Behaviorist

So in my theories of counseling class we are learning about the cognitive behaviorists. You probably know them as Skinner or Pavlov (of Pavlov's dogs). The ideas they have about humans is that our thoughts or emotions don't really matter. What matters most is the fact that we have outward behaviors that can be changed.

Well within this learning theory are the terms fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable interval and variable ratio. These put into terms the response we expect to get from a specific event. An example of  a fixed ratio is putting money in a vending machine. You put in your 75 cents and you get back a bag of chips. A fixed interval is every Friday getting a paycheck. You know it's coming and you can expect it.

So where does God come in? Our prayer, us asking God for things, is on a variable ratio. We ask for things and our prayers are not answered every time. Do you remember the last time you put money in a vending machine and it didn't give you any food in return? Most of us, what do we do? We walk away. We certainly don't try to put more money in. We know that we put our money in and we should get our chips and when that doesn't happen the system is broken. Well it goes the same for prayer. If God answered our prayers every single time we would just expect it. Then the one time it didn't happen we would immediately leave and not ask for anything from Him ever again. But because it's on a variable ratio we keep asking and keep checking back and keep praying.

My professor talked about this in class and I was amazed. Sometimes it amazes me how God so deeply knows the inner workings of our mind.

Flag Footballin'

Our team name is Freud's Friends and it's not particularly my favorite because it makes us out to be psychological nerds. I mean even if we are we don't have to go around telling everybody about it, right? 

Actually I have a great example of how we truly are mind nerds. My friend Ben and I were leaving our flag football came a couple of weeks ago and a guy from another team was talking to us and letting us know about other teams in the league and what they do and don't do, etc. But this guy was a talker. I mean like the one that repeats himself five different times saying the same thing. So I started walking away ever so slowly and trying to turn my body- giving him the nonverbal hint that I'm done here and ready to leave. I was trying to give the subtle body turn that says, "I'm no longer interested in what you have to say, please let me leave." He was not, however getting the hint. 

Long story short, eventually I got to go home. But then two weeks later, Ben brought up the fact that he noticed I was subtly walking away and using nonverbal cues to indicate that I was ready to go. He noticed my psychological attempt to end a drawn on conversation and we talked about it and thought it was so interesting that guy didn't get those same cues. (He was a lawyer so maybe that explains it?)

I guess since we are unabashedly psych folks we might as well have a name like Freud's Friends so people know who they're messing with. Most of the other teams identify themselves as law, with names like "Motion Denied" and "Power of A Tourney". 

Oh and since we're on the topic of football... Saturday I scored the game winning touchdown. Second overtime, fourth down and our QB passes it to me in the end zone. Since girl TDs are worth 9 points we successfully put that team away. One of my teammates was so excited he almost tackled me in the end zone. It looks like the glory days of high school football for guys are just beginning for me. Yes- you can pray for humility for me.