Film Analysis Of The Movie 'Black Fish'

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A movie that I recently took the time to watch called “Black Fish” was a huge example of operant conditioning. This is a documentary of the killer whales at the different SeaWorld 's around America. There has been a lot of talk recently about these whales and I wanted to know more about it. Upon watching this film, I discovered how the psychological process of a whale feeds into the talk of the nation about them. The actions of the whales is what everyone seems to be talking about, coincidently they seem to miss the fact that the whales may be carrying out these actions as a result of how they were conditioned by the trainers at the Seaworld parks. In this film, previous employees of the theme parks were contacted and asked to speak about their experiences with the whales. These were not the typical “sell lemonade to you during the show” workers. These were the people who trained day in and day out with the animals and performed …show more content…

He was put into the back waiting pools with no other whales, since he was to be by himself. These punishments are known as negative punishment. He is no longer offered any extra care or privileges. Over time Tilikum showed an increase in distress from being isolated. Sadly, the whales are originally put into a lot distress due to being put into unnatural habitats. There are many different beliefs on how this will affect Tilikum come the future. Some believe he will act out even more and other think it will solve the problems. Tilikum is only one example of this happening at SeaWorld where it begins with being shown positive reinforcement but then being switched to negative punishment. Which is why SeaWorld has taken the initiative to no longer breed the whales and force them into these unnatural environments.
Being shown an inside view of SeaWorld and their tasks as trainers of marine

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