The concept known as instrument law , otherwise known as hammer law , Maslow hammer (or hammer), or golden hammer , is a cognitive bias that involves excessive dependence on familiar tools. As Abraham Maslow said in 1966, "I think it's tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."
This concept is attributed both to Maslow and to Abraham Kaplan, although hammers and nail lines may not be native to both. It has actually been attributed "to everyone from Buddha to Bernard Baruch". Mark Twain sometimes gets praise from him, although it can not be found in the published Twain writings. Under the name "Baruch's Observation", it is also associated with stock market speculators and writer Bernard M. Baruch.
Sharlyn Lauby has drawn the following lesson from the law: "We need to choose the tools we do carefully." Some tools can be adapted, while others should be used "only for intended purposes".
Video Law of the instrument
History
English phrase "Birmingham screwdriver" which means hammer, habitual reference uses one tool for all purposes, and precedes Kaplan and Maslow for at least a century.
In 1868, a London magazine, Once a Week, included this observation: "Give the boy a hammer and a chisel, show him how to use it, immediately he starts hacking the doorposts, shutter angles and window frames, until you teach them better use for them, and how to keep their activities within limits. "
Maps Law of the instrument
Abraham Kaplan
The first recorded statement of the concept was Abraham Kaplan's, in 1964: "I call it instrument law, and can be formulated as follows: Give the child a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs to be pounded. "
In February 1962, Abraham Kaplan, who later became Professor of Philosophy, gave a banquet speech at a conference of the American Educational Research Association held at UCLA. An article in the June 1962 issue of the Journal of Medical Education states that "the culmination of a three-day meeting... can be found in Kaplan's comments on the choice of methods for research, urging that scientists make good judgments in the selection of appropriate methods for their research. Because certain methods are coincidentally useful, or certain individuals have been trained to use a particular method, there is no guarantee that this method is appropriate for all problems.citing Kaplan's Law of Instruments: 'Give the child a hammer and everything he or she meets must be ground. ' "
In [i] The Conduct of Inquiry: Methodology for Behavioral Science (1964), Kaplan once again mentions the law of instruments that says, "It is not surprising to find that a scientist formulates the problem in a way that requires for their solution only technique -the technique in which he himself is highly skilled. "And in a 1964 article for The Library Quarterly, he once again quoted the law and commented:" We tend to formulate our problems in such a way that it appears that the solution to the problem it demands exactly what we happen to have in hand. "
Tomkins and Colby
In the 1963 essay collection, the Computer Personality Simulation: Frontier of Psychological Theory, Silvan Tomkins writes about "the tendency for work to be adapted to the tool, rather than adapting tools for work". He writes: "If a person has a hammer, one tends to look for nails, and if someone has a computer with storage capacity, but no feeling, one is more likely to think of himself by remembering and with problem solving than by loving and hating." Kenneth Mark Colby explicitly cites the law, writes: "The First Law of Instruments states that if you give a boy a hammer, he suddenly finds that everything needs to be pounded." The computer program may be our hammer at the moment, but it should be tried One can not decide from the consideration of the pure seat whether it will be worth or not. "
Abraham Maslow
Maslow's popular hammer is phrased as "if everything you have is a hammer, it all looks like a nail" and its variant, originated from Abraham Maslow The Psychology of Science, published in 1966 Abraham Maslow wrote: "I remember seeing a complicated and complicated automated washing machine for cars that do a wonderful job of washing them up, but that can do just that, and everything that goes into its grip is treated as if it were a car to be washed. I guess it's tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. "
Robert Kagan
In his 2003 book, Of Paradise and Power, historian Robert Kagan suggests a legal consequence: "When you do not have a hammer, you do not want something to look like a nail." According to Kagan, the corollary explaining differences of views on the use of United States and European military forces have been held since the end of World War II.
Lee Loevinger
In 1967, Lee Loevinger of the Federal Communications Commission nicknamed the law "Loevinger's law of unbearable use", and applied it to the government: "The analogy of political science is that if there is a government agency, it proves something to be regulated."
In 1984, investor Warren Buffett criticized academic studies in financial markets that used an improper mathematical approach: "It's not always because such studies have usability; it's just that the data are there and academics have worked hard to learn the math skills. to manipulate them.After these skills are acquired, it seems innocent to use them, even if their use has no utility or negative utility.As a friend said, to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. "
Manifestation
Psychiatry
One application of legal instruments has been observed is a prescription for the use of anti-psychotic drugs. During the Maslow era, the only remedy available for psychiatric patients was stelazine anti-psychotic and thorazine, so often other mental illnesses were treated as if they were psychosis.
Computer programming
The notion of a golden hammer, or obsessive technology or familiar concept for many software problems, was introduced into the information technology literature in 1998 as an anti-pattern: a programming practice that should be avoided.
Software developer JosÃÆ' Â © M. Gilgado has written that the law is still relevant in the 21st century and is very applicable to software development. Many times the software developer, he observed, "tends to use the same tool known to perform a completely different new project with a new obstacle". He blames this on the "comfort zone state where you do not change anything to avoid risk.The problem with using the same tool every time you can is that you do not have enough arguments to make a choice because you have nothing to compare. and limit your knowledge. "The solution is" to continue to look for the best option, even if we are not very familiar with it ". This includes using computer languages ​​unknown to people. He noted that RubyMotion's product allows developers to "wrap" unknown computer languages ​​in a familiar computer language and thus avoid having to learn it. But Gilgado considers this approach not recommended, because it reinforces the habit of avoiding new tools.
Education
An observer stated in 2016 that instrument law may be "the least talked about when it comes to education," but "the most important thing to be warned about in educational discussions." He asked: "How many times have you read: this tool will change everything in education? We know that it will not happen, but most of the time the person who reveals this is absolutely confident with the hammer." Some educators say: "let's teach all kids how to code".
Related concepts
Other forms of narrow-minded instrumentalism include: dÃÆ' Â © formation professionnelle, the French term for "looking at things from a person's professional point of view", and the taking of rules, a tendency for regulators to see things from the point of view of the professions they manage.
See also
- Confirm bias
- Einstellung effect
- Panacea
Note
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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