The Psychology of the Person Chapter 13 Behavioral-Social Learning Approach

1
The Psychology of the PersonChapter 13
Behavioral-Social Learning Approach

• Naomi Wagner, Ph.D
• Lecture Outlines
• Based on Burger, 8th edition

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The Beginning of Behaviorism

• John B. Watson (1878-1958) was a member of the
  faculty at John Hopkins University.
• He started his academic work in philosophy, but
  then switched to psychology, and
• In 1913 published his milestone paper
  Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it

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Watsons Main Idea in His 1913 paper

• Watson argued that if psychology were to become
  a science, psychologists must stop their
  engagement in such topics as mental processes and
  states of consciousness, which were the main
  topics of the earlier schools, such as
  structuralism and Functionalism
• Only observable behaviors can be the subject
  matter of science. Emotions, thoughts, etc, were
  of interest to behaviorists only if they could be
  defined in terms of observable behaviors

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Watsons main Ideas (cont-d)

• Thinking , according to Watson, was simply a
  variant of verbal behavior, a sub-vocal speech,
  as evident by small vocal-cords movements he
  claimed accompanied thoughts.
• Watson claimed that observed behavior can be
  predicted, and eventually controlled by
  scientists.

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Watson was Influenced by Ivan Pavlov

• At that time Watson was influenced by Pavlov and
  his demonstration of classical conditioning, and
  proposed a model of learning based on Stimulus-
  Response relationship, that would imply that
  given the response, the stimulus can be
  predicted given the stimuli, the response can be
  predicted

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Pavlovs Work and the Principles of classical
Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a physiologist who
  studied the digestive system and experimented on
  dogs
• He performed surgery in the cheek of the dog and
  inserted there a little glass vial that served to
  collect the saliva of the dog. He noticed one
  day that the dog started to salivate before the
  food was introduced, as a response to the
  footsteps of the experimenter. This observation
  brought Pavlov to try all types of stimuli
  (Conditioned stimuli) that were paired with the
  food (the unconditioned stimulus).

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Examples of Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov presents the food (Unconditioned stimulus)
  to the dog ( UCS)
• The dog salivates (unconditioned response) to the
  sight of the food (UCR)
• The bell, a neutral stimulus (conditioned
  stimulus) is paired with the food (CS)
• After a couple of presentations, the dog
  salivates to the bell (conditioned response) CR

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Classical Conditioning Con-d

• The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned
  stimulus, and the response it elicits is called
  conditioned response.

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The Original Pavlov Experiment

• A class-vial is inserted on the dogs cheek to
  collect saliva elicited by food

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Basic Model of classical conditoning
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The Law of Effect (Thorndike)

• Thorndike at that time identified the principles
  of operant conditioningbehaviors that are
  rewarded tend to be repeated, and those behaviors
  that are punished or ignored decrease in
  frequency

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Modification of Behavior via Learning Principles

• The list of topics using learning principles
  includes attitude change, language acquisition,
  overcoming phobias and more
• Behavioral accounts of personality had gone
  through transitions over the years
• From observable behaviors to non-observable
  concepts, such as thoughts
• The line between behavioral and cognitive
  approaches is blurred

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Watsons Conclusions

• The work of Pavlov convinced Watson that these
  leaning principles would suffice to explain
  almost any human behavior.
• Personality, he said was the end product of our
  habit system. That is, over the course of our
  lives we are conditioned to respond to certain
  stimuli in more or less predictable ways, which
  explains the consistency observed in personality
  characteristics.

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Control over the environment

• Watson is famous (or infamous) that given enough
  control over the environment, he can take any
  baby, and regardless of the child innate
  abilities and features, he can mold the child
  into becoming anything or anyone that he, Watson,
  wanted.
• (see next slide)

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Watsons Infamous Statement

• He made his infamous statement Give me a dozen
  healthy infants, well formed, and my own
  specified world to bring them up in, and I will
  guarantee to take any one at random, and train
  him to become any type of specialist I might
  select doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief,
  and yes, even a beggerman and a thief (1924).

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Little Albert

• Watson was interested in the conditioning of
  emotional responses, and his experiment with
  Little Albert is well-known.
• He devised a procedure to classically-condition
  in Albert fear of the little rabbit (most of you
  remember this event).

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Little Albert (cont-d)

• Watsons perspective is deterministic
• people can be conditioned to react (emotionally
  or behaviorally) to stimuli without their
  awareness
• In this sense, referring to the old
  philosophical question whether we have control
  over out life, he seems to advocate the position
  that we do not have FREE WIILL.

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Watsons View of Human Nature

• Watsons view of human behavior can be described
  as being reductionist- - in the sense that
  complex behavioral patterns could be reduced to
  simple Stimulus-response connections, that were
  formed on the basis of classical (Pavlovian)
  conditioning which is learning by association

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Watsons Legacy

• Watsons main legacy is seen in the shift from
  subjective introspection into a system of
  explanation that advocated the operational
  definition of variables- that is- any variable
  studied needs to be defined in terms of specific
  operations that can be used to measure it and to
  quantify it. In addition, his idea that learning
  is the core of psychology has become quite
  prevalent.

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History

• German scientists working at the Universities of
  Leipzig and of Heidelberg became interested in
  the connection between events or stimuli in the
  physical world, and their perception in the mind.
• They were the first to use laboratory
  experiments, and indeed the first lab in
  experimental psychology was established by Wundt
  in 1879 at the University of Leipzig (Germany).

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History (cont-d)

• The field of psychophysics was engaged in
  understanding how the physical properties of
  stimuli in the external world (e.g. the intensity
  of light, or the pitch of a sound) are related to
  our sensory experience
• This field was seeking for laws that would
  describe the relationship between the objective
  physical world and the subjective inner
  experience of the human mind.

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Wundt and the School of Voluntarism

• Wundts school of thought has come to be known as
  Voluntarism
• He was interested in describing the immediate
  conscious experience of a person, using
  systematic introspection.
• Wundt described consciousness as composed of
  sensations, affect (feelings), and ideas (the
  thinking mind).

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Skinner and Radical Behaviorism

• Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) published in
  1938 his view of learning. He maintained that the
  Pavlovian classical conditioning paradigm could
  not explain all behavior
• Skinner suggested that type R conditioning,
  operant conditioning, is better able to explain
  behavior

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Skinner cont-d)

• Skinner in the 1930s introduced radical
  behaviorism, stating that all behavior can be
  explained on the basis of operant conditioning
  principles.
• He did not deny the existence of inner causes of
  our behavior, but challenged the extent we can
  observe them.
• Very much like Freud, he said that people often
  are not aware of the causes of their behaviors.
  They are manipulated by operant conditioning of
  which they are not always cognizant.

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Operant Conditioning

• The basis for operant conditioning is a behavior
  emitted by the organism, sometimes at random
• The consequences of that behavior determine
  whether it will be repeated in the future (under
  similar conditions)
• A consequence that increases the frequency of
  behavior is called a reinforcement, one that
  decreases the likelihood of the behavior is
  called a punishment.

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Changing behaviors via rewards and punishment
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Positive ReinforcementRewarding behavior
increases its frequency
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Punishment

• Introducing unpleasant stimulus (punishment)
  decreases the behavior

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Negative Reinforcement The elimination of
unpleasant stimulus rewards the behavior

• She nags him (unpleasant) until he cleans the
  dishes and then she stops.

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Operant Conditioning (cont-d)

• The other side of operant conditioning is the
  reduction of unwanted behavior
• The most efficient method is to cease
  reinforcement and thereby allow the behavior to
  extinguish
• Though it seems quite simple, we seldom can
  abide by this idea- especially when we give
  attention to undesirable behaviors.

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Con-d

• Negative Reinforcement When behavior is
  reinforced by the elimination of a negative
  stimulus. For example, you are in the mall and
  your child nags and screams, wanting a toy
• You buy the toy, the child stops screaming
• Your behavior was negatively reinforced

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Effects of Punishment

• Though punishment worked quite well with animals
  in the lab, studies show that the effectiveness
  of punishment is limited for several reasons.
• First, punishment does not teach the desired
  behavior.
• Second, to be effective punishment must be
  delivered immediately and consistently
• In addition, through a process of classical
  conditioning, negative feelings that accompany
  the punishment may be associated with the person
  (often the parent) delivering the punishment.
• Whats more, punishment teaches the child to
  behave aggressively. The negative emotions
  associated with punishment may interfere with
  learning appropriate responses. At the mist,
  punishment can temporarily suppress behavior.

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Shaping

• In many situation we want to use reinforcement
  to increase desirable behavior, but the behavior
  is not emitted by the subject
• We use shaping, or the method of successive
  approximations
• We reward small increments toward the final
  (desirable) behavior

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Skinner and Utopia

• Skinners position was deterministic- he
  maintained that the perception of personal
  freedom in an illusion, and that our behavior is
  controlled by environmental factors, through
  processes of operant conditioning often
  unbeknownst to us. His position in regard to the
  ancient question was that there was no free will.

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Current Status of Skinners Radical Behaviorism

• Skinners form of behaviorism is considered today
  as radical and as inappropriate to explain the
  complexity of our behavior
• It rejects the usefulness of examining our
  feelings and inner thoughts, and it ignores
  completely the role of heredity in human
  behavioral mechanisms
• It has also been claimed that human beings are
  more complex that the laboratory animals used in
  behavioral research. We humans are capable to
  consider alternative courses of action, looking
  at long-term goals.

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The Over-Justification Effect

• An interesting finding that emerged in social
  psychology regarding reinforcement is, that when
  you pay (reinforce) people to do something that
  they anyhow enjoy doing, the reward decreases the
  frequency of the behavior. This is called the
  over-justification effect
• Explanation We perceive our behavior as
  motivated by the reward, not by our inherent
  interest!

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Social-Learning Theory

• Around the 1960s psychology transitioned toward
  social-learning theory
• The main concept was that not only does the
  environment affect our behavior, but that our
  behavior determines the type of environment we
  find ourselves in.
• Social-Learning theorists also claimed that
  people provide their own inner reinforcers, in
  the absence of external ones

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Rotter s social learning theory

• Rotter argued that the causes of human behavior
  are much more complicated than conditioning
  principles.
• Rotter introduced several unobservable concepts
  to account for human behavior and personality
• In any situation we have different options for
  behavior.
• The key to predicting what we will do in a given
  situation depends on the behavioral potential for
  each optionit is the likelihood of a given
  behavior occurring in a given situation.

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Rotters Social-Learning (cont-d)

• The strength of the behavior potential depends on
  expectancywhich is the probability that the
  behavioral option will result in a given
  reinforcer, and reinforcement valuethe degree to
  which we prefer one reinforcer over another. If
  you do not like candy, offering you candy after
  you have done something that is desirable will
  NOT affect you.

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Rotter (cont-d) Expectancies- What are they?

• Rotter introduced the term expectancy to
  suggest that we decide to behave in a given
  manner if we expect our behavior to bring the
  desired result and if we value the result- if it
  is important to us.
• For example Whether we decide to study all night
  long before a test depends on our expectancy
  (belief) that such behavior will give us good
  results

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Behavioral Potential depends on

• The extent to which we expect our behavior to
  bring a reward
• The extent to which we care about this reward

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How do we form expectancies about the potential
result of our behavior?

• The idea is that we are going to emit (display) a
  given behavior when we EXPECT is to bring us
  rewards
• We form expectancies usually on the basis of past
  experience of being rewarded
• What about situations that we encounter for the
  first time?
• We rely of generalized expectations
• Rotter refers to those as Locus of Control

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Generalized expectations and Locus of Control
(LOC)

• These are beliefs we hold about how often our
  actions typically lead to rewards or punishments
• Locus of Control is a concept introduced by
  Rotter, referring to the extent to which we
  believe that what happens to us is the result of
  our own actions or attributes (Internal LOC), or
  the results of forces outside of our control
  (External LOC)
• LOC is found to be related to emotional
  well-being vs. depression

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LOC beyond Rotter

• Was found as important for emotional well-being
  and achievement motivation

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Cognitive elements Social-Cognitive theory

• Bandura (1970s) rejected the traditional
  behaviorist views of personality that presented
  humans as passive recipients of environmental
  stimuli.
• Bandura argued that there were both internal and
  external determinants of behavior, and introduced
  the concept of reciprocal determinism.

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Bandura (cont-d)

• Albert Bandura (1925-) illustrates the
  transition from traditional behavioral views to
  incorporate internal variables
• For him, we are not passive recipients of
  rewards and punishment from the environment
• Bandura argues that there are both external and
  internal determinants of behavior- and these two
  sets interact in a mode that he labeled as
  reciprocal determinism.

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Banduras Reciprocal Determinism

• That is, external factors and internal factors,
  such as beliefs, thoughts and expectations, are
  parts of a system of interacting influences.
• Not only can the environment affect behavior, but
  our behavior affects the environment.
• Bandura draws a distinction between potential
  environment, which is the same to everyone in a
  situation, and the actual environment, the one
  we create with our behavior.

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Reciprocal Determinism

• Constant movement back and forth

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Self-Efficacy

• One of Banduras most important concepts is
  self-efficacy
• The term refers to the extent to which one
  believes that he/she can bring about a certain
  therapeutic outcome
• Whether people make an effort to cope with
  problems and how long they persist in their
  efforts to change are determined by whether they
  believe that that are capable to achieve the
  change, that is, their perception of self-efficacy

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Self-Efficacy

• Seems simple, right?

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Self-Regulation

• Bandura also argues that most behavior is
  performed in the absence of external
  reinforcement and punishment.
• Most of our daily actions are controlled by
  self-regulation.
• We often work toward self-imposed goals with
  inner rewards. The rewards come from feelings of
  accomplishment and self-wroth, that Bandura
  labeled- self-efficacy.

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Observational Learning

• Bandura argued that learning is not limited to
  classical or operant conditioning.
• We can also learn by observing other people, or
  by reading about other peoples actions.
• Many behaviors are too complex to be learned
  through the slow process of reinforcement and
  punishment.

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Learning vs. Performance

• Bandura draws an important distinction between
  learning and performance.
• Behavior learned through observational methods
  needs not be performed.
• The performance is dependent on the expectations
  of rewards or punishment.

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Application Behavior ModificationOperant
Conditioning

• Despite all the criticism, Skinners ideas have
  been successfully translated into therapeutic
  procedures labeled behavior modification
• The focus is on changing few, well-defined and
  maladaptive behaviors and habits
• The procedures were used quite effectively in
  the case of autistic children.
• Lovaas in UCLA used techniques based on operant
  conditioning, especially shaping through
  successive approximations (rewarding small
  increments toward the final goal) to teach
  language and social skills to Autistic Children

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ApplicationClassical Conditioning

• Systematic desensitization is a technique used in
  treating phobias, where images or real-life
  encounters of the feared object or situations are
  gradually introduced, while the person is in a
  state of relaxation
• In Aversion Training therapists try to rid
  clients of problem behaviors while by pairing
  aversive stimuli with the behavior

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Assessment behavioral observations

• Direct observation In order to change behavior
  (for example- to reduce a childs temper
  tantrum), we need first to assess the problematic
  behavior- how often it occurs, what are the
  conditions that precede it, what are the
  consequences of the behavior)- this stage is
  called baseline
• Next- offer the treatment/intervention
• Last- observe the behavior again, to assess any
  changes that can be seen as the result of the
  treatment/intervention.

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Assessment Self-Monitoring

• This technique asks the client in a
  behavior-modification program (for example, wants
  to quit smoking), to engage in self-monitoring,
  in order to obtain a base-line for the target
  behavior (quit smoking)
• For example- how often one smokes, under what
  circumstances

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Self-Monitoring (cont-d)

• Weakness of this method In most cases clients
  have distorted ideas as to how often the behavior
  (e.g. smoking) occurs
• Therefore, therapists ask clients to keep records
  as to how often the behavior occurs, under what
  situations, etc
• Watching your own behavior can be therapeutic in
  itself!
• However, sometimes people cheat!

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Observations by Others

• Some clients are unwilling or unable to provide
  accurate information about themselves (e.g.
  children)
• Parents and teachers can often record the
  frequency of a childs problem behavior
• Children sometimes act differently in the
  presence of the therapist than at home
• That is why it is good to use several observes in
  different settings

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Current Status

• Though the behavioral perspective is regarded as
  to simplified to explain the complexity of human
  behavior, strategies derived from this approach
  are quite effective in psychotherapy
• Behavior modification interventions are based on
  behavioral principles, both classical and operant
  conditioning
• Observational learning is also used in
  psychotherapy.

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Strengths

• Foundations in research- need to define the
  variables and to measure them, rather than use
  general terms such as self-actualization or
  unconscious
• Behavioral principles are translated into
  therapeutic procedures (Behavior Modification)
  that use objective criteria when wanting to
  change behavior
• Behavior modification procedures are suitable for
  children or severely delayed persons

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Limitations

• Skinners form of behaviorism is considered today
  as radical and as inappropriate to explain the
  complexity of our behavior
• It rejects the usefulness of examining our
  feelings and inner thoughts, and it ignores
  completely the role of heredity in human
  behavioral mechanisms
• It has also been claimed that human beings are
  more complex that the laboratory animals used in
  behavioral research. We humans are capable to
  consider alternative courses of action, looking
  at long-term goals.