Personality Theory

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Personality Theory

• Chapter 12 Learning Theories of Personality The
  S-R Theory of John Dollard and Neal Miller

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An Introduction to S-R Theory

• The distinction between content and process in
  theories of personality
• Psychoanalysis and its derivative theories are
  content theories.
• They propose structural concepts (e.g., id, ego,
  self-dynamism) that are hypothetical components
  of personality.
• They are concerned with the content of mental
  life, both unconscious and conscious.

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• Learning theories are concerned with process -
  how behaviour is learned, maintained, and
  changed.
• Radical behaviourist theories focus only on
  observable behaviour
• Other learning theories of personality (S-R
  theory, the theories of Rotter and Bandura) make
  inferences to covert processes.

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• Learning theories have profited from the clinical
  evidence of content theories
• e.g., the nature of personality disorder, details
  of child development.
• S-R theory originated in the 1930s with Dollard,
  Miller, and other members of the Yale Institute
  of Human Relations.
• It was based on the learning theory of Yale
  professor Clark Hull.

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• Its antecedents were Dollards Caste and Class in
  a Southern Town, Dollard et al.s Frustration and
  Aggression, and Miller and Dollards Social
  Learning and Imitation.
• Frustration and Aggression introduced the
  approach, based on principles and conditions of
  learning.
• Frustration and Aggression proposed that
  frustration is a significant condition for
  aggression.
• Many studies confirmed this basic relation.

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• Dollard and Miller took the principles-conditions
  idea and the theory of learning to social
  psychology, studying imitation in the acquisition
  of social behaviour.
• In 1950, they turned to personality, disorders of
  personality, and the process (psychotherapy) by
  which normality is learned.

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John Dollard

• John Dollard was born in 1900 in Menasha,
  Wisconsin.
• After the death of his father, his mother moved
  with the children to Madison, WI, so the children
  might attend the university there.

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• He earned a BA at 22, then worked at the
  university
• Met physicist Max Mason, who took an interest in
  Dollard and brought him to the University of
  Chicago when he became the university president.
• He obtained his PhD in sociology in 1931.
• Greatly influenced by the Chicago sociologists,
  especially Edward Sapir

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• Awarded a travelling fellowship, he went to
  Germany to study psychoanalysis
• Completed a training analysis with Hanns Sachs,
  and was supervised in the treatment of control
  patients by Karen Horney.
• Invited to join Yale Institute of Human Relations
  as research associate

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• An extraordinary career at Yale in sociology,
  psychology, and psychoanalysis
• Among his books Caste and Class in a Southern
  Town Frustration and Aggression (with Miller and
  others) Social Learning and Imitation (with
  Miller) Personality and Psychotherapy (with
  Miller) Steps in Psychotherapy (with Auld and
  White)

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• Honoured as a teacher and pioneer, he died in
  1980.

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Neal Miller

• Neal Miller was born in Milwaukee, WI, in 1909.
• His family moved to Washington state where his
  father became professor of educational
  psychology.
• He earned a BA at University of Washington
  (1931), an MA from Stanford (1932), and a PhD
  from Yale (1935) under learning theorist Clark
  Hull.

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• Granted the same fellowship as Dollard, he went
  to Vienna in 1935-6 to study psychoanalysis.
• He was analyzed by Heinz Hartmann.
• He returned to Yale and the Institute of Human
  Relations
• He conducted experimental studies of S-R theory
  hypotheses, developing the theory and writing
  collaboratively with Dollard and others.

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• Went to Rockefeller University in 1966 to study
  the physiological basis of drives and the
  voluntary basis of autonomic responses, important
  in biofeedback.
• Awarded the National Medal of Science in 1964.
• Died at age 92 in 2002

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Emphases

• The S-R theory mantra drive, cue, response,
  reward.
• Learning requires
• The arousal of a drive.
• Cues or stimuli that identify the response to be
  made, where, and when.
• The response when drive is aroused and cues are
  present.
• That the response be rewarded.

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• Drives motivate behaviour through the arousal of
  drive stimuli.
• Hunger, thirst, and sexual arousal are examples
  of primary drives whose drive stimuli are
  familiar.
• There are also many secondary drives
• e.g., approval, affection.
• Fear is a notable secondary drive.
• Secondary drives are learned during socialization.

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• Responses that are instrumental in reducing drive
  stimuli are reinforced and are likely to be
  repeated.
• This is the basis of reinforcement (reward).
• The basic concept in S-R theory is habit
• Habit is a learned association between stimuli
  and a response.

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• The relation between drive and habit strength is
  multiplicative
• R (response) D X H (habit).
• This is necessary since zero drive or zero habit
  strength will not result in behaviour.
• Strong stimulation arouses both drive stimuli and
  internal responses
• e.g., emotional responses, muscular contractions,
  and thoughts.

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The Major Concepts of S-R Theory

• Dollard and Miller follow Freud in using neurosis
  as a model for personality processes in general.
  Thus, they adopt the continuity assumption.
• Psychotherapy gives us a window to mental life,
  a way to look in on thinking, learning,
  unconscious processes, and child development.
  Necessarily, this must be done with neurotic
  patients.

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• What is a neurosis?
• Mowrers concept of the neurotic paradox
  behaviour that is self-perpetuating and
  self-defeating
• An particular problem for learning theories to
  explain.

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• In neurosis, we have to account for
• Its persistence
• How it generalizes
• Why neurotic people cant use their minds to
  solve their problems

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• The nature of learning
• Learning is systematic and involves the
  replacement of responses in an initial hierarchy
  by learned responses in a resultant hierarchy.
• Learning dilemmas cause non-reinforced responses
  to extinguish so that new responses may occur.

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• Learned responses reduce drive stimuli.
• We can classify drives as primary (e.g., hunger)
  and learned (secondary), which develop in
  association with primary drives early in life.
• There are primary and secondary reinforcements.
• Secondary reinforcements acquire their
  reinforcing ability through association with
  primary drive reduction in early childhood.

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• Cues determine when and where responses will be
  made, and which responses will be chosen.
• Cues may be external stimuli or produced by the
  person.
• These are response-produced cues.
• Cue-producing responses direct much of our
  thinking and facilitate generalization and
  discrimination.

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• The basis of neurosis lies in the association of
  fear with situational cues.
• Fear then may become attached to thoughts (of the
  fearful situation) and to emotional arousal to
  it.
• This is secondary generalization.

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• Fear-reducing responses may include stopping
  thinking about the source of fear.
• This is the S-R theory analysis of repression.

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• An experimental model of fear arousal and
  avoidance learning
• An animal is shocked in one compartment of a
  2-compartment apparatus and can escape through
  open door
• Subsequently, when placed in this compartment
  without shock, it immediately escapes.

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• Next, the animal must turn a small paddle wheel
  to escape. It learns to do this to reduce fear.
• So, fear is a learned drive and fear reduction a
  learned reinforcement.
• Animals or people (children) can also be taught
  what not to do.
• This is passive avoidance learning.
• We train children to inhibit dangerous or hurtful
  responses.

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• Passive avoidance learning can be enduring if
  punishment is strong, and it can block normal
  behaviour.
• Fear is important because it can be intense, can
  be readily become attached to new cues, and
  because it is a significant the motive in most
  conflicts.

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• A theory of psychological conflict
• The most significant conflicts in neurosis are
  between fear and approach motivation
  (approach-avoidance) and between 2 feared
  alternatives (avoidance-avoidance).
• Conflict sufferers are unable to approach and
  vacillate at a distance from the feared goal.
• They are in misery.

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• Faced with avoidance-avoidance alternatives, the
  person vacillates at a point equidistant from
  each feared possibility.

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Millers Conflict ModelApproach-Avoidance
Conflict

• Four Assumptions
• The tendency to approach a goal increases with
  nearness (gradient of approach).
• The tendency to avoid a feared goal increases
  with nearness (gradient of avoidance).
• The gradient of avoidance is steeper than the
  gradient of avoidance.
• Increasing motivation to approach will increase
  conflict and misery.

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The Conflict ModelAvoidance-Avoidance Conflict

• Gradients of approach or avoidance of two
  situations, X and Y.
• If X and Y elicit approach, then a person
  starting at P will go to X since strength of
  approach gradient at P is greater.
• If X and Y elicit avoidance, a person starting at
  P will retreat to intersection of gradients and
  vacillate in misery.

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Personality Development

• The learning of neurosis is a model for
  personality development.
• Normal and neurotic personalities start early in
  life.
• Childhood learning is difficult, both for
  helpless and dependent infants and for parents
  who lack knowledge and skill.
• Its a pity we dont have a science of
  childrearing that can be taught readily to
  parents.

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• Learning in early childhood is difficult. Small
  children have major things to learn under
  conditions of strong drive and the absence of
  language.
• Essential generalization and discrimination are
  thus much harder.

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• There are four critical child training
  situations.
• Feeding
• Cleanliness training
• Early sex training
• Anger management training

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• The feeding situation.
• Hunger is a strong drive, and parents may not be
  alert to the intensity their infants experience.
• Leaving an infant alone to cry itself out is
  bad practice.
• Weaning is a challenge to parents and infants.
• This is a critical period for socialization, and
  poor training can have disastrous lasting
  consequences.

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• Cleanliness training.
• Freud was correct in pointing out that the
  effects of cleanliness training go beyond the
  learning of toilet habits.
• Cultural attitudes of revulsion tend to make
  parents impatient and angry.

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• Early sex training.
• Sexual exploration and growing up often occur in
  a family atmosphere of secrecy.
• Labeling of drive arousal is difficult.
• Emotional intensity may be high.
• Embarrassment and guilt may be inculcated by
  moralistic parents.

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• Anger management training.
• Children do become angry
• Parents are often intolerant of angry displays
• Creates fear and resentment.

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• Correct labelling of feelings, drives, and
  thoughts is important, but parents sometimes
  teach their children to mislabel.
• Cognitive distortions and defences such as
  repression may be the result.

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• Dollard and Miller singled out these 4
  childrearing situations because they contain the
  seeds of problems that may appear in adult
  neurosis.
• Remember that we need to know about the
  conditions of learning.

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Research

• A significant feature of S-R theory is the amount
  of experimental and field research on its
  hypotheses
• A major sociological study of racial
  discrimination in the U.S. South.
• Experimental studies of the role of imitation in
  social learning.
• The effects of frustration on aggression.
• Experimental studies of learnable drives,
  especially fear.

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• Experimental tests of conflict theory assumptions
  used rats
• Measured the strength of pull toward food in the
  goalbox (approach) and away from the same goalbox
  after shock.
• Gradients of approach and avoidance established,
  with a steeper avoidance gradient
• In the approach-avoidance conflict, the animals
  approached part way, then stopped, showing signs
  of fear and indecision.
• Said Miller The same thing is observed
  clinically.

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• Studies of displacement
• Displacement occurs when people cannot respond to
  a target person and direct their responses to a
  substitute person.
• Some (reduced) gratification is obtained.
• Dollard and Miller displacement is an instance
  of stimulus generalization,
• The response (e.g., aggression) is directed
  toward a similar substitute target.
• We cant curse schoolteachers or professors, but
  we can yell at our roommates.

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• The process the target (e.g., of anger) is
  inaccessible because of fear or remoteness.
• Anger is directed at the most similar target.
• The greater the anger, the more dissimilar the
  target may be.
• This is a gradient of stimulus generalization.

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• An animal experiment
• 2 rats are shocked in a small compartment.
• A high probability response is to rear up, and
  its likely the rats will strike each other.
• This terminates the shock.
• Now one rat is removed, and the remaining animal
  is shocked.
• Result It strikes a small celluloid doll.

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• A human experiment.
• Men at a remote work camp are promised a rare
  movie, but have to take some tests first.
• In the control group, this is just what happens.
• In the experimental group, the tests are
  prolonged and the movie cant be shown.
• One of the tests measures attitudes toward
  Hispanic Americans.
• Negative attitudes and hostility are greater in
  the experimental group.

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S-R Theory in Perspective

• An exemplary theory.
• It uses process concepts from the psychology of
  learning.
• It casts the clinical observations of
  psychoanalysis in process terms.
• Concepts of the theory were examined in detail in
  experimental studies.

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• It did have its critics.
• Radical behaviourists objected that Dollard and
  Miller made inferences to unobservable events and
  didnt stick to observable behaviour.
• Psychoanalysts thought it too simple in its
  analysis of neurosis, defenses and symptoms, and
  social behaviour.
• Remember that psychoanalysts were deeply
  committed to Freudian theory and accepted its
  scientific validity.

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• Cognitive psychology thought the basic unit of
  S-R theory - the habit - too discrete and
  mechanical. S-R theory did not deal well with
  processes and concepts.
• S-R theory was a bridge to modern cognitive
  psychology and made significant contributions.

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• Its analysis of psychotherapy is rich with ideas
  on how to approach and treat neurotic patients,
  and how their relearning proceeds.

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Take-Home Messages

• S-R theory is a process theory based on concepts
  from the psychology of learning.
• It does not have structural concepts or emphasize
  mental content.
• Beginnings in the Yale University Institute of
  Human Relations.
• Emphasis on principles and conditions of learning.

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• A research-based theory
• Experimental studies of basic hypotheses (e.g.,
  fear as a learnable drive)
• Studies of major social questions and problems
• Racial prejudice
• Frustration and aggression
• Imitation and social behaviour
• Personality and psychotherapy

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• Personal histories
• John Dollard
• PhD, sociology, Univ. of Chicago
• Trained in psychoanalysis
• Research associate, Yale Institute of Human
  Relations
• Sociologist, anthropologist, psychologist,
  psychoanalyst
• Research and theory building with Neal Miller and
  others

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• Neal Elgar Miller
• PhD, Yale University
• Trained in psychoanalysis
• Professor, Yale Institute of Human Relations
• Research and theory building with Dollard and
  other Institute members
• Rockefeller University in 1966 to study
  physiological basis of drives

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• Emphases in S-R theory
• The basic elements in learning drive, cue,
  response, reward.
• Primary and secondary (learned) drives.
• Reinforcement reduces drive stimuli.
• The central concept of habit
• R D X H (remember why this is multiplicative)
• Internal responses (physiological, cognitive) can
  produce stimuli with drive properties.

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• Major concepts of S-R theory
• Using neurosis and psychotherapy to study
  personality and personality change
• Neurotic paradox self-defeating and
  self-perpetuating behaviour
• A critical concept fear, a learnable drive
• A critical distinction between primary and
  secondary (learned) drives
• The distinction between primary and secondary
  reinforcements

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• Cues guide behaviour.
• Note both external and response-produced cues.
• The basis of neurosis is fear associated with
  fear-arousing cues.
• Defenses and symptoms reduce fear.

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• An experimental test of fear as a learnable drive
• Remember passive avoidance learning.
• The role of stimulus generalization in fear
  arousal.

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• A theory of conflict
• 4 assumptions
• Approach-avoidance
• Avoidance-avoidance

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• Personality development
• 4 critical child training situations
• Feeding
• Cleanliness training
• Early sex training
• Anger management training
• We dont have a science of child-rearing and
  dont convey well what we know to parents.

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• Research
• Experimental studies of basic processes
• e.g., fear as a learnable drive
• Experimental studies of conflict
• Studies of displacement
• An animal experiment
• A human experiment

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• S-R theory in perspective
• An exemplary process.
• The theory of personality applied to the clinical
  observations of psychoanalysis.
• A wealth of support in experimental and field
  studies.

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• Criticisms
• Behaviourists too inferential
• Psychoanalysts too simple
• Cognitive psychology too mechanical
• A theory at the transition from behaviourism to
  cognitive psychology that made many
  contributions.
• A perceptive analysis of psychotherapy.