Skinner and Rotter

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Skinner and Rotter

• Emily Vermilya
• February 19, 2008

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Behavioral Conditionists

• Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)
• Operant Conditioning (Thorndike and Skinner)

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Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)

• Classical Conditioning- begins with an existing
  stimulus-response (S-R) association
• Pavlovs Dogs
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)-meat powder
• Unconditioned Response (UCR)- salivation
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)-bell
• Conditioned Response (CR)-salivation
• Limitations

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Operant Conditioning (Thorndike)

• Puzzle Box Experiment
• Law of Effect- behaviors are more likely to be
  repeated if they lead to satisfying consequences
  and less likely to be repeated if they lead to
  unsatisfying consequences.

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Operant Conditioning- Increasing a Behavior
(Skinner)

• Operant Conditioning- the effect certain kinds of
  consequences have on the frequency of behaviors.
• Skinners Experiment
• Reinforcement- a consequence that increases the
  likelihood of the behavior that precedes it.
• Positive or Negative
• Punishment- a consequence that decreases the
  likelihood of a behavior that precedes it

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Operant Conditioning- Reducing a Behavior

• 2 Methods
• Stop reinforcement
• Punishment- to eliminate unwanted behaviors.
• Limited
• 1. Doesnt teach appropriate behaviors, it only
  decreases the frequency of unwanted ones.
• 2. Must be delivered immediately and
  consistently.
• 3. Negative side effects
• 4. Undesirable behaviors may be learned through
  modeling
• 5. Creation of negative emotions

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• Shaping- successive approximations of the
  behavior are reinforced.
• Generalization
• Stimulus generalization- helps to explain why
  personality characteristics generalize across
  situations
• Discrimination- separation of rewarded and
  non-rewarded stimuli

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Rotters Social Learning Theory

• Rotter argues that the causes of hyman behaviors
  are far more complex than those of lower animals
  and to predict how people will respond in a
  certain situation, we have to take into account
  such variables as perception, expectancies and
  values.
• Particularly, Rotter uses the concepts of
  behavior potential, expectancy, and reinforcement
  value to account for human personality

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• Behavior Potential- the likelihood of a given
  behavior occurring in a particular situation.
• Strength of behavior potential determined by
• Expectancy- estimations
• Generalized Expectancies- beliefs we hold about
  how often our actions typically lead to
  reinforcements and punishments.
• Reinforcement value- the degree to which we
  prefer one reinforcer over another.

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Calculating Behavior Potential Example-- Insult
at a Party
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References