Download Behaviorist Approach

Personality is
Observable and Measurable.
Behaviorist Approach
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Behaviorist movement as reaction against psychology’s focus
on unmeasurable phenomena
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A person’s “personality” is the sum-total of all of their
experiences and nothing else!
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Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified
world to bring them up in and I’ll 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 beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and
race of his ancestors.
John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
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Locke’s tabula rasa
Classical Conditioning
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Classical Conditioning Terms
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Thorndike’s cats
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Skinner’s pigeons
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Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A stimulus that will provoke a response
without training
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Unconditioned Response (UR): The response to an unconditioned
stimulus
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Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A stimulus that is paired with a US, and
comes to provoke the same response as the US (in the absence of the US)
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Conditioned Response (CR): The same response as the UR, but now to a
CS, rather than to a US
Stimulus generalization
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Operant (“instrumental”)
Conditioning
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Pavlov’s dogs
Watson’s “Little Albert”
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Shaping
Schedules of reinforcement
Stimulus-response contingencies
Reinforcement contingencies
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Historical Perspective
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e.g. Freud’s unconscious
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e.g. food
e.g. salivation
e.g. tone
e.g. salivation
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Classical Conditioning:
Pavlov’s Dogs
US (food)
UR (salivation)
pair with
CS (tone)
Classical Conditioning:
Dog phobia
US (bitten
by dog)
UR (fear)
pair with
CR (salivation)
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
CS (dog)
CR (fear)
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
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How to “cure” a dog phobia 1:
Extinction
NOT BITTEN
How to “cure” a dog phobia 2:
Systematic Desensitization
NO FEAR
Think of dog
FEAR!!!
So…..…
pair with
Relaxation
Response
DOG
pair with
NO FEAR
NO FEAR
DOG
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
How to “cure” unhealthy behaviors, 1:
How is this personality???
Aversion Therapy for Smoking
Smoke
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Pleasure
So…..…
Put nauseating
substance on
tongue
Remember: According to the behaviorist approach,
personality is what we DO
We are the sum-total of our observable, measurable
behaviors
 Things like dog phobia, salivating when we hear the
dinner bell, etc. define us
 Unconscious or otherwise unobservable reasons for the
things we do are irrelevant to behaviorist approaches to
personality
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NAUSEA
pair with
Smoke
cigarette
NO FEAR
NAUSEA
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Operant Conditioning Terms
More on Reinforcement
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Reinforcement: Increasing the frequency or
probability of a behavior by presenting or removing
a stimulus following that behavior
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Positive Reinforcement: Increasing the frequency
or probability of a behavior by presenting an
appetitive stimulus following the behavior
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Punishment: Decreasing the frequency or
probability of a behavior by presenting or removing
a stimulus following that behavior
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Negative Reinforcement: Increasing the frequency
or probability of a behavior by removing an aversive
stimulus following the behavior
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Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
e.g. press lever, get food
e.g. press lever, shock ends
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
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What kind of reinforcement?
More on Punishment
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Positive Punishment: Decreasing the frequency or
probability of a behavior by presenting an aversive
stimulus following the behavior
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Negative Punishment: Decreasing the frequency
or probability of a behavior by removing an
appetitive stimulus following the behavior
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e.g. climb pole to birdfeeder = shock (squirrels)
e.g. break rules = no cigarettes (prison inmates)
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Operant Conditioning
Summary
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Stimulus Added
Reinforcement increases frequency of a behavior
Positive reinforcment = by adding something nice
Negative reinforcement = by taking something nasty
away
DO NOT confuse Negative Reinforcement with
Punishment!!!!!!
Reinforcement increases the frequency of a behavior
 Punishment decreases the frequency of a behavior
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Behavior
Increases
Behavior
Decreases
Stimulus Taken
Away
Positive
Reinforcement
(+ appetitive)
Negative
Reinforcement
(- aversive)
Positive
Punishment
(+ aversive)
Negative
Punishment
(- appetitive)
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Lauren and her Mom
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Lauren’s mother praises her every time she cleans
her bedroom. Soon, Lauren is cleaning her room
more and more.
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Positive Reinforcement
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Jenna’s cookies
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Robert’s co-worker, Jenna, brings homemade
cookies to work. Each time Robert visits her in her
office, she offers him a cookie. Over time, Robert
visits Jenna’s office less and less.
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Positive Punishment
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
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Sleepy Ashley
Ryan, the Don Juan
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Ashley’s loud alarm goes off at 6am. She hits the
snooze button, and the alarm ceases. Ashley hits the
snooze button again and again and again.
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Negative Reinforcement
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Ryan dates as much as he can. The women he dates
smile and flirt with him, until he mentions that he is
married. Then they stop smiling and flirting. Ryan
stops mentioning that he is married on his dates.
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Negative Punishment
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Lisa, problem child
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Lisa goes outside and throws rocks at passing cars.
Her parents go after her yelling, and drag her in off
the street and lock her in her room. As time goes by,
Lisa throws rocks at cars more and more.
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Positive Reinforcement
Ron, the Dog Phobic
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Ron is so afraid of dogs he usually leaves his house
by the back door to avoid meeting his neighbor’s
puppy. Often he tries to work up the nerve to leave
the front way, but his heart pounds and he feels
awful. As soon as he decides to chicken out one
more time, Ron feels better. Soon he is always
sneaking out the back.
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Negative Reinforcement
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Two-stage theory of phobias
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Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning
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Some neutral US is paired with a CS that produces fear
Phobias are maintained by operant conditioning
Each time the phobic object is removed or avoided
negative reinforcement occurs
 Because the phobic object is always avoided, the phobic
never learns the object is harmless
Schedules of Reinforcement
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Continuous Reinforcement
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Get reinforced every time you
engage in the behavior
Extinction is easy
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Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
Fixed Interval
Reinforcement
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Get reinforced every n
hours/minutes/seconds/day
s
e.g. weekly paycheck
Variable Interval
Reinforcement
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Get reinforced on average
every n hours/
minutes/seconds/days )
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
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Schedules of Reinforcement
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Fixed Ratio Reinforcement
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Get reinforced for every n
responses
e.g. piecework
Variable Ratio
Reinforcement
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Get reinforced for, on average,
every n responses
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Extinguishing a response
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e.g. fixed interval – how long
before you quit if the
paychecks stop coming
regularly?
e.g. variable ratio – how long
does it take for someone
who grows up abused to feel
safe?
Source: Ron Noble and Jennifer Ostovich
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