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The Neoanalytic Perspective: Psychosocial Theories
The Learning Perspective: Conditioning Theories
Theories of Personality
Chapters 11 &12
April 4, 2003
Class #10
Erik Erikson
(1902-1994)

Erikson was a follower of
Sigmund Freud who broke
with his teacher over the
fundamental point of what
motivates or drives human
behavior…
 For Freud it was biology
or more specifically the
biological instincts of life
and aggression
 For Erikson, who was not
trained in biology and/or
the medical sciences the
most important force
driving human behavior
and the development of
personality was social
interaction
Erikson’s Biography
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Erikson was born in 1902 near Frankfort,
Germany to Danish parents
There is a little mystery about his heritage: His
biological father was an unnamed Danish man
who abandoned Erik's mother before he was
born
His mother, Karla Abrahamsen, was a young
Jewish woman who raised him alone for the first
three years of his life
She then married Dr. Theodor Homberger, who
was Erik's pediatrician, and moved to Karlsruhe
in southern Germany
Erikson’s Biography
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During his childhood, and his early
adulthood, he was Erik Homberger, and
his parents kept the details of his birth a
secret
So here he was, a tall, blond, blue-eyed
boy who was also Jewish
At temple school, the kids teased him for
being Nordic; at grammar school, they
teased him for being Jewish
Erikson’s Biography
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He studied art and a variety of languages during
his school years, rather than science courses
such as biology and chemistry
He did not prefer the atmosphere that formal
schooling produced, so instead of going to
college he traveled around Europe, keeping a
diary of his experiences
After a year of doing this, he returned to
Germany and enrolled in art school
After several years, Erikson began to teach art
and other subjects to children of Americans who
had come to Vienna for Freudian training
Erikson’s Biography
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He was then admitted into the Vienna Psychoanalytic
Institute
In 1933 he came to the U.S. and became Boston's first child
analyst and obtained a position at the Harvard Medical School
Later on, he also held positions at institutions including Yale,
Berkeley, and the Menninger Foundation
When he became an American citizen, he officially changed
his name to Erik Erikson – No-one seems to know where he
got the name
Erikson then returned to California to the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Palo Alto and
later the Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco, where he was
a clinician and psychiatric consultant
Erikson’s Biography
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He then spent ten years
working and teaching at a
clinic in Massachussets,
and ten years more back
at Harvard
After retiring in 1970, he
wrote and did research
with his wife
Some of the information and pictures on
Erikson taken from the following website:
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/erikson.htm
l
Developmental Theory

Felt we developed in psychosocial stages…
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Emphasized developmental change throughout the
human life span
In Erikson’s theory, eight stages of development unfold
as we go through the life span
Each stage consists of a crisis that must be face
According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but
a turning point of increased vulnerability and enhanced
potential
The more an individual resolves the crises
successfully, the healthier development will
be
Erikson’s Stages of
Psychosocial Development
Trust vs. Mistrust
 Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
 Initiative vs. Guilt
 Industry vs. Inferiority
 Identity vs. Role Confusion
 Intimacy vs. Isolation
 Generativity vs. Stagnation
 Integrity vs. Despair
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Trust vs. Mistrust

Experienced in the first year of
life…
A sense of trust requires a feeling of
physical comfort and a minimal amount
of fear and apprehension about the
future
 Trust in infancy sets the stage for a
lifelong expectation that the world will
be a good and pleasant place to live

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
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Occurs in late infancy and
toddlerhood (1-3 years)…
They start to assert their sense of
independence, or autonomy
 They realize their will
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If infants are restrained too
much or punished too harshly,
they are likely to develop a
sense of shame and doubt
Initiative vs. Guilt
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Occurs during the preschool years…
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As preschool children encounter a widening social
world, they are challenged more than when they were
infants
Active, purposeful behavior is needed to cope with
these challenges
Children are asked to assume responsibility for their
bodies, their behavior, their toys, and their pets
Developing a sense of responsibility increases initiative
Uncomfortable guilt feelings may arise,
though, if the child is irresponsible and is
made to feel too anxious
Erikson has a positive outlook on this
stage…

He believes that most guilt is quickly compensated for
by a sense of accomplishment
Industry vs. Inferiority
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From about age 5 to puberty…
Children develop a sense of industry
and curiosity and are eager to learn
 Or they feel inferior and lose interest in
the tasks before them
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Identity vs. Role Confusion
Adolescents come to see themselves
as unique and integrated persons
with an ideology
 Or they become confused about
what they want out of life
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Intimacy vs. Isolation
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Individuals experience this during
the early adulthood years…
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At this time, individuals face the developmental task of
forming intimate relationships with others
Erikson describes intimacy as finding oneself yet losing
oneself in another
If the young adult forms healthy
friendships and an intimate
relationship with another individual,
intimacy will be achieved; if not,
isolation will result
Generativity vs. Stagnation
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Individuals experience this during
middle adulthood…
 A chief concern is to assist the younger
generation in developing and leading
useful lives…
•This is what Erikson means by
generativity
The feeling of having done nothing to
help the next generation is
stagnation
Ego Integrity vs. Despair
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Individuals experience this during
late adulthood
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In the later year of life, we look back and evaluate what
we have done with our lives
Through many different routes, the older person may
have developed a positive outlook in most of all of the
previous stages of development
If so, the retrospective glances will reveal a picture of a
life well spent, and the person will feel a sense of
satisfaction-integrity will be achieved
If the older adult resolved many of
the earlier stages negatively, the
retrospective glances likely will yield
doubt or gloom- the despair Erikson
talks about
Parenting Styles
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Authoritarian
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Permissive
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Relatively strict, punitive, and
unsympathetic
Give their children complete freedom
Authoritative
Reason with their children
 Firm but understanding
 Falls between the two extremes
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Ainsworth et al. (1978)
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The "strange situation" is a
laboratory procedure used to assess
infant attachment style
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The procedure consists of eight
episodes
The “Strange Situation"
1. Parent and infant are introduced to the
experimental room
2. Parent and infant are alone. Parent does
not participate while infant explores
3. Stranger enters, converses with parent,
then approaches infant. Parent leaves
inconspicuously
4. First separation episode: Stranger's
behavior is geared to that of infant
5. First reunion episode: Parent greets and
comforts infant, then leaves again
6. Second separation episode: Infant is alone
The “Strange Situation"
7. Continuation of second separation
episode: Stranger enters and gears
behavior to that of infant
8. Second reunion episode: Parent
enters, greets infant, and picks up infant;
stranger leaves inconspicuously
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The infant's behavior upon the
parent's return is the basis for
classifying the infant into one of
several attachment categories (see
next slides)…
Secure Attachment
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Most infants in the Strange Situation display a
secure attachment to the mother
In the unfamiliar room, they use the mother as
the “home base” – leaving her to explore and
play but returning periodically for comfort or
contact
When the mother returns after the brief
separation, the infants are happy to see her
These mother-child pairs are usually have
harmonious relations at home as well
Anxious Insecure Attachment
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Some infants display this in one of the following
forms:
 Avioidant
• They avoid or ignore the mother when she
approaches or when she returns after the brief
separation
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Ambivalent
• They are upset when the mother leaves, but when
she returns they act angry and reject her efforts at
contact and don’t like to be picked up
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Disorganized
• Their behavior is inconsistent, disturbed, and
disturbing – when the mother returns they begin to
cry again or sometimes they reach towards the
mother but look away as they do so
Implications…

Compared with insecurely attached
children, those who are securely
attached tend to be more socially
and emotionally competent, more
cooperative, enthusiastic, playful,
report being less lonely, and
generally are more successful
Is there such a thing as a midlife crisis?

At least for men there seems to be?
 Many developmental theorists now feel that
men continue to change, psychologically,
during their adult life
 In a sense, men experience two adulthoods
 The first extends from the end of puberty until
the forties
 Then many men experience "the midlife crisis"
or the "Corvette syndrome" or a psychological
"male menopause“
 This can become a very difficult period of
transition for men and women which, if
successfully resolved, leads into a man's
second adulthood
Conditioning Theories
Chapter 12
Learning is a relatively permanent
change in behavior due to
experience
 We learn primarily by identifying
relationships between events and
noting regularity of patterns in our
world
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Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
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Was a research physiologist, not
a psychologist
 At age 33, earns MD degree
 Spends next 20 years
studying the digestive system
 Russia’s first Nobel Prize
winner in 1904
Very impressive stuff but not
what he’s remembered for…
 Rather its his novel work
done over the final 30 years
of his life that earns him his
place in scientific history
Sometimes its just better to
be lucky…

Pavlov serendipitously discovers the
conditioning response
 He’s working on digestive system
and is measuring the amount of
saliva his dogs were producing
when food was presented to them…
 But then “psychic secretions” start
messing up his experiments
Ivan Pavlov
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First, considered them as an
annoyance but then realized he had
stumbled onto something of even
greater importance…
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Devotes rest of life until his death at
age 86 exclusively to the study of
learning
Classical Conditioning
Important Terms
 Acquisition
 Initial learning of the stimulus-response
relationship
 Neutral stimulus (NS)
 In classical conditioning, the NS does not
initially elicit the response that is being studied
 Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
 In classical conditioning, this is the stimulus
that elicits the unconditioned response (UR)
without conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Important Terms
 Conditioned stimulus (CS)
 In classical conditioning, this is the stimulus
which comes to elicit a new response by virtue
of pairings with the unconditioned stimulus
 Unconditioned response (UCR)
 In classical conditioning, the automatic
(involuntary), unlearned reaction to a stimulus
 Conditioned response (CR)
 A learned response elicited as a result of
pairings between that NS and an UCS
Classical Conditioning

Behaviors that are classically conditioned are
those which involve the learning of involuntary
(reflexive) responses -- responses over which
the learner has no control and to which he or she
responds reflexively or "automatically“
 Examples include a dog salivating at the sound
of the dinner bell, a horse flinching or shying
away at a blowing piece of paper, someone
becoming nauseous at sight of "creamylooking" food when mayonnaise once made
them ill, etc.
Pavlov’s Classical
Conditioning Experiments

UCS ------------------------------------------- UCR
(food)
(salivation)

NS -------------------------------------------- NO
RESPONSE
(tone)
(no salivation)

NS + UCS ----------------------------------- UCR
(tone) (food)
(salivation)
This is repeated several times…


CS --------------------------------------------- CR
(tone)
(salivation)
Classical Conditioning:
Extinction

The decline or disappearance of the
CR in the absence of the UCS
Classical Conditioning
Extinction
UCS ---------------------------------------------- UCR
NS ----------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
NS + UCS ---------------------------------------- UCR
*Repeated several times
CS ------------------------------------------------- CR

Extinction process is initiated:
CS
CS
CS
CS

----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
CR
CR
CR
CR
Eventually we get………..
NS -------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(tone)
(no salivation)
Classical Conditioning:
Reconditioning

Quick relearning of conditioned
response after the extinction trials
Classical Conditioning
Reconditioning
UCS ---------------------------------------------------- UCR
NS ----------------------------------------------------- NO
RESPONSE
NS + UCS --------------------------------------------- UCR
* Repeated several times
CS ---------------------------------------------- CR
CS ---------------------------------------------- CR
CS ---------------------------------------------- CR
CS ---------------------------------------------- CR
NS --------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE

Reconditioning process is initiated:
NS + UCS -------------------------------------- UCR
CS ---------------------------------------------- CR
Classical Conditioning:
Spontaneous Recovery
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An extinguished CR will temporarily
reappear if after a time delay the CS is
presented again even without the UCS
This is a reappearance of a CR after
extinction despite no further CS-UCS
pairings
Classical Conditioning:
Stimulus Generalization

After a CR is acquired, stimuli that
are similar but not identical to the CS
also will elicit the response – but to a
lesser degree

The greater the similarity between a
new stimulus and the CS the stronger
the CR will be
Classical Conditioning
Generalization

UCS -------------------------------------------- UCR
(food)
(salivation)
NS + UCS ------------------------------------  UCR
(low tone) (food)
(salivation)
* Repeated several times

NS + UCS ------------------------------------- UCR
(medium tone) (food)
(salivation)
*Repeated several times

NS + UCS -------------------------------------- UCR
(high tone) (food)
(salivation)
* Repeated several times

Classical Conditioning
Generalization
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CS -------------------------------------------- CR
(high tone)
(salivation)

CS -------------------------------------------- CR
(low tone)
(salivation)

CS -------------------------------------------- CR
(medium tone)
(salivation)
Classical Conditioning:
Stimulus Discrimination

Organisms learn to differentiate among
similar stimuli
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In Pavlov's early experiments he could get
dogs to discriminate between the pitches of
certain tones
Classical Conditioning:
Discrimination

UCS ------------------------------------------------------ UCR
(food)
(salivation)

NS ---------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(low tone)
(no salivation)

NS ---------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(medium tone)
(no salivation)

NS ---------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(high tone)
(no salivation)

NS + UCS ----------------------------------------------- UCR
(high tone) (food)
(salivation)
* Repeated several times
Classical Conditioning
Discrimination

CS ------------------------------------------------------ CR
(high tone)
(salivation)

NS --------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(low tone)
(no salivation)

NS --------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(medium tone)
(no salivation)

CS --------------------------------------------------------- CR
(high tone)
(salivation)
Classical Conditioning:
Second-order conditioning
Phase 1:
UCS (Food)

NS

NS + UCS (Tone/Food)

* Repeated several times
CS (Tone)

Phase 2:
UCS/CS (Light/Tone)

* Repeated several times
Phase 3:
UCS (Light)
UCR (salivation)
NO RESPONSE
UCR (salivation)
CR (salivation)
CR (salivation)

What do you think
happens?
Second-order conditioning
Here’s a summary of previous slide:
Phase 1
Tone  Food
(salivation)

Phase 2
Light Tone
(salivation)
____Phase 3
Light
(?????)
Here, a CS that has previously been
conditioned is now used to condition another
CS
Kamin (1968)
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Experiment 1:
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3______
Light ---- Shock
Light/Tone ----Shock
Tone---???
Light---???
Note: Both phase 1 and Phase 2 are repeated
several times.
Kamin (1968)
Experiment 2:
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Eliminated
Light/Tone ----Shock
Tone---???
Light---???
Classical Conditioning
Drug Tolerance Example

Drug Tolerance
Drugs have less of an effect when taken
repeatedly (less of a high)
 Drug users crave more of the drug despite
its lessening effects
 It appears that certain drugs trigger our
body to call upon its defenses against the
effects of the drug

Siegel (1977, 1983)

Demonstrated that classical conditioning
principles might be in effect during druginjecting episodes…

Possible reason for overdoses???
Siegel (1977, 1983)

UCS ---------------------------------------------- UCR
(drug)
(anti-drug
defenses)

NS ----------------------------------------------- NO RESPONSE
(injection ritual)
(no defenses)
NS + UCS -------------------------------------- UCR
(injection ritual) + (drug)
(anti-drug defenses)
* Repeated several times

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CS ----------------------------------------------- CR
(injection ritual)
(anti-drug defenses)
Siegel (1977, 1983)

Familiar setting-------------------- anti-drug
defenses
(usual time, place, etc)
(body reacts)

New setting ---------------------------- no defenses
(place, time are different)
(body doesn't react)

The same dosage now becomes an
overdose – they get too high as
their bodies have been fooled by the
new procedure
Atkinson, Krank, and McCully
(1982)
In this experiment laboratory rats were
preconditioned to a tolerance of large doses of
heroin…
Trial 1……….Room 1…………….Saline………Rats okay
Trial 1……….Room 1…………….Drug………..Rats get
high
Trials 2-19 are identical to Trial 1…
Trial 20…….Room 2…………….Saline………Rats okay
Trial 20…… Room 2…………….Drug………..Rats are
dead
Atkinson, Krank, and McCully
(1982)
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Results:
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Over 50% increase in death rate in new room
Rats show "room-specific" tolerance
May explain overdoses in humans????
Practical implications as far as
detoxification is concerned???
John Watson: “The Father of Behavioralism”
(1878-1958)
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Born into a poor family in
Greenville, South Carolina,
his mother was very
religious
John's father, with whom he
was closer, did not follow
the same rules of living as
his mother
He drank, had extra-marital
affairs, and left in 1891
The absence of his father
took it's toll on John and he
rebelled against his mother
and teachers and turned to
violence
Watson’s Biography
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John was able to turn his life around with the help of
his teacher, Gordon Moore, at Furman University
With Moore's help, John was able to succeed and
moved on to the University of Chicago
It was there that he became interested in the field of
comparative psychology and studying animals
He wrote his dissertation about the relation between
behavior in the white rat and the growth of the
nervous system
In 1903 he received his doctorate and later became an
associate professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins
University
Watson’s Biography
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In 1913 at Columbia University, Watson delivered a lecture
entitled "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”
Before this speech the field of psychology was in disagreement
over the ideas of the nature of consciousness and the methods
of studying it
Many questions were raised and few answers had been given
until Watson spoke
He claimed that the problem was the use of archaic methods
and inappropriate subject matter
He cut consciousness and introspection out of the picture
Instead, he proposed the idea of an objective psychology of
behavior called "behaviorism"
He saw psychology as the study of people's actions with the
ability to predict and control those actions
This new idea became known as the behaviorists theory
Watson’s Biography
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Eventually John married Mary Ikes whom he
met at the University of Chicago
Together they had two children, Mary and
John
Like his father, he had affairs with a number
of women and the couple eventually divorced
Later, he married one of his graduate
students, Rosalie Rayner
They had two more children, James and
William
Watson focused much of his study of
behaviorism on his children
Watson’s Biography
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Although Watson's academic star burned
brightly, it was destined to be short-lived
He was forced to resign his chair at John
Hopkins University because of a sex scandal
involving his assistant, Rayner
He continued to publish books on psychology-Behaviorism (1924) and The Psychological Care
of Infant and Child (1928)--but by the 1930s his
main career interest had shifted to the
advertising business, and he ended his scholarly
pursuits
Watson’s Biography
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After Rosalie's
death, his already
poor relationships
with his children
grew worse and he
became a recluse
He lived on a farm
in Connecticut
until his death in
1958
A conditioned phobia…

Watson and Raynor (1920)
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Behavioralists John Watson and grad assistant
Raynor taught an 11-month old infant to become
afraid of a gentle white laboratory rat
At the beginning of the study, “Little Albert” was
unafraid of the white rat and played freely with the
animal
While he was playing with the rat, the experimenters
frightened the child by making a loud noise behind
him
The baby was startled and began to cry
“Little Albert”
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Thereafter, he avoided the rat
and would cry whenever it was
brought close to him
In Pavlovian terms, a bond had
been established between the
sight of the rat (CS) and the
arousal of Albert's autonomic
nervous system (CR)
Once this S-R bond was fixed,
fear could also be elicited by
showing Albert any furry object
Note: Several slides on Watson’s biography and
pictures prepared by
http://fates.cns.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/his
tory/watson.htm
Classical Conditioning Explanation for
PTSD…

This behavioral viewpoint helps to
explain why people posttraumatic
stress…

This mental disorder involves a variety
of anxiety-related symptoms that start
after a particularly traumatic event and
then continue for a long time
Behavioral Explanation
Classically conditioned fear response is taking place (see below):

UCR
(fear, terror, etc)
NS + UCS

(setting) + (trauma)
* Only takes one pairing
UCR
(fear, terror, etc)

UCS
(traumatic event)


CS
(setting)
*
Since it only takes one pairing it doesn’t fit classical
conditioning perfectly.

CR
(fear, terror, etc)
Systematic
Desensitization

Wolpe (1958)
Attempted to counter-condition people
suffering from phobias
 In counter-conditioning the stimulus is
paired with a new response which is
incompatible with the old one
 Wolpe basically utilizes an anxiety
hierarchy to gradually but
systematically desensitize the patient
over several therapy sessions

Systematic Desensitization of
a Spider Phobia

Show a picture of a spider to the
patient

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Toy spider that looks fake


HR goes up – but talk to them – get them to relax – eventually they
are okay
A real dead spider


HR goes up – but talk to them – get them to relax – eventually they
are okay
Toy spider that looks real


HR goes up – but talk to them – get them to relax – eventually they
are okay
HR goes up – but talk to them – get them to relax – eventually they
are okay
A live spider

HR goes up – but talk to them – get them to relax – eventually they
are okay
Systematic Desensitization


The hypothesis here is that a relaxed
state cannot co-exist with a state of fear.
Its one or the other…cannot be
simultaneously anxious and relaxed
Therefore, if you can repeatedly relax
someone (see spider example) when they
are faced with anxiety-producing stimuli –
you will gradually eliminate their anxiety

The trick is to proceed gradually
Criticism of Systematic
Desensitization


Wolpe’s critics say there is no attempt to
achieve insight into the underlying cause
of the fear
Wolpe says “so what”


He’s not really concerned about what caused
it as long as its alleviated
Only concern is that the maladaptive behavior
is cured and that patients feel better about
themselves and begin acting in ways that will
bring them greater life satisfaction
Instrumental
Conditioning

Thorndike (1905)
Described the learning that was
governed by his "law of effect" as
instrumental conditioning because
responses are strengthened when they
are instrumental in producing rewards
 Law of Effect

• Responses that are rewarded are more
likely to be repeated and responses that
are produce discomfort are less likely to be
repeated
Thorndike's Puzzle Box




In his classic experiment, a cat was
locked in the box and enticed to escape
by using food that was placed out of the
reach from the box
The box included ropes, levers, and
latches that the cat could use to escape
Trial and error behavior would lead to
ultimate success (usually within three
minutes)
Thorndike felt we learned things through
trial and error – awareness
Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which voluntary
(controllable and non-reflexive)
behavior is strengthened if it is
reinforced and weakened if it is
punished (or not reinforced)
Skinner (1938)


The organism learns a response by
operating on the environment…
Notes:
 The terms instrumental conditioning
and operant conditioning describe
essentially the same learning process
and are often used interchangeably
 Basically, Skinner extended and
formalized many of Thorndike's ideas
Operant Conditioning

Response comes first and is voluntary
unlike classical where stimulus comes
first and response is involuntary
Classical: S  R
 Operant:
SRS
that becomes
RS

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)






B. F. Skinner was born in
Susquehanna, a small railroad town
in the hills of Pennsylvania
After attending Hamilton college,
Skinner decided to become a writer
(majored in English)
Moving back home he wrote little –
called it his "dark year"
Moved to New York City for a few
months working as a bookstore clerk
There he happened upon books by
Pavlov and Watson
He found them impressive and
exciting and wanted to learn more
Skinner’s Background
In 1928, at the age of 24 Skinner
enrolled in the Psychology Department of
Harvard University
 Invented “Skinner Box” while at Harvard
 In 1936, he got his first job teaching and
doing research at the University of
Minnesota – then left for Indiana
University in 1945 before returning to
Harvard to teach in 1947

The Skinner Box



Soundproof chamber with a bar or key
that could be manipulated to release a
food or water reward
Specifically, the conditioning chamber was
a stable plexi-glass box with a response
lever, reinforcement delivery tube, and
various means for stimulus presentation
In Skinner's early experiments, a rat was
placed in the conditioning chamber and
when it pressed the response lever, it
received a pellet of food
In the Lab…
Shaping:
Reinforcing successive approximations

Responses that come successively closer to the
desired response were reinforced…
 Skinner referred to this as his “Behavioral
Technology”
 Taught pigeons “unpigeon-like” behaviors
 Walking in Figure 8, playing ping-pong, and
keeping a “guided missile” on course by
pecking at a moving target displayed on a
screen…but most proud of getting them to
hoist an American flag and then to salute it
Terrible Rumors…

In 1943, while in Minnesota Skinner
invented a new baby crib for his
daughter…

Proud of his new invention, an enclosed
and heated crib with a Plexiglas
window, he sent an article to the
popular magazine the Lady's Home
Journal…
Changing Skinner's title to grab attention,
the article came out as "Baby in a Box"




The "baby tender", as Skinner called his crib, was
used only as a bed for the new baby but rumors
surfaced accusing him of using his second daughter,
Deborah, for experimentation…
To the end of his life Skinner was plagued by rumors
about his second daughter, hearing even that she had
committed suicide
Skinner claimed that he was an affectionate father and
never experimented on either of his children…yet to
this day there are some who believe that the girl hardly
ever left the crib during her first two years of life
By the way, Deborah is a successful artist and lives in
London with her husband
Dedicated researcher…



In 1989 he was diagnosed with leukemia, but
kept as active as his increasing weakness
allowed
At the American Psychological Association
convention, eight days before he died, he gave
a talk before a crowded auditorium
He finished the article from which the talk was
taken on August 18, 1990, the day he died
Operant Conditioning

Important terms
Primary Reinforcers
 Secondary Reinforcers
 Positive Reinforcement
 Punishment
 Negative Reinforcement

Reinforcers

Primary Reinforcers




Innately rewarding; no learning necessary
Stimulus that naturally strengthens any
response that precedes it without the need for
any learning on the part of the organism
Food, water, etc.
Secondary Reinforcers



A consequence that is learned by pairing with
a primary reinforcer
For people, money, good grades, and words of
praise, etc. are often linked to basic rewards
We need money to buy food, etc.
Positive Reinforcement

Behavior is strengthened when something
pleasant or desirable occurs following the
behavior. With the use of positive
reinforcement chances that the behavior will
occur in the future is increased

For example: The dolphin gets a fish for doing a
trick. The worker gets a paycheck for working. The
dog gets attention from his people when he barks.
The child gets ice cream for begging incessantly.
The toddler gets picked up and comforted for
screaming
Punishment


Any stimulus presented immediately after
a behavior in order to decrease the future
probability of that behavior
For example:

If your kid runs into the middle of the street
and you flip out and “express to him how bad
he is” this (at least in psychological terms) is
only considered to be punishment if it does in
fact lead to a decrease in that child’s behavior
of running into the street
Negative Reinforcement


One of the most misunderstood terms
in psychology…
Definitely a problem with semantics here


The word reinforcement means that a
response is strengthened
The word negative seems to imply that the
response is somehow weakened
• This is not the case here!
• So how literally can a response be negatively
reinforced???
• Often, this term is misapplied to term punishment
Negative Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement is a reward


Punishment is something that weakens a
response


That’s easy enough
Again, this is pretty basic
In an attempt to increase the likelihood of a
behavior occurring in the future, an operant
response is followed by the removal of an
aversive stimulus. This is negative
reinforcement…
Negative Reinforcement

So we are learning to do something to
turn off a bad stimulus



Example: We put on boots to prevent sitting
in class with wet socks on
Increasing a behavior to stop a bad thing
from occurring
Doing something to remove the reinforcer
Schedules of
Reinforcement

Continuous Reinforcement


Reinforcement delivered every time a
particular response occurs
Intermittent Reinforcement

Reinforcement is administered only
some of the time
Intermittent Schedules of
Reinforcement


Fixed-Ratio
 Reinforcement provided after a fixed
number of responses
•Food every tenth bar press
Variable-Ratio
 Reinforcement after a a variable
number of responses (works on a
average)
•Unpredictable number of responses
are required (slot machines)
Intermittent Schedules of
Reinforcement

Fixed-Interval Schedules


Provides reinforcement for the first response that
occurs after some fixed time has passed since the last
reward
Number of responses doesn’t matter only time
• Example: Food is given to rats every 20 min.

Variable-Interval Schedule



Reinforce the first responses after a certain amount of
time has past
Again number of responses doesn’t matter
But this time the amount of time changes
• Might be the first response after ten minutes then the
next time it is the first response after 20 minutes, and
then the next time it is the first response after 30 min…
Applications of Operant
Conditioning: In the Workplace

Pedalino & Gamboa (1974)





To help reduce the frequency of employee tardiness,
these researchers implemented a game-like system
for all employees that arrived on time
When an employee arrived on time, they were
allowed to draw a card
Over the course of a 5-day workweek, the employee
would have a full hand for poker
At the end of the week, the best hand won $20
This simple method reduced employee tardiness
significantly and demonstrated the effectiveness of
operant conditioning on humans
Applications of Operant
Conditioning: Childrearing

"Stop that!" You say this several times,
each louder and meaner. Your kid
continues to scream and roll around on
the floor looking like a rabid beast…



Finally, you say, "No candy until you cut that
out!"
OK, the kid stops, and you give him candy
You reinforced stopping the tantrum,
right?
Criticisms Of The Use Of
Reinforcement

Criticism #1:


Behavior should not have to rely on
persuasion…
• It is manipulative and controlling
• Appropriate behavior should be the norm
• Skinner says we are always controlled by rewards
but often are unaware of these…
• Parents, peers, schools, employers, etc. all use
rewards to control our behavior
So, if its manipulative then everyone is to
blame?
Criticisms Of The Use Of
Reinforcement

Criticism #2:
 Reinforcement undermines
Intrinsic Motivation…
• Messes up our inner desire to do something
• Now we need to do it for a tangible reward
• Example: Child cleaning his/her room…
• Why do they do it?
• Be careful of overjustification…