Download Beyond Skinner and Watson

Beyond Skinner and Watson
Tristram Jones, Ph. D
Kaplan University PS517 Unit VIII
Is behaviorism itself beyond
behaviorism?
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IMMERSION THERAPY: A fearhierarchy is created: Can the
patient talk about the object of
his/her fear, look at a picture of
it, watch a movie about it, come
closer in a hallway? Be in the
same room with the object of
his/her fear, can he/she be in
physical contact with it?
Once these questions have
been ordered the patient is
taught a relaxation exercise, or
otherwise receives therapeutic
process of some type.
Patient is exposed to lowest
aspect of hierarchy in a
condition with which he/she is
most comfortable
After that, the patient moves up
the hierarchy
How about FLOODING?
Flooding is a behavioral technique
for overcoming phobias. It is a
faster (but more traumatic) method
of fixing fears associated with
phobia. In order to demonstrate
the irrationality of the fear a
psychologist would put a person in
a situation where he or she
confronts the phobia at its worst,
but under controlled conditions.
The advantage to flooding is that it
is quick and often effective. There
is however, spontaneous recovery
of a fear that may occur. This can
be made lessened through
systematic desensitization;
another form of a behavioral
conditioning.
Relational Frame Theory?
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Relational frame theory, or RFT, is a theory of
human language as it relates to cognition.
 Relational frame theory is based on the
philosophical roots of functional contextualism
and focuses on how humans learn language
through interactions with the environment.
 Functional contextualism is an extension and
contextualistic interpretation of Skinner’s radical
behaviorism stressing the significance of
predicting and influencing psychological events,
such as thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, by
focusing on manipulable variables in their context.
Neurobiology is also “beyond
Skinner.”
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Brain research is more
reliable than behavioral
theory?
 Linking brain research
to literacy and learning.
 Learning which brain
activities dominate in
learning and adaptation
will ultimately benefit
training methods more
than simple operant
methods!
Your brain on drugs? Or maybe
just art?
“These pathways let our brains receive the message sent by
the neurotransmitter chemical dopamine - the message that
tells us that what we're doing is pleasurable and we should do it again."
What’s wrong with those pictures?
 “Power
Calculation" The more data you collect
for a piece of research, the greater your ability to detect modest
effect. The size of sample needed also changes with the size of
the effect you're trying to detect: A true 0.2% difference in the
size of the hippocampus between two groups, would need
more subjects than a study aiming to detect a 25% difference.
And the place of mental constructs
in a world of behavior?
This nice man is Albert
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Bandura. He is the dude
w
who created the transition
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between behaviorism and
.
Cognitive Psychology. He
I
is known as the originator
of social learning theory, and he was the
first person to teach behaviorists that
people can think! Bandura, A. (1977) Social Learning Theory.
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Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall
These are the guys who came
along at that point!
Meichenbaum on the subject of
Albert Ellis:
“His approach is forcefully
didactic – so forceful, that on one
occasion I was moved to
suggest, rather tongue-in-cheek,
that RET as conducted by Ellis
would only be successful with
New Yorkers. And I went on to
suggest that wherever else in the
world RET was successfully
conducted, it would be with a
patient who had moved from
New York.”
Still, REBT works as follows:
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Albert Ellis and REBT posit that our reaction to having
our goals blocked (or even the possibility of having them
blocked) is determined by our beliefs. To illustrate this,
Ellis developed a simple ABC format to teach people
how their beliefs cause their emotional and behavioral
responses:
A. Something happens.
B. You have a belief about the situation.
C. You have an emotional reaction to the belief.
For example:
A. Your employer falsely accuses you of taking money
from her purse and threatens to fire you.
B. You believe, “She has no right to accuse me. She's a
bitch!”
C. You feel angry.
ALL CBT approaches share
these common assumptions:
Cognitive therapy seeks to
help the patient overcome
difficulties by identifying and
changing dysfunctional
thinking, behavior, and
emotional responses. This
involves helping patients
develop skills for modifying
beliefs, identifying distorted
thinking, relating to others in
different ways, and
changing behaviors.
GROUNDED THEORY
A research method that
reverses traditional research
and contradicts the scientific
method. Rather than beginning
by researching and developing
a hypothesis, the first step is
data collection, through a
variety of methods. From the
data collected, the key points
are marked with a series of
codes, grouped into similar
concepts in order to make
them more workable. From
these concepts, categories are
formed, which are the basis for
the creation of a theory, a kind
of reverse engineered
hypothesis!
Four Stages of Grounded Theory
Codes: Identifying anchors that allow the
key points of the data to be gathered
Concepts: Collections of codes of similar
content that allows the data to be grouped
Categories: Broad groups of similar
concepts that are used to generate a
theory
Theory: A collection of explanations that
explain the subject of the research
And QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
Fields of Qualitative
Assessment:
ETHNOGRAPHY:
Research, used for
investigating cultures
by collecting and
describing data that is
intended to help in the
development of a
theory. This method is
also called
“ethnomethodology” or
"methodology of the
people". An example of
applied ethnographic
research, is the study
of a particular culture
and understanding a
particular mental
disease in that cultural
framework.
CRITICAL SOCIAL RESEARCH:
Used by a researcher to understand
how people communicate and develop
symbolic meanings.
Ethical Inquiry
An intellectual
analysis of ethical
problems. It
includes the
study of ethics as
related to
obligation, rights,
duty, right and
wrong, and
choice.
Historical Research
Re-examines past and
present events in the
context of the present
condition, and allows
one to reflect and
provide possible
answers to current
issues and problems.
Historical research
helps us in answering
questions such as:
Where have we come
from, where are we,
who are we now and
where are we going?
Phenomenology:
Describes the “subjective reality” of an event, as
perceived by the study population; it is the study of
a the subjective reality of the participant.
And philosophical research:
Philosophical
Research, is
conducted within
the boundaries of a
specific field of
study or a
profession, in order
to clarify definitions,
identify ethics, or
make a value
judgment
concerning an issue
in the field of study.
And whatever lies beyond…?
Postmodernism has
taken the academy
beyond any place it
had been
previously—and
many would say
beyond any place it
should have gone.
Now that reality is
suspended, it will
be fascinating to
learn what’s next!
So finally, it’s time for:
BATTLE OF THE BANDS!!!!
Cast your vote at: [email protected]