Chapter 10: John Dollard & Neal Miller Flashcards
Collaborative Goal
To combine Freudian insights with the rigors of the scientific method (such as the work of learning theorists) to better understand human behavior in a cultural setting.
They believed most human behavior is learned which is why they emphasized learning theorists
Their work can be seen as representing the transition rom the radical behaviorism of Watson and Skinner to contemporary cognitive psychology
Hull’s Theory of Learning
Reinforcement: “for a stimulus to be a reinforcer, it must reduce a drive
***Hull’s theory is called: Drive Reduction Theory of Learning also called S-R THeory of Learning (Stimulus-Response)
Reinforcer: a stimulus capable of reducing a drive (the actual drive reduction is the reinforcement)
*Habit: an association between a stimulus and a response. Habits describe relationships btwn stimulus and response
Four concepts that Dollard and Miller borrowed from Hull’s Theory of learning:
Drive
Cue
Response
Reinforcement
1- any strong stimulus that compels and organism to action and whose removal or reduction is reinforcing. May be internal (such as hunger or thirst) or external (such as a loud noise or intense heat or cold). The motivational concept in D & M’s theory, the energizer of personality
2- a stimulus that indicates the appropriate action to be taken. Guides the behavior. ie: 5pm whistle cues when to stop work
3- the action(s) elicited by the drive and cues present. They are aimed at reducing or eliminating the drive. Ie: the hungry (drive) person who sees the restaurant sign (cue) goes into the restaurant (response) to reduce the hunger drive
4- any stimulus that causes drive reduction. Can be primary (satisfies survival need) or secondary (neutral stimulus paired with primary reinforcer)
Learning:
Learning Theory:
Reinforcement Theory:
Definition: The rearrangement of response probabilities as new conditions emerge or as old conditions change
Definition: The study of circumstances under which a response and a cue stimulus becomes connected. After learning has been completed, response and cue are bound together in such a way that he appearance of the cue evokes the response
Defintion: in order to learn one must want something, notice something, do something, and get something
Hull’s Habit Family Hierarchy
Every cue elicits several responses simultaneously that vary in terms of their probability of occurrence. The one responses hat is most likely to occur at any given time is called the dominant response.
Before a learning experience occurs the arrangement of responses elicited by a cue is called the initial hierarchy or responses. After learning occurs, the revised arrangement of responses is called the resultant hierarchy of responses
Innate hierarchy of responses: the innate set of responses that newborns have when they encounter a drive (these are not learned bc the infant is new to the world). They exist only for a short while until the infant learns new responses
The Learning Dilemma
All learning (which we can now equate with the rearrangement of response hierarchies) depends on failure—the failure of the initial dominant response to reduce a drive that is introduced
The Gradient of Reinforcement
Most learning involves a sequence of responses only the last of which is reinforced. IN such a sequence, the last response made will be strengthened the most, then the second to last, and so on.
Explains why activity quickens as a positive goal is approached. Ex hungry man on his way home for dinner has a tendency to quicken his pace as he rounds the last corner on his way home.
Primary & Secondary Drives
Fear as a secondary drive
Primary drives are biologically determined and secondary drives are learned or culturally determined.
One of the most important secondary drives is fear. It is important to both adaptive (fear) and maladaptive (anxiety) behavior
Fear itself can become a drive that can be reduced, resulting in reinforcement. Highly resistant to extinction because as long as fear is present, its reduction will be reinforcing
***The main job of psychotherapy (according to Dollard & Miller) is to provide a situation in which the client is encouraged to experience threatening thoughts without punishment and, in that way, to finally extinguish them. Freud’s dream analysis and free association attempted to support this extinguishing of fear
Stimulus Generalization
Discrimination
If there’s an association between S1 and R1, not only will S1 elicit R1 but so will other stimuli that are similar to S1. The more similar a stimulus is to S1, the more likely it will be to elicit R1
All learned responses generalize to other stimuli
Discrimination is the opposite of Stimulus Generalization. Ie children learn to be afraid of all snakes because of being bitten by a rat snake. But as time goes on the child learns that some snakes are to be feared but ropes are safe even though they might look like a snake. Further experience allows a person to discriminate and thus response selectively to a stimuli
Primary Generalization
Secondary Generalization
Based on the physical similarity among stimuli
Based on verbal labels, no the physical similarity
Conflict
Miller’s four types of conflict
One of Freud’s concepts that Miller studied intensively. Freud talked about the continuous conflict between libidinal desires and the demands of the ego and superego. To Freud, a person can be both attracted to an object and repelled by it at the same time. This was later called an approach-avoidance conflict and is one of the four types of conflict studied by Miller
Approach-Approach Conflict
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Double Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Approach-Approach Conflict
Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict
Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Double Approach-Avoidance Conflict
Conflict between two positive goals that are equally attractive at the same time (ex: you’re both hungry & sleepy). Easily solved by attaining the first goal and then the other
Conflict of choosing between two negative goals. Ex: must do your hw or get low grades. This type of conflict usually results in 1 of 2 types of behavior: vaccination/indecision or Escape
Conflict in which person is both attracted to and repelled by the same goal. Ex: job generates good money but is very boring
Conflict where person has ambivalent feelings about two goal objects. Ex: in Freudian theory the female child is attracted to her mother bc the mother satisfies her biological needs but is repelled by the mother bc she is though responsible for denying the girl a penis. Attracted to father bc he has the anatomy that she wants but also repelled bc envious of penis. She has ambivalent feelings towards both parents.
Displacement
A Freudian concept- frustrated drives do not simply go away but rather surface in disguised form (satisfied indirectly).
Miller verified experimentally that displacement actually happens using two rats in an apparatus that shocked them until they started fighting at which point the shock was turned off. The aggressive act of fighting was reinforced by escape from shock. When only rat was placed in the apparatus with a doll and no other rat, it displaced its learned aggression to the doll to avoid the shock.
1- when it is impossible for organism to respond to desired similes, it will respond to a stimulus that is most similar (if woman is prevented from marrying man she loved bc he dies, she will tend to marry someone similar to him in the future)
2- if response to original stimulus is prevented by conflict, displacement will occur to an intermediate stimulus (if a girl leaves her bf after a quarrel, her next bf will tend to be similar in many ways and yet different in some ways)
3- if there are strong avoidance tendencies to an original stimulus, displacement will tend to occur toward a dissimilar stimulus (if girl’s original romance was very negative, her next bf will ten to be very different from the first)
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
Dollard & Miller published their first book together, Frustration & Aggression, in which they analyzed Freud’s theory that frustration leads to aggression. Frustration’s operant definition was “that condition which exists when a goal-response suffers interference.” Aggression’s operant definition was “an act whose goal-response is injury to an organism or organism surrogate”
Three main factors that determine how much aggression will result from frustration
1- Drive level associated with the frustrated response: the more intensely the person wants to attain a goal, the more frustrated they will be when goal-directed activity is blocked, and thus the more aggressive they will become
2- completeness of the frustration: goal responses that are only partially blocked will lead to less frustration & therefore less aggression than goal responses that are completely blocked
3- Cumulative effect of minor frustrations: minor frustrations/interferences will eventually add up to produce considerable frustration and therefore considerable aggression.
**The strength of aggression is a function of the magnitude of frustration
***through the years, it has been proven that aggression is only one result of frustration. Other reactions to frustrations can include: withdrawal, apathy, depression, regression, sublimation, creative problem solving, and fixation
