Textbook Chapter 13 Flashcards
chapter 13 topic
the behavioural/social learning approach
list of topics examined by behaviourist perspective
attitude change
language acquisition
psychotherapy
student-teacher interactions
problem solving
gender roles
job satisfaction
behavioural accounts of personality have gone through a slow but steady transition over the years…
EARLY behaviourists: limited descriptions to OBSERVABLE behaviours
LATER: social learning theorists expanded scope of approach to NON-OBSERVABLE concepts
^ thoughts, values, expectancies, individual perceptions
^ also recognizes people can learn through watching/hearing someone else
MORE RECENTLY: more COGNITIVE explanations of behaviour
why is line between behavioural and cognitive psychology blurring?
because recently behavioural psychologists have come to consider cognitive explanations for behaviour
“cognitive-behavioural” therapists
1913 John B Watson article
“psychology as the behaviourist views it”
article signaled the beginning of a new movement called BEHAVIOURISM
John B Watson’s arguments behind behaviourism
wanted to redefine psychology and implement behaviourism
argued that if psychology wanted to be a SCIENCE, psychologists ought to stop examining mental states
researchers who examined consciousness, mind, thoughts were not engaging in LEGITIMATE SCIENTIFIC STUDY
^ only the OBSERVABLE was reasonable subject for science
John B Watson life dates
1878-1958
John B Watson background
grew up in South Carolina
he was a FIGHTER and a BUILDER
aggressive in school, but also a master carpenter
lack of enthusiasm for contemporary standards and his uni experience
philosophy at Uni of Chicago
then switched to psychology, studied rat behaviours
joined faculty at John Hopkins Uni = began quest to put behavioural approach into place
surprisingly warmly received
elected president of the APA
suddenly divorced his wife of 17 years and married Rosalie Rayer (research assistant who he conducted the Little Albert experiments with)
scandal - forced him out of John Hopkins and into business world
pivoted to advertising
Watson’s answer for the appropriate subject matter for psychology
OVERT behaviour
that which can be observed, predicted and eventually controlled by scientists
what did Watson think shouldn’t be explored by psych?
emotions, thoughts, expectancies, values, reasoning, insight, the unconscious
unless they could be defined in the terms of observable behaviours
what did Watson consider thinking to be?
“subvocal speech”
thinking was simply a variant of verbal behaviour
at the same time that Watson was advancing behaviourism, other scientists were…
beginning to study the BASIC PROCESSES OF CONDITIONING (learning)
Watson embraced these principles as key to understanding human behaviour
these researchers focused on PREDICTING OVERT BEHAVIOURS without introducing inner mental states to explain their findings
classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov demonstrated that animals could be made to respond to stimuli in their environment
by pairing these stimuli with events that already elicited a response
operant conditioning
Edward Thorndike
found that animals were less likely to repeat behaviours that met with negative consequences than were animals given no punishment
what is personality, to Watson?
it’s the “end product of our habit systems”
over life course, we’re conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in more/less predictable ways
because each of us has unique history of experiences that shaped characteristic responses to stimuli, each adult has a different personality
Watson’s most outrageous claim
that given enough control over the environment, psychologists could mold a child into whatever kind of adult they wanted
regardless of child’s inherited abilities, intelligence or ancestry
who extended Watson’s work?
BF Skinner
BF Skinner’s brand of behaviourism
radical behaviourism
took less extreme position that Watson advocated
didn’t deny existence of thoughts and inner experiences
rather, challenged extent to which we’re able to observe inner causes of our own behaviour
BF Skinner life dates
1904-1990
BF Skinner background
born in Pennsylvania
grew up in ‘warm and stable home’ and then went to study english
wanted to be a professional writer
turned to psychology
went to Harvard to study it
eventually taught there
then wrote a novel
unwavering critic of those who introduce non-observable concepts to explain human behaviour
BF Skinner quote
“If I am right about human behaviour, an individual is only the way in which a species and a culture produce more of a species and a culture”
how did Skinner describe happiness?
as a “by-product of operant reinforcement”
^ the things that bring happiness are the ones that reinforce us”
Skinner and free will and dignity
to Skinner, it is time we moved beyond the ILLUSION of PERSONAL FREEDOM and the so-called dignity we award ourselves for our actions
we DON’T FREELY CHOOSE to do something as the result of inner moral decisions
we simply RESPOND TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEMANDS
DIGNITY and MORALITY are ILLUSIONS: because they’re under the control of external contingencies
how do traditional behaviourists explain causes of behaviour?
in terms LEARNING and EXPERIENCE aka CONDITIONING
behaviourists and genetics
don’t deny the influence of genetics
but downplay its importance relative to conditioning
classical conditioning
begins with stimulus-response (SR) association
ie. want to eat when smell chocolate
ie. become nervous when on a high object
UCS: unconditioned stimulus
- meat powder in Pavlov’s experiment (causes response without conditioning)
UCR: unconditioned response
- salivation in Pavlov
then pair the UCS with a CS (new, conditioned stimulus)
- bell in Pavlov
eventually, the CS will come to elicit the response (CR) all by itself
second-order conditioning
when you use the new SR association to condition yet another SR association
process of building one conditioned SR association on another
ie. pair green light with Pavlov’s bell tone - soon the dogs would start to salivate when the green light came on
because stimuli we experience are often inadvertently paired with other aspects of environment…
probably aren’t aware of many SR associations that influence behaviour
research suggests that food, clothing, friend preferences can be determined this way
limitations of classical conditioning
- for SR association to persist, the UCS and CS must be paired occasionally or otherwise reinforced
^ extinction
- two events presented together won’t always produce an association
^ certain stimuli are easily associable, while others prove fairly impossible
extinction
gradual disappearance of the conditioned SR association
happens when the UCS and CS fail to continue to be paired together
BF Skinner quote on happiness
“happiness is a byproduct of operant reinforcement. the things which make us happy are the things which reinforce us”
how did Thorndike examine operant conditioning?
put stray cats into “puzzle boxes”
to escape box and obtain piece of fish, hungry cats had to engage in particular actions
before long, learned what they had to do to get their reward
through the cat experiments, Thorndike formulated the…
law of effect
law of effect
behaviours are more likely to be repeated if they lead to satisfying consequences
operant conditioning begins with…
behaviours the organism emits spontaneously
if one of these behaviours if always reinforced, its frequency will increase
operant conditioning
concerns the effect certain kinds of consequences have on frequency of behaviour
REINFORCEMENT: consequence that increases the frequency of a behaviour that precedes it
PUNISHMENT: one that decreases frequency of preceding behaviour
whether a consequence is reinforcing or punishing depends on…
the PERSON and the SITUATION
ie. if you’re hungry, strawberry ice cream is prob reinforcing. but if you are cold or don’t like ice cream, it’s prob punishing
2 basic strategies for increasing the frequency of a behaviour
- positive reinforcement
- negative reinforcement
positive reinforcement
increases behaviour frequency
through presenting a reward
negative reinforcement
increases behaviour frequency
through REMOVING SMTG UNPLEASANT when behaviour occurs
ie. rats learn to turn off an electric shock by pulling a string will quickly learn to pull the string
2 basic strategies for decreasing undesired behaviours
- extinction
- punishment
extinction
strategy used to decrease behaviours
cease reinforcement and thereby allow behaviour to extinguish
punishment
strategy used to eliminate unwanted behaviours
frequency of behaviour lowers when it’s followed by an AVERSIVE STIMULUS
(like an electric shock or removal of a positive stimulus)
limits to punishment’s effectiveness
- DOESN’T TEACH appropriate behaviours (can only decrease freq of undesired ones)
- to be effective, must be delivered IMMEDIATELY and CONSISTENTLY
^ should be intense and administered each time behaviour occurs
- can have NEGATIVE SIDE EFFECTS
^ ie. child who’s punished for hitting toy against window may stop playing with toys altogether
- aversive feelings of punishment may be ASSOCIATED with PERSON DOING THE PUNISHING
- undesirable behaviours may be learned through MODELLING
^ children who are spanked may learn that aggression is okay as long as you’re bigger and stronger
- creates negative emotions like FEAR and ANXIETY
what’s the worst choice for seeking to change problem behaviours?
punishment
because of the 6 side effects
shaping can fix what problem encountered by operant conditioning?
a behaviour dan only be reinforced after it is emitted
if there are barriers to enacting a behaviour (ie. because it’s foreign/new/hard) then it can’t be reinforced
shaping
successive approximations of the desired behaviour are reinforced
ie. instead of jumping straight into getting a patient to participate in art therapy everyday… reward them first for getting out of bed on time, and then for sitting with other patients, and then for entering the art therapy room… and so on
shaping is particularly useful when teaching…
complex behaviours
ie. like reading - start first by reinforcing learning letters, then words, then sentences
stimulus generalization
helps explain why personality characteristics generalize across situations
when a response is generalized from the original stimulus to new stimuli
means that not every situation requires learning a new response
discriminate
happens if responses to certain types of stimuli are not reward
ie. pigeon is rewarded for picking at red stimuli, but not for orange ones
ie. polite child will learn to discriminate between people who are friendly and people who aren’t
ie. a tennis player will learn to make fine discriminations between those actions that lead to reinforcement (ie. winning a shot)
what happened regarding traditional behaviourism in the 1950s/1960s?
enthusiasm began to wane
psychologists question assertion that all human learning is result of classical or operant conditioning
idea that behaviourism was too limited in the scope of its subject matter
thus began the transition to SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
quote on questioning traditional behaviourism that began in the 1950s/60s
“the prospects for survival would be slim indeed if one could learn only from the consequences of trial and error”
“one does not teach children to swim, adolescents to drive automobiles, and novice medical students to perform surgery by having them discover the requisite behaviour from the consequences of their successes and failures”
question asked about internal behaviours by those who wanted to extend behaviourism
why couldn’t internal events like thoughts and attitudes be conditioned the same way as overt behaviours?
one key concept introduced by social learning theorists
notion of BEHAVIOUR-ENVIRONMENT-BEHAVIOUR INTERACTIONS
behaviour-environment-behaviour interactions
not only does the environment influence our behaviour
but that behaviour then determines the kind of environment we find ourselves in
which can then influence behaviour
ie. the way people treat you (environment) is often result of how you act (behaviour) and how you act is partly result of how people treat you (environment)
social learning theorists point out that people often provide…
their own reinforcers
it’s rewarding to live up to your internal standards/to reach a personal goal even if no one else knows about it