Behaviourist Perspectives PDF

PS338 Behaviourist Perspectives Dr Jenny Groarke Qwickly: 4290 University ofGalway.ie Behaviourism li t y ? o na Pe rs I’ve been in this box for weeks mate!...

PS338 Behaviourist Perspectives Dr Jenny Groarke Qwickly: 4290 University ofGalway.ie Behaviourism li t y ? o na Pe rs I’ve been in this box for weeks mate! University ofGalway.ie Learning-Based Approaches Two simple ideas 1. Stimuli that occur close together in time will come to elicit the same response. 2. Behaviors followed by pleasant outcomes tend to be repeated; behaviors followed by unpleasant outcomes tend to be dropped. University ofGalway.ie Learning-Based Approaches Learning = change in behaviour due to experience Explain personality in terms of the learning process Implies everyone should behave the same in the same environment or situation University ofGalway.ie What is Personality? “It is a dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person’s characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and feelings” (Allport, 1961, p.11) Causal force Unique/Individual Behaviour consistent across time and situations University ofGalway.ie Theories of Personality Psychodynamic (Freud, Adler, Erikson) Set of internal forces that compete and conflict Humanistic (Rogers, Maslow, Kelly) Potential to grow & develop (if conditions met) Trait (Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, The Big 5) People have stable traits (embedded within a person) University ofGalway.ie Science of Psychology Goals of a Science Investigation and Description Understanding and Prediction Influence and Control University ofGalway.ie Pragmatic/Scientific Model of Personality A working model of behaviour Parsimonious (simple) Examines only the observables *Does not deny the existence of internal states But, what is the utility of using such explanations when not required in prediction & control of behaviour? University ofGalway.ie Example of an Ordinary Sequence of Events: Context Behaviour Internal processes Outcome (environment at the (thought, feeling, time of behaviour) action) Attitude Motivation Self esteem Personality/ traits or drives or whatever Interpretation: Happiness, eating, University social guy, ofGalway.ie outgoing, etc Example of an Ordinary Sequence of Events: Context Behaviour Internal processes Outcome (environment at the (thought, feeling, time of behaviour) action) Attitude It’s pretty wet outside so more Motivation than likely you’ll Self esteem be eating on your own Personality/ traits or drives or whatever Example of an Ordinary Sequence of Events: Context Behaviour Internal processes Outcome (environment at the (thought, feeling, time of behaviour) action) Attitude Motivation Self esteem Personality/ traits or drives or whatever Interpretation Happiness, eating, social guy, outgoing, etc Example of an Ordinary Sequence of Events: BUT WITHOUT Using Internal Events to Explain Behaviour Context Behaviour (environment at the Internal processes Outcome time of behaviour) (thought, feeling, action) Attitude Motivation Self esteem Personality/ traits or drives or whatever Ordinary Sequence of Events Does Not Change: Context Behaviour (environment at the (thought, feeling, Outcome time of behaviour) action) We don’t infer anything!! Or appeal to internal processes - our DV is the rate of response Sequence of Events: The Behavioural Focus on a Theory of Parsimony Context Behaviour (environment at the (thought, feeling, Outcome time of behaviour) action) Let’s Interpret the Data! DV is the rate of response In this case, rate of responding was high: Three contexts/occasions – Three responses Identifying patterns of reliable and consistent responding Conclusions: Not going beyond the data... When it is sunny: Eat outside in social situation When it rains: Eat inside in social situation Reinforcement - what is maintaining the behaviour? - cooking for and eating with people (social reinforcement) General Interpretation: Pattern of behaviour suggests a social person No drive, no trait Behavioural Theory Watson Skinner Thorndike Millar and Dollard John B. Watson “Why don’t we make what we can observe the real field of psychology? Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed, and formulate laws concerning only those things. Now what can we observe? We can observe behaviour-what the organism says or does… “(Watson, 1924/ 1930, p. 6) John B. Watson (1878-1958) “Father of Behaviorism” Nature versus nurture Role of experience in shaping personality Little Albert "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 beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years." –John B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1930  Radical Behaviourism Reaction to Freudian and humanistic (descriptive) arguments of conscious and unconscious minds controlling behaviour Reaction to trend of introspection at the time DV = self report Inspired by Pavlov’s work  Behaviourism The science of behaviour Behaviour is a process in its own right, and has its own causes. – These causes are in our environment The science of behaviour analysis studies how to arrange our environments so they make more likely the behaviours we want to be probable and less likely the behaviours we do not want to be probable – science of behaviour change Behaviorism People should be studied from the outside. Personality is the sum of everything a person does. Belief that the causes of behavior can be directly observed Goal: functional analysis Everything a person does and is, is learned through experience. University ofGalway.ie  Behaviourism Goal: To discover the laws or statements that describe functional behaviour-environment relations Environment: “the conglomerate of real circumstances in which the organism or referenced part of the organism exists” (Johnstons & Pennepacker, 1980, p. 53) – Stimulus: specific aspects of environment that can be differentiated from each other i.e., any condition, event or change in the physical world. Response: Specific instance of behaviour Specifically, Watson examined S>R psychology Stimulus-response (S-R) conception of personality Behaviorism: Classical Conditioning How classical conditioning works Pavlov’s dog Learning that one stimulus is a warning or signal for another Learned helplessness Events seem to happen randomly. Produces anxiety and depression University ofGalway.ie Classical Conditioning University ofGalway.ie Classical Conditioning (S-R Psychology) Modification of involuntary behaviour Elicited behaviour Dependent variable is the magnitude of the response Honourable mention: Habituation! Behaviorism: Habituation Simplest form of behavior change as a result of experience It can have important consequences. Become numb to violence displayed in the media The impact of major life events lessens over time. Affective forecasting University ofGalway.ie Classical Conditioning Abbreviations: UCS: unconditioned stimulus e.g., food UCR: unconditioned response e.g., drooling NS: neutral stimulus e.g., bell CS: conditioned stimulus e.g., bell after conditioning CR: conditioned response e.g., drooling (in response to bell after conditioning) Classical Conditioning and the Conditioned Emotional Response Little Albert UCS UCR FEAR NS No response Classical Conditioning and the Conditioned Emotional Response Little Albert UCS UCR FEAR Stimulus generalisation CR CS FEAR NS No response Behaviourism: Basic Assumptions Continuity Hypothesis Early attachment/development link to later relationships, personality and behaviour Reductionism Behaviour is biochemistry – complex phenomena examined/described through fundamental parts Empiricism Psychology is a natural science so deal with observables (behaviour) Mental events and nonmaterial events [consciousness] are not amenable to testing Determinism Every behaviour is caused- causes are in environment that precede behaviour (mental events do not cause behaviour) Behaviour is not random (or free) All behaviour has a function Recap Theories of Personality Science of Psychology and the scientific model of personality The Behaviourist Take on Ordinary Events in Contrast to Other Approaches Observable outcomes/less focus on “inner processes” History of Behaviourism Watson, Classical Conditioning (S>R) Today Skinner, Thorndike Classical Conditioning (S>R) Operant Conditioning (R>S) Consequences of Behaviour RFT Moving from elicited to emitted behaviour E. L. Thorndike (1874-1949) The Law of Effect Annoyers and satisfiers Trial and error learning Consequences important in learning! Moving from elicited to emitted behaviour Towards a Science of Behaviour cont. Conclusions from Thorndikes’ work: Learning is incremental, not insightful Learning is not mediated by ideas All mammals learn in the same manner B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) “A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying” “Give me a child and I will shape him into anything” “The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount”  Writing Skinner Box Overt and covert behaviour Empirical investigations and demonstrations of the principles of behaviour Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning Classical Conditioning Respondent behaviour Stimulus – Response Generally focuses on reflexive/automatic behaviours Operant Conditioning Instrumental or operant conditioning Behaviour – Consequence Broad range of behaviours – strengthening and weakening responding Defining feature of operant response = behaviour that increases or decreases as a result of the consequences that follow it  Techniques of operant conditioning: Skinner Respondent vs. operant conditioning Reinforcement Punishment Shaping People are not always aware of the causes of their behavior. University ofGalway.ie B. F. Skinner https://www.youtube.c om/watch?v=vGazyH6f QQ4 Two types of consequences Reinforcement Punishment “The effects of rewards are more predictable than the effects of punishments in shaping behaviour”  Reinforcement Reinforcement: When a stimulus change immediately follows a response and increases the future frequency of that type of behaviour Good job!! Punishment Punishment: When a stimulus change immediately follows a response and decreases the future frequency of that type of behaviour Put down the lighter! You’re grounded Consequences: Reinforcement and Punishment Positive is the addition of a stimulus Negative is the removal of a stimulus Operant Conditioning Schedules of reinforcement Continuous and Intermittent Fixed Interval Ratio Variable Interval Ratio Extinction It gets a little more complicated... So far we’ve discussed: We can manipulate Antecedents Behaviour Consequence The Three Term (ABC) contingency ABC of Behaviour DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULUS (S+) RESPONSE CONSEQUENCE Not all behaviour is directly learned Generalisation: Emitted behaviour can occur in the absence of direct reinforcement Learned Not learned Not all behaviour is directly learned Discrimination: Learned In this situation, different Not learned response…hopefully you do not run away! Shaping Behaviour and Our Personality Differential reinforcement of successive approximations Differential reinforcement involves manipulating reinforcement for responses in order to: 1. Increase target skills or behaviour 2. Decrease maladaptive behaviour Shaping Behaviour and Our Personality Differential reinforcement can refer to reinforcing those responses within a response class that meet a specific criterion along some dimension For example: Toilet training Table manners Studious child Fear of failure Kindness Limitations of Radical Behaviour Complex cognitive behaviour Verbal behaviour criticisms Functional definitions of verbal stimuli and behaviour Definitions too broad Rule Governed Behaviour? RFT Human language Building a frame, reinforcing it, and relating it to the world What is Behaviourism? What do we do? * Do we stay inside? Careful vs careless Conclusions... Other Theories of Personality People who stay inside every day – fearful, anxious People who go outside with a mask on – dutiful, obedient, altruistic People who go outside to house parties – careless, risk taking, selfish  Conclusions... Behaviourist Perspective 1.The people who go out to house parties. What stimulus did they respond to? 2. Did people ‘learn’ to stay inside? Pairing – Enough of a learning history? Do they know anyone who got covid? Consequences – in your learning history, what are the consequences of going out with covid around vs. consequences of staying inside? Personality: As a Modern Day Behaviourist Views It Contingencies shape behaviour-Our behaviour is under stimulus control Your personality is a reflection of the operating contingencies at any given time (Product of the environment) A child who is empathetic or extroverted is not displaying the behaviours reflective of inner process, such as a psyche or unfolding predisposition, rather they have learned to behave that way (they have been reinforced for doing so, i.e., it works for them). If this behaviour did not work for them it would cease. Personality: As a Modern Day Behaviourist Views It Personality is the stable patterns of behaviour across time and context The richness, complexity, and diversity of mental life is not denied In fact it is explained via contingencies It is just not used in explanation of behaviour because we cannot manipulate it