Personality Theory: Skinner

How did Behaviorists models come about

Based on laboratory studies of human and non-human animals

Early behaviorists

E.L. Thorndike

J.B. Watson

Who was the most influential of later theorists

B.F. Skinner

What did Skinner concentrate almost exclusively on

Observable behavior

What did Skinner reject the notion of

Free will

What did Skinner emphasize instead of Free Will

The primacy of environmental influences on behavior

What was the behavioral philosophy of science

Psychologists should be concerned with determining the conditions under which human behavior occurs

Looking at the environment and how it makes a person behave in that way

By discovering environmental conditions psychologists can

Predict and control human behavior

What did Skinner believe about personaltiy

Believed that the study of personality involves a systematic examination of the personal learning history and unique genetic background of the individual

What did Skinner's belief about personality involve in order to examine these personal learning histories

Involves the discovery of the unique set of relationships between the behavior of the organism and its reinforcing or punishing consequences

Did Skinner believe in free will

No

Operant Conditioning

Establishment of the linkage or association between a behavior and its consequences

Through operant condition what happens to the occurrence of a behavior

It is made more or less probable

Contingency

Relationship between a behavior and its consequences

What are the three parts of a contingency

1. The events that precede the behavior

2. The behavior itself

3. The consequences that follow the behavior

Discrimination

Responding differently in the presence of different situational events

Stimulus control

Process in which a person's response is determined by a particular stimuli

Prompts

Antecedent stimuli that help initiate behavior

Discriminative Stimulus

The presence of a discriminative stimulus signals an individual to respond because he or she has learned previously that its presence leads to reinforcing consequences

Seven Components of Operant conditioning

1 Stimulus generalization

2. Positive reinforcement

3. Negative reinforcement

4. Positive punishment

5. Negative punishment

6. Extinction

7. Shaping

Stimulus generalization

Responses made in the presence of a particular stimulus come to be made in the presence of other, similar stimuli

Positive reinforcement

Presentation of a positive reinforcer following a response, with the result that the rate of that response increases

Negative Reinforcement

Removal of an aversive stimulus following a response, with the result that the rate of that response increases

Positive Punishment

Presentation of an aversive stimulus following a response, with the result that the rate of that response decreases

Negative Punishment

Removal of a positive reinforcer following a response, with the result that the rate of that response decreases

Extinction

Reduction in behavior that occurs as a result of the failure to reinforce previously reinforced behavior

Shaping

Teaching a new behavior by reinforcing responses that successively approximate it

Four types of Schedules for Reinforcement

1. Continuous Reinforcement

2. Intermittent Reinforcement

3. Fixed Ratio

4. Fixed Interval

Continuous Reinforcement

Schedule of reinforcement in which each response is followed by a reinforcer

Intermittent reinforcement

Schedule of reinforcement in which responses produce reinforcers only occasionally

Why is it harder to extinguish intermittent reinforcement

Because they think that there is always a possibility of getting rewarded on the next response

Fixed-ratio

Fixed number of responses is required before a reinforcer is applied

Fixed interval

The first resposne that occurs after a fixed amount of time has elapsed is reinforced

Self-control processes

Actions instgated by a person to alter the conditions that influence his or her behavior

Seven types of self-control processes

1. Physical restraints

2. Physical aids

3. Changing the stimulus conditions

4. Manipulating emotional conditions

5. Performing alternative responses

6. Positive self-reinforcement

7. Self-punishment

Examples of physical restraints

Putting your hand over our mouth to try to not be too loud

Walking away from a fight

Examples of physical aids

Drinking coffee to stay awake

Wearing glasses to help vision

Examples of Changing the stimulus conditions

Overweight people put a box of candy out of sight so that they can restrain themselves

Examples of manipulating the emotional conditions

Medication

Putting music on to cheer yourself up

Examples of Performing alternative responses

Overweight person can eat what they want but compensate with over exercising

Bulimia

Examples of positive self-reinforcement

Rewarding yourself

Examples of Self-punishment

Cutting themselves (not to relieve tension but to punish)

What type of theory did Skinner prefer

Skinner preferred a theory where people survive by learning which contingencies lead to reinforcement and which ones lead to punishment

Repertoire

Unique set of acquired behavior patterns

A repertoire can be _______ or _______

Healthy or abnormal

Studies have shown that which works better reinforcement or punishment

Reinforcement

Skinner was primarily interested in what when it came to assessment of personality

Experimental analysis of behavior

What was the purpose of Skinner's assessment techniques

To identify those environmental variables that control the the emission of behavior, namely, situational factors and reinforcement schedules

Skinner was not a...

Psychotherapist

What did Skinner say about psychotherapy

Criticized psychotherapy as being one of the major obstacles to a scientific study of human behavior

How have other therapists used behaviorists ideals

Using operant condition principles to shape behavior in a therapeutic setting

What is a behavior therapists role in the treatment process

An active role

What do behavior therapists use in therapy

Use behavior modification techniques and pointing out the positive consequences of some behaviors and the aversive effects of others

Behavior modification

A series of procedures that seek to change behavior through reliance on reinforcement principles or, less often, by reliance on punishment principles

9 Types of behavior modification

1. Discrimination training

2. Time out from reinforcement

3. Response-cost

4. Self -management procedures

5. Habit reversal

6. Token economy

7. Aversive techniques

8. Shaping

9. Differential Reinforcement of other behavior

Discrimination training

Procedure in which the person learns to confine certain behaviors to certain situations and to refrain from performing the behavior in other situations

Example of discrimination training

1. Want a person to only eat in the dining room

2. Confine the eating behavior to the kitchen table

3. Refrain from performing eating behavior in other situations such as while watching TV, talking on the phone, and lying on the bed reading

Time out from reinforcement

Punishment procedure in which, contingent on undesirable behavior, access to positive reinforcers are with drawn for a brief period

Response-cost

Loss of positive reinforcer after performing an undesirable behvior

Self-management procedures

Institutional members learn to manage or control their own behavior

Habit Reversal

Making a response that is incompatible with an undesirable behavior

Token Economy

Patients earn tokens for performing behaviors that are necessary if they are to live effectively

Aversive Techniques

Punishment is used to stop an undesirable behavior

Shaping

Teaching a desirable behavior by reinforcing responses that successively approximate it

Differential reinforcement of other behavior

Schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is delivered at the end of a time interval during which no instances of unacceptable behavior occured

Example of discrimination training

Many obese individuals report their eating occurs in a wide variety of situations and at many different times of the day

Thus one technique would be to confine the eating behavior to one place such as the dining room with a distinctively colored place mat and napkin

Example of time out from reinforcement

When a child hits another individual during recess that child is sat out and cannot participate int he reinforcement of play time

Example of Response-cost

Children get points for on task behavior but get points taken away from being off task

Example of differential reinforcement of other behavior

Only reinforcing a child that has not disrupted the class for a specific time period

Essentially reinforcing all other behaviors besides interrupting the class

Example of Self-management procedures

Disruptive children are taught the rules of how to act properly in the class room so that they kept an accurate record of the amount of points they got for desirable behaviors by themselves

Example of Habit reversal

Making a child who whines about being in the back of the line every day before recess be the line leader

Example of token economy

Provide autistic children with a system of receiving stickers for every time they performed the desirable behaviors

Once the child gets six stickers they can receive a prize from the prize box

Aversive techniques

providing an electric shock every time a person exhibits an undesirable behavior

Examples of Shaping

1. A severely distribed and withdrawn child who the teachers wanted to shape her loudness of her voice

2. Wear a microphone until her voice reached a certain volume then she would receive a token

3. Once she was able to speak at a normal level in the lab the experimenters created a setting that resembled her classroom to generalize the behavior of talking loudly to her classroom

4. Then she actually returned to her classroom to perform her acceptable speech in the actual classroom