side effects of aversive control

Perspectives on Emotion

• Conventional “common-sense” view

  • We see bear → become afraid → run 

• James-Lange view

  • We see bear → run → become afraid 

Both view behavior and emotion as causally dependent

Causal Relations Between Emotion and Behavior

• Need some way to measure emotion

• Strong emotional responses have physiological components (heart rate, blood pressure)

Kelly, Brady, & Plumlee (1969) purpose

Analyze relations between behavioral and physiological changes

Kelly, Brady, & Plumlee (1969) methods

Measures food-reinforced behavior (lever pressing) and physiological changes (heart rate, blood pressure) in a conditioned suppression procedure

Kelly, Brady, & Plumlee (1969) results

Behavioral and physiological changes occurred independently

• Lever pressing changed more quickly than physiological changes during conditioning, and recovered more quickly than physiological changes during extinction

Kelly, Brady, & Plumlee (1969) implications

• Behavioral and physiological responses were both related to the contingencies but not to each other

• Separate responses to the same event

Casual Relations Revisited

We see bear → we run and are afraid (behavioral approach from Skinner) 

• Casual independence of behavior and emotion

• The running and the fright are both dependent on the contingencies, but not to each other

Learned Helplessness

An animal is exposed to an inescapable and severe aversive stimulation

• When there is a punishing stimulus that you can not escape from you give up, even when there is a presentation of a chance to escape you dont take that opportunity because of your previous history.

Seligman presented an inescapable shock to dogs

No response that the dog could make would eliminate the shock, so they eventually gave up on trying to escape

• Eventually, the animal gives up and stops attempting to escape

• Even when an escape contingency is presented they never contact the contingency

Learned helplessness can be…

generalized to other behaviors

Implications for controlling behavior

When people are exposed to inescapable “shocks”, they may learn to give up and  become helpless

• Dont administer aversives noncontingently (not knowing when you will get punished)

Depression is a…

category and label

Inescapable abuse is highly associated with

depression

treatment for depression

force the organism to make the escape response

• get the person to little by little engage in behavior to contact reinforcement. Get them to have the opportunity to contact reinforcement, which will then lead them to want to engage in behavior more and then will eventually learn to do it on their own. Learn to change, but first force them to start change

Force the depressed person to…

encounter reinforcers, to succeed

• Then they may learn to do it on their own

Avoiding Depression:

Teaching people an escape response early on

• This also generalizes. Even if the behavior changes, people are more likely to learn it.

Respondent is…

reflexive — automatically

Respondent Aggression

Fighting is generated when two organisms are in the same setting and painful stimuli are administered

• Includes humans

  • Ex: yell at your partner because you have a headache

Dimensions of Respondent Aggression

• Higher frequency shock caused more fighting

• Higher intensity caused more fighting, up to a point

  • Above 2 MA, rats ran away

• Allowing escape eliminated aggression

• Smaller chamber = more aggression

Operant Aggression:

Removal of the person delivering aversive stimulation

• Hitting someone who is annoying you so that they go away

Studying Operant Aggression

• Deception

• People are told that they are hurting an unseen participant, but they are not

Aggression Breeds Aggression

• People respond to attacks with a stronger counterattack

• Verbal insults can trigger physical aggression more than task frustration

• Especially in the US

  • Dignity and honor are at stake

• Excluding people can cause physical retaliation

  • Lab analog of school violence. This can be prevented with SR+

    • Can excluding people cause retaliation?

Social Disruption

When individuals attempt to escape from or avoid the punishing person or setting

• Decreases the ability of a person to administer future reinforcers and punishers

For sidman, coercion involves

the basic contingencies of punishment and negative reinforcement

• control of behavior through aversive contingencies

“Coercion and its Fallout” is by…

Sidman

Ferster: control that uses disproportionate consequences

• “Clean your room or you don’t get food today”

• A misuse of power

• Control over environment 

• No one is benefiting

Longer-term benefits accrue to the controller

No long-term benefits to the controller; potentially, large costs

examples of a misuse of power through coercion:

• Detention for talking vs. reinforcement for reading

• Mafia

• U.S. Government

coercion is not the same as

control

control is…

everywhere

coercion is…

not everywhere

Coercion systems lead to drop-outs

• Shrinking taxes

• Quitting school

  • Moral of the story: use positive reinforcement