Behaviorism - B.F. Skinner

The “rules” of Behaviorism

• The explanation of observable behavior is the most important aspect of psychology

• Psychology should be reductionistic, less “complex”

• The most basic explanation of behavior is through the environment

• Learning is the most important process to people

• Learn via experimentation

Overall disagreement with Personality Psychology

• Personality Psychology

  • Personality is . . .

    • General

    • Enduring

    • Largely functional

• Behaviorism

  • Personality is . . .

    • Specific (as settings change)

    • Temporary (again, as settings change arbitrarily)

    • Largely functional

How do we learn?

• Classical Conditioning

  • US —> UR

  • CS, US —> UR

  • CS —> CR

• Often used to explain emotional reactions, like fear

  • Mugged in a dark alley —> fear dark alley

  • Lots of alleys without mugging —> “extinction”

• Instrumental (Operant) Conditioning

  • The pragmatic side of behaviorism: Do what elicits a positive reaction (Law of Effect: people learn due to their effect on their environment)

• Types of Reinforcements

  • Positive Reinforcement: Increases frequency of behavior

  • Negative Reinforcement: Increases frequency of behavior by taking away negative stimulus

• Punishment: Decreases unwanted behavior

Table

Types of Reinforcers

• Primary Reinforcement

  • Innate reinforcers, like food

  • Or having pain (e.g., shock) taken away

• Secondary Reinforcement

  • Rewards that are learned to be valued, like money

Please note . . .

• In classical conditioning, the environment elicits a response

• In instrumental learning, the person acts and the environmental reaction follows . . .

  • Pleasure is a reinforcer

  • Pain is punishment

If behaviors must precede reinforcement, how do we learn/teach new things???

• Shaping: The use of successive approximations (teaching a dog to roll over)

• Generalization: Take learning from one environment and bring it to other similar environments (bringing a pen to class)

• Discrimination: Doing a behavior in certain circumstances

  • Do you drive differently when police are present?

• Superstitious Behavior:

  • Learning from random reinforcement may impact personality

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement

  • Fastest learning

  • Quickest extinction

• Partial Reinforcement – slower learning but more resistant to extinction

  • Fixed Ratio

  • Variable Ratio – the most resistant to extinction

  • Fixed Interval

  • Variable Interval

Prepared Learning

• Some things are easier to learn than others, perhaps due to phylogenetic reasons

• Evidence:

  • Taste aversion rather than other senses

  • Fear of spiders/snakes quickly learned

    • not electrical outlet or doors!

Therapy

• Behavior Modification

  • An approach that systematically applies learning principles to change behavior

Behavior Modification

• Functional Analysis

  • The stimuli and reinforcers which influence behavior are carefully identified

• Intervention

  • Control the situation

  • Desirable behavior will increase with added reinforcement (catch them being good!)

  • Undesirable behavior

    • Withhold reinforcement

    • Add punishment, if necessary

• Token Economies

• Learning Modules