Lecture 2: Freud & Skinner

Freud, psychoanalysis, behaviourism, Skinner, Piaget

Primal scene (freud)

fundamental moment when kid first sees parents having sex

drawback:

Id

present at birth

subconscious, instinctual

pleasure principle (immediate gratification)

failure of world to meet wants instantly results in development of ego

stupid

Ego

“you”

conscious

reality principle

understand reality, can recognize & suppress desires

smarter: understands reality & logic

connection between id and superego

Superego

developed later in life

some unconscious, some conscious

moral ideas (developed from society’s moral standards)

can also be stupid: guilt & shame

Fixation

something went wrong at psychosexual stage and now cant move on (seek pleasure relating to it)

Oral stage

birth - 1yr

mouth is pleasure

improper breastfeeding/weaning = fixation

fixation: smoking, gum, eating, eat world, grasping, etc.

Anal stage

1-3yrs

anus = pleasure

improper toilet training = fixation

fixation: impulsive behaviours, stingy, cant let go, anal (need control)

Phallic stage

3-5yrs

genitals = pleasure

Oedipus/Electra complex

fixation: hypermasculinity/homosexuality (men), need for attention/domination (female)

Oedipus complex

love mom, dads in way, kill dad, castration, so form bond with dad, dont think of sex now

Electra complex

penis envy

want to create son with missing penis

Latency stage

5yr - puberty

sexuality is repressed

child aligns with same-sex parent, focus on hobbies, school and friendships

Genital stage

puberty onwards

sexual feelings reemerge

healthy adults find pleasure in work and love

Dreams: __ still has desires, but ________ represses them. Material makes it out in dreams

id, superego

Latent dream

dream that really happened

Manifest dream

dream you remember

Defense mechanisms

mental processes to reduce anxiety, keep secrets under lock & key

Sublimation

taking unacceptable desires and directing them to valuable activities (I.e. strong sex desires may invest energy into work/school instead)

Displacement

redirect shameful thoughts to more appropriate targets (I.e. boy hates father so refocus aggression to bully kids)

Rationalization

unacceptable desires and reconstruing/rationalizing them in a more acceptable way (I.e. father who hits kids bc say its for their own good)

Projection

taking one's own shameful thoughts and attributing them to others (I.e. woman might like other woman, but superego says its bad so she may believe other women like her instead)

Regression

retreat to younger behaviour (act like a 5 yo, forget how to do things)

Reaction formation

replace shameful thoughts/fantasies with opposites (I.e. couples in an argument, but end up hugging; apparent dislike masking their true attraction)

Transferance

project feelings and desires from oneself to others (patient sees therapist as father figure)

Countertransferance

opposite of transferance = bad (therapist sees patient as sexual partner)

Hysteria & its treatment (Freud)

Hysteria keeps emotionally charged/painful memories under lock & key, when come to terms with them = catharsis

2 reasons to reject a theory

1. Wrongness (soups vs sparks, one is actually right)
2. Vagueness (fall out of science, ex horoscopes)

Falsifiable (Popper)

ability/capacity for theory to be proven wrong

Freud uses defense mechanisms to justify everything

* Although Freud’s theories themselves are unfalsifiable, we can derive falsifiable hypotheses (I.e. effect if raised by 2 or 1 parent, same-sex or heterosexual parents)

Stephens-Davidowitz: computational analysis to explore Freud claims

dream imagery and Freudian slips examined and found no real evidence for Freud’s theories

Believed reason for forgetfulness/ absentmindedness

disregard for others

Freud revolutionized thinking about ____ desire and minority __(________) desires

female, fetishes

Deception (Alfred Hitchcock principle)

best way to deceive is self deception

Behaviourism (3 claims

all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment


1. centrality of learning
2. antimentalism
3. no interesting differences between species

Centrality of learning

(Watson) all (wo)men are created equal, regardless of race, gender, etc. everyone capable of learning

Antimentalism

against ideas of Descartes

thinking self is active

dont make choices/ get reminded of past memories/ cognition

No interesting differences between species

many human mental capacities are seen in other animals

3 principles of behaviourism

1. Habituation
2. Classical conditioning
3. Instrumental/operant conditioning

Habituation

get used to stimuli from repeated exposure

* adaptive mechanism to get us to focus on new/foreign stimuli

Classical conditioning

Pavlov, dogs with saliva

involuntary/passive

learning of association between one stimulus and another

Stage 1 (CC)

before anything

animal starts with unconditioned response to unconditioned stimulus

ie mouth waters (UR) when given food (US)

Stage 2 (CC)

conditioning

add neutral stimulus (wont evoke response) with unconditioned stimulus

develop association over time

ie bell (NS) rang and food given (US) so mouth waters (UR)

Stage 3 (CC)

after conditioning

neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus, which gives rise to conditioned response

ie bell (CS) makes dog’s mouth water (CR) without food present

Reinforced vs unreinforced

Reinforced: consistent association = lasting conditioning

Unreinforced: inconsistent association = diminishing (CS without US)

Need generalization of experiences because …..

no experience is universal, slightly different bell may not give response, so need to broaden CS’s

Instrumental/operant conditioning

voluntary/active

learning relationship between actions and rewards/punishments

ex thorndike’s cat box

Law of effect (thorndike)

tendency of action is increased when rewarded, but decreased when no reward or punishment

Shaping

give reward when action performed is a close approximation to desired result (as get closer, reward more)

ex dog training

Positive reinforcement

give something desirable (ie reward)

Negative reinforcement

take away something aversive (ie weight off back)

***negative reinforcement can be GOOD***

Punishment

pain (ie crack whip)

Partial reinforcement effect (& 2 types)

schedules of reinforcement are needed to make conditioning stick (dont reward each time)


1. Fixed vs Variable
2. Ratio vs Interval

Fixed ratio reinforcement

reward after every nth response

Variable ratio reinforcement

reward once in every n responses

Fixed interval reinforcement

reward every y time intervals (secs, mins, hrs)

Variable interval reinforcement

reward once in every y time intervals (secs, mins, hrs)

Scientific assessment of Skinner (3)

Against: can have unlearned knowledge, animals dont need reward/punishment to learn, primates can think out things in head

Chomsky opinion on Skinner

Behaviourist notions: either too vague, flat wrong or uninteresting

Skinner says all reinforcement

Chomsky says false or vague, do things bc want to

Phobias (why inconsistent with CC)

many arent from classical conditioning, but evolutionary psychology

inconsistent with classical conditioning bc CC needs multiple trials, phobias usually from one or no exposure

Systematic desensitization

expose people to fear and teach to stay calm, but doesnt always work

Selection by consequences (Skinner)

reinforced random behaviour, until reaches some optimal end

Reinforcement object doesn’t have to be _____. can combine operant and classical to have something stand in place for reward

natural

ex. dogs receive pat on head and treat, now associate pat on head with same pleasure as treat

(Brelland) animals cant learn same way. why?

evolutionary behaviour: raccoons better at rubbing hands than dropping coins into box

Garcia taste-aversion

* rats exposed to water w distinct taste/smell then given toxin to make sick afterwards
* rats came to avoid that water
* no aversion developed if there was a light or sound when drank water

Why Garcia taste aversion is inconsistent with classical conditioning (2)

1. Rats avoided water after only 1 trial, but CC says multiple trials needed to develop behaviour
2. Only developed aversion to the food, but CC says stimulus doesnt matter

(Tolman) rats make mental maps

learning without reward at same rate

Place cells = activated based on exact location, which makes sense evolutionarily

Why CC or OC doesnt encapsulate complexity of human behaviour (3)

1. can think through solutions in head
2. learn through observing
3. learn when dont want to (scared of water after watching Jaws)

(Skinner) stimulus control

everything we do is determined by environment

Verbal behaviour is explained by ____ ________ of stimuli

subtle properties (ie if heard classical music, might say Mozart)

Chomsky’s main disagreements with Skinner (4)

1. Language is inborn
2. if you explain everything, explain nothing (people can say many different things)
3. “Reinforcement” doesnt make sense, just a stand-in word for “likes” (trivial/boringly true)
4. can’t predict language, have to wait for someone to speak to identify stimuli

Little Albert experiment

conditioned a phobia in child:

NS: rat

US: loud sound

UR: scared/crying/fear

\------------------

CS: rat

CR: fear