University Lecture: Behavioral Approaches to Personality Theory
Introduction to Behavioral Psychology and Personality
Speaker Profile: Sarah Cowie, Director of the Behavior Lab at the University of Auckland. Her background includes undergraduate studies at the same campus (Building 201).
Core Objective: To discuss behavioral approaches to personality, specifically focusing on how behaviorism asks and answers psychological questions, followed by a case study on impulsivity.
Class Activity (Student Knowledge of Behaviorism):
Blank Slate (Tabula Rasa): Traditionally associated with John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, suggesting humans are born without built-in mental content and learn through experience.
Consequences: Every action has consequences; learning involves reinforcers (positive or negative) and classical (Pavlovian) conditioning.
Observable Behaviors: A primary focus on measurable actions rather than the internal mind.
Nurture vs. Nature: Behaviorism leans heavily toward the nurture side of the debate.
Scientific Foundations of Behaviorism
Aims of the Science: Much like chemistry, behavioral psychology seeks to:
Observe behaviors in a systematic way.
Understand and Explain the mechanisms of behavior.
Predict and Control behavior (e.g., in therapeutic settings to shift undesirable behaviors toward those with better impacts on the individual's environment).
Focus on Cause and Effect: Behaviorists look for causal relations between environmental events and actions, moving beyond simple correlation.
The Power of Environment: Changing the environment is often more feasible and practical than attempting to change brain structure or fixed personality traits.
Measurability and Reliability: Focusing on observable events ensures data is foolproof and reliable. High inter-rater reliability is achieved when multiple researchers record the same behavior and reach identical counts. This clarity leads to fewer issues with failing to replicate findings.
Parsimony: Behaviorism adheres to the principle of using the simplest possible explanation. If an explanation has two parts that satisfy the data, there is no need for a five-part explanation.
Functional Approach: Identifying how specific changes in the environment lead to consistent, predictable changes in behavior.
Redefining Thoughts, Feelings, and Personality
Misconceptions: It is a common misunderstanding that behaviorists do not believe in thoughts or emotions. Behaviorists view these as covert behaviors rather than internal causes of behavior.
Thoughts and Emotions as Behaviors: Thinking and feeling are activities the organism does. They are subject to the same laws of learning (reinforcement and punishment) as outward (overt) actions like talking or walking.
Explanatory Limits of Internal States:
Example (Anger and Punching): If someone says they punched a person "because they were angry," a behaviorist asks why they were angry. The "anger" label summarizes a state but doesn't explain the cause.
The Real Cause: The behavior (punching) likely resulted from a learning history where similar actions removed aversive stimuli (e.g., people laughing at the person) in the past.
Hypothetical Constructs: Terms like "depression" or "introversion" are labels for collections of behaviors, not causes themselves.
Depression: A label for a cluster of behaviors: disturbed sleep, weight gain, trouble concentrating, and decreased activity. Identifying the cause (e.g., grief, drug habit, home conflict) is necessary for effective intervention.
Personality Traits: From this perspective, traits are descriptions of a tendency to behave in certain ways across time and settings. They summarize the state of an organism but are not the generative cause of the behavior.
Influences on Behavior and Learning History
Multiple Influences: Behavior is never just one thing; it is a function of:
Current Environment: The immediate situation.
Biological Constraints (Nature): Genes, biology, and physical makeup.
Learning History (Nurture): Specific personal experiences in similar environments.
Operant Conditioning: Learning based on the consequences (reinforcers or punishers) that follow a behavior.
Pavlovian (Classical) Conditioning: Learning about the relations between stimuli in the environment that occur in succession.
Evolutionary History: Innate responses exist and are part of the behavioral equation; humans are not literal blank slates.
Behavioral Research Methodology
The Spectrum of Research: Research begins in highly controlled environments to identify fundamental mechanics before moving to therapeutic applications.
Animal Models:
Pigeons and rats are often used because researchers can remove experimental confounds that are impossible to control in humans.
The University of Auckland houses the largest operant lab in the world with pigeons that work days a year (or considering leap years) for wheat reinforcers.
Translation to Humans: Once laws of behavior are identified in animals, they are tested with humans and eventually applied to real-world problems like heart disease (often caused by behaviors like poor diet and lack of exercise).
Clinical Application: Behavioral techniques in psychology programs are rigorously tested. This data-driven approach avoids "assigning blame" (e.g., calling someone a "bad person") and focuses instead on identifying environmental factors that can be adjusted to change maladaptive behavior.
Case Study: A Behavioral Approach to Impulsivity
Defining Impulsivity: While often described as "openness to do something without thinking," a behaviorist defines it as the tendency to choose immediate rewards over delayed ones.
The Marshmallow Test:
A child is offered one marshmallow now or two marshmallows if they wait minutes.
Impulsive Choice: Choosing the one marshmallow now because the delay reduces the value of the larger reward significantly.
Self-Controlled Choice: Waiting for the larger, delayed reward.
Limitations of the Marshmallow Test: It is categorical (you are either impulsive or self-controlled) and lacks a sensitive continuum.
Delay Discounting Task (Souped-up Marshmallow Test):
Participants choose between a smaller immediate reward (e.g., ) and a larger delayed reward (e.g., ).
By testing various delays (e.g., one day, one week, one month, one year, years, years), researchers find the indifference point—where the subjective value of the delayed reward equals the immediate amount.
Humans generally choose similar patterns whether the rewards (usually money) are real or hypothetical.
Mathematical and Graphical Representation of Impulsivity
Hyperbolic Discounting: The subjective value of a reward decreases as the delay increases, following a hyperbolic curve.
Measuring Individual Differences:
Slope Steepness: A steeper curve represents higher impulsivity (the value of the reward drops off rapidly with the introduction of any delay).
Area Under the Curve (AUC): A quantified index of self-control. A larger AUC indicates a person is more self-controlled and less impulsive.
Commodity Effects:
Different substances are discounted at different rates. For example, humans generally discount cigarettes, heroin, and food more steeply than money.
However, there is a strong correlation within individuals: if someone is impulsive with money, they are usually impulsive with food and other commodities.
Factors Influencing Impulsivity and Self-Control
Lifespan Changes:
Children show the highest rates of discounting (most impulsive).
Young adults show less devaluation.
Older adults show the least devaluation (most self-controlled).
Environmental Uncertainty:
Instability and uncertainty in the environment increase impulsivity.
The Poland Study (1994 vs. 1996): When the Polish zloty experienced high inflation (uncertainty) in , people discounted it steeply. After the currency was stabilized (new zloty) in , the discounting rate decreased.
Environmental Cues (State Variables):
The Gambling Study: Problem gamblers were tested in an off-license betting shop versus a park or cafe. They chose significantly more impulsively in the betting shop setting, demonstrating that the environment triggers trait expression.
Adaptive vs. Maladaptive Impulsivity:
Example (Subway Reward Card): Saving a free sub card for the future (self-control) is maladaptive if the shop closes before you can use it. In that case, immediate use (impulsivity) was more adaptive.
General Rule: High levels of discounting are linked to addiction, poor investment habits, and health issues like heart disease.
Questions & Discussion
Therapy as Behavioral Data: In therapy sessions, a therapist uses behavioral data (client self-reports, observations) to understand behavior-consequence relationships.
The Relationship Between Personality and Reward: Personality determines what an individual finds pleasurable vs. aversive. For example, an extrovert finds a lecture or party rewarding, while an introvert may find the same situation aversive.
Internal Monologues: A negative internal monologue is viewed as a behavior controlled by experience. If staying home avoids the anxiety of a party, the monologue is negatively reinforced by the removal of aversive feelings.
Attachment Theory and Behaviorism: The speaker noted that some of the most exciting research combines behaviorism with other areas like attachment theory to provide a bigger picture.
Genes and Environment: Genetic traits influence behavior but often require specific environmental experiences to be expressed.
Social Context: The current social world, filled with rampant uncertainty, likely encourages more impulsive decision-making than in more stable times.