Behaviorism

1. Behaviorism Chapter 11 http://www.behavior.org/animals/images/KellerMarian.jpg http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch08_animals/08raccoon.jpg

2. Three stages of behaviorism • 1913-1930: Watsonian behaviorism • 1930-1960: Neobehaviorism • 1960-present: Sociobehaviorism

3. What is Operationism? • The idea that the terminology in a science must be precise • A concept must have a physical referent • A concept is defined by how it is measured (the operation or process) • “pseudo-problems” must be discarded

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/genome/guide/img/rat2.jpghttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/genome/guide/img/rat2.jpg Neobehaviorism • 2nd form of behaviorism • Skinner (Tolman, Hull) • The rat as an important research subject • Assumption that one could generalize from rats to other animals and humans • Simple, easy to study, readily available

5. Clark Leonard Hull (1884-1952) • Drives • Motivation • A state of bodily need • Arises from a deviation from optimal biological conditions • Drive reduction is the only basis of reinforcement

6. Primary drives • Arise from a state of physical need • Are vital to the organism’s survival • Secondary drives • Are learned • Are situations or environmental stimuli associated with the reduction of primary drives • As a result of the association with primary drives, become drives themselves

7. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) • One of the most influential psychologists in the 20th century • Originally wanted to be a writer • Became depressed after deciding he had “nothing to say” • Began graduate studies in psychology • 1938: wrote book, initially not very successful

8. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) • However, people began to realize Skinner’s ideas had applied uses • Beginning in 1950’s, he became the major embodiment of behaviorism • Large and loyal group of followers • 1972: Humanist of the Year Award Principle Skinner From The Simpson

9. Skinner’s behaviorism • Dealt only with observable behavior • No presumptions about internal entities • The “empty organism” approach • Internal physiological and mental events exist but not useful to science • Skinner advocated a system with no theoretical framework • Not averse to all theorizing • Warned against premature theorizing • Large numbers of subjects / statistics not necessary

10. Operant conditioning • Operant behavior • Response occurs b/c of a reinforcement • Occurs without an observable external stimulus • Behavior is voluntary • Contrasted with respondent (Pavlovian) conditioning, which is elicited by a specific stimulus

12. Skinner box http://www.theculturebeat.com/wp-content/photos/Skinner_Box.jpg

13. Operant conditioning • Law of acquisition: • “the strength of an operant behavior increases when it is followed by the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus” • Key variable: reinforcement • Differs from Thorndike's position • Thorndike: explanatory • Skinner: strictly descriptive

14. Operant conditioning • Schedules of reinforcement • Original experiments: • Rat received reinforcement every time it performed certain behavior • Later experiments manipulated: • When reinforcement occurred (how many responses required) • How often reinforcement occurred (time period after responses before reinforcement given)

15. Operant conditioning • Successive approximation

16. http://www.coedu.usf.edu/abatutorial/rtorres/baby%20in%20box.jpghttp://www.coedu.usf.edu/abatutorial/rtorres/baby%20in%20box.jpg Applied Ideas • 1945: aircrib • Brought skinner public notoriety • Mechanized environment invented to relieve menial labor • Not commercially successful • Daughter reared in it with no ill effects

17. Applied Ideas • Teaching machine • Invented in the 1920’s by Pressey • Promoted by Skinner • Not enthusiastically received • Surplus of teachers • No public pressure to improve learning

18. Applied Ideas • Resurgence of interest in 1950’s when Skinner promoted similar device • Excess of students • Public pressure to improve education so U.S. could compete with Soviet Union space program • After the 1960s, computer-assisted instructional methods became dominant

19. Applied Ideas • Pigeon-guided missiles • Developed by Skinner during WWII • Guidance system to steer bombs from warplanes to ground targets • Pigeons housed in missile nose-cones • Trained through prior conditioning to peck at target image • Pecking affected angles of missile’s fins • Resultant adjustments kept missile on target • Pigeons very accurate • Military not impressed

20. Operant conditioning • Walden Two (1948)—a behavioristic society • Novel of a 1,000-member rural community • Program of behavioral control through positive reinforcement • Behavior modification • Uses positive reinforcement • Applied in a variety of settings • Works with people in same manner as with animals, by reinforcing desired behavior and extinguishing undesired behavior • Problem: usually only effective within environment where training occurred

21. Criticisms of Skinner’s behaviorism • His extreme view that only observable behavior could be studied • His opposition to theory • His willingness to extrapolate beyond the data to possible real life solutions • The narrow range of behavior studied • His position that all behaviors are learned

22. Criticisms of Skinner’s behaviorism • Animal Training • Circus acts • Problem: • Innate behaviors stronger than learned behaviors (instinctive drift) • Ex. pigs trained to pick up a coin and drop it into a bank • Pigs would start burying coin

23. Sociobehaviorism: the cognitive challenge • Sociobehaviorism • Combination of behaviorism and cognitive theory • Studies humans in social situations • The third form of behaviorism

24. Albert Bandura (1925-) • Social cognitive theory • Research focus: observation of the behavior of humans in interaction • Emphasizes the role of reinforcement in learning and behavior modification • Reinforcer effective if • Person is consciously aware of what is being reinforced • Person anticipates the same reinforcer if the behavior is repeated

25. Observational Learning • Bobo Doll study

26. Albert Bandura (1925-) Vicarious reinforcement • learning by watching other people’s behavior • seeing the consequences of their behavior • Assumption: Humans anticipate outcomes • Behavior can be regulated by • Imagining consequences, and • Making a conscious selection of the behavior to manifest

27. Albert Bandura (1925-) Self-Efficacy • One’s sense of self-esteem and competency • Affects how a person approaches problems and difficulties

28. Julian Rotter (1916-) • Greater emphasis on cognitive processes than Bandura • Four cognitive principles determine behaviors • Expectation of amount and kind of reinforcement • Estimation of probability the behavior will lead to a particular reinforcement • Differential values of reinforcers and assessment of their relative worth • Different people place different values on the same reinforcer

29. Locus of control • “beliefs about the source of our reinforcers” • Internal locus of control: belief that reinforcement depends on one’s own behavior • External locus of control: belief that reinforcement depends on outside forces such as fate, luck, or the actions of other people • Is learned in childhood from the ways one is treated

30. The fate of behaviorism • Cognitive challenge to behaviorism from within modified the behaviorist movement • Sociobehaviorists still consider themselves behaviorists • Are contrasted with radical behaviorists like Watson and skinner who do not deal with presumed internal states • Skinnerian behaviorism peaked in the 1980s • Declined after skinner’s death in 1990 • Today’s behaviorism, particularly in applied psychology, is different from forms it took from 1913 (Watson) to 1990 (Skinner) • In an evolutionary sense, the spirit of behaviorism still lives