Personality psychology chapter10 the learning perspecetive

Additional Issues in Classical Conditioning• Discrimination—differential responding between classes of stimuli • Generalization—experience of a less intense CR to classes of stimuli simi

Chapter Ten

The Learning Perspective

Stage 1 (existing reflex) US UR

Stage 2 (pairing of stimuli) US UR

CS Stage 3 (development of US UR

Issues Affecting Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned response (CR) is generally less

intense than the unconditioned response (UR)

• The greater the frequency of CS–US pairings, the more likely conditioning will take place

• If US is very strong, conditioning will take place rapidly

Additional Issues in Classical Conditioning

• Discrimination—differential responding between classes of stimuli

• Generalization—experience of a less intense

CR to classes of stimuli similar to CS

• Extinction—gradual weakening of CR in

response to presentation of CS without US

Instrumental Conditioning

• Also known as operant conditioning

• Process whereby behavior that is followed by a

“positive state of affairs” is more likely to be done again in a similar situation

– Links an action, an outcome, and the likelihood of

Reinforcement and Punishment

• Reinforcer = “positive state of affairs” that increase

(strengthen) the likelihood of a response

– Primary reinforcer—diminishes biological needs

– Secondary reinforcer—associated (through classical

conditioning) with primary reinforcer

– Positive reinforcement—receipt of something positive

– Negative reinforcement—removal of something negative

• Punishment—Negative or aversive outcome that

decreases the tendency of behavior that preceded it

– NOT THE SAME AS NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT

– Receipt of something negative

– Removal of something positive (time out from positive

reinforcement)

Additional Issues in Instrumental Conditioning

• Discriminative stimulus—a stimulus that is present when a behavior is followed by a reinforcer

– Stimulus acts as a switch to turn behavior on and off

(cue function)

– Important in personality because it provides a

mechanism for behavioral complexity

• Generalization—responding in a similar way to

classes of similar discriminative stimuli

– Give continuity to behavior

– Provides a basis for explaining traits

• Extinction—gradual weakening of response from lack of reinforcer

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous—behavior always followed by

reinforcement

• Partial—behavior followed by reinforcement less

than every time

• More resistant to extinction—partial reinforcement effect

Social Reinforcement

• Less focus on physical needs in the reinforcement

of human behavior, but rather on the effects of

smiles, hugs, praise, approval, love, and interest and attention of others

• People are most affected by social reinforcement

• Social reinforcers don’t require a state of

deprivation

• Invoke principles of self-reinforcement

– Self-reward of desired things

– Reaction to own behavior with self-approval

Vicarious Emotional Learning

• Also called empathy

• Experience of emotion from watching another, experience an intense level of the same emotion

• Is not the same as sympathy—concern or

distress at the suffering of another

• Creates opportunities for learning through

vicarious reinforcement

Vicarious Reinforcement

• Seeing a person reinforced for a behavior

increases your tendency to do a similar behavior

• Seeing a person punished for a behavior

decreases your tendency to do a similar

– Incentive—value of desired outcome (goal)

• Difference from traditional conditioning point of view:

– Traditional perspective doesn’t assume expectancies matter or have causal influence on behavior

Efficacy Expectancies

• Albert Bandura

• Perceived ability to carry out a desired action

• Also known as self-efficacy

• Assumption: It’s not enough to know what needs

to be done, one must be confident in ability to do it

• Imaginal coding—creating images and mental pictures

• Verbal coding—creating a description

– Production Competency—possession of skills

required to carry out behavior

• Influenced by prior skills and knowledge

Acquisition vs Performance

• People don’t always do everything they learn through observation

• Issue: What factors influence performance?

– Observed rewards increase probability of

performance

– Observed punishment decreases probability of performance

Modeling Aggression

• Observational learning—may provide examples of innovative aggressive techniques

• Vicarious reinforcement—may suggest that

violence is an appropriate way to deal with conflict

or disagreement

• Desensitization—extinguishing of negative

emotional responses to aggression and violence

Assessment (Conditioning-Based

Approach)

• Emphasis on

– Behaviors, rather than cognitions

– Emotional responses being linked to conditioned

stimuli and thus are tied to specific contexts

– Direct observation of behavior

• Physiological assessment — measures physical aspects of emotional responses (used frequently in research settings)

• Behavioral assessment — observations of overt behavior

Assessment (Social-Cognitive

Approaches)

• Emphasizes use of self-reports

• Focus on subjective feelings, thoughts and

expectancies, rather than objective aspect of situation

• Particular interest in responses to specific

categories of situations

– Guided by recognition that behavior can vary greatly from situation to situation

Problems in Behavior

(Conditioning)

• Phobias—intense irrational fears

• Behavioral tendencies that are instrumentally conditioned, but are not functional or adaptive

Behavioral Therapy

• Phobias

– Extinction—avoiding phobic stimulus prevents

extinction

– Systematic desensitization—a form of

counterconditioning involving gradual exposure to

increasingly threatening stimuli paired with relaxation techniques

• Contingency Management

– Alter reinforcement contingencies

Problems in Behavior (Social

Cognitive)

• Problems arise from inappropriate emotional or behavioral tendencies from vicarious or direct

learning

• Negative expectancies can have broad influence

on behavior, particularly when generalized

• Skill deficits can reflect incomplete observational learning or inappropriate models

Therapy (Socal Cognitive)

• Importance of modeling

– Therapeutic modeling for persons with skills deficits – Treatment of persons with phobias and fears

• Mastery model expresses no fear of feared object

• Coping model expresses initial fear, but over comes it

– Important role of self-efficacy in producing positive treatment outcomes