Intro  Multidisciplinary Approach – it involves analogies and
concepts borrowed from related disciplines. Positron
Personality
Personality – the pattern of behaviour that is enduring,
distinctive thoughts, emotion and behaviours that differs
from every individual and is used to adapt to the world.
Beginnings of Personality Psychology
4 Humors of Hippocrates
 Choleric – confident, overbearing and
passionate.
 Sanguine – sociable, charismatic and
Stimulation seeking.
 Melancholic – thoughtful & introspective.
 Phlegmatic - loyal friends and colleagues.
Plato – introduced four groupings, the personality types
as artistic, sensible, intuitive, reasoning.
Aristotle – Plato’s renowned student who proposed
similar set of factors that could explain personality:
Iconic (artistic), Pistic (common sense), Noetic (intuition)
and Dianoetic (logic)
Franz Joseph Gall – Believed that the bumps and uneven
geography of the human skull were caused by pressure
exerted from the brain.
William Sheldon – an American psychologist who
classified personality according to body type.
 Endomorph – plump, buxom, developed visceral
structure
 Mesomorph – Muscular
 Ectomorph – lean, delicate, poor muscles
Traits – Contribute to individual differences in behavior,
consistency of behavior overtime, and stability of
behavior across situations.
Characteristics – are unique qualities of an individual
that include such attributes as temperament, physique,
and intelligence.
Theory
Theory – a set of related assumptions that allows
scientists to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate
as testable hypothesis.
Sources of personality theory
 Deductive Approach – approach to psychology in
which the conclusions follow logically from the
premises or assumptions.
 Inductive Approach – approach to psychology in which
observations are systematically collected and concepts
are developed based on what the idea reveal.
emission tomography to see ongoing brain activity by
tracing where radioactive glucose travel as people
think and respond
Studying and Measuring Personality
Data: Scientific information/ LOTS
1. Life record data – school, crime, records.
2. Observer data – parents, teachers, friends through a
questionnaire or rating form.
3. Test Data – Information using standardized tests.
4. Self-Report data – Information coming from the
subject
The Use of Measures
1. Fixed Measures – refers to procedures that are fixed
with a given population. It may not be relevant to specific
persons or groups.
2. Flexible Measures – this refers to procedures that are
aligned with the uniqueness of the person.
 Nomothetic – the law and application to the
population. Data driven.
 Idiographic – Private and a more tailored fit with the
unique person.
Personality Assessment
 Defined as the measurement of personal
characteristics
5 Main Characteristics of a Good Psychological Test
1. Objectivity:
The test should be free from subjective—judgement
regarding the ability, skill, knowledge, trait or
potentiality to be measured and evaluated.
2. Practicability:
The test must be practicable in: a. time required for
completion, b. the length, c. number of items or
questions, scoring, etc. The test should not be too
lengthy and difficult to answer as well as scoring.
3. Norms:
Norms refer to the average performance of a
representative sample on a given test. It gives a picture
of average standard of a particular sample in a particular
aspect. Norms are the standard scores, developed by the
person who develops test. The future users of the test
can compare their scores with norms to know the level
of their sample
4. Reliability:
This refers to the extent to which the obtained results are
consistent over time. When the test is administered on
the same sample for more than once with a reasonable
gap of time, a reliable test will yield same scores. It
means the test is trustworthy.
Measures of Reliability
1. Test-retest (or temporal stability). This is the
correlation of scores in different occasions.
2. Internal consistency. The degree to which the
separate questions or items of a test are all
measuring the same thing.
3. Interrater agreement reliability. Raters have the
same scores or judgment. i.e essay test to
measure optimism.
5. Validity:
The extent to which the test measures what it intends to
measure. i.e intelligence test is developed to assess the
level of intelligence, it should assess the intelligence of
the person, not other factors. Validity explains whether
the test fulfils the objective of its development.
Methods of testing validity:
Criterion Validity: Consistency of the test over
another criterion (i.e SAT, NSAT, NCEE and
Freshman Grades).
Construct Validity: Items are generated from a
theory and other studies if no available criterion
and (can be subjected to face validity).
Personality Tests
Personality Assessments
Rating Scales and Observation:
• Rating scales look like checklists. The one taking the
test simply checks the items that hold true to them.
• Reinforcing questions may be raised to other people
who know the subject. Observation is a casual or
informal versus systematic and formal observation of a
person in a given situation.
Interview:
• The subject is asked questions about himself/herself.
• The answers to which are recorded and evaluated. The
format, length and questions differ from clinician to
clinician.
Psychological Testing:
• In this technique, the kind of test to be used depends
on the kind of information about the individual.
• A thorough study is needed to know about one’s
personality.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MPPI-
2).
• It has 567 items answerable by true or false and
can be taken for an hour.
The 16PF (Raymund B Cattell)
• It provides a measure of normal personality
and can help diagnose psychiatric disorders
California Psychological Inventory
• (CPI) is a self-report inventory created by
Harrison G. Gough The test was first published
in 1956, and the most recent revision was
published in 1987.
Projective Tests
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective
psychological test. Proponents of the technique assert
that subjects' responses, in the narratives they make up
about ambiguous pictures of people, reveal their
underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the
social world.
The Rorschach Inkblot Test is a projective psychological
test consisting of 10 inkblots printed on cards (five in
black and white, five in color) created in 1921 with the
publication of Psychodiagnostik by Hermann Rorschach.
General Approaches to Research
1. Case Studies and Clinical Research
• In depth analysis of a single case to get psychological
portrait (idiographic).
2. Personality Questionnaires and Correlational
Research.
• Many participants are involved to derive statistical
inference.
3. Laboratory Studies and Experimental Research
• The true experiment where the variables are controlled
and manipulated.
– IV receives treatment or is changed to see its
effect in DV.
 – Experimental group receives treatment and
control group does not.
Eight Basic Aspects of Personality
Components of a Personality Theory
Personality can be best understood using six (6)
components:
1. Structure: the most stable, enduring aspects of
personality;
2. Process or Dynamics: motivating concepts to explain
behavior;
3. Determinants: factors or conditions that shape
personality. It can be organismic, environmental or
situational;
4. Development: the changes in structure from infancy
to maturity and the corresponding development in
process;
5. Psychopathology: the causes of abnormal behavior
due to psychological reasons; and
6. Psychotherapy: a way in which pathological forms of
behavior are modified or changed.
SIGMUND FREUD
Jew. Born in Frieberg, Moravia (now Prebor,
Czechoslovakia) on May 6, 1856.
Psychoanalytic Aspects of Personality
Emphasis is on unconscious and emotions as determinants
of personality. Freud’s understanding of human personality
was based on his experiences with patients, his analysis of
his own dreams, and his vast readings in the various
sciences and humanities. These experiences provided the
basic data for the evolution of his theories. To him, theory
followed observation, and his concept of personality
underwent constant revisions during the last 50 years of his
life. Evolutionary though it was, Freud insisted that
psychoanalysis could not be subjected to eclecticism, and
disciples who deviated from his basic ideas soon found
themselves personally and professionally ostracized by
Freud.
Structure
Personality has 3 energy systems Humans have instincts and
motivations but raw at birth.
1. ID (Latin for it, German is das es for it)
• Source of biological drives, unconscious, operates
according to the demands of the pleasure principle (satisfy
pleasure and reduce inner tension) i.e Baby cries for milk,
gets pleasure and gratification.
2. EGO: (Latin for I, German is dash ich for I )
• Operates at reality principle and that life is bounded by
rules;
• The structure that compels the person to deal with the
realities of life. i.e Baby has to deal with reality of life (mom
is tired, dirty diapers).
3. SUPEREGO (German is Uber ich, above I)
• Ethical and moral arm of personality. It develops out of the
EGO, after develops out of the ID.
Development
Psychosexual Stages
1. Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months). During the oral stage, the
child is focused on oral pleasures like sucking, biting, eating.
It is sometimes called the erogenous zone or the channel of
pleasure. There are lasting effects when unresolved called
fixation which the individual is psychologically stuck at this
stage.
2. Anal Stage (18 months to three years). The child’s focus
of pleasure in this stage is on eliminating and retaining
feces. This is a stage of toilet training.
3. Phallic Stage (age three to six). The pleasure zone
switches to the genitals. Freud believed that during this
stage, boys develop unconscious sexual desires for their
mothers known as Oedipus Complex.
• Oedipus complex: Freud’s notion of a boy’s sexual
feelings for his mother and rivalries with his father.
• Castration anxiety: Freud’s notion of unconscious
fear from a boy’s struggle to deal with his love for his
mother while knowing that he cannot overcome his
father.
• Penis envy: Freud’s notion of a phenomenon in
which girls develop inferiority feelings and jealousy
 over her lack of a penis (but realizes she can be a
mother to be complete)
3. Latency Stage (age six to puberty). It is during this
stage that sexual urges remain repressed or become
calm and children interact and play mostly with same sex
peers.
4. Genital Stage (puberty onwards). The final stage of
psychosexual development begins at the start of puberty
when sexual urges are once again awakened.
Defense Mechanisms
• Environmental demands and inner urges result to
anxiety.
• Intrapsychic conflicts are resolved by the ego if anxiety
becomes overwhelming.
This serves as the insulator of the ego to protect it from
breaking. This is called defense mechanisms classified as
follows:
1. Denial: arguing against an anxiety provoking stimuli by
stating it doesn't exist;
2. Displacement: taking out impulses on a less
threatening target e.g. slamming a door instead of hitting
as person, yelling at your spouse after an argument with
your boss;
3. Intellectualization: avoiding unacceptable emotions
by focusing on the intellectual aspects e.g. focusing on
the details of a funeral as opposed to the sadness and
grief;
4. Projection: placing unacceptable impulses in yourself
onto someone else;
5. Rationalization: supplying a logical or rational reason
as opposed to the real reason e.g. stating that you were
fired because you did not like the boss, when the real
reason was your poor performance;
6. Reaction formation: taking the opposite belief
because the true belief causes anxiety;
7. Regression: returning to a previous stage of
development;
8. Sublimation: acting out unacceptable impulses in a
socially acceptable way e.g. watching boxing
9. Suppression: pushing into the unconscious e.g.
forgetting
Psychotherapy
The definition of Freud’s mental health in Lieben und
Arbeiten, or love and work, is the attainment of direct
sexual satisfaction and indirect sublimation of sexual
instincts.
Technique:
Free Association
• Free talking. It requires the patient to say whatever
comes to head.
Cont.
Concepts Emerging in Free Association
• The treatment produces INSIGHT, the understanding of
the true unconscious conflicts.
• CATHARSIS is the emergence of buried feelings (fear,
grief, other forgotten memories) in the unconscious. This
is the turning point or healing.
• TRANSFERENCE. This happens when the repressed
feelings (positive or negative) surfaced can be channeled
to the therapist i.e love for the father is transferred as
love to the therapist.
• COUNTERTRANSFERENCE. The therapist’s reaction to
the patient is distorted by own unresolved conflicts.
ALFRED ADLER
Alfred Adler was born on February 7, 1870, in
Rudolfsheim, a village near Vienna.
Adlerian Theory
Adler evolved a basically simple and parsimonious
theory. To Adler, people are born with weak, inferior
bodies—a condition that leads to feelings of inferiority
and a consequent dependence on other people.
Therefore, a feeling of unity with others (social interest)
is inherent in people and the ultimate standard for
psychological health. More specifically, the main tenets
of Adlerian theory can be stated in outline form. The
following is adapted from a list that represents the final
statement of individual psychology (Adler, 1964).
1. The one dynamic force behind people’s behavior is the
striving for success or superiority.
2. People’s subjective perceptions shape their behavior and
personality.
3. Personality is unified and self-consistent.
4. The value of all human activity must be seen from the
viewpoint of social interest.
5. The self-consistent personality structure develops into a
person’s style of life. 6. Style of life is molded by people’s
creative power.
1. Striving for Success or Superiority
The first tenet of Adlerian theory is: The one dynamic
force behind people’s behavior is the striving for success
or superiority.
The Final Goal
According to Adler (1956), people strive toward a final
goal of either personal superiority or the goal of success
for all humankind. In either case, the final goal is fictional
and has no objective existence
The Striving Force as Compensation
People strive for superiority or success as a means of
compensation for feelings of inferiority or weakness.
Adler (1930) believed that all humans are “blessed” at
birth with small, weak, and inferior bodies.
Striving for Personal Superiority
Some people strive for superiority with little or no
concern for others. Their goals are personal ones, and
their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated
feelings of personal inferiority, or the presence of an
inferiority complex.
Striving for Success In contrast to people who strive for
personal gain are those psychologically healthy people
who are motivated by social interest and the success of
all humankind.
2. Subjective Perceptions
Adler’s second tenet is: People’s subjective perceptions
shape their behavior and personality. People strive for
superiority or success to compensate for feelings of
inferiority, but the manner in which they strive is not
shaped by reality but by their subjective perceptions of
reality, that is, by their fictions, or expectations of the
future.
Fictionalism
Our most important fiction is the goal of superiority or
success, a goal we created early in life and may not
clearly understand. This subjective, fictional final goal
guides our style of life, gives unity to our personality.
Physical Inferiorities
Because people begin life small, weak, and inferior, they
develop a fiction or belief system about how to
overcome these physical deficiencies and become big,
strong, and superior. But even after they attain size,
strength, and superiority, they may act as if they are still
small, weak, and inferior.
3. Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
The third tenet of Adlerian theory is: Personality is
unified and self-consistent.
In choosing the term individual psychology, Adler wished
to stress his belief that each person is unique and
indivisible. Thus, individual psychology insists on the
fundamental unity of personality and the notion that
inconsistent behavior does not exist.
Organ Dialect
According to Adler (1956), the whole person strives in a
self-consistent fashion toward a single goal, and all
separate actions and functions can be understood only
as parts of this goal. The disturbance of one part of the
body cannot be viewed in isolation; it affects the entire
person.
Conscious and Unconscious
A second example of a unified personality is the harmony
between conscious and unconscious actions. Adler
(1956) defined the unconscious as that part of the goal
that is neither clearly formulated nor completely
understood by the individual.
4. Social Interest
The fourth of Adler’s tenets is: The value of all human
activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social
interest.
Social interest is Adler’s somewhat misleading
translation of his original German term,
Gemeinschaftsgefühl. A better translation might be
“social feeling” or “community feeling,” but
Gemeinschaftsgefühl actually has a meaning that is not
fully expressed by any English word or phrase. Roughly,
it means a feeling of oneness with all humanity; it implies
membership in the social community of all people.
Origins of Social Interest
Social interest is rooted as potentiality in everyone, but
it must be developed before it can contribute to a useful
style of life. It originates from the mother-child
relationship during the early months of infancy. Every
person who has survived infancy was kept alive by a
mothering person who possessed some amount of social
interest.
Importance of Social Interest
Social interest was Adler’s yardstick for measuring
psychological health and is thus “the sole criterion of
human values” (Adler, 1927, p. 167). To Adler, social
interest is the only gauge to be used in judging the worth
of a person. As the barometer of normality, it is the
standard to be used in determining the usefulness of a
life.
5. Style of Life
Adler’s fifth tenet is: The self-consistent personality
structure develops into a person’s style of life.
Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the flavor
of a person’s life. It includes a person’s goal, self-concept,
feelings for others, and attitude toward the world. It is
the product of the interaction of heredity, environment,
and a person’s creative power. Adler (1956) used a
musical analogy to elucidate style of life.
6. Creative Power
The final tenet of Adlerian theory is: Style of life is molded
by people’s creative power.
Each person, Adler believed, is empowered with the
freedom to create her or his own style of life. Ultimately,
all people are responsible for who they are and how they
behave. Their creative power places them in control of
their own lives, is responsible for their final goal,
determines their method of striving for that goal, and
contributes to the development of social interest. In
short, creative power makes each person a free
individual. Creative power is a dynamic concept implying
movement, and this movement is the most salient
characteristic of life.
 Abnormal Development
Adler believed that people are what they make of
themselves. The creative power endows humans, within
certain limits, with the freedom to be either
psychologically healthy or unhealthy and to follow either
a useful or useless style of life.
General Description
According to Adler (1956), the one factor underlying all
types of maladjustments is underdeveloped social
interest. Besides lacking social interest, neurotics tend to
(1) set their goals too high, (2) live in their own private
world, and (3) have a rigid and dogmatic style of life.
These three characteristics follow inevitably from a lack
of social interest. In short, people become failures in life
because they are over concerned with themselves and
care little about others.
External Factors in Maladjustment
Why do some people create maladjustments? Adler
(1964) recognized three contributing factors, any one of
which is sufficient to contribute to abnormality: (1)
exaggerated physical deficiencies, (2) a pampered style
of life, and (3) a neglected style of life.
Exaggerated Physical Deficiencies
Exaggerated physical deficiencies, whether congenital or
the result of injury or disease, are not sufficient to lead
to maladjustment. They must be accompanied by
accentuated feelings of inferiority. These subjective
feelings may be greatly encouraged by a defective body,
but they are the progeny of the creative power.
Pampered Style of Life
A pampered style of life lies at the heart of most
neuroses. Pampered people have weak social interest
but a strong desire to perpetuate the pampered,
parasitic relationship they originally had with one or both
of their parents. They expect others to look after them,
overprotect them, and satisfy their needs.
Excuses
The most common of the safeguarding tendencies are
excuses, which are typically expressed in the “Yes, but”
or “If only” format. In the “Yes, but” excuse, people first
state what they claim they would like to do—something
that sounds good to others— then they follow with an
excuse. A woman might say, “Yes, I would like to go to
college, but my children demand too much of my
attention.” An executive explains, “Yes, I agree with your
proposal, but company policy will not allow it.” The “If
only” statement is the same excuse phrased in a different
way. “If only my husband were more supportive, I would
have advanced faster in my profession.” “If only I did not
have this physical deficiency, I could compete
successfully for a job.” These excuses protect a weak—
but artificially inflated—sense of self-worth and deceive
people into believing that they are more superior than
they really are
Aggression
Another common safeguarding tendency is aggression.
Adler (1956) held that some people use aggression to
safeguard their exaggerated superiority complex, that is,
to protect their fragile self-esteem. Safeguarding
through aggression may take the form of depreciation,
accusation, or self-accusation.
Depreciation - is the tendency to undervalue other
people’s achievements and to overvalue one’s own.
This safeguarding tendency is evident in such
aggressive behaviors as criticism and gossip.
Accusation - the second form of an aggressive
safeguarding device, is the tendency to blame others
for one’s failures and to seek revenge, thereby
safeguarding one’s own tenuous self-esteem.
Self-accusation
The third form of neurotic aggression that is marked
by self-torture and guilt. Some people use self-
torture, including masochism, depression, and
suicide, as means of hurting people who are close to
them. Guilt is often aggressive, self-accusatory
behavior. “I feel distressed because I wasn’t nicer to
my grandmother while she was still living.
Withdrawal
Personality development can be halted when people
run away from difficulties. Adler referred to this
tendency as withdrawal, or safeguarding through
distance. Some people unconsciously escape life’s
problems by setting up a distance between
themselves and those problems.
Masculine Protest
In contrast to Freud, Adler (1930, 1956) believed that the
psychic life of women is essentially the same as that of
men and that a male-dominated society is not natural
but rather an artificial product of historical development.
According to Adler, cultural and social practices—not
anatomy—influence many men and women to
overemphasize the importance of being manly, a
condition he called the masculine protest.
Applications of Individual Psychology
Family Constellation
In therapy, Adler almost always asked patients about
their family constellation, that is, their birth order, the
gender of their siblings, and the age spread between
them. Although people’s perception of the situation into
which they were born is more important than numerical
rank, Adler did form some general hypotheses about
birth order.
Early Recollections
To gain an understanding of patients’ personality, Adler
would ask them to reveal their early recollections (ERs).
Although he believed that the recalled memories yield
clues for understanding patients’ style of life, he did not
consider these memories to have a causal effect.
Dreams
Although dreams cannot foretell the future, they can
provide clues for solving future problems. Nevertheless,
the dreamer frequently does not wish to solve the
problem in a productive manner.
Psychotherapy
Adlerian theory postulates that psychopathology results
from lack of courage, exaggerated feelings of inferiority,
and underdeveloped social interest. Thus, the chief
purpose of Adlerian psychotherapy is to enhance
courage, lessen feelings of inferiority, and encourage
social interest. This task, however, is not easy because
patients struggle to hold on to their existing, comfortable
view of themselves.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904,
in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania,
Precursors to Skinner’s Scientific Behaviorism
For centuries, observers of human behavior have known
that people generally do those things that have
pleasurable consequences and avoid doing those things
that have punitive consequences. However, the first
psychologist to systematically study. The consequences
of behavior was Edward L. Thorndike, who worked
originally with animals (Thorndike, 1898, 1913) and then
later with humans (Thorndike, 1931). Thorndike
observed that learning takes place mostly because of the
effects that follow a response, and he called this
observation the law of effect.
Scientific Behaviorism
Skinner insisted that human behavior should be studied
scientifically. His scientific behaviorism holds that
behavior can best be studied without reference to needs,
instincts, or motives. Attributing motivation to human
behavior would be like attributing a free will to natural
phenomena. The wind does not blow because it wants to
turn windmills; rocks do not roll downhill because they
possess a sense of gravity; and birds do not migrate
because they like the climate better in other regions.
Scientists can easily accept the idea that the behavior of
the wind, rocks, and even birds can be studied without
reference to an internal motive, but most personality
theorists assume that people are motivated by internal
drives and that an understanding of the drives is
essential.
Philosophy of Science
Scientific behaviorism allows for an interpretation of
behavior but not an explanation of its causes.
Interpretation permits a scientist to generalize from a
simple learning condition to a more complex one.
Characteristics of Science
According to Skinner (1953), science has three main
characteristics: First, science is cumulative; second, it is
an attitude that values empirical observation; and third,
science is a search for order and lawful relationships.
Conditioning
Skinner (1953) recognized two kinds of conditioning,
classical and operant. With classical conditioning (which
Skinner called respondent conditioning), a response is
drawn out of the organism by a specific, identifiable
stimulus. With operant conditioning (also called
Skinnerian conditioning), a behavior is made more likely
to recur when it is immediately reinforced.
One distinction between classical and operant conditioning is
that, in classical conditioning, behavior is elicited from the
organism, whereas in operant conditioning, behavior is
emitted.
Classical Conditioning
In classical conditioning, a neutral (conditioned) stimulus
is paired with—that is, immediately precedes—an
unconditioned stimulus a number of times until it is
capable of bringing about a previously unconditioned
response, now called the conditioned response. The
simplest examples include reflexive behavior.
Operant Conditioning
Although classical conditioning is responsible for some
human learning, Skinner believed that most human
behaviors are learned through operant conditioning. The
key to operant conditioning is the immediate
reinforcement of a response. The organism first does
something and then is reinforced by the environment.
Reinforcement, in turn, increases the probability that the
same behavior will occur again. This conditioning is called
operant conditioning because the organism operates on
the environment to produce a specific effect.
Shaping
With most cases of operant conditioning, the desired
behavior is too complex to be emitted without first being
shaped by the environment. Shaping is a procedure in
which the experimenter or the environment first rewards
gross approximations of the behavior, then closer
approximations, and finally the desired behavior itself.
Reinforcement
According to Skinner (1987a), reinforcement has two
effects: It strengthens the behavior and it rewards the
person. Reinforcement and reward, therefore, are not
synonymous. Not every behavior that is reinforced is
rewarding or pleasing to the person. For example, people
are reinforced for working, but many find their jobs
boring, uninteresting, and unrewarding.
Positive Reinforcement - Any stimulus that, when
added to a situation, increases the probability that
a given behavior will occur is termed a positive
reinforcer (Skinner, 1953). Food, water, sex, money,
social approval, and physical comfort usually are
examples of positive reinforcers. When made
contingent on behavior, each has the capacity to
increase the frequency of a response.
Negative Reinforcement - The removal of an
aversive stimulus from a situation also increases the
probability that the preceding behavior will occur.
This removal results in negative reinforcement
(Skinner, 1953).
Punishment
Negative reinforcement should not be confused with
punishment. Negative reinforcers remove, reduce, or
avoid aversive stimuli, whereas punishment is the
presentation of an aversive stimulus, such as an electric
shock, or the removal of a positive one, such as
disconnecting an adolescent’s telephone. A negative
reinforcer strengthens a response; punishment does not.
Although punishment does not strengthen a response,
neither does it inevitably weaken it.
Effects of Punishment - The control of human and
animal behavior is better served by positive and
negative reinforcement than by punishment. The
effects of punishment are not opposite those of
reinforcement. Suppression of behavior.
Another effect of punishment is the conditioning of
a negative feeling by associating a strong aversive
stimulus with the behavior being punished.
Punishment and Reinforcement Compared
Punishment has several characteristics in common
with reinforcement. Just as there are two kinds of
reinforcements (positive and negative), there are
two types of punishment. The first requires the
presentation of an aversive stimulus; the second
involves the removal of a positive reinforcer. An
example of the former is pain encountered from
falling as the result of walking too fast on an icy
sidewalk. An example of the latter is a heavy fine
levied against a motorist for driving too fast. This first
example (falling) results from a natural condition;
the second (being fined) follows from human
intervention. These two types of punishment reveal
a second characteristic common to punishment and
reinforcement: Both can derive either from natural
consequences or from human imposition. Finally,
both punishment and reinforcement are means of
controlling behavior, whether the control is by
design or by accident. Skinner obviously favored
planned control, and his book Walden Two (Skinner,
1948) presented many of his ideas on the control of
human behavior.
Conditioned and Generalized Reinforcers
Food is a reinforcement for humans and animals because
it removes a condition of deprivation. But how can
money, which cannot directly remove a condition of
deprivation, be reinforcing? The answer is that money is
a conditioned reinforcer. Conditioned reinforcers
(sometimes called secondary reinforcers) are those
environmental stimuli that are not by nature satisfying
but become so because they are associated with such
unlearned or primary reinforcers as food, water, sex, or
physical comfort. Money is a conditioned reinforcer
because it can be exchanged for a great variety of
primary reinforcers. In addition, it is a generalized
reinforcer because it is associated with more than one
primary reinforcer.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Any behavior followed immediately by the presentation
of a positive reinforcer or the removal of an aversive
stimulus tends thereafter to occur more frequently. The
frequency of that behavior, however, is subject to the
conditions under which training occurred, more
specifically, to the various schedules of reinforcement.
With a continuous schedule, the organism is reinforced
for every response. This type of schedule increases the
frequency of a response but is an inefficient use of the
reinforcer.
Skinner preferred intermittent schedules not only
because they make more efficient use of the reinforcer
but because they produce responses that are more
resistant to extinction.
Fixed-Ratio
With a fixed-ratio schedule, the organism is reinforced
intermittently according to the number of responses it
makes. Ratio refers to the ratio of responses to
reinforcers.
Variable-Ratio With a fixed-ratio schedule, the organism
is reinforced after every nth response. With the variable-
ratio schedule, it is reinforced after the “nth” response
on the average. Again, training must start with
continuous reinforcement, proceed to a low response
number, and then increase to a higher rate of response.
Extinction
Once learned, responses can be lost for at least four
reasons. First, they can simply be forgotten during the
passage of time. Second, and more likely, they can be lost
due to the interference of preceding or subsequent
learning. Third, they can disappear due to punishment. A
fourth cause of lost learning is extinction, defined as the
tendency of a previously acquired response to become
progressively weakened upon nonreinforcement.
Operant extinction - takes place when an
experimenter systematically withholds
reinforcement of a previously learned response until
the probability of that response diminishes to zero.
Rate of operant extinction depends largely on the
schedule of reinforcement under which learning
occurred.
*ADDITIONALS*
The Human Organism
Our discussion of Skinnerian theory to this point has
dealt primarily with the technology of behavior, a
technology based exclusively on the study of animals.
Natural Selection
Human personality is the product of a long evolutionary
history. As individuals, our behavior is determined by
genetic composition and especially by our personal
histories of reinforcement. As a species, however, we are
shaped by the contingencies of survival.
Cultural Evolution
In his later years, Skinner (1987a, 1989a) elaborated
more fully on the importance of culture in shaping
human personality. Selection is responsible for those
cultural practices that have survived, just as selection
plays a key role in humans’ evolutionary history and also
with the contingencies of reinforcement.
Inner States
Although he rejected explanations of behavior founded
on non-observable hypothetical constructs, Skinner
(1989b) did not deny the existence of internal states,
such as feelings of love, anxiety, or fear. Internal states
can be studied just as any other behavior, but their
observation is, of course, limited.
Self-Awareness
Skinner (1974) believed that humans not only have
consciousness but are also aware of their consciousness;
they are not only aware of their environment but are also
aware of themselves as part of their environment; they
not only observe external stimuli but are also aware of
themselves observing that stimuli.
Drives
From the viewpoint of radical behaviorism, drives are not
causes of behavior, but merely explanatory fictions. To
Skinner (1953), drives simply refer to the effects of
deprivation and satiation and to the corresponding
probability that the organism will respond.
Emotions
Skinner (1974) recognized the subjective existence of
emotions, of course, but he insisted that behavior must
not be attributed to them. He accounted for emotions by
the contingencies of survival and the contingencies of
reinforcement.
Purpose and Intention
Skinner (1974) also recognized the concepts of purpose
and intention, but again, he cautioned against attributing
behavior to them. Purpose and intention exist within the
skin, but they are not subject to direct outside scrutiny.
Complex Behavior
Human behavior can be exceedingly complex, yet
Skinner believed that even the most abstract and
complex behavior is shaped by natural selection, cultural
evolution, or the individual’s history of reinforcement.
Higher Mental Processes
Skinner (1974) admitted that human thought is the most
difficult of all behaviors to analyze; but potentially, at
least, it can be understood as long as one does not resort
to a hypothetical fiction such as “mind.” Thinking,
problem solving, and reminiscing are covert behaviors
that take place within the skin but not inside the mind.
Creativity
How does the radical behaviorist account for creativity?
Logically, if behavior were nothing other than a
predictable response to a stimulus, creative behavior
could not exist because only previously reinforced
behavior would be emitted.
Unconscious Behavior
As a radical behaviorist, Skinner could not accept the
notion of a storehouse of unconscious ideas or emotions.
Dreams
Skinner (1953) saw dreams as covert and symbolic forms
of behavior that are subject to the same contingencies of
reinforcement as other behaviors are. He agreed with
Freud that dreams may serve a wish-fulfillment purpose.
Social Behavior
Groups do not behave; only individuals do. Individuals
establish groups because they have been rewarded for
doing so.
Control of Human Behavior
Ultimately, an individual’s behavior is controlled by
environmental contingencies. Those contingencies may
have been erected by society, by another individual, or
by oneself; but the environment, not free will, is
responsible for behavior.
Social Control
Individuals act to form social groups because such
behavior tends to be reinforcing. Groups, in turn,
exercise control over their members by formulating
written or unwritten laws, rules, and customs that have
physical existence beyond the lives of individuals. The
laws of a nation, the rules of an organization, and the
customs of a culture transcend any one individual’s
means of countercontrol and serve as powerful
controlling variables in the lives of individual members.

Self-Control
If personal freedom is a fiction, then how can a person
exercise self-control? Skinner would say that, just as
people can alter the variables in another person’s
environment, so they can manipulate the variables
within their own environment and thus exercise some
measure of self-control.
The Unhealthy Personality
Unfortunately, the techniques of social control and self-
control sometimes produce detrimental effects, which
result in inappropriate behavior and unhealthy
personality development.
Counteracting Strategies
When social control is excessive, people can use three
basic strategies for counteracting it—they can escape,
revolt, or use passive resistance (Skinner, 1953).
Inappropriate Behaviors
Inappropriate behaviors follow from self-defeating
techniques of counteracting social control or from
unsuccessful attempts at self-control, especially when
either of these failures is accompanied by strong
emotion.
Psychotherapy
Skinner (1987b) believed that psychotherapy is one of
the chief obstacles blocking psychology’s attempt to
become scientific. Nevertheless, his ideas on shaping
behavior not only have had a significant impact on
behavior therapy but also extend to a description of how
all therapy works.
Regardless of theoretical orientation, a therapist is a
controlling agent. Not all controlling agents, however,
are harmful, and a patient must learn to discriminate
between punitive authority figures (both past and
present) and a permissive therapist. Whereas a patient’s
parents may have been cold and rejecting, the therapist
is warm and accepting; whereas the patient’s parents
were critical and judgmental, the therapist is supportive
and empathic.