Behaviorist theories

Personality Theories
 Prepared By
Manu Melwin Joy
Research Scholar
School of Management Studies
CUSAT, Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

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 Learned
Behavior
SAMANTHA SAM

Previous aggressive
behavior rewarded
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I might select --
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even
beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race
of his ancestors.
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
 Behaviourist Theories

a. Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism, is a theory of learning based

upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning.
b. Advocated by famous psychologists such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner,
behavioral theories dominated psychology during the early half of the twentieth
century. Today, behavioral techniques are still widely used in therapeutic settings
to help clients learn new skills and behaviors.
c. The school of behaviorism emerged in the 1910s, led by John B. Watson.
d. Unlike psychodynamic theorists, behaviorists study only observable behavior.
e. Their explanations of personality focus on learning.
f. Skinner, Bandura, and Walter Mischel all proposed important behaviourist
theories.
 Assumptions of behaviorism

1. Learning occurs through interactions with the environment.

2. The environment shapes behavior and

3. Taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings and emotions

into consideration is useless in explaining behavior.

 Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov was a noted Russian physiologist who went on to

win the 1904 Nobel Prize for his work studying digestive processes.
It was while studying digestion in dogs that Pavlov noted an
interesting occurrence – his canine subjects would begin to salivate
whenever an assistant entered the room.
 Classical Conditioning
1. The Unconditioned Stimulus - The unconditioned stimulus is one that
unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response.
2. The Unconditioned Response - The unconditioned response is the
unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned
stimulus.
3. The Conditioned Stimulus - The conditioned stimulus is previously
neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned
stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.
4. The Conditioned Response - The conditioned response is the learned
response to the previously neutral stimulus.
Classical Conditioning
Behaviorists have described a number of different phenomena associated with
classical conditioning.
1. Acquisition - Acquisition is the initial stage of learning when a response is first
established and gradually strengthened.
2. Extinction - Extinction is when the occurrences of a conditioned response
decrease or disappear.
3. Spontaneous Recovery - Spontaneous Recovery is the reappearance of
the conditioned response after a rest period or period of lessened response.
4. Stimulus Generalization - Stimulus Generalization is the tendency for the
conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been
conditioned.
5. Discrimination - Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a
conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
 Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning was coined by behaviourist B.F. Skinner. As
a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and
motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he
suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of
human behavior.
"The consequences of behavior
determine the probability that the
behavior will occur again"
-B. F. Skinner
 Operant Conditioning
1. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that
operates upon the environment to generate consequences.”
2. Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behavior it
follows. There are two kinds of reinforcers:
a. Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes that are
presented after the behavior. In situations that reflect positive
reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of
something, such as praise or a direct reward.
b. Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable events
or outcomes after the display of a behavior. In these situations, a
response is strengthened by the removal of something considered
unpleasant.
 Operant Conditioning
1. Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an adverse event or
outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. There are two
kinds of punishment:
a. Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment by
application, involves the presentation of an unfavorable event or
outcome in order to weaken the response it follows.
b. Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs
when an favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs.
 Operant Conditioning
1. In operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement are an important component of
the learning process. When and how often we reinforce a behavior can have a dramatic
impact on the strength and rate of the response.
a. Continuous Reinforcement - In continuous reinforcement, the desired
behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs. Generally, this schedule is best
used during the initial stages of learning in order to create a strong association
between the behavior and the response. Once the response if firmly attached,
reinforcement is usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule.
b. Partial Reinforcement - In partial reinforcement, the response is reinforced
only part of the time. Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly with partial
reinforcement, but the response is more resistant to extinction.
Operant Conditioning
There are four schedules of partial reinforcement:
1. Fixed-ratio schedules are those where a response is reinforced only after a
specified number of responses. This schedule produces a high, steady rate of
responding with only a brief pause after the delivery of the reinforcer.
2. Variable-ratio schedules occur when a response is reinforced after an
unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a high steady rate of
responding. Gambling and lottery games are good examples of a reward based on a
variable ratio schedule.
3. Fixed-interval schedules are those where the first response is rewarded only
after a specified amount of time has elapsed. This schedule causes high amounts of
responding near the end of the interval, but much slower responding immediately after
the delivery of the reinforcer.
4. Variable-interval schedules occur when a response is rewarded after an
unpredictable amount of time has passed. This schedule produces a slow, steady rate of
Techniques in behaviorism
Some of the techniques used by behavior analysts include:

1. Chaining: This behavior techniques involves breaking a task down into smaller

components. The simplest or first task in the process is taught first. Once that task has

been learned, the next task can be taught. This continues until the entire sequence is

successfully chained together.

2. Prompting: This approach involves using some type of prompt to trigger a desired

response. This might involve issues a verbal cue, such as telling the person what to do,

or a visual cue, such as displaying a picture designed to cue the response.

3. Shaping: This strategy involves gradually altering a behavior, rewarding closer and

closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Stages to behavioural change
Stages to behavioural change
Stages to behavioural change
Stages to behavioural change
Stages to behavioural change
Stages to behavioural change
 Criticisms of behaviorism
1. Behaviorism is a one-dimensional approach to understanding human behavior
and that behavioural theories do not account for free will and internal influences
such as moods, thoughts and feelings.
2. Behaviorism does not account for other types of learning, especially learning
that occurs without the use of reinforcement and punishment.
3. People and animals are able to adapt their behavior when new information is
introduced, even if a previous behavior pattern has been established through
reinforcement.
4. Behaviourist researchers often do animal studies of behavior and then generalize
their results to human beings. Generalizing results in this way can be
misleading, since humans have complex thought processes that affect behavior.
5. Behaviourists often underestimate the importance of biological factors.
6. By emphasizing the situational influences on personality, some social-cognitive
theorists underestimate the importance of personality traits.
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