BEHAVIOUR LEARNING

THEORIES
 Contents
 Introduction
 Classification
 Basics of learning theories
 History
 Classical conditioning
 Operant conditioning
 Social learning

 Hierarchy of needs
 Behaviour

 Human Behaviour is a learned phenomenon – a

response to the environment in which an
individual is based
 Behaviour Learning

 Learning is but a consequence of interaction of

the individual with his external and internal
environment; and those interactions with his
basic instincts
 Learning
 Thinks, perceives or reacts in a new way
 Change –
experiences
 repetition
 study
 observation
 practice
 Permanent
 Behaviour learning is defined as a relatively
permanent change in behaviour as a result of
experience.
 Classification of psychological theories

 Psychodynamic Theories
 Freud: Psychoanalysis
 Adler: Individual psychology
 Jung: Analytical Psychology
 Klein : Object Relations Theory
 Horney : Psychoanalytical Social Theory
 Erikson : Post –Freudian Theory

 Theories of Personality – Jess Feist, 6th edition

 Humanistic/Existential Theories
 Maslow : Holistic-Dynamic Theory
 Rogers : Person – Centered Theory
 May : Existential Psychology

 Dispositional Theories
 Allport : Psychology of the individual
 Eysenck, McCrae and Costa’s Factor and Trait Theories

 Learning Theories
 Skinners : Behavioral Analysis
 Bandura : Social Cognitive Theory
 Rotter and Mischel : Cognitive Social Laerning Theory
 Kelly : Psychology of Personal Constructs

Theories of Personality – Jess Feist, 6th edition

 Classification
 Theory of Emotional Development
 Psychoanalytical Theory – Sigmund Freud
 Psychosocial Theory – Eric Erikson

 Theory Of Cognitive Development

 Cognitive Development – Jean Piaget

 Theory Of Learning and development of Behavior

 Classical Conditionoing by Ivan Pavlov
 Operant Conditionong by BF Skinner
 Observational Learning by Albert Bandura

 Other relevant theories

 Seperation-Individuation of child development – Margaret S Mahler
 Theory of Hierarchy of human needs by Abraham Maslow

 Pediatric Dentistry Principles and practice- M S Muthu – 2nd edition

 Basics of learning theories
 Behaviourism

 Cognitivism

 Constructivism
 Father of behaviourism

 John B Watson

 Infant – tabula rasa

 History
 Aristotle
 Hobbs, Hume, Brown, Basin, Eblinghouse

 Key players in dvpt of behaviourist theory

 Ivan Pavlov
 Watson
 Thorndike
 B F Skinner
 Mechanisms of behaviour learning
 Habituation
 Associative L / Classical C
 Operant C
 Observational L
 Classical conditioning (1903)
 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov – 1849
 September 14, 1849 Ryazan, Russia
 relationship between
salivation and digestion
 Digestive process
 NS & AS functions

 Stimuli applied – auditory, visual, tactile

 Apparently unassociated stimuli – reflexive
behaviour

 Learning that results from association or pairing -

CC

 CC is a type of learning in which a stimulus

acquires the capacity to evoke a response that
was originally evoked by another stimulus
 Psychic reflexes
 Dogs – harnesses
 Saliva – collected – surgically implanted tube
 Meat powder

 Experiment
 Neutral stimulus
 Unconditioned stimulus
 Conditioned stimulus

 Unconditioned response
 Conditioned response

 Stimulus substitution
 Phases in CC
 Pre conditioning phase
 UCS ------ UCR
 Conditioning phase
 repetition
 Post conditioning phase
 CS ------ CR
 Five concepts
 Acquisition
 Generalisation
 Discrimination
 Extinction
 Spontaneous recovery
 Acquisition
 Initial learning – S-R link
 Two aspects – timing and predictability

 Stimuli that are novel, unusual, or especially

intense
 Stand out stimuli
 Stimulus Generalization

 Responding to similar stimuli

 One stimulus can be substituted for another and

produces the same response that the former
stimulus

 John B. Watson - behaviourism

 John B Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920)

 Subject – little Albert

 Rat --- no fear

Rat
Loud startling sound fear

 Several times ------ rat (CS)

 5 days later

 Variety of stimuli
 Rabbit
 Dog
 Fur coat
 Santa claus mask
 Watson’s hair
 Wooden box
 Film ticket
 The child fears all dentist’s offices and similar places
(including any doctor’s office) and believes that all
the people who wear white coat are going to cause
harm to them.
 Stimulus discrimination
 Discriminate b/n original CS & similar stimuli if
they get adequate experience with both

 Dog – car horn

Learnt responses are lost because of

1. Forgotten with time

2. Interference from preceeding or subsequent
learning
3. Punishment
4. Extinction
 Extinction
 Weakening of CR

 CR --- without occasionally being followed by

UCS diminish in strength

 Grdl weakening & eventual elimination

 Spontaneous recovery
 Resurrecting response (Hill 1981)

 CR recurs after a delay without conditioning

 Counter conditioning

 Stimulus which evokes fear is paired with

another stimuli that evokes a favourable reaction

 Rabbit with food

 Covert conditioning

 Negative stimulus is imagined by the fearful

indiuvidual

 Fear of examination
 Person’s emotional response is systematically
desensitised or lessened

Aversion therapy

Exposure therapy
 Exposure therapy
 Popular applicn
 Help people overcome specific phobias and other
anxiety disorders
Exposur •Real stimuli
•Imaginary stimuli
e

Exposur •Intense
•Gradually increasing

e hierarchy
Exposure theraupy

Graded in vivo exposure

Flooding
Systematic desensitisation
Implosion
 Graded in vivo exposure
 2 components

Anxiety rating

Heirarchy of fear evoking stimuli

 Adv

Disadv
 Flooding
 Stimuli at the top of the heirarchy
 Adv

Disadv

S/e
 Systematic desensitisation
 Pavlovian theraupy
 S Afican psychiatrist --- Joseph Wolpe (1952)
Examination

Scaling

Restoration

Extraction /
pulp therapy
 GOAL
 Child – learn – cope – overcome

 Disadv : slower
 Coping strategies
 Relaxation training

 Meditation , breathing exercises, thinking abt

happy situations

 Cognitive reappraisal of imagined outcomes

 Implosion
 Stimuli - exposure

 Intensely fear provoking

 Heirarchy
 Imagines the situation

 Bodily sensation
 Emotion
 Thoughts

 Narration is recorded
 Repeatedly goes through the memory……

 No longer fear provoking….

 Aversion therapy
 Psychological treatment
 Eliminates emotional state

 Exposure to stimulus

 Simultaneously to some form of discomfort….

Operant conditioning
 Burrhus Frederich Skinner

 Relationship b/n consequence of behaviour on

future behaviour
 Edward L. Thorndike -- American
psychologist

 The law of effect means that a response

will be strengthened or weakened
depending on the positive or negative
consequences that accompany it.
 The law of exercise means that patterns are
strengthened through repetition until this
pattern becomes a habit.

 The law of readiness means that when an

organism is ready for a particular activity, the
performance of that activity is satisfying,
whereas the inhibition of it is annoying.
 Response stimulus conditioning /
operant conditioning
 Learning that occurs when an organism
associates its behaviour with the consequences or
results of that behaviour,
 ….. and the nature of the consequences modifies
the organism’s tendency to repeat the behaviour
in future is known as operant conditioning.
Basic principle
 Pleasant ----- more likely to recur
 Unpleasant ----- future response diminishes

 Reinforcer VS punishment
 Reinforcer ---- strengthens future occurrence

 Punishment ---- suppress the act

 Application
 Contingency management

 Modification of a behaviour via control or

manipulation of consequences to behaviour
consequence

positive

Given

removed

negative

Given

removed
 Positive reinforcement / reward
 Presentation of a pleasant stimulus

 Increases probability of future behaviour

 Social

 Material

 Activity
 Reinforcement VS reward
 Negative reinforcement / escape
 Withdrawal of an unpleasant stimulus

 Increases probability of future behaviour

 Temper tantrum
 Eating as a positive / negative reinforcer.

 Anxiety – aversive stimulus

 Repressing unpleasant memories
 Making excuses
 Smoking
 Drinking alcohol
 Omission / time out
 Withdrawal of a pleasant stimulus

 Decrease probability of future behaviour

 Toy
 Punishment
 Presentation of an unpleasant stimulus

 Decrease probability of future behaviour

 a/e
 Suppress Behavior
 Conditioning of a negative feeling
 Spread of its effects

 Classical Freudian defense mechanism

 fantasize, project feelings onto others,
rationalize aggressive behaviors, or displace
them toward other people or animals.
 Punish immediately
rather than later

 Intensity

 Punish consistently –
resistant to extinction

 Be otherwise warm and

accepting
Voice control
 Speaking to a child in a
firm voice to gain
attention

 Telling him that his

present behaviour is
unacceptable

 Directing him as to how

he should behave
 Reinforcer

Primary Conditioned
Reinforcement

Timin Sched
g uling
 Timing
 Immediately after the response

 Domgan and Barkhard

 1986
 Schedulin
g

Contin Intermittent
uous
 Ferster and Skinner (1957)

Fixed – ratio

Variable – ratio

Fixed – interval

Variable - interval
 Parameters for CM
 Person ----influential

 Closely to the setting where misbehaviour

happens
 Behaviour shaping

 Shaping is a procedure in which the

experimenter or the environment first reward
gross approximations of the behavior, then
closer approximations and finally the desired
behavior itself
 Social learning / observational
learning
 Albert Bandura

 Behaviour is acquired through imitation of

behaviour observed in a social context.

 Acquisition of behaviour through imitation of the

behaviour of others is called as observational
learning
Stages

acquired

performed
 Processes

Retention Motivation

Attention Reproduction
Elements Self efficacy

Emotional arousal Performance

Verbal persuation Accomplishment

Vicarious experiences
 Self efficacy
 GOAL of SL

 Reduces anticipatory fear and inhibition but also

helps the child to cope better

 Depends on …….

 4–9
 Filmed modelling / in vivo
modelling

Model

Real life
 Model ----- + ve coping skills

 Participant modelling ---

CH
AT
• W
CE
TI
ES
AC
• AT
PR
TR
NS
O
M
 ADV :

 MORE EFFECTIVE
 LESS ANXIOUS
 MORE COPERATIVE
 ACNS of the child will depend upon

 Characteristics of the model

 Expected consequences of the behaviour
 Characteristics of
the model

 Primary and upper primary – own age grp /

slightly older

 Adolescent ---- peer group

Coping VS mastery model

 Express fear  Wont express

 Present complex  Shows mastery over

behaviour in small the situation
steps
 Expected consequences
 Others getting rewarded

 Being punished
 Hierarchy of needs
 Abraham Maslow in 1963
 Successful people
 Almost everyone wants to
be happy and loving, but
they have definite needs that
must be met with before
they can act unselfishly.
 “As one desire is satisfied,
another pops up in its
place.”
 Maslow created hierarchy of needs as a pyramid
with 5 needs.
Physiological needs
 Basic needs
 If they are not fulfilled, people will use all their
energy & resources towards satisfying them.

 Person would feel sickness, irritation, pain,

discomfort or may even die if they are not
fulfilled.
 Safety needs
 Physical and psychological safety are necessary
to meet these needs.

 Protection, stability, pain avoidance etc.

 Mostly psychological in nature.

 law and order

 Love and belonging needs
 Social needs includes affection, acceptance and
inclusion .

 Affection from parents,

peers and other loved ones.

 Escape loneliness and isolation, to give and

receive love and for a feeling of belonging.
 Esteem needs
 Includes self respect and self esteem which are
needs to be respected.

 Need to be competent, to achieve, to be

successful and to be open and independent.

 Esteem needs includes the desire to be

acknowledged and appreciated for their
achievements.
 Self actualization needs
 Small group of people reach this level where all their
needs are met.

 According to Maslow it’s a person

finding their passion or mission.

 It not fame or fortune.

 Most people who reach the highest level of happiness

are unknown beyond their circle of family and friends.
 They don’t have direct bearing on child’s
behavior in pediatric dentistry.

 Parental psychology and attitudes based on

hierarchy and their socio economic status might
have an influence on the child’s oral and dental
health and their behavior in dental setting.
 Seperation individuation theory

 Margaret S Mahler
 Psychological birth & physiological birth

 Theory for the developmental phase

 Normal autistic phase (0-4 weeks)

 Half sleep half awake

 Achieving homeostasis
 Normal symbiotic phase (4 weeks
to 5 months)

 Recognize others in universe

 Extensions to oneself

 Social smile
 Separation – individuation phase
(5-36 months)

 4 subphases

 Crucial – personality and mental health

 Differentiation (5-10 months)
 Hatching from autistic shell
 Alertness, sensorium that reflects cognitive and
emotional maturation

 Comparative scanning
 Stranger anxiety – 8 months
 Practicing (10 -16 months)
 Upright locomotion
 Mother – home base

 Seperation anxiety
 Rapproachment (16-24 months)
 Toddler
 Aware of physical separateness
 Bridge the gap
 Efforts to help – not perceived so
 Temper tantrums – terrible twos
 Rapproachment crisis – wants to be helped
 Resolution – skills improve and does things
herself
 Object constancy (24-36 months)
 Cope with mothers absence
 She’ll return
 Internalisation of mother – reliable and stable
 Verbal skills & better sense of time
 Tolerate delay and endure seperations
 Disturbances in attatchment
 Problems in seperation – individuation
 Abnormal infant / child behaviour
 References
 Theories of Personality – Jess Feist, 6th edition

 Introduction to psychology – Clifford T Morgan, 7th

edition

 Pediatric Dentistry Principles and practice- M S Muthu –

2nd edition

 Contemporary Orthodontics - William Profitt