Behavioral/Learning Theories

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Personality Psychology

• Behavioral/Learning Theories

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Behavioral/ Learning Theories

• Our responses and behaviors which constitute
  personality are learned
• We learn to maximize rewards, avoid punishment
• Learn through association (classical
  conditioning) or consequences (operant/instrumenta
  l conditioning)
• Observable behavior
• Testable hypotheses, experimentation
• Relevance of animal models
• Situational variables
• The function of behaviors
• Ways of altering behavior patterns

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Behavioral/Learning Theories

• Views individual differences in personality as
  the result of learning and different
  environmental experiences.
• Learning the process whereby behavior changes
  in response to external and situational
  contingencies

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Ivan Pavlov

• The Russian physicist Pavlov was born in 1849.
• He studied pharmacology and physiology in Saint
  Petersburg. Later he became a teacher on this
  academy. Besides teaching, he was involved in
  medical research.Pavlov was interested in the
  behavior of both humans and animals, and he was
  especially interested in reflexes.
• His biggest contribution to the field of
  psychology is classical conditioning, a theory
  about how behavior is learned. He received a
  Nobel price for his important contribution to
  science. Pavlov died in 1936 in Russia.

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Ivan Pavlov Classical Conditioning

• A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus
  acquires the ability to elicit a response.
• If a neutral stimulus is paired with a
  non-neutral stimulus, the organism will learn to
  respond to the neutral stimulus as it does to the
  non-neutral stimulus.

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Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned stimulus (US)
• Elicits a reflexive, innate response in the
  absence of learning
• Unconditioned response (UCR)
• The reflexive, innate response to a stimulus in
  the absence of learning
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
• Elicits a learned response after pairing a
  unconditioned stimulus
• Conditioned response (CR)
• The learned response to a conditioned stimulus

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Classical Conditioning

• NS

• Pair

• UCS

• CS

• CR

• UCR

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Classical Conditioning

• Brain circuits can be conditioned.
• Pavlov believed all subcortical activity could be
  described in terms of conditioned reflexes.
• For example, emotions are conditioned reflexes
  and can lead to changes in personality,
  phobias, behavioral responses, etc.

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John B. Watson

• John B. Watson formulated radical behaviorism
  with a sole focus on observable behaviors that
  can be measured, predicted, and controlled.
• For Watson, the environment is more important
  than genetics in determining behavior.
• Albert, an 11-month old boy, was conditioned to
  fear a white lab rat by pairing its arrival with
  a loud noise, showing even emotions can be
  conditioned

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John B. Watsons Views on Personality

• Watson believed that personality is the result of
  habit systems repeated behaviors formed in early
  childhood and set by age 30.
• Watson emphasized the power of the situation in
  releasing habit systems
• Watson believed that unconditioning bad habit
  systems could result in personality change

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Radical Behaviorism

• Scientific explanations should depend on as few
  assumptions as possible
• Human behavior is subject to the same laws as the
  movement of physical objects and that the mind is
  an irrelevant explanation for behavior.
• Human behavior is completely determined and
  predictable, therefore controllable and lawful.

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B. F. Skinner

• Born March 20, 1904, Susquehanna Pennsylvania. 
  
• Died August 18, 1990, died of leukemia
• Skinner received his BA in English from Hamilton
  College in upstate New York. After writing for a
  newspaper and some traveling, he decided to go
  back to school, this time at Harvard.  He got his
  masters in psychology in 1930 and his doctorate
  in 1931, and stayed there to do research until
  1936. Also in that year, he moved to Minneapolis
  to teach at the University of Minnesota.  There
  he met and soon married Yvonne Blue. They had two
  daughters. In 1948, he was invited to come to
  Harvard to teach.

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Operant Conditioning

• Consequences of a behavior determine if the
  behavior will continue.
• Shaping
• Reinforcing closer approximations of a desired
  behavior.
• Select Reinforcer
• Set up continuum of the desired behaviors.

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• Figure 6.10 Skinner box and cumulative recorder

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Reinforcement and Punishment

• Increasing a response
• Positive reinforcement
• Presentation of something pleasant
• Negative reinforcement
• Removal of something unpleasant
• Escape learning
• Avoidance learning
• Decreasing a response
• Punishment
• Problems with punishment

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement
• Intermittent (partial) reinforcement
• Ratio schedules
• Fixed
• Variable
• Interval schedules
• Fixed
• Variable

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Physiologically Based Dimensions of Personality

• Extraversion-Introversion
• Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment
• Sensation Seeking
• Neurotransmitters and Personality

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Extraversion-Introversion

• Measured by Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
  (EPQ)
• High extraversion Talkative, outgoing, likes
  meeting new people and going to new places,
  active, bored easily, hates routine
• Low extraversion Quiet, withdrawn, prefers being
  alone or with a few friends to large crowds,
  prefers routines, prefers familiar to unexpected

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Extraversion-Introversion

• Eysencks theory
• Introverts have a higher level than extraverts of
  activity in the brains ascending reticular
  activating system (ARAS)
• People strive to keep ARAS activity at optimal
  levelintroverts work to decrease and avoid
  stimulation extraverts work to increase and seek
  out stimulation

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Extraversion-Introversion

• Eysencks theory
• Research indicates that introverts and extraverts
  are NOT at different resting levels, but
  introverts ARE more reactive to moderate levels
  of stimulation than extraverts
• This work led Eysenck to revise his theorythe
  difference between introverts and extraverts lies
  in arousability, not in baseline arousal

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Extraversion-Introversion

• Eysencks theory
• When given a choice, extraverts prefer higher
  levels of stimulation than introverts
• Geen (1984) Introverts and extraverts choose
  different levels of stimulation, but equivalent
  in arousal under chosen stimulation

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Extraversion-Introversion

• Eysencks theory
• Introverts and extraverts perform task best under
  their chosen stimulation level, poor when
  performing under a stimulation level chosen by
  other group

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Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment

• Personality based on two hypothesized brain
  systems
• Behavioral Activation System (BAS) Responsive to
  incentives (cues to reward) and regulates
  approach behavior

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Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment

• Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) Responsive to
  cues to punishment, frustration, uncertainty, and
  motivates ceasing, inhibiting, or avoidance
  behavior
• Active BIS produces anxiety, active BAS produces
  impulsivity

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Sensitivity to Reward and Punishment

• Integration with Eysencks model Impulsive
  high extraversion, moderate neuroticism Anxious
  moderate introversion, high neuroticism
• According to Gray, impulsive people do not learn
  well from punishment because of weak BIS learn
  better from rewardsupported by research

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Sensation Seeking

• Tendency to seek out thrilling, exciting
  activities, take risks, avoid boredom
• Early sensory deprivation research
• Hebbs theory of optimal level of arousal

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Sensation Seeking

• Zuckerman High sensation seekers are less
  tolerant of sensory deprivation require much
  stimulation to get to optimal level of arousal
• Zuckermans Sensation Seeking Scale
• Moderate positive correlation between
  extraversion and sensation seeking

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Sensation Seeking

• Physiological basis for sensation seeking
• Neurotransmitterschemicals in nerve cells are
  responsible for the transmission of nerve impulse
  from one cell to another
• Monoamine Oxidase (MAO)enzyme that maintains a
  proper level of neurotransmitters

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Sensation Seeking

• Physiological basis for sensation seeking
• Too little MAO too much neurotransmitter too
  much MAO too little neurotransmitter
• High sensation seekers have low levels of MAO,
  producing a need for stimulation to reach the
  optimal level of arousal

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Neurotransmitters and Personality

• Dopamineassociated with pleasure
• Serotoninassociated with depression and other
  mood disorders
• Norepinepherineassociated with fight or flight
  response

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Neurotransmitters and Personality

• Cloningers Tridimensional Personality Model
• Novelty seekinglow levels of dopamine
• Harm avoidancelow levels of serotonin
• Reward dependencelow levels of norephinepherine