THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Core Concepts

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 34

THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER

The concept of habit, which represents a stable Stimulus-Response connection (SR), is crucial to this

position. In fact, most of the theory is concerned with specifying the conditions under which habits form

and are dissolved.

Habit is the key concept in the theory by Dollard and Miller.

A habit, we have seen, is a link or association between a stimulus (cue) and a response. Learned

associations or habits may be formed not only between external stimuli and overt responses but between

internal ones as well. The bulk of their theory is concerned with specifying the conditions under which

habits are acquired and extinguished or replaced, with little or no attention given to specifying classes of

habits or listing the major varieties of habits that people exhibit.

Core Concepts

1-The Structure of Personality

2- The Dynamics of Personality

3- The Development of Personality

i- Innate Equipment

ii- The Learning Process

iii- Secondary Drive and the Learning Process

iv- Higher Mental Processes

v-Critical Stages of Development

vi-The Social Context

4- Applications of the Model

i- Unconscious Processes

ii- Conflict

5- Psychotherapy

6-Research

7-Summary

8-Evaluation

Biographical Sketch

John Dollard was born in Menasha, Wisconsin, on August 29, 1900. He received secured his M.A. (1930)

and Ph.D. (1931) in sociology from the University of Chicago. From 1926 until 1929 he served as assistant

to the president of the University of Chicago. In 1932 he accepted a position as assistant professor of

anthropology at Yale University and in the following year became an assistant professor of sociology in the

Institute of Human Relations. In 1935 he became a research associate in the institute and in 1948 a research

associate and professor of psychology. He became professor emeritus in 1969.

Neal E. Miller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 3, 1909, and received his B.S. from the

University of Washington in 1931. He received his M.A. from Stanford University in 1932 and his Ph.D. in

psychology from Yale University in 1935. From 1932 until 1935 he served as an assistant in psychology at

the Institute of Human Relations and in 1935-1936 he was a Social Science Research Council traveling

fellow during this time he had training in Psychoanalysis at the Vienna Institute.

Both had very different backgrounds Dollard in Sociology and Miller in Experimental Psychology yet they

joined efforts in developing a Stimulus Response Theory or S-R linkage or association.

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

I .Pavlov (1906-1927) discovered a type of learning that became known as classical conditioning.

Pavlov was able to demonstrate that by simultaneous presentation of Unconditioned Stimulus-US (meat

powder) and a Conditioned Stimulus CS (sound of footsteps or a bell) would elicit.

A response (salivation) which was originally elicited by Unconditioned Stimulus (US). This act of

salivating at the sound of the foot steps or bell is called Conditioned Response.

J. Watson proposed that psychology should study behavior using the same types of objective

techniques as natural sciences.

His focus was on overt behavior of individual.

E .Thorndike was demonstrating the importance of reward and punishment in the learning process.

Thorndike, Hull, Spence, and Guthrie focused on the learning process as involving the associative

linkage between stimulus and response.

Most cognitive processes are actually Stimulus Response association.

Skinner rejected Hull's approach the goal of Skinner's science is to control, prediction and

interpretation of behavior.

He gave the concept of Operant Conditioning.

He proposed that organisms can learn complicated behaviors by shaping, using the successive

approximations technique.

Successive Approximations Technique

we start reinforcing a behavior that is the first toward final behavior and then gradually reinforce

successively closer approximations to the final behavior.

Example: Learning to drive a car or teaching a retarded child how to feed himself.

What is learning?

According to this theory, in the simplest it is the study of the circumstances under which a response and

a stimulus (cue) become connected.

When learning is completed the SR are bound together so the appearance of stimulus (cue) evokes the

response.

In order to learn:

1- One must want something (drive)

2- Notice something (cue-stimulus)

3- Do something (response)

4- Get something (reward)

Example:

For learning behavior to take place within the subject:

1-One must want something (drive)

2- Notice something (cue-stimulus)

3- Do something (response)

4- Get something (reward)

For a habit to be established the cue-stimulus and response should occur close together not only in

space and in time but the response should be rewarded.

1-The Structure of Personality

Dollard and Miller have consistently shown less interest in the structure of personality than in the pro-

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

cess of learning and personality development. what concepts do they employ to represent the stable and

enduring characteristics of the person? Habit is the key concept in the learning theory by Dollard and

Miller.

i- A habit, we have seen, is a link or association between a stimulus (cue) and a response. Learned

associations or habits may be formed not only between external stimuli and overt responses but

between internal ones as well.

ii- The bulk of their theory is concerned with specifying the conditions under which habits are acquired

and extinguished or replaced, with little or no attention given to specifying classes of habits or listing

the major varieties of habits that people exhibit.

2- The Dynamics of Personality

Dollard and Miller are explicit in defining the nature of motivation and they specify in considerable

detail the development and elaboration of motives. Instead they have focused on certain salient motives

such as anxiety. In their analysis of these they have attempted to illustrate the general process that can

be expected to operate for all motives.

In the process of growth the typical individual develops a large number of secondary drives that serve

to instigate behavior. "These learned drives are acquired on the basis of the primary drives, represent

elaborations of them, and serve as a facade behind which the functions of the underlying innate drives

are hidden" (1950, pp. 31-32).

In the typical modern society secondary drive stimulation largely replaces the original function of

primary drive stimulation. Acquired drives such as anxiety, shame, and the desire to please impel most

of our actions.

It should be obvious also that most of the reinforcements in the ordinary life of human subjects are not

primary rewards but originally neutral events that have acquired reward value by virtue of having

consistently been experienced in conjunction with primary reinforcement. A mother's smile, for

example, becomes a powerful acquired or secondary reward for the infant, with its repeated association

with feeding, diapering, and other caretaking activities that bring pleasure or remove physical

discomfort. Secondary rewards often serve, by themselves, to reinforce behavior. Their capacity to

reinforce is not sustained indefinitely, however, unless they continue to occur on occasion in

conjunction with primary reinforcement. How these changes take place leads us to the general question

of the development of personality."

3-The Development of Personality

The transformation of the simple infant into the complex adult is elaborated by Dollard and Miller.

i- Innate Equipment

ii- The Learning Process

iii- Secondary Drive and the Learning Process

iv- Higher Mental Processes

v-The Social Context

vi-Critical Stages of Development

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