SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Positive Reinforcement, Generalization

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 37

SKINNER'S THEORY OF PERSONALITY

Radical Behaviorism is the brand of Psychology that is practically synonymous with Skinner's name.

Skinner's Radical Behaviorism

He rejected the use of inner states such as anxiety as the explanation of our overt / observable behavior.

Example

You are not comfortable at social gatherings, you are invited to a party so you prepare yourself for the party

you begin to feel nervous, tense, so you stay at home so you avoided the party because you are anxious.

For Skinner such an explanation is incorrect.

The behavior does not change because you feel anxious.

It changes because of the aversive contingencies which generate the condition felt as anxiety which is the

inner cause.

Example

You rush in to a building which is on fire to save people from dying alive, it is not because you are heroic

or supreme but because you have a history of exposure to reinforcements in similar situations.

Behaviorism is a school of thought that focuses on the idea that all behavior is learned.

Behavior is basically overt and observable.

It is an association between stimulus and response.

Stimulus and response behavior is respondent or classical conditioning .

Core Concepts

Biographical Sketch

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Schedules of Reinforcement

Techniques of Treatments

Applications

Summary

Evaluation

Skinner discovered two basic reinforcement strategies for increasing the frequency of behavior

1- Positive reinforcement the behavior increases because it is followed by reward

2- The frequency of a behavior can increase with the negative reinforcement or with the removal or

lessening of an unpleasant stimulus.

Positive Reinforcement

A student works hard and gets an "A" on a test this behavior will increase it will be followed by working

hard for all tests

The hungry rat learns to press the bar to get a food pellet and the frequency of this behavior increase with

the positive reinforcement that is food pellet.

The rat that can turn off an electric shock by pulling a string will quickly learn to pull the string frequency

of this behavior will increase with the lessening of an unpleasant stimulus.

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People with severe headaches learn that when they take rest they are relaxed and their headaches are gone -

the frequency of a behavior can increase with the lessening of an unpleasant stimulus.

Let us take a very simple example of operant conditioning. We can teach a child to ask for candy frequently

by giving candy whenever it asks for candy. We positively reinforce the response of asking for candy. We

can also extinguish the response of asking for candy by simply not presenting the candy when the child

asks for it. We then find that the frequency of occurrence of asking for candy declines.

Skinner discovered two basic reinforcement strategies for decreasing the frequency of undesired

behavior:

1-Extinction is where we stop the reinforcement and the behavior will be extinguished.

2- Punishment

The frequency of behavior is reduced when it is followed by an aversive stimulus.

Examples (Extinction)

A teacher might send the disruptive child out of the class into the hall for discipline

Example (Punishment)

The student who gets a D grade has to attend summer school and no vacations or his favorite toys are taken

away.

There is another way that we can reduce the occurrence of the response. When the child asks for candy, we

can punish it by slapping it.

When we perform an operation like this, of adding something to the situation that reduces the probability of

responding, we have punished the response.

A punishing stimulus is an aversive stimulus, which, when occurring after an operant response, decreases

the future likelihood of that response. It is important to note that a punishment is not the same as a negative

reinforcer.

Reinforcement increases the likelihood of occurrence of a behavior with which it is paired, and a

punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior.

A behavior can be reinforced by the removal of an aversive stimulus, however, in which case we refer to a

negative reinforcer.

For example, a parent might reinforce a child for receiving good grades by excusing the child from doing

the dishes. Similarly, a person with a phobic fear of snakes reinforces the avoidance response by turning

away whenever a snake is encountered, thereby eliminating the aversive fear triggered by the snake. These

are both examples of negative reinforcement.

When behavior is reinforced it may generalize to other behavior as well.

Generalization

Examples

1- A child is praised for performing well on a psychology test, then he may generalize this behavior to

other subjects.

2- By learning how to deal with one angry problematic student, teacher learns how to deal with the same

student in different situations and with different students with the same angry attitude.

Discrimination

It is important to discriminate among stimuli, situations, events and persons.

Example

"You look nice today."

You has said it and in what tone of voice

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Is it a friend or an enemy, either with love or with sarcastic tone.

schedules of reinforcement

What are schedules of reinforcement ?

Skinner demonstrated that particular patterns (schedules) of reinforcement lead to changes in both rate of

responding and extinction.

1- If reinforcement is presented on each occasion this is referred to as a continuous reinforcement schedule.

Every time the desired response is made it is reinforced

Every time a good grade is achieved it is rewarded.

2-If the reinforcement is contingent on an interval of time, it is referred to as interval reinforcement;

3-if this interval is unchanging (e.g. every five or ten minutes), we have a fixed-interval reinforcement

schedule. Instead of providing reinforcement following a constant interval of time,

4- The investigator may wish to reinforce according to an intermittent or variable-interval schedule. Here,

although the reinforcement may be available on the average at five minute intervals, the actual interval will

vary randomly around this average.

5- A ratio reinforcement schedule here the reinforcement is determined by the number of responses that

have been emitted since the last reinforcement.

6- It is a simple only every tenth response is reinforced or every twentieth or any other number. This would

be referred to as fixed-ratio reinforcement.

On some trials the reward might follow the second or third response while on others it would follow the

seventh or eighth. This would be called a variable ratio schedule.

These ratio schedules are analogous to the situation of a piece worker or person working on a commission

where the payoff depends only on the efficiency and effort of the worker.

A variable-ratio schedule is at the heart of all gambling systems and devices.

Methods of treatments based on Operant Conditioning

Shaping

Successive Approximations

Aversive Conditioning

Assertion Training

Behavior Modification

Token Economy

1- Shaping or 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.

Teaching a retarded child how to feed himself.

This method is useful when teaching complex behaviors such as reading behavior in children

Children will enjoy reading if each step along the way is reinforced. If learning the alphabet, letter sounds

and short words is difficult and unpleasant, it is unlikely that the child will move on to reading sentences

and stories.

Example

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You are hired to work with patients at a hospital your job is to get the reluctant psychiatric patients

involved in some activities in the ward.

You start with one patient your goal is get the patient into daily art therapy sessions

Positive reinforcement is the way to do it.

Every time the patient comes near the therapy room he is praised.

When he enters the class he appreciated.

He is given small assignment and he is encouraged to do it.

Once these behaviors are established he will be reinforced only when he comes to class, takes the class and

gets involved in the art therapy.

Systematic desensitization is a technique given by Joseph Wolpe.

It is used in treatment of phobias and anxiety; it is based on classical conditioning.

First the client is relaxed and then a hierarchy is made of the fear producing stimulus

Now pair the relaxation with the fear producing stimulus and at each step the client has to relaxed

otherwise the technique does not work

Now begin from stimulus of lowest intensity ant then gradually move on

Suppose you afraid of lizards:

Show pictures of lizards

Show movies of lizards

Go to person who lizards as pets

Touch lizards with gloves

Then without gloves

Aversive Conditioning

This technique is used with drug addicts when something is added in the drink or drug that they take which

causes nausea, vomiting, sweating etc and it leads to decrease in the probability of the response

This technique is used with children when soap is rubbed on the tongue and the mouth is taped and the

child is punished for using bad language.

Assertion Training

Teaching an individual to say no in a polite manner. To unjust demands that people such as colleagues,

boss or friends constantly make.

Behavior Modification- it is technique based on skinner's work where

An undesirable behavior is to be replaced by a desirable behavior by using reinforcement. Such behaviors

as addictions, shy and timid behavior, autism, even schizophrenia and works with retarded children.

Token Economy

Institutions such as mental hospitals, prisons and institutions for special children demand that when

individuals behave in desirable manner such as getting up in time, taking breakfast, medicines, taking a

bath, making one's bed get a reward with tokens tickets, money, but failure to perform the desirable

behavior also results in withdrawal of the tokens. The tokens can be exchanged for candy, cigarettes,

games, movies, time out of the institution.

Applications

1- Skinner's ideas have been used in education through:

Programmed Learning

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Teaching Machines

Schools should control behavior positively instead of negatively.

2-His ideas are being used in the modification of personal behavior.

3-The treatment and care of mentally retarded children

4-His ideas are used in prison reforms.

5-His ideas are used in helping drug addicts

Summary

1- Skinner's theory does more than explain personality; it specifies the principles by which personality can

be changed.

2- Behavior is under the control of reinforcement contingencies or schedules of reinforcement so if you

change these contingencies or schedules of reinforcement you change behavior.

3- Skinner focused on overt behavior and not internal mental or physiological behavior.

So the attention is on observable behavior of the individual and not on covert or physiological.

4- Skinner focuses on two categories of behavior:

Classical or respondent behavior

(Main work by Pavlov, Watson)

Instrumental or operant behavior

(Thorndike, Skinner)

5- Skinner claims happiness as a by product of operant reinforcement

The things that bring happiness are the ones that reinforce us.

Good health, true respect by all, quality work, Status, money, power; the things that reinforce happiness.

1-Classical or Respondent Conditioning

It occurs when a new stimulus is paired with an existing stimulus response bond.

2-Instrumental or Operant Conditioning

It occurs when a behavior is followed by either a reward or punishment.

For Skinner personality develops from the organism's behavioral Interaction with the environment.

A key concept within his system is the principle of reinforcement

Skinner's theory is labeled as operant reinforcement theory.

Methods of treatments based on Operant Conditioning:

1- Shaping (Successive Approximations)

2- Aversive Conditioning

3-Assertion Training

4- Behavior Modification

5- Token Economy

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