THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Innate Equipment

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

Lesson 35

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, 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

Innate Equipment

ii-

The Learning Process

iii-

Secondary Drive and the Learning Process

iv-

Higher Mental Processes

Critical Stages of Development

vi-

The Social Context

4- Applications of the Model

Unconscious Processes

Conflict

5- Psychotherapy

6-Research

7-Summary

8-Evaluation

3- The Development of Personality

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

Innate Equipment

The Learning Process

Secondary Drive and the Learning Process

Higher Mental Processes

The Social Context

Critical Stages of Development

The development of personality includes the following stages

Innate Equipment

The transformation of the simple infant into the complex adult is a matter of little interest to some theorists,

but this process is elaborated by Dollard and Miller. We shall present a brief consideration of the innate

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equipment of the infant.

First the baby has specific reflexes which are responses to specific stimuli, example its cold the baby

would sneeze, if some dust particle gets in the nose the baby would sneeze, if some dust particle gets in eye

it would begin to have tears-----a stimulus- response.

Second the baby has a number of innate hierarchies of responses which are tendencies for certain responses

to occur / appear in particular stimulus situations, example loud noise and the baby would cry, hungry it

would cry, wet or dirty it would cry --- a stimulus- response.

Third the baby posses a set of primary drives which are linked to physiological processes, example all

primary motives hunger, rest, sleep--- a stimulus- response

Fourth the extinction and elimination of existing associations between stimuli and responses example such

as:

The Learning Process

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 ( desired 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)

An exceedingly important part in the learning process must be as signed to response factors. As Dollard

and Miller point out, before a given response can be linked to a given cue, the response must occur. Thus, a

crucial stage in the organism's learning is the production of the appropriate response. In any given situation

certain responses will be more likely to appear than others. This order of preference or probability of

response, when the situation is first presented is referred to as the initial hierarchy of responses. After

experience and learning have influenced the individual's behavior in this situation, the derived order of

response is labeled the resultant hierarchy. These concepts simply remind us that in any environmental

setting the potential responses an individual may make have a different probability of occurring and can be

ranked in terms of this probability.

Secondary Drive and the Learning Process

We have already seen that the infant is born with a limited range of primary drives that develop into a

complex system of secondary drives with growth and experience.

Strong stimuli, such as shock, may elicit intense internal responses, which in turn produce still further

internal stimuli. These internal stimuli act as cues to guide or control subsequent responses and serve as a

drive that activates the organism and keeps the person active until reinforcement occurs or some other

process, such as fatigue, intervenes. The overt responses that result in reinforcement are the ones that are

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learned. (fear and phobia).

A previously neutral cue that has regularly occurred in conjunction with a drive producing stimulus may

gain the capacity to elicit some part of the internal responses initially elicited only by the drive. so

whenever strong stimuli occur it will responded by fear. secondary drives operate just like primary ones.

These learned internal responses then automatically set off drive stimuli. A secondary drive has been

established and will motivate the organism to new learning that leads to reinforcement just as will primary

drives.

Higher Mental Processes

The individual's interactions with the environment are of two varieties: those that are direct and guided by

a single cue or cue situation and those that are mediated by internal processes. It is the latter class of

responses that is of interest here, those mediated by cue-producing responses.

Following Hull, Dollard and Miller distinguish between responses that are instrumental, possess some

immediate effect upon the environment, and those that are cue-producing, whose main function is to

mediate or lead the way to another response.

One of the most important cue producing responses is labeling or naming of events and experiences. The

individual may generalize or transfer between two or more cue situations by identifying them as having the

same label for example a person may identify two different situations as going to America or taking an

examination as "threatening"

The ability to use language and other response produced cues is greatly influenced by culture and society

in which an individual develops so theorists say that "people receive an enormous amount of social

training in putting words and sentences together in ways that lead to adaptive solution of problems". Ob-

viously, language is involved in most cue-producing responses although it need not be spoken language.

Critical Stages of Development

Dollard and Miller assume that unconscious conflict, learned for the most part during infancy and

childhood, serves as the basis for most severe emotional problems in later life. They agree with psychoana-

lytic theorists in considering experiences of the first half dozen years of life crucial determinants of adult

behavior.

The Social Context

It is important to realize that neurotic conflict is not only learned by the child but it is learned primarily as a

result of conditions created by the parent. This unfortunate capacity of the parent for impairing the child's

development stems in part from the fact that cultural prescriptions concerning the child are contradictory or

discontinuous and in part from the fact that the child during infancy is not well equipped to cope with

complex learning demands even if they are consistent. Thus, society demands that the child learn to be

aggressive in some situations and submissive in other very similar situations, a difficult discrimination at

best. Worst of all, this demand may be made at a time when the child does not have at its command all the

symbolic functions contributed by language so that such discriminations may simply overreach its learning

capacity with resultant frustration and emotional upheaval. A similar set of overwhelming conditions may

occur in adulthood under exceptional circumstances such as war. As might be expected, such conditions

frequently lead to neurosis.

4- Applications of the Model

i--Unconscious Processes

We have observed that Dollard and Miller represent language as playing a crucial role in human

development. In view of this, it is quite natural that those determinants of behavior that include language,

or are unconscious, should play a key role in behavioral disturbances. The theory is quite consistent with

psychoanalytic formulations in accepting unconscious factors as important determinants of behavior; how-

ever, the account offered by Dollard and Miller of the origin of these unconscious processes shows little

similarity to the Freudian version.

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ii--Conflict

No human being operates so effectively that all of his tendencies are congruent and well-integrated.

Consequently, all personality theories must deal directly or indirectly with the problems posed for the orga-

nism by conflicting motives or tendencies. Conflict behavior is represented by Miller and Dollard in terms

of five basic assumptions that are extensions of the principles we have already discussed.

They assume first that the tendency to approach a goal becomes stronger the nearer the individual is to the

goal and this is referred to as the gradient of approach. Second, they assume that the tendency to avoid a

negative stimulus becomes stronger the nearer the individual is to the stimulus and this is referred to as the

gradient of avoidance. These assumptions can be derived primarily from the principle of stimulus

generalization, which we have already described. The third assumption is that the gradient of avoidance is

steeper than the gradient of approach. This implies that the rate at which avoidance tendencies increase

with approach to the goal is greater than the rate at which approach tendencies increase under the same

conditions. Fourth, it is assumed that an increase in the drive associated with the approach or avoidance

will raise the general level of the gradient. Thus, there will still be an increase in the strength of approach or

avoidance as the goal is approached but these tendencies will now have a greater strength at each stage of

approach. Fifth, it is assumed that when there are two competing responses the stronger will occur. Given

these assumptions, in addition to the concepts we have already discussed, Miller and Dollard are able to

derive predictions concerning the manner in which an individual faced with the various types of conflict

will respond.

One of the most important types of conflict is concerned with the opposition between approach and a

voidance tendencies aroused simultaneously by the same object or situation; let us say that a young man is

strongly attracted to a woman and yet finds himself embarrassed and uncomfortable (afraid) in her

presence.

A second type of conflict is encountered when the individual is faced with two competing avoidance

responses. For example, a small boy may be afraid to climb and at the same time wish to avoid being called

a coward by his playmates. Thus, the nearer he comes to the one goal (the higher he climbs), the stronger

the avoidance response and the more likely he will be to retreat. However, as he retreats he comes closer to

the other goal (being called a coward) and the second avoidance response increases while the first

decreases. Thus, the individual should show vacillation, turning first from one goal and then from the other.

How Neurosis is Learned

according to stimulus response theory neurosis or neurotic conflicts are taught by parents and learned by

children, four critical learning situations that are feeding situation, toilet training , sex education and

training to control aggression are usually mishandled by parents that develops anxiety and guilt in child

which continues in adult life. It is called Neurotic conflict.

5- Psychotherapy

Dollard and Miller are concerned not only with the development of neuroses but also with their treatment.

The essence of their approach to psychotherapy is straightforward.

The Process Therapy

The actual therapeutic procedures that Dollard and Miller advocate are quite traditional.

The therapist should be a sympathetic, permissive listener who encourages the patient to express all his or

her feelings and to free associate.

Whatever the patient's thoughts, the therapist remains non-punitive and tries to help the patient understand

these feelings and how they developed.

These are all stimulus response connections that have taken place and person must understand it.

6- Characteristic Research and Research Methods

Miller and Dollard have reported a considerable quantity of investigation that illustrates or tests derivations

from their theoretical position. In their volume Social leaning and imitation (1941) a number of studies on

human and lower animal subjects are summarized that represent attempts to confirm predictions derived

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Personality Psychology PSY 405

from their theory. Miller, as we have mentioned, has conducted a number of experimental studies relevant

to various aspects of the theory and has prepared several extensive summaries of them (1944, 1951 a,

1959).

A huge cluster of studies on animals in laboratory that deal with the concept of displacement or stimulus

generalization. These investigations provide experimental evidence for the operation stimulus response.

7- Summary

i-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.

Thus, a crucial stage in the organism's learning is the production of the appropriate response. In any given

situation certain responses will be more likely to appear than others. This order of preference or probability

of response, when the situation is first presented is referred to as the initial hierarchy of responses. If this

initial hierarchy appears to have occurred m the absence of any learning It may be referred to as the innate

hierarchy of responses, which we have already mentioned as part of the primitive equipment of the

individual. After experience and learning have influenced the individual's behavior in this situation, the

derived order of response is labeled the resultant hierarchy.

8- Evaluation

i- This personality theory is most elegant, most economical, and shows the closest link to natural science.

ii- Stimulus-response (S-R) theory can accurately be labeled a laboratory theory in contrast to other theories

with which we have dealt where the role of clinical or naturalistic observation has been much more

important.

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