Behavioral and Social Learning Theories

Behavioral and Social Learning Theories

1. Behaviorism

   • A third group of scientists working in the late 1890s
     • They contributed to the founding of psychology in different ways
     • Influenced by Charles Darwin to study psychological processes that are useful in survival.
     • They were not interested in the adaptive functions of consciousness
   • Ivan Pavlov
     • Conducted a research on digestion in dogs
     • Surgically implanted tubes in the cheeks of the dogs
       • to study the reflexive of the saliva during eating
       • Noticed the secretion of saliva when the dogs saw food not just when the food is in their mouth
       • Recognized the dog had learned to associate the sight of food by salivating
     • He demonstrate it was correct by using clicking metronome and a small quantities of powdered meat
       • When metronome and meat powder were presented together, the dogs quickly learned to salivate to the metronome alone
     • His accidental discovery from the dog's experiment was a tremendous importance to the psychology field
       • A simple form of learning ? conditioning
         • Inherited reflex (salivating) comes to be triggered by a stimulus that has nothing to do with that reflex (metronome)
     • Shown inherited reflex could be influenced dramatically by learning experiences
     • Thought that conditioning was important for survival of species
     • Before conditioning
       • Unconditioned stimulus - Unconditioned response
       • Neutral stimulus - No response
     • After conditioning
       • Conditioned stimulus
       • Conditioned response
   • The approach is known as behaviorism
     • They believed that it was not possible to study conscious experience scientifically
     • Behaviorist study the adaptive value of learning from experience
   • John B. Watson n Margaret Floy Washburn
     • Pavlov's theories were not immediately accepted in the United States
     • 1910s and 1920s, the concepts were taken up in the writing of John B and Floy Washburn
     • They agreed with Pavlov the importance of conditioning went far beyond salivating dogs
     • Most human behavior was learned through classical conditioning
     • B.F. Skinner was the leading exponent of behaviorism until his death in 1990s

2. Social Learning Theory

   • Albert Bandura is the leading spokesperson for most contemporary behavioral psychologists endorse a broader version of behaviorism
     • integrates the study of behavior with the study of cognition
     • Social Learning view is vastly different from psychoanalyst
     • Social Learning theorists focus on a psychological processes that is learning
     • Origins writings of Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner
       • Each theorists argued that personality is learned behavior and that the way to understand personality is simply to understand the process of learning
       • The key concepts in the study of personality are not id, ego, and superego but classical conditioning, operant conditioning and modeling
       • "personality is simply something that is learned; it's sum total all the ways we have learned to act, think, and feel. Because personality is learned from other people in society"
   • The most important aspects of our behavior are learned from other person's in society. We learn to be who are from our family, friends, and culture
   • Role of Learning in personality
     • Social learning view: a person develops an adequate personality if they exposed to good models and is reinforced for appropriate behavior
     • Inadequate learning environment = inadequate personality development
     • Allbert Bandura is the leading figure
       • Agrees with the view from other behaviorists (Watson n Skinner) = personality is the sum of total of learned behavior
       • 2 main ways in traditional behaviorism
         • He sees people as playing an active role in determining their own actions, rather than being passively acted on by the learning environment.
         • He emphasizes the importance of cognition in personality.
       • States that social learning is an example of reciprocal determination
     • Reciprocal determination: a person's behavior learned and the social learning environment is altered by the person's behavior
     • People will react differently depending on how we act towards them.
       • hence teaching us different things abut social relationships
       • Aggressive, overconfident person will learn that the world is cold, rejecting place
       • A friendly person will learn that the world is warm, and loving place
     • Personality is learned behavior but it is also behavior that influences future learning experiences
   • Role of Cognition in Personality
     • Learned cognitions are the prime determinant of our behavior
     • People who believe that helping others only makes them less self-reliant will be stingy toward people in need
     • People who think that other people find them boring will act quiet and shy
     • Bandura places particular emphasis on the role of our cognitions play about our ability to handle the demands of life.
     • Self efficacy: the perception that one is capable of doing what is necessary to reach one’s goals- in the sense of knowing what to do and being emotionally able to do it.
       • High self efficacy: expend more effort, and may be more successful in reaching their goals
       • Low self efficacy: social poise may not accept a promotion at work because it would involve giving many speeches and having to negotiate with dignitaries.
       • our perceptions of self-efficacy are learned from
         • what others say about us
         • our direct experiences of success and failure
         • other sources
       • these cognitions continue to influence our behavior from the inside out.
     • Bandura also emphasizes the importance of values and personality standards in personality.
     • We learn personal standards for our behavior from:
       • observing the personal standards that other people model
       • the standards that others use when rewarding or punishing us.
     • Self regulation: When we behave in ways that meet our personal standards, we cognitively pat ourselves on the back
     • Situationism and Interactionism
       • Some situations tend to make us cheerful and some make us gloomy
       • B. F. Skinner (1953) argued that behavior is determined by the situations in which people find themselves, not traits inside the person (situationism)
         • it suggests that our behavior is consistent only as long as our situations remain consistent
       • People behave in ways that suit their situations. behavior cannot be consistent enough to be adequately described in terms of personality traits
       • Social learning theorists suggested a constructive compromise between the trait and situationism positions
         • The solution known as person x situation interactionism
           • our behavior is influenced by a combination of characteristics of the person and the situation
             • different people react to the same situation differently
             • the same person often behaves quite differently in different situations.
       • The only way to fully describe a person’s personality is in terms of “if…then” statements. (interactionism)
         • Such 'if…then' statements provide a description of our personalities that allows a prediction of future behavior in a variety of situations.
           • “If he feels liked by others, then he is cheerful and kind. If he thinks other people don’t like him, then he is gloomy and sarcastic.”
       • the “person variables” in the person X situation interaction are:
         • the cognitive (beliefs)
         • motivational (goals)
         • emotional tendencies that we have acquired through social learning and that determine how we respond to different situations.
       • The situations that interact with our personal characteristics do not just happen to us at random: we play an important role in selecting and creating many of the situations in which we live.