Personality Psychology LT 3 Reviewer

SKINNER
Overview of Behavioral Analysis
- Minimizes speculation and focuses almost entirely on observable behavior (although
Skinner did not claim that observable behavior is limited to external events.
- Approach: Radical Behaviorism avoids all hypothetical constructs such as the ego,
traits, drives, needs, hunger, etc.
- Skinner, as a determinist, rejects the notion of free will
- Human behavior does not stem from an act of the will, but like any observable
phenomenon, it is lawfully determined and can be studied scientifically.
- As an environmentalist, Skinner believes that psychology must explain behavior on the
basis of environmental stimuli
- He recognizes the importance of physiological or genetic factors but insisted that
the history of the individual provides the most useful data for predicting and
controlling behavior
- Anatomy is fixed at conception = no help in the control of behavior
Precursors to Skinners Scientific Behaviorism
1.) E.L. Thorndike
- First psychologist to systematically study the consequences of behavior
- Originally worked with animals, then with humans
- Observed that that learning takes place mostly because of the
effects that follow a response (Law of Effect*)
*Law of Effect
1st part: Responses to stimuli that are immediately followed by a satisfier tend to be stamped in
- Rewards or Satisfiers strengthen the connection between a stimulus and a response
2nd part: Responses to stimuli that are immediately followed by an annoyer tend to be stamped out
- Thorndikes revision: Punishments or annoyers do not usually weaken the connection between a
stimulus and a response, it merely inhibits that behavior; it does not stamp it out
- ^Thorndike later amended the Law of Effect by minimizing the importance of
annoyers
- Skinner acknowledged that the Law of Effect was crucial to the control of behavior and
saw it as his job to make sure that the effects do occur and they occur under conditions
optimal for learning
- Skinner also agreed with Thorndike that the effects of effects of rewards are more
predictable that the effects of punishments in shaping behavior.
2.) John B. Watson
- More direct influence on Skinner
- Studied both humans and animals = convinced that the concepts of
consciousness and introspection (as well as instinct, sensation, perception,
motivations, mental states, mind and imagery) must play no role in the scientific
study of human behavior beyond the realm of psychology
- Human behavior (like the behavior of animals and machines) can be studied
objectively.
- Watson further argued that the goal of psychology is the prediction and control
of behavior.
Scientific Behaviorism
- Holds that behavior can be studied without reference to needs, instincts, or motives.
- Cosmology the concern with causation
- Skinner insisted that to be scientific, psychology must avoid internal mental factors and
confine itself to observable physical events.
- Although Skinner believed that internal states are outside the domain of science, he did
not deny their existence, but they are not explanations for behavior.
Philosophy of Science
- Scientific behaviorism allows for an interpretation of behavior, but not an explanation
of its causes. (Interpretations permit a scientist to generalize from a simple learning
condition to a more complex one.)
- Skinner used principles derived from laboratory studies to interpret the behavior of
human beings but insisted that interpretation should not be confused with an explanation
of why people behave the way they do.
Characteristics of Science
- According to Skinner, science has three main characteristics: (1) science is cumulative,
(2) science is an attitude that values empirical observations, and (3) science is a search for
order and lawful relationships.
1.) Science is Cumulative
- Science advances in a cumulative manner.
- Cumulative knowledge is not to be confused with technological progress.
Science is unique not because of technology but rather because of its attitude.
2.) Science is an attitude that values empirical observations
- Three components to the scientific attitude.
a.) Science rejects authority even its own authority. Just because some well-
respected person says something does not make the statement true. It must stand
the test of empirical observation.
b.) Science demands intellectual honesty. It requires scientists to accept facts even
these oppose their wishes and desires/hopes and hypotheses.
c.) Science suspends judgment (until clear trends emerge). Sufficiently verify and
test experiments/studies through replication.
3.) Science is a search for order and lawful relationships.
- The scientific method consists of prediction, control and description.
- A scientist makes observations guided by theoretical assumptions, develops
hypotheses (or predictions), tests these hypotheses through controlled
experimentation, describes the results honestly and accurately, and modifies the
theory to match the actual empirical results.
*Skinner believed that prediction, control and description are possible in scientific
behaviorism because behavior is both determined and lawful.
Conditioning
- Skinner recognized two kinds of conditioning: Classical (respondent) conditioning and
Operant (Skinnerian) conditioning.
- One Distinction between classical and operant conditioning: in classical conditioning,
behavior is elicited (drawn) from the organism; in operant conditioning, behavior is
emitted (simply appears).
-Emitted response: simply appear because of organisms individual history of
reinforcement or species evolutionary history
Classical Conditioning
- A neutral (conditioned) stimulus is paired with (immediately precedes) an
unconditioned stimulus a number of times until it is able to bring about a previously
unconditioned response (that becomes the conditioned response).
- Simplest examples include reflex behavior
Ex. Little Albert (Watson)
- Pairing of a white rat (previously neutral stimulus) with the fear od a loud
sudden sound (unconditioned stimulus) until the presence of the white rat (now
conditioned stimulus) was sufficient enough to elicit the unconditioned response (fear).
Operant Conditioning
- Skinner believed that most human behaviors are learned through Operant conditioning.
- Key to Operant conditioning is immediate reinforcement of a response. The organism
first does something and then is reinforced by the environment.
- Reinforcement increases the probability that the same behavior will occur again.
- This conditioning is call Operant because the organism operates on the environment
to produce a specific effect.
- Operant conditioning changes the frequency of a response or the probability that a
response will occur; The reinforcement DOES NOT cause the behavior, but it increases
the likelihood that it will be repeated.
Shaping
- Shaping is a procedure in which the experimenter or the environment first
rewards gross approximations of the behavior, then closer approximations, and
finally the desired behavior itself.
- Through this process of successive approximations, the experimenter or the
environment gradually shapes the final complex set of behaviors.
- The reinforcement need not follow every successful trial.
*Three conditions of Operant Conditioning: (1) the antecedent, (2) the behavior, and (3)
the consequence
1.) The antecedent refers to the environment or setting in which the behavior
takes place
2.) The behavior an action or response that must be within the actors repertoire
and must not be interfered with by competing behaviors
3.) The consequence the reward
(Shaping..)
- Behavior is not discreet but continuous; the organism usually moves slightly
from the previously reinforced response, and this slightly exceptional value can then be
used as the new minimum standard for reinforcement. This is the reason why the
organism does not just repeat the reinforced responses.

- Operant conditioning takes place in an environment, and the environment has a

selective role in shaping and maintaining behavior.
- Operant Discrimination result of the history of differential reinforcement or the
reinforcement of organisms by some elements in our environment but not to others;
Skinner claims that discrimination is not an ability that we possess but a consequence of
our reinforcement history.
- Stimulus Generalization a response to a similar environment in the absence of
previous reinforcement; The reinforcement of a response increases the probability of all
responses containing the same elements according to Skinner.
Ex. A college student purchases a ticket to a rock concert performed by a group
she has neither seen nor heard but one she has been told is similar to her favorite
rock group. people react to a new situation in the same manner that they reacted
to an earlier one because the two situations posses some identical elements.
Reinforcement
- According to Skinner, reinforcement has two effects: (1) it strengthens the behavior and
(2) it rewards the person.
- Not every reinforcement is rewarding or pleasing.
- Reinforcers exists in the environment and are not something felt by the person.
Ex. Food is not reinforcing because it tastes good; rather, it tastes good because it
is reinforcing.
- Two kinds of Reinforcement
- Positive Reinforcement produces a beneficial environmental condition; Any
stimulus that, when added to a situation, increases the probability that a given behavior
will occur; Much human and animal behavior is acquired through positive reinforcement.
- Negative Reinforcement reduces or avoids a detrimental environmental
condition; The removal of an aversive stimulus from a situation increases the probability
that the immediately preceding behavior will occur or strengthens it.
*Their difference: Negative Reinforcement requires the removal of an aversive condition,
while Positive Reinforcement involves the presentation of a beneficial stimulus.
*Their similarity: Their effects are identical both Negative and Positive reinforcement
strengthen behavior.
Punishment
- Punishment should never be confused with Negative Reinforcement. While Negative
Reinforcement removes/reduces/avoids an aversive condition, Punishment is the
presentation (giving) of an aversive stimulus (ex. electric shock) OR removal of a
positive stimulus/reinforcer (ex. cutting off an adolescents phone line).
- Common characteristics between punishment and reinforcement: (1) 2 types of
reinforcer, 2 types of punishment; (2) both punishment and reinforcement can derive
either from natural consequences or from human imposition/intervention; (3) both
punishment and reinforcement are means of controlling behavior, whether by design or
by accident.
- Punishment does not strengthen a response, neither does it inevitable weaken it.
- Skinner agreed with Thorndike that the effects of punishment are less predictable that
those of reward.
- Effects of punishment
- Control of human and animal behavior is better served by positive and negative
reinforcement that by punishment. When the contingencies of reinforcement are
strictly controlled, behavior can be precisely shape and accurately predict, but
with punishment, no such accuracy is possible.
 - Suppresses the tendency to behave in the undesirable fashion = Suppress
behavior.
- Conditioning of negative feeling by associating a strong aversive stimulus with
the behavior of being punished (same as classical conditioning) no positive
instruction to the child.
- Spread its effects = any stimulus associated with punishment may be suppressed
or avoided; organisms behavior towards certain entities may be maladaptive, yet
this inappropriate behavior serves the purpose of preventing future punishment.
- Skinner recognized Freuds defense mechanisms as effective means of avoiding pain
and its attending anxiety (the punished person may fantasize, project feelings onto others,
rationalize aggressive behaviors or displace them toward other people or animals).
Conditioned and Generalized Reinforcers
- Conditioned reinforcer sometimes called secondary reinforcers; environmental
stimuli that are not by nature satisfying but become so because they are associated with
such unlearned or primary reinforcers such as food, water, sex or physical comfort.
- Ex. Money = can be exchanged for a great deal of primary reinforcers
- Generalized reinforcer stimuli that can be associated with more than one primary
reinforce
- Skinner recognized FIVE important generalized reinforcers that sustain much of
human behavior: attention, approval, affection, submission of others and tokens
(money).
- Behavior can be shaped and responses learned with generalized conditioned
reinforcers supplying the sole reinforcement.
Schedules of Reinforcement
- Any behavior followed immediately by the presentation of a positive reinforcer or
removal of an aversive stimulus (negative reinforcement) tends to occur more frequently;
the frequency of that behavior, however, is subject to the conditioned under which
training occurred (various schedules of reinforcement)
- Continuous schedule of reinforcement the organism is reinforced for every
response; increases the frequency of response but is an inefficient use of the
reinforce
- Intermittent schedule of reinforcement preferred by Skinner (running low on
food pellets); produce responses that are more resistant to extinction; more
efficient use of reinforcer; based on either the behavior of the organism or on
elapsed time either be set at a fixed rate or can vary according to a randomized
program; behavior trained on an intermittent schedule appears to be self-
perpetuating and in indistinguishable from functionally autonomous behavior
(Allport)
Four basic intermittent schedules
1.) Fixed-Ratio organism is reinforced intermittently according to the number of
responses it makes. Ratio = ratio of responses to reinforcers
a. Ex. Pigeon rewarded with a grain pellet every fifth peck it makes. (Pigeon
conditioned at a fixed-ratio schedule of 5 to 1 (FR 5)
b. Pigeon 200 to 1 = low rate of responses -> gradually build (long and
rapid, one food pellet = previously reinforced at lower rates continuous
schedule)
 2.) Variable-Ratio organism is reinforced after the nth response on the average; the
higher the mean reached (VR 500), responses become extremely resistant to
extinction
a. Ex. playing slot machines ratio is flexible or variable (machine is set to
pay off at a certain rate) to prevent players from predicting payoffs.
3.) Fixed-Interval organism is reinforced for the first response following a
designated period of time
a. Ex. FI 5 = organism is rewarded for its first response after every-5 minute
interval
b. Ex. Workers paid every week/every 3 weeks, every month
4.) Variable-Interval organism is reinforced after the lapse of random or varied
periods of time; such schedules result in more responses per interval that do fixed-
interval schedules
a. Ex. VI 5 = organism is reinforced following random-length intervals that
average 5 minutes
*For humans, reinforcement results more often from ones effort rather than the passage
of time = ratio schedules are more common that interval schedules.
Extinction
- Causes of loss of learned responses forgotten during passage of time, lost due to the
interference of preceding or subsequent learning (more likely), disappear through
punishment and extinction
- Extinction the tendency of a previously acquired response to become progressively
weakened upon nonreinforcement.
- Operant extinction takes place when an experimenter systematically
withholds reinforcement of a previously learned response until the probability of
that response diminishes to zero; rate of operant extinction depends largely on the
schedule of reinforcement under which learning occured
*The higher the rate of responses per reinforcement, the slower the rate of extinction; the
fewer the responses an organism makes/the shorter the time between reinforcers, the
more quickly extinction will occur
- Ex. Praise and other reinforcers should be used sparingly on training children
- Extinction is seldom systematically applied to human behavior outside therapy and
behavior modification = most of us live in a relatively unpredictable environment (almost
never experience methodical withholding of reinforcement.
The Human Organism
- Skinners view = understanding behavior of laboratory animals can generalize to human
behavior, made no apology for beginning with the study of animals
- Skinner agreed with John Watson that psychology must be confined to a scientific study
or observable phenomena (behavior) science = simple -> more complex
- According to Skinner, human behavior and personality is shaped by three forces:
1.) Natural Selection
- Human personality is the product of a long evolutionary history
- As individuals, our behavior is determined by genetic composition and personal
histories of reinforcement; As a species, we are shaped by the contingencies of
survival
 - Behaviors that, throughout history, were beneficial to the species tended to
survive, whereas those that were only idiosyncratically reinforcing tended to drop
out.
Ex. Dilation of pupil with changes in lighting
- Contingencies of reinforcement and contingencies of survival interact; some
behaviors that are individually reinforcing also contribute to the survival of the
species
- Natural Selection is probably responsible for only a small number of peoples
actions. Skinner claimed that the contingencies of reinforcement, especially those
that have shaped human culture, account for most of human behavior
2.) Cultural Practices
- Selection responsible for those cultural practices that have survived just as
selection plays a key role in humans evolutionary history and also with the
contingencies of reinforcement = humans dont make a cooperative decision to do
what is best for the society, but those societies whose members behaved
cooperatively tended to survive.
3.) Individuals History of Reinforcement (discussed above in *Conditioning)
Inner States
- Skinner did not deny the existence of inner states (feelings of love, anxiety, or fear)
even though he rejected explanations of behavior founded on nonobservable hypothetical
constructs
- Self-Awareness humans not only have consciousness but are also aware of their
consciousness; not only aware of their environment but are also aware of themselves as
part of their environment; not only observe external stimuli but are also aware of
themselves observing the stimuli each person is aware of his/her own thoughts,
feelings, recollections and intentions
- Drives not causes of behavior but merely explanatory fictions; for Skinner, drives
simply refer to the effects of deprivation and satiation and to the corresponding
probability that the organism will responds.
- three essentials of behavior antecedent, behavior and consequences
- Emotions Skinner recognized the subjective existence of emotions but insisted that
behavior must not be attributed to them; Skinner accounted for emotions by the
contingencies of survival and the contingencies of reinforcement
- Purpose and intention physically felt stimuli within the organism and not mentalistic
events responsible for behavior
-Skinner cautioned against attributing behavior to purpose and intention; Purpose
and intention exist within the skin but they are not subject to direct outside
scrutiny.
Complex Behavior
- Skinner believed that even the most abstract and complex behavior is shaped by natural
selection, cultural evolution or the individuals history of reinforcement.
Higher Mental Processes
BANDURA
ALLPORT
Allports Approach to Personality Theory
Sought to Answer Three Question:
What is Personality?
- Personality is both physical and psychological
- Includes both behavior and thinking
- Came up because of his meeting with Freud
What is the Role of Conscious Motivation?
- Healthy adults aware of what and why they are acting that way
- Accepted self-support of face value
- Some motivation is driven by hidden impulses
- Most compulsive behaviors originate from childhood
What are the Characteristics of a Healthy Person?
Six criteria for maturity:
- Extension of the sense of self
- Warm relating of self to others
- Emotional security or self-acceptance
- Realistic perception of their environment
- Insight and humor
- Unifying philosophy of life
^almost the same as the theory of Maslow, Allport was first
Structure of Personality
Refers to Basic Units
- Personality Dispositions (most important)
o Levels of Personal Dispositions
Cardinal Dispositions the one that dominates your life, defining
traits (eto ka talaga; hindi mo mapagkakailang na ito ka)
Central Dispositions characteristics that you have that your life
revolves around; some people dont have central disposition
people have to be aware of this
Secondary Dispositions less reliable and conspicuous as central
traits
- Motivational and Stylistic Dispositions
o Motivational - college, you want to pass
o Stylistic college, you want to get an A
- Proprium People regard as warm and center of their life (katapat ng self/ego)