MAp 601 7

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2 M.A.(Psy) SYSTEM AND THEORY Course Code: MAP601 Semester: First E-Lesson: 6 SLM Unit: 7 https://images.app.goo.gl/YSL3acgti2rtPY6y5 www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

SYSTEM AND THEORY 33 OBJECTIVES INTRODUCTION To enable students to gather a creative and in The unit discusses the neo- behaviourist depth understanding of psychology as a science. perspective in brief To understand the role and importance of various The unit further covers the contribution school of psychology. and concepts given by Skinner. To familiarize students with recent development The unit further discusses the idea of in the fields in the field of Psychology. Guthrie on learning. Students will acquire and demonstrate Unit-7(MAPP 601) INASlTl ITriUgThEt OarFeDrIeSsTeArNvCeEd AwNitDh OCNUL-IIDNOE LLEARNING knowledge of information pertaining to personality and individual differences. . www.cuidol.in

TOPICS TO BE COVERED 4 > NEO- BEHAVIOURIST PERSPECTIVE > SKINNER’s OPERANT CONDITIONING > GUTHRIE’s LEARNING OF CONTIGUITY www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

NEO-BEHAVIOURISM 5  An approach that focuses on the behavior of organism as an source of its primary data but also allows for the use of unobservable and covert processes as explanatory devices (Rebar & Reber,2001). The Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner, the third of the important neo-behaviorist. The features of neo- behaviorism are purposive, instrumental, molar, analytical. The Main approaches are molar, analytical and cognitive.  The Main methods are used instrumental conditioning and latent leaning, and leaning paradigm of neo-behaviorism is S-O-R. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

B.F. SKINNER(1904- 6 1990)  Burrhuss Frederic (B.F.) Skinner born on march 20,1904 in Pennsylvania. He is the third of the important neo behaviourists.  He got married at the age of 32 and moved to Minnesota along with his wife where he started his first teaching job.  He dealt only with observable types of behavior that was related to task of scientific inquiry, and also developed a form of behaviorism which he called operant conditioning.  Skinner is regarded as the father of operant conditioning. Skinner was very active and instrumental in the field of psychology.  Skinner B.F. is renowned for his great accomplishment. He established unique functional relationship between experimenter-controlled stimulus and organism response. https://images.app.goo.gl/AYJ7mRy2o5Je8huc7 www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

OPERANT 7 CONDITIONING • In operant conditioning, the meaning of operant behavior is the behavior that occurs without an observable external stimulus, and that behavior operates on the organism’s environment. It is based on Thorndike's Law of Effect. • In this kind of conditioning, consequences ( reinforcement or punishment) modifies the strength of behavior. • The individual starts to form association between a particular behaviour and its consequence. • It is known as Type R conditioning because the organism emits a response and then gets reinforcement. https://images.app.goo.gl/u2NVkKcfywj3bcym8 www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

SKINNER BOX 8 • The skinner named the device as lever box. It is an apparatus used to conduct experiments on rats. • It has an electric grid, lever, signal light, speaker, pellet dispenser and food cup. • The animal is made to learn the behaviour i.e., lever pressing with the help of reinforcement. • In the first experiment, the rats is given reinforcement every time rat presses the lever. • In the second experiment, the rat is given electric https://images.app.goo.gl/iWCgn1XHa1dyXAXU7 shock, the shock is turned off only when rat presses the lever. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT 9 It is a type of leaning occurs as a result of events, and the components of learning expend to include a key features: REINFORCEMENT • Reinforcement is anything that increases the probability of occurrence of response. An equation for learning can look like this: Stimulus-Response-Reinforcement. • Stimulus certain events tend to occur together. • Response to certain actions/activities have certain effect which leads to changes in the circumstances. • For ex. Children competing homework to get a reward from their parent or teacher. • Reinforcement is of two kinds: Positive reinforcement and Negative reinforcement. Types of Reinforcement 1. Positive reinforcement- reward learning 2. Negative reinforcement- escape avoidance leaning www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT 10 Schedules of Reinforcement It is a rule depicting when and how often a behavior will be reinforced. It is of two kinds: 1. Continuous reinforcement- In which, desired behavior is reinforced every single time it happens. 2. Partial reinforcement- In which, the responses are reinforced only part of time. The partial reinforcement is further divided into 4 kinds: a. Fixed ratio: When the reinforcement is given after a fixed number of response. E.g. reinforcement is given after every 4th response. b. Fixed interval: When the reinforcement is given after a fixed amount of time. E.g. Reinforcement is given after every 2 hours. c. Variable ratio: when the reinforcement is given at different responses. E.g. reinforcement after 3, 4 or 8. d. Variable interval: when the reinforcement is given at different times. E.g. reinforcement after 4, 6 or 9 hours. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT 11 Punishment Punishment is a kind of stimulus that aims to decrease the strength in behavior due to its circumstances. There are two kinds of punishment: Positive punishment- it means presenting an unfavorable outcome following an undesirable behavior. E.g. when the teacher gives students test to creating disturbance in the class Negative punishment- it means taking something good or desirable away to reduce the occurrence of particular behavior. E.g. when mother takes away video game from child for abusing. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

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REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT 13 Punishment According skinner, punishment is ineffective in long run because: 1. It causes unfortunate emotional byproducts. 2. It indicates what the organism should not do, not what it should do. 3. It justifies inflicting pain on others. 4. Being in a situation where previously punished behavior could be engaged in without being punished may excuse a child to do so. 5. Punishment elicits aggression toward the punishing agent and others. 6. Punishment often replaces one undesirable response with another undesirable response. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

CRITICISM 14 • Although, Operant conditioning can explain a broad variety of behaviors like behavior in classrooms, Prisons and psychiatric problems but its scope is limited in explaining learning process in the human behaviors. • Skinner’s theory has, however, been criticized for its oversimplification of the complex nature of human behavior. Operant conditioning is based on the idea that behavior is ‘learnt’ simply through the process of reinforcement. • It neglects individual differences and the cognitive processes that influence behavior. This has led critics to label Skinner’s ideas as deterministic: operant conditioning assumes that environmental factors beyond a person’s control are responsible for their behavior. • It fails to account for people’s ability to reason and to decide their actions according to their own free will. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

Edwin R. Guthrie (1886-1959) 15 • Behaviorist, Born in January 9, 1886 • Graduate of university of Nebraska and did Doctorate in philosophy from University of Pennsylvania in 1912. • He started working as an assistant professor in 1918 at university of Washington • In 1935, he published book Psychology of learning. • From 1936-1939, he collaborated with Horton to study stereotypical behaviour of cats in puzzle. • Became elected president of American Psychological Association • Died at age 72, April 23, 1949 https://images.app.goo.gl/7mLWXH4DfiZvq8BJ7 www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

BASIC CONCEPTS 16 Guthrie believed that Law of contiguity which is one of the Aristotle law of association can significantly explain learning phenomena.  Principle of Contiguity : According to it, when stimuli associate themselves with a movement their recurrence, is followed by the movement. He accepted recency principle given by Watson.  One trial learning: He proposed that some new responses can be learned after doing it only once, and in this learned behavior there is no need for repeated practice.  Recency Principle: It states that recent stimuli will form associations with an action or movement than previous stimuli which means that the last response made is the response that will be remembered.  Forgetting: According to Guthrie, not only learning happens in one trial but also the forgetting. Forgetting happens when old S-R connection is replaced by new S-R connection. In the presence of a stimulus pattern when an old movement is replaced by new movement forgetting takes place. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

MOVEMENTS, ACTS & SKILLS 17 1. Movements are minute responses made by the muscles that get associated with impinging stimuli. Movements are learnt responses. 2. Acts are a conglomerate of a number of learnt movements. Acts are learnt behaviors, like learning to press keys on a keyboard. 3. Skills are made up of many acts that are repeated (practice) to develop performance proficiency. Fast typing is a skill. https://images.app.goo.gl/UrYzqGAofaYoERBw6 www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

GUTHRIE- HORTON STUDY 18 (1946) • Guthrie and Horton used a puzzle box similar to Thorndike, and recorded 800 escapes in cats. Horton took photographs. Guthrie took notes. • Each cat learned its own peculiar stereotypical movement to escape the box. Thus Guthrie suggested it reflected one-trial learning, unlike Thorndike’s proposal that cats learnt through repetition. • Guthrie also proposed that cats did not need reinforcement to learn. This also opposed Thorndike’s idea that reinforcement was required. To Guthrie, reinforcement was a potent stimulus that prevented unlearning https://images.app.goo.gl/MMvQRmU86rN7K1Fa6 www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

BREAKING HABITS 19 To break habits determine the cues (pattern of stimuli) that initiate the undesired habit. Replace the undesired habit with a desired habit in the presence of those cues. 1. Threshold/Tolerance Method https://images.app.goo.gl/1BQ5U2vZNrLtdP3U6 2. Fatigue/Exhaustion Method 3. Incompatible Response Method Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL www.cuidol.in

BREAKING HABITS 20 1. Threshold/Tolerance Method: Introduce a stimulus, weak in strength so that it does initiate the bad habit. Increase the intensity of the stimulus slowly making sure that the animal tolerates the stimulus and does not engage in the undesired behavior before moving on to the next stronger stimulus. Examples: 1. Spitting peas. 2. Horse breaking 2. Fatigue/Exhaustion Method: The undesired habit needs to repeated for long periods to cause fatigue or tiredness. Undesired habit will be removed by the negative consequences of fatigue or exhaustion. Similar to flooding (Pavlov). Examples: 1. Bronco-busting. 2. Dog chasing chickens. 3. Incompatible Response Method: Stimuli that cause undesired responses are presented with other stimuli that produce a desired response. Incompatibility of a desired response removes the undesired response. Similar to counter conditioning. •Example: Removal of fear from a toy panda with the introduction of mother’s warmth. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

PUNISHMENT 21 1. Punishment needs to convey information, what the individual needs to do, e.g., dog chasing car. Pain during punishment is meaningless. 2. Punishment should produce an incompatible behavior to the unwanted behavior. 3. Punishment must be applied along with other stimuli, and it should be salient enough to change the undesired behavior. 4. If 2 or 3 are not met then punishment is ineffective, and in fact may strengthen the undesired behavior www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

DRIVES & INTENTIONS 22 • For Guthrie, food (external stimulus) and hunger drive (internal stimulus) were parts of a stimulus pattern. Drives like hunger are maintaining stimuli that keep the individuals going till the goal is reached. • Though maintaining stimuli like hunger are internal, they can also be external like praise • Intentions are conditioned responses (purposive behaviors), associated with maintaining stimuli leading the individual to reach goals. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

VOEKS’ POSTULATES 23 • Postulate I: Principle of Association: Any stimulus pattern which once accompanies a response, and/or immediately precedes it by one-half second or less, becomes a full-strength direct cue for that response. • Postulate II: Principle of Postremity: A stimulus which has accompanied or immediately preceded by two or more incompatible responses is a conditioned for only the last response made while that stimulus was still present. • Postulate III: Principle of Response Probability: The probability of any particular response occurring at some specified time is a function of the proportion of the stimuli present, which were present at the time when the response was originally made. • Postulate IV: Principle of Dynamic Situations: The stimulus pattern is not static but dynamic, and changes from time to time. The pattern is modified, due to changes that result from the subject’s making a response, accumulation of fatigue products, visceral changes and other internal processes of the subject. • www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

EVALUATION 24 STRENGTHS 1. Parsimonious –one law explains a lot. 2. Practical –easily applied to fear and other behaviors. 3. Understandable. WEAKNESS 1. Not falsifiable –one law explains too much. No observation can refute it. 2. Lack experimental control and internal consistency. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

SUMMARY 25 • Burrhus Skinner, radical behaviourist who discovered the concept of operant conditioning. It is the type of conditioning where the organism learns through making operant response. • Operant conditioning is a kind of learning where the organism learns through consequences that follows the behaviour. The consequence can either be reinforcement or punishment. • The tried to analyse the behaviour by further dividing the reinforcement into 4 kinds based of number of time a response and after amount of time a response is produced. • Edwin Ray Guthrie, was a philosopher who started working on learning based on the principle of Aristotle law of contiguity and law of frequency. • According to him, some response can be learned in one trial only. Just like learning forgetting also happens in single trial where the organism starts to associate the learned response with new object. • He gave three methods to break habit which are: Threshold method, Fatigue method and Incompatible response method. Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL www.cuidol.in

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 26 1. Operant conditioning is which kind of learning a. Type S b. Type R c. Type SR d. Type O 2. Skinner operant conditioning is based on thorndike’s which law? a. Law of recency b. Law of Exercise c. Law of Effect d. Law of Use. Answers: 1. a) 2.c) Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL www.cuidol.in

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS 27 3. Which of the following is not given by Guthrie: a. One trial learning b. Breaking habits c. Threshold method d. Classical conditioning 4. Stimuli that cause undesired responses are presented with other stimuli that produce a desired response. Which of the following method is this: a. Incompatible response method b. Fatigue method c. Threshold method d. None of the above Answers: 3. d) 4. a) Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL www.cuidol.in

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 28 Q1. Critically evaluate Skinner theory of Operant conditioning. Ans: In operant conditioning, the meaning of operant behavior is the behavior that occurs without an observable external stimulus, and that behavior operates on the organism’s environment. It is based on Thorndike's Law of Effect. For further detail refer SLM. Q2. Explain operant conditioning with special reference to Schedules of reinforcement. Ans: Learning occurs as a result of consequences that follows a behaviour. Skinner gave different kinds of schedules of reinforcement which are Fixed ratio, Fixed Interval, Variable ratio, Variable interval. For further detail refer SLM. Q3. Summarize Guthrie's views on learning. Ans: Guthrie although a philosopher by education gave significant concepts in the domain of learning. For further detail refer PPT. Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL www.cuidol.in

REFERENCES 29 • Feist, J. & Feist, G. J. (2008). Theories of Personality, 7th edition. McGraw hill. • Hergenhahn, B.R. (2009). An Introduction to the History of Psychology, 6th edition. USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. •Hergenhahn, B.R. & Oslon, M.H.(2001). An Introduction to theories of Learning 6th Edition. New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall. www.cuidol.in Unit-7(MAP 601) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL

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