Unit 3

1. Unit 3 Theoretical Perspective of Human Development Mid twentieth century theories (Continues……..)

2. Mechanistic Perspective • Behaviorism • Social Learning

3. Behaviorism Key Players: • Thorndike – Connectionism • Pavlov (and Watson) – Classical Conditioning • Skinner – Operant Conditioning • Bandura – Observable Learning and Modeling

4. The Behavioural Perspective • The behavioral perspective suggests that the keys to understanding development are observable behavior and outside stimuli in the environment. • If we know the stimuli, we can predict the behaviour. • Behavioral theories reject the notion that individuals universally pass through a series of stages. • Instead, people are assumed to be affected by the environmental stimuli to which they happen to be exposed. • Developmental patterns, then, are personal, reflecting a particular set of environmental stimuli, and development is the result of continuing exposure to specific factors in the environment.

5. What is Behaviorism? Behaviorism is: • A theory of learning based upon the idea that all behavior are acquired through conditioning that occurs through interaction with the environment. According to behaviorism: • Behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental states.

6. Behavioral Learning Theories • Traditional Behaviorism (John Watson) • Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) • Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner) • Law of Effect (Thorndike)

7. John B. Watson (1878-1958) “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select ... regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors.”

8. Traditional Behaviorism • Born in Greenville, South Carolina • He was originally involved in animal research, but later became involved in the study of human behavior. • Watson believed that human are born with a few reflexes and the emotional reactions of love and rage. • All other behavior is established through stimulus –response association through conditioning • Stimulus elicits a response • 􀂄 Stimulus: any object in the general environment or any change in the tissues themselves due to the physiological condition of the animal • Response: anything the animal does • Linked stimulus-response association to conditioning like Pavlov did. • Published ‘Psychology from the Standpoint of Behaviorism ‘ in 1919.

9. Watson (continued….) • ‘Behaviorism is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior.” (Watson, 1913) • Watson argued that children’s behavior arises largely from the reward and punishments that follow particular behavior. • He agreed with Pavlov’s idea. • He viewed learning as conditioning and rejected introspection and all ‘mentalistic’ concepts of psychology.

10. Watson’s Experiment • Watson demonstrated classical conditioning in an experiment involving a young child (Albert and a white cat)

11. Watson’s Experiment (continued…) • Originally, Albert was unafraid of the rat; but Watson created a sudden loud noise whenever Albert touched the rat. • Because Albert was frightened by the loud noise, he soon became conditioned to fear and avoid the rat. • The fear was generalized to other small animals. • Watson then ‘extinguished’ the fear by presenting the rat without the loud noise.

12. Classical Conditioning Theory • Classical conditioning was the first type of learning to be discovered and studied within the behaviorist tradition. • The major theorist in the development of classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist trained in biology and medicine.

13. Pavlov (continued…. ) • Pavlov was studying the digestive system of dogs and became intrigued with his observation that dogs deprived of food began to salivate when one of his assistants walked into the room. • He began to investigate this phenomena and established the law of classical conditioning. • Skinner renamed this type of learning ‘respondent conditioning’ since in this type of learning, one is responding too an environmental antecedent.

14. Pavlov, dogs and saliva

15. Pavlov (continued…. ) • Behaviors that are classically conditioned are those which involve the learning of involuntary (reflexive) responses over which the learner has no control and to which he or she responds reflexively or ‘automatically’ - Example includes, a dog salivating at the sound of the dinner bell, someone becoming nauseous at the sight of ‘creamy-looking food when mayonnaise once made them ill.

16. Key terms • Unconditional Stimulus (UCS) – A stimulus that elicits a response without conditioning • Unconditional Response (UCR) – Automatic response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus. • Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – A neutral stimulus that when paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) elicits a similar responses. • Conditioned Response (CR) – A response that is learned by pairing the originally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with the unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) • Neutral Stimulus (NS) – It does not elicit the Unconditioned (or reflexive) Response (UCR).

17. Classical Conditioning

18. Classical Conditioning Theory The neutral / orienting stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired with the unconditional / natural stimulus (US).

19. Classical Conditioning

20. Classical Conditioning Theory • The neutral stimulus (NS) is transformed into a conditioned stimulus (CS). • That is, when the CS is presented by itself, it elicits or causes the CR (which is the same as involuntary response UR). • The name changed because it is elicited by a different stimulus (written as CS elicits >CR) .

21. Classical Conditioning Theory

22. Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus Unconditioned Response

23. Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus Unconditioned Response Neutral Stimulus

24. Classical Conditioning Conditioned Response Conditioned Stimulus

25. Classical Conditioning

26. Examples of classical conditioning Remember: these are involuntary, reflexive (physiological response, emotions etc.) • Phobias • Taste aversions –Maple off ice cream (bernstein) • The “Christmas Spirit” feeling • Public speaking • What happens when you smell good food?

27. Stages of Classical Conditioning • Acquisition - The acquisition phase is the consistent pairing of the CS (bell ) and the UCS (food) that produces a CR (saliva) • Extinction - The extinction phase is when the conditioned response no longer occurs after repeated pairings without the unconditioned stimulus. - The dog’s response to the bell can be extinguished by repeatedly presenting the bell (CS) without the food (UCS).

28. Stages of Classical Conditioning(continued…..) • Generalization - Occurs when there is a small difference in the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell of a similar tone, the dog would still salivate. • Discrimination - The opposite of generalization, discrimination happens when a conditioned response does not occur when there is a difference between the presented stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus. - If Pavlov’s dog heard a bell with a different tone and was not awarded the unconditioned stimulus (food), the dog would not to salivated to the second tone.

29. Classical conditioning in the classroom learning • In the area of classroom learning, classical conditioning is seen primarily in the conditioning of emotional behavior. • Things that make us happy, sad, angry etc. become associated with neutral stimuli that gain our attention. - For example: the school, classroom, teacher, or subject matter are initially neutral stimuli that gain attention. • Activities at school or in the classroom automatically elicit emotional responses and these activities are associated with the neutral or orienting stimulus.

30. Classical conditioning in the classroom learning (continued…..) • After repeated presentations, the previously neutral stimulus will elicit the emotional response. Example: - Child is harassed at school - Child feels bad when harassed - Child associate being harassed and school - Child begins to feel bad when she thinks of school - In order to extinguish the associated of feeling bad and thinking of school, the connection between school and being harssed must be broken.

31. Behavioral Learning Theories Operant Conditioning B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) • “All we need to know in order to describe and explain behavior is this: actions followed by good outcomes are likely to recur , and actions followed by bad outcomes are less likely to recur.” (Skinner, 1953)

32. Behaviorism Environmental consequences shape behavior

33. B. F. Skinner • B.F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna, a small railroad town in the hills of Pennsylvania. • After attending Hamilton college, Skinner decided to become a writer (Majored in English) • Moving back home he wrote a book entitled ‘Dark year’. • Moved to New year city for few months working as a bookstore clerk. • There, he came across with books by Pavlov and Watson, which he found impressive and exciting, and wanted to learn more.

34. B. F. Skinner • In 1928, at the age of 24, Skinner was enrolled in the Psychology Department of Harvard University. • In 1931 he earned Ph.D. from Harvard • Invented ‘Skinner Box” • Skinner was a dedicated researcher; died on August 18, 1990 from leukemia. • The main principles of operant conditioning, as defined by Skinner are: reinforcement, punishment, shaping, extinction, discrimination, and generalization.

35. Skinner Box

36. Skinner’s Box

37. Laboratory Examples Operant Conditioning Exploring Scratching Key-pecking Grooming Defecating Urinating Reinforcement Pigeon (food pellet) (in a Skinner box)

38. Operant Conditioning • Operant Conditioning is the study of the impact of consequences on behavior. • With operant conditioning we are dealing with voluntary behavior. • A B C (Antecedent Behavior Consequence) • Antecedent – stimulus that “cues” certain responses • Behavior – the action • Consequence – the payoff • Reinforcement=behavior increases • Punishment=behavior decreases • Remember: voluntary behavior

39. Operant Conditioning Reward/ Reinforcement Punishment

40. Increasing and Decreasing the Frequency of Responses • A reinforcement is an event that increases the probability that a response will be repeated. • A punishment is an event that decreases the probability of a response

41. Reinforcement and Punishment • A reinforcement can be either the presentation of a desirable item such as money or food, or the removal of an unpleasant stimulus, such as verbal nagging or physical pain. • A punishment can be the removal of a desirable condition such as driving privileges or the presentation of an unpleasant condition such as physical pain. • All things being equal, most people will respond better to both immediate reinforcement and immediate punishment.

42. Reinforcement and Punishment(Continued…..) • Most punishments in American society are given for behaviors that are immediately reinforcing, while the threat of the punishments for these deeds is delayed and uncertain. • Punishment tends to be ineffective except for temporarily suppressing undesirable behavior. • Mild, logical and consistent punishment can be informative and helpful.

43. Operant Conditioning

44. OPERANT CONDITIONING TECHNIQUES • POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT = increasing a behavior by administering a reward • NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT = increasing a behavior by removing an aversive stimulus when a behavior occurs • PUNISHMENT = decreasing a behavior by administering an aversive stimulus following a behavior OR by removing a positive stimulus • EXTINCTION = decreasing a behavior by not rewarding it

45. Reinforcement • The process in which a behavior is strengthened, and thus, more likely to happen again. • Positive reinforcer: “Rewards” or something desirable is received after a behavior occurs - Positive Reinforcement : Making a behavior stronger by following the behavior with a pleasant stimulus. For example: • A rat presses a lever and receives food. • The dog gets attention from his people when he barks. • The child gets ice-cream for begging incessantly. • The toddler gets picked up and comforted for screaming

46. Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement • Making a behavior stronger by taking away a negative stimulus. • Negative reinforcer: “Escapes” or something undesirable is avoided after a behavior occurs. For Example: • A rat presses a lever and turns off the electric shock • We put on boots to prevent sitting in class with wet socks on.

47. Reinforcers and Reinforcement • Reinforcers can be: - Primary (food, water etc.) which is innately rewarding; no learning necessary. - Secondary (money, good grades, and words of praise, etc) which is a consequence that is learned by pairing with a primary reinforcer. • Reinforcement can be continuous or intermitted (whenever required).

48. Punishment • An undesirable stimulus received after a behavior occurs. • Any stimulus presented immediately after a behavior in order to decrease the future probability of that behavior. • The process in which a behavior is weakened and thus, less likely to happen again. For example: - If your kid runs into the middle of the street and you flip out and ‘express to him how bad he is’, this (at least in psychological terms) is only considered to be punishment if it does in fact lead to a decrease in that child’s behavior of running into the street.

49. LIMITED EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT • Punishment does not teach appropriate behaviors • Must be delivered immediately & consistently • May result in negative side effects • Undesirable behaviors may be learned through modeling (aggression) • May create negative emotions (anxiety & fear)

50. Negative vs. Positive Punishment