Learning &
Maladaptive
Behavior
Lesson 17
Maladaptive Behavior
Detrimental to well-being/survival
 How is it acquired?
 Normal learning mechanisms
 Operant (Instrumental) learning
 overt behaviors
 Respondent learning
 CERs
 physiological responses
 covert behaviors ~

Maladaptive Learning: Respondent
Conditioned Emotional Responses
 fear/anxiety
 anticipatory pain
 Phobias
 Depression
 Panic Disorder
 With agoraphobia
 Post-traumatic stress-disorder ~

Conditioned Emotional Responses
Acquired Motivation
 Motivates maladaptive behaviors
 covert behavior: Fear & Anxiety
 Pavlovian
 Self-medication
 Addictive behaviors
 Mood modification
 Via behavior or substance use
 acquisition by operant ~

Maladaptive Eating Behaviors
Higher incidence of
 depression & anxiety
 OCD & substance abuse
 women: relationship problems
 Maintained via reinforcement
 self-medication
 Obesity
 positive & negative reinforcement
 health problems ~

Eating Disorders
Anorexia nervosa
 little or no eating
 Bulimia
 binge & purge
 Motivation?
 Negative body image  anxiety
 lack of control
 Control eating  RFT ~

Substance Abuse & Addiction
Abused/Addictive drugs
 Positive reinforcers
 Negative reinforcers
 Aversive aftereffects
 Normal reinforcement mechanisms
 Same as natural reinforcers
 Strengthens drug-taking behavior
 Addiction: compulsive use ~

Abusive Relationships
Why do women stay with men who
physically abuse them?
 Pain as punishment
 Honeymoon phase as Pos RFT
 Initially
 later following abuse
 History of punishing behavior
 early weak  later severe
 habituation ~

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Obsessions
 Persistent, intrusive thoughts
 Produce anxiety
 Compulsions
 Repetitive behaviors
 Reduce anxiety
 Acquired & maintained by…
 Negative reinforcement ~

Learned Helplessness
Animal model of depression
 No contingency b/n behavior &
aversive outcomes
 Saversive : B  no effect
 Global expectancy develops
 ineffectiveness of behavior
 Failure to respond even when it
may be successful ~

Experimental procedure
Master rat
Yoked rat
Master
 response can terminate shock
 Yoked
 shocked w/ master
 no control over shock ~

Give all avoidance training
Transfer all to shuttlebox training
 Standard escape / avoidance task
 Will they learn to escape?
 Master?
 Yoked? ~

Master vs Yoked
Difference in escape learning, but
 Both shocked
 Same number
 Same intensity
 Same duration
 How do they differ?
 Control of shock ~

Conclusions
Yoked rat develops expectation
 no response will terminate shock
 generalizes to other situations
 Global expectancy of ineffectiveness ~

Uncontrollable
Aversive Events
Learned
Helplessness
Stress-induced Analgesia
Decrease in pain sensitivity
 Occurs in rats in uncontrollable
circumstances
 Use same rats from learned
helplessness
 Test for analgesia
 Tail Flick Test ~

Results
Master  no analgesia
 stress is controllable
 Yoked rat  analgesic

stress is uncontrollable
 Less sensitive to pain
 May stay in contact with painful
stimulus longer
 Injury more likely ~

Kids & Math Problems
Dweck & Rapucci (1973)
 5th graders given series of math
problems
 Give easy problems
 performance good
 Give unsolvable problems
 Give easy again
 difficulty doing easy problems ~
