Learning &
Maladaptive
Behavior
Lecture 16
Maladaptive Behavior
Detrimental to well-being/survival
 How is it acquired?
 Normal learning mechanisms
 Operant (Instrumental) conditioning
 overt behaviors
 Pavlovian conditioning
 CERs
 physiological responses
 covert behaviors ~

Maladaptive Learning: Pavlovian
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 Learning: Instrumental
Eating Disorders
 Anorexia nervosa; Bulimia
 Obesity
 Substance abuse & addiction
 Abusive relationships
 Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
 Learned Helplessness
 Related to depression ~

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 ~

Adjunctive Behavior
Excessive behavior
 Byproduct of intermittent RFT of
another behavior
 moderate FI schedules
 Distractive behaviors: excessive…
 TV viewing, talking, hobbies, etc
 Deleterious behaviors
 Aggression, substance abuse, OCD,
eating, hyperactivity, etc. ~

Adjunctive Behavior: Polydypsia
Falk (1961)
 Food-deprived rats
 Bar press, FI1 min for food RFT
 Water available, no deprivation
 Response patterns
 Expected FI pattern for bar press
 Unexpected: excessive drinking ~

Adjunctive Behavior: Polydypsia
Drank up to ½ body wgt in 3 hours
 Not being reinforced
 Drinking immediately after RFT
 Also for
 Attack behavior, overeating
 And in several species
  SR deprivation   adjunctive behavior
 Can act as RFT for other behaviors
 Premack Principle ~

Adjunctive Behavior: Conflict
Between
 Obtaining valued RFT
 And abandoning situation
 e.g., work vs family; hi risk jobs
 Rate of RFT important
 Too rich or lean  No conflict

Rich:
stay and respond
Lean: abandon

Moderate  adjunctive behavior
Conflict
~
Adjunctive Behavior: Conflict
Displacement Activity
 Irrelevant behavior (e.g.,killing time)
 when confronted by conflict
 Or thwarted from attaining goal
 How could it be adaptive?
  response variation
 Remain in situation where valued RFT
might occur ~

Case Study: B.S.
24-year-old male
 Moderate mental retardation & BD
 Aggression: others, objects, self
 Activity Schedule
 toileting every hour (FI1 hr)
 SIB after toilet
 Change of schedule to VI1 hr
 almost completely eliminated SIB ~
