PSYC 340 Module 10
Behaviorism/Learning Perspective
Radical behaviorism:
1. Radical behaviorism is based on the philosophical view of empiricism, that is, all knowledge
originates in experience (conscious, not unconscious).
a. Blank Slate/Tabula rasa (John Locke) - We were born of a blank slate/blank paper and
our sensory experience writes on this paper.
2. Behaviorists rejected the role of unconsciousness in personality. Instead, they focused on the
relations between traits and situations, environmental and developmental factors (i.e. the
surrounding social groups)
3. Originated from animal research. This methodology is called anthropomorphism (portraying
animal behavior in human).
a. Specifically, psychologists argued that all animals that live in social groups have social
instincts. These social instincts help animals to learn from the social group. Therefore,
our habits and characteristics are a result of learning from social groups.
b. Therefore, radical behaviorists (e.g., Ivan Pavlov, see below) started understanding
human behaviors through the study of reflexology - a unifying science to study reflexes,
with a focus on social reflexes (our automatic responses in social situations) and
conditioned reflexes.
4. The assumptions of radical behaviorism
a. Habit formation: Learning experiences result in different habits.
b. Learning curve: Time is needed to learn and develop habits.
c. Laws of learning: human learn based on several laws of learning.
d. Eventually, when a new behavior is successfully learned, habits then evolve and become
traits.
e. Personality trait is something that “occurs” between behavior and the environment.
There is no causal relations between behavior/environment and personality.
Radical behaviorism: Classical Conditioning
1. Classical conditioning - a learning process that occurs when two stimuli (US and CS, often reflexes)
are repeatedly paired; a response (UR/CR) that is at first elicited by the unconditioned stimulus (US)
is eventually elicited by the conditioned stimulus (CS) alone.
2. In order for classical conditioning to work, CS should precede US. The more CS-US pairing, the
stronger the conditioning is.
3. Emotional conditioning influences our habitual emotional reaction to a stimulus. This kind of
emotional reaction is highly related to our personalities.
Radical behaviorism: Operant conditioning
1. Developed by Thorndike and Skinner
2. Our behaviors are conditioned through the law of effect, that is, when certain behaviors are
reinforced, we increase those behaviors. When certain behaviors are punished, then we decrease
our behaviors. Therefore, our traits may be influenced depending on what behaviors were
reinforced and punished since childhood. (e.g., a child who is always blamed for “talking too much”
may end up being an introvert).
3. However, note that Skinner, a radical behaviorist who believed there is no “inner world”, would say
that there are not such things called “traits”. He would probably say that behaviors have no causal
link to our personality. According to him, the so-called personality traits that we observe is merely
epiphenomena – something randomly occurs as a by-product of our behaviors.
4. A partial schedule is more resistant to extinction, that is, when behaviors are not
punished/reinforced every time, those behaviors last longer and become more permanent in
someone’s personalities.
Radical behaviorism: Overview
1. There is no personality assessment – because radical behaviorists do not believe in the existence of
personalities.
2. Behaviorists think that disorder only happens when someone has behavioral problems (again,
nothing internal). Therefore, the psychotherapy approach used by radical behaviorist is behavioral
modification.
3. Therapy is done through classical conditioning (e.g., to treat phobias or addiction) or operant
conditioning (basically any behavioral problems)
4. Classical conditioning theory-based therapy
a. Exposure therapy (start with the highest level of stimulus, e.g., letting spider crawl on me)
b. Systematic desensitization (start with the lowest level of stimulus, e.g., Thinking about a
spider touching me)
5. Operant conditioning theory-based therapy
a. Contingency management - token economy (getting non-monetary reward from therapist
and eventually change their behaviors due to the repeated reward).
6. Pros and Cons of radical behaviorism
a. Pros: rigorous, clear/understandable, effective, important
b. Cons: based on many animal research, susceptible to oversimplification, ignored so much
more to human than just behaviors (e.g., feelings or thinking)
Social Cognitive/ Social reinforcement/ Social learning theories
1. A less extreme form of behaviorism was formed. This social cognitive /social reinforcement/social
learning theories focused on
a. Social aspect – arguing that other people are important
b. Cognitive – arguing that human involve thought
2. Differences between radical behaviorism and social cognitive theories:
a. Focuses on social reinforcers (e.g., praise, feeling of closeness and warmth, etc.)
b. These reinforcers, unlink operant conditioning, do not require a state of deprivation
c. This theoretical perspective argues that when we continuously get social reinforcers, we
develop self-reinforcement – we become an individual that is able to self-reward for our
desired things and give ourselves self-approval.
d. Also, unlike traditional conditioning theories, social cognitive psychologists think that we
learn based on rules, not individual behaviors.
Social Cognitive theories: Vicarious emotional learning
1. Vicarious Emotional Learning: Experience of emotion from watching another, experience an intense
level of the same emotion
2. Require empathy – the ability to understand the perspective of other people (it is not the same as
sympathy—concern or distress at the suffering of another)
3. Vicarious operant conditioning: Seeing a person reinforced for a behavior increases your tendency
to do a similar behavior; Seeing a person punished for a behavior decreases your tendency to do a
similar behavior
Social Cognitive theories: Expectancy/Efficacy
1. Leading psychologist: Albert Bandura
2. Expectancy/Efficacy: A judgment about how likely a behavior is to achieve a goal, or whether you
‘expect’ doing something will lead to a positive outcome. (It’s not enough to know what needs to be
done, one must be confident in ability to do it.)
3. In radical behaviorism, there is no such thing called “expectancy/efficacy”. According to them, these
are just epiphenomena - things that play no causal role in behavior (in other words, expectation
does not matter)
4. This leads to the theory of learned helplessness:
a. A condition in which a person suffers from a sense of powerlessness, arising from a
traumatic event or persistent failure to succeed. It is thought to be one of the underlying
causes of depression.
b. Three possible explanations
i. Extinction (radical behaviorism) – because there is no reward, then there is no behavior
ii. Self-esteem – repeated failure/traumatic experiences result in low self-esteem. In order to
protect one’s future self-esteem, the person simply give up doing it.
iii. Expectancy – the lack of efficacy (expectation to succeed) results in the lack of behaviors.
Social Cognitive theories: Observational Learning
1. Acquisition of ability by watching the behavior of another (model)
2. Requirements
a. Attention—particularly to the correct aspects of the model’s behavior
b. Retention—representations in memory
i. Imaginal coding—creating images and mental pictures
ii. Verbal coding—creating a description
c. Production Competency—possession of skills required to carry out behavior
i. Influenced by prior skills and knowledge
3. Acquisition vs. performance
a. One issue on radical behaviorism is that they only focus on observable behaviors
b. People don’t always do everything they learn through observation
i. Observed rewards increase probability of performance
ii. Observed punishment decreases probability of performance
4. Psychotherapy
a. Vicarious or direct learning  Inappropriate emotional or behavioral tendencies
b. Negative expectancies can have broad influence on behavior, particularly when generalized
c. Incomplete observational learning or inappropriate models  Skill deficit
d. To change behaviors: change in expectancies/self-efficacy
e. To treat skill deficits: Modeling
f. Cognitive-Behavioral Modification
i. Identify a problematic area
ii. The substitute with alternative cognitions:
iii. Breaking problem down to ‘easy to deal with’ pieces
1. Acknowledging the problem emotions but deciding to not let them overwhelm you
2. Redirecting yourself on the necessary actions instead of worrying