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UNT PSYC 4520 - The Behavioral, Social Learning Approach, Contd.
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PSYC 4520 1st Edition Lecture 23Outline of Last Lecture I. IntroductionA. The behavioral/social-learning approachII. BehaviorismA. What is behaviorism?III. Basic Principles of ConditioningA. ConditioningIV. Classical ConditioningA. What is classical conditioning?V. Application: Explaining Psychological DisordersA. Little Albert Outline of Current Lecture I. Operant ConditioningA. What is operant conditioning?B. The Skinner boxC. ShapingD. Generalization and discriminationII. Application: Behavior ModificationThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.A. Behavior modificationB. Classical conditioning applicationsC. Operant conditioning applicationsIII. Social Learning TheoryA. Social learning theoryCurrent LectureI. Operant conditioningA. What is operant conditioning?i. Researcher Edward Thorndike described the law of effect: behaviors are more likely to be repeated if they have satisfying consequences and less likely to be repeated if they have unsatisfying consequences.ii. Unlike classical conditioning, which begins with an existing S-R bond, operant conditioning begins with behaviors the organism emits spontaneously. For example, if a rat is put in a cage, it moves, scratches, and claws haphazardly (no response has been reinforced/punished).iii. Operant conditioning concerns the effect certain consequences have on the frequency of behavior. A consequence that increases the frequency ofa behavior is a reinforcement; one that decreases the behavior is a punishment. Positive reinforcement occurs when the behavior increases because it is followed by a reward. Negative reinforcement occurs with the removal of an unpleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs.B. The Skinner boxi. Skinner demonstrated operant conditioning with the Skinner box. He put a rat in a chamber and reinforced or punished certain behaviors. When the rat pressed a bar, Skinner gave it food (positive reinforcement); so, the rat learned to press the bar. Similarly, rats that can turn off a shock by pulling a string will learn to pull the string (negative reinforcement). ii. This applies to humans as well. Students who receive an A after studying for a test will likely study hard for future tests (positive reinforcement).People whose headaches go away when they relax will soon learn to relax(negative reinforcement).iii. You use positive reinforcement to increase a behavior, so you give a reward after that behavior. You use negative reinforcement to increase a behavior, but you remove an aversive stimulus after that behavior. You use punishment to decrease a behavior, so you give an aversive stimulus or take away a positive stimulus after that behavior. You use extinction to decrease a behavior, so you do not reward that behavior.C. Shapingi. Shaping is a technique in which successive approximations of the desired behavior are reinforced. For example, suppose you work with patients in a psychiatric hospital. Your job is to get patients involved in activities, and you see a patient who has never participated in any. Your goal is to get him into daily therapy sessions, and you use positive reinforcement. Each time he joins an art session, you will give him coupons for free items in the hospital store. However, if the patient still skips all the sessions, you could use shaping. You may reward him for getting out of bed; once he establishes this behavior, you may reward him only when he is near the therapy room. Then, rewards may be limited to time spent in sessions.ii. This is useful when teaching complex behaviors, such as teaching a child to read. To make it less unpleasant for the child and let him or her learn long words, you could reinforce his or her learning of the alphabet, letter sounds, and short words.D. Generalization and discriminationi. Operant conditioning would be limited if each situation required us to learn a new response. However, generalization prevents this. Pigeons trained to peck at red circles to receive food will also peck at orange circles, though not as often. This is stimulus generalization; it shows why personality characteristics generalize across situations. A child rewarded for being polite to relatives will likely be so around new acquaintances. The polite response has been generalized from the stimulus of the relative to the new stimulus (the stranger). When we see polite behavior consistently across situations, we say this is the child’s personality.ii. As long as the generalized response is reinforced, the behavior will continue. But if the pigeon is not rewarded for pecking at orange circles, itwill soon learn to discriminate between rewarded and non-rewarded stimuli and will peck only at the red ones. Similarly, the polite child may meet adults who respond to friendly behavior with harshness; he or she will learn to discriminate between friendly and unfriendly people.II. Application: Behavior ModificationA. Behavior modificationi. Conditioning can be used to change behaviors.B. Classical conditioning applicationsi. One treatment for phobias pairs images of the feared object with a relaxation response. Through “systematic desensitization,” the old association between the feared stimulus and the fear response is replaced with a new association between the stimulus and relaxation. Clients and therapists begin create a list of scenes ranging from mildly arousing to highly anxiety provoking. They imagine the scenes while they practice relaxing. In theory, the fear response is replaced with relaxation.ii. Systematic desensitization goes with “in vivo exposure with response prevention.” Clients are exposed to the fear in real life (in vivo exposure) and encouraged to repeatedly face the stimulus until they are no longer sensitive to it. Response prevention is a principle which states that when a behavior is no longer reinforced, it will become extinct (if you get used to the fearful stimulus, you will no longer feel fear).iii. Another way classical conditioning is used to alter problem behaviors is aversion therapy. Therapists try to rid clients of undesirable behaviors by pairing aversive images with the behavior. For a client trying to quit smoking, the image of a cigarette may be paired with images of vomiting.C. Operant conditioning applicationsi. One way to alter behavior with operant conditioning is the “token economy” technique. This is a system of


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UNT PSYC 4520 - The Behavioral, Social Learning Approach, Contd.

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