PSYCH 370 1st Edition Lecture 9- Behaviorism – Overview o Individual Differences – Reinforcement Histories o Adjustment –Desirable/undesirable reinforcement historieso Cognition – Irrelevant o Society/culture – Controls Reinforcement o Biology – Controls reinforcement effectiveness and range of responses o Development – Children develop reinforcement histories - Skinnerian Radical Behaviorism o More an alternative to personality theory  The notion of personality is a superfluous construct External rather than internal locus of causation  Only empirically verifiable data can be considered- Skinnerian Principals of Conditioning o Operant  Emphasizes that people operate on their environment to achieve some consequence - Mutual influence between actor and environment o Response Contingency R  S The Response is associated with its consequences o Reinforcer Any stimulus that increases the probability that preceding response will be repeatedo Punishment And aversive stimulus that decreases the probability that the preceding response will be repeated  Problems with Punishment – - Not always effective - May Backfire- Produces emotional side effects- Models aggressive behavior- Teaches aggression as social control - Parent may become conditioned aversive stimulus - Can become abusive - Doesn’t teach appropriate alternative behavior  Positive versus negative reinforcement  Positive versus negative punishment - Discriminative Stimuli o Discriminative Stimuli (Sd) Sd  R  So Sd are environmental stimuli that precede the response and cue you as to whether the response will be reinforced These 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. Sd tell you when a given response contingency is in effect – when a given response will or will not produce reinforcement  May even tell you whether a given response will be reinforced or punished  Once source of behavioral complexity - Further explaining of complexity of behavior from simple principals o Stimulus generalization o Stimulus discrimination  Learning to distinguish between similar stimuli that do not cue same response contingency - Inconsistent response contingencies o Behavioral properties  Learned responses build on previous learning - Criticism o Do principals that work with rats also work with humanso Failure to account for other obviously important personality determinants o Extreme reductionism o Completely deterministic o Focus is completely on environment What is in the