Theories of Human Behavior – Wryobeck

Objectives

  1. Differentiate among the basic approach to learning form each of the theories presented (compare and contrast).
  2. Freud’s Theory of Mind:
  3. Unconscious, Instinct Based
  4. Id: unconscious, biologic urges (hunger, thirst, sexuality); pleasure principle; primary process thinking is illogical (associated with primitive drives)
  5. Superego: pre-conscious and conscious; promotes guilt, shame, embarrassment, pride; NOT bound by reality (high standard)
  6. Ego: pre-conscious and conscious; reality principle (constrains id to reality); negotiates between id and superego; secondary process thinking (logical, mature, delays gratification); functions include the defenses
  7. Behaviorism:
  8. Associative Drive Based, when events occur closely in time, they will be associated with one another
  9. Classical Conditioning Theory:
  10. Behaviors involved are elicited by stimuli which come BEFORE the behavior
  11. Acquisition: conditioned response acquired after a number of trials
  12. Extinction: if pairing of unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus cease, extinction eventually occurs
  13. Spontaneous Recovery: at some point, conditioned stimulus may generate conditioned response randomly
  14. Stimulus Generalization: similar stimulus to conditioned stimulus generates conditioned response; example, phone ringing generates salivation (similar to bell)
  15. Higher-order conditioning: stimulus associated with the conditioned stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus itself; example, light associated with bell starts to elicit salivation
  16. Operant Conditioning Theory: learning to make or withhold a certain response because of its consequences
  17. Behaviors are voluntarily emitted; behaviors involved are elicited by what comes AFTER behavior
  18. Reinforcement: strengthens behavior (more likely to occur again)
  19. Positive: reward, something of value is ADDED or given to the person; example: buying a winning lottery ticket
  20. Negative: relief, something annoying or aversive is removed; example, fasten seatbelt and buzz turns off
  21. Punishment: weakens behavior (less likely to occur again)
  22. Positive: pain/discomfort; something adverse is ADDED; example: puppy peeing slapped with paper
  23. Negative: LOSS of something; example: teen grounded for smoking
  24. Problems: behavior is not forgotten, it is suppressed and returns with punishment is no longer present; creates fear; only tells you what NOT to do, not what TO do.
  25. Social Learning:
  26. Observation Based
  27. Role model demonstrates behavior, perceived by learner to be reinforced (or not)  processing and representing in memory  cognitive activity, motivated to perform (or not)
  28. Reciprocal Determinism: interaction of individual and their environment; behavior is influenced by environment and can impact the environment
  29. Behavior not just result of past reinforcement but due to anticipated future reinforcement (cognitive process); tend to model behaviors that are seen to have a positive outcome
  30. Vicarious reinforcement: observing happy, wealthy physicians results in your behavior (study, sacrifice) even though you have not experienced reward yourself
  31. Examples: support groups to model healthy life (AA); car accident victim anticipates monetary rewards for pain complaints and files disability claim  less active which weakens muscles and causes more pain.
  32. Define the constructs, know the vocabulary of each theory.
  33. Identify the theory at work in a given learning/problem scenario.
  34. Define transference and counter-transference and how they might affect the doctor/patient relationship.
  35. Transference: occurs within a doctor/patient relationship; displacement of one’s feelings and fantasies onto another, occurs due to personal unconscious needs and conflicts
  36. Patients attributes expectations and sentiments to doctor that they are unaware of
  37. Example: patient talks and acts towards you as granddaughter
  38. **NOT A DEFENSE**
  39. Counter-transference: uncontrolled response of doctor to the patient’s transference
  40. Usually happens when doctor does not come to terms with his/her own emotional baggage
  41. Example: responds with disgust when patient cries because doctor’s parent always used tears to manipulate
  42. **NOT A DEFENSE**
  43. Identify psychiatric/health related disorders/problems that stem from “classical” and “operant” conditioning.
  44. Classical:
  45. Girl with lupus receives cyclophosphamide (CP) once per month but starts to refuse due to side effects. Given cod liver oil/smell of rose, followed by CP on 6 occasions  start to see reduced symptoms from smell only eventually.
  46. Conditioned positive emotions with advertising and fetishes
  47. Conditioned negative emotions with phobias and aversions
  48. Conditioned taste aversion: can occur with one pairing of the taste with a later illness; mere thought of food makes you nauseous
  49. Related to PTSD, assault victims, auto accident victims
  50. Operant:
  51. Positive reinforcements: healthy eating results in good labs and feeling better
  52. Negative reinforcement: smoking to reduce anxiety, OCD (fear of death by germs)
  53. Positive punishment: taking of antabuse results in nausea when drinking alcohol
  54. Negative punishment: I’m not going to see you until you lose weight (loss of access)
  55. Explain the schedules of reinforcement and give examples of each.
  56. Continuous: reinforcing the desired response each time it occurs, learning AND extinction occur rapidly
  57. Vending machine, parking meter
  58. Partial: reinforcing a response only part of the time, learning occurs slowly but resistant to extinction
  59. Receive paycheck every 2 weeks
  60. Response based:
  61. Fixed ratio: reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses; initial high rate of response, drop off after reinforcement (bonus for every 10th item sold)
  62. Variable ratio: reinforcement occurs after an average number of responses; resistant to extinction (slot machines, fishing)
  63. Time based:
  64. Fixed interval: reinforcement occurs on first response after fixed time period has elapsed; increase as time for reinforce nears; (paycheck)
  65. Variable interval: reinforcement occurs on first response after an average of elapsed time has elapsed; steady but low response rates; (pop quizzes, drug tests)
  66. Describe the basic principles of social learning theory and how it differs from Unconscious Instinct and Associate Drive based theories.