LESSON 6: Behaviorism, Social Learning, Exchange Theory

• CLASSICAL BEHAVIORISM - It focuses primarily on observable behaviors and rejects the inclusion of unobservable mental processes such as thoughts and feelings in the study of psychology.
• NEOBEHAVIORISM - It acknowledged the importance of observable behavior but also incorporated the study of internal mental processes, albeit indirectly.
• • Classical Conditioning - Learning that occurs on the basis of association, when naturally eliciting stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus.
• • Operant Conditioning - Learning that occurs through reinforcement rather than association of one stimilus with another.
• Conditioned Response - Behavior may be motivated by drive or need strengthened or weakened by reinforcement in the form of reward or punishment.
• Neobehaviorism - The unwillingness to make assumptions about the existence and importance of drives.
• 2 Types of Reinforcers for Humans

  • Primary Reinforcers - unconditioned stimuli that do not require learning to be effective reinforcers.
  • Secondary Reinforcers - are learned and developed through pairing with primary reinforcers
• Strengths of Behaviorism

  • Analysis of observable behavior
  • Effective therapeutic techniques
  • Empathic understanding on the behavior rather than the person
• Weaknesses of Behaviorism

  • One dimensional approach 
  • Positivist paradigm
  • Environmental determinism
  • Does not account for other types of learning
• Social learning theory - The school of behavioral thought that has best combined internal and external processes.
• Social learning theory - Rooted in the S-O-R formulation and places its emphasis on social and cognitive factors that contribute to behavior.
• Four fundamental factors

  • Drives
  • Cues
  • Responses
  • Rewards
• Drives - They produce discomfort that impels humans to act when

  encountering a cue.
• Cue - anything that serves as a signal, triggering a behavioral response to reduce the drive
• Responses - Reduces the drive
• Important Factors in adaptive learning - higher mental processes

  Foresight - an ability to formulate a response, not on the basis of the immediacy of a stimulus, but rather on the knowledge of what is likely to happen
• Language - not only as a product of social learning but also as a form of self- speech essential to the acquisition of reasoning
• Language - Using certain words when labeling something or someone influences behavior
• Reasoning - the ability to make necessary connections among discrete stimuli, creating complexes of learning in which drives, cues, responses, and rewards are logically related in a patterned learning sequence
• 1. Same behavior - Denotes that any two people may respond in the same manner
• 1. Copying - a person learns to model his or her behavior on that of another.
• Matched-dependent - Person attempts to match the behavior of someone else by depending on cues provided by the other person.
• frustration-aggression hypothesis - the expression of either aggressive or passive behavior is learned behavior stemming from unresolved anger, fear, or frustration experienced in infancy and early childhood
• reciprocal determinism- allows us to control our thoughts and our environments, which, in turn, affects what we do.
• Imitative Response - novel responses to a model are learned almost instantly and in their entirety rather than gradually
• Inhibitory or disinhibitory response - may strengthen or weaken a previously learned response; the model’s behavior may suggest whether a previously learned response needs to be tempered
• Previously Acquired Response - observing a model might prompt a previously acquired response
• Social Cognitive Learning 4 process Domains

  Attention

  Retention

  Production

  Motivation
• PROFITS - occur when rewards outweigh costs, and scarcity increases the value of rewards.
• REWARDS - are things with value or bring satisfaction to individuals.
• COSTS - can be seen as punishments or as rewards foregone due to choosing a competing alternative.
• POWER - is obtained through possessing scarce or highly coveted skills, and dependency plays a role in power dynamics within dyads.
• Principle of Least Interest - suggests that the less eager person dominates a relationship, applicable to various social settings.
• Norm of Reciprocity - involves the expectation that favors will be returned, and Alvin Gouldner expanded it to include avoiding harm to those who help.
• Social Exchange Processes - contribute to a moral code regulating societal interpersonal relationships.
• Rule of Distributive Justice - posits that rewards should be proportional to costs and profits to investments, considering both achieved and ascribed investments.
• STATUS - refers to individuals' relative rank, and status congruence suggests a preference for interaction among individuals of the same status.
• NORMS - play a crucial role in regulating daily exchanges, and cultural norms guide people in their roles, fostering trust in the exchange system.
• Strengths

  • Applied in all levels
  • Appropriate for assessment of power imbalances
  • Strong predictive power in controlled environment
  • Incorporates a variety of theoretical perspectives 
• Weaknesses 

  • Ignore mechanisms that preserve inequality
  • Capitalistic and ego-centered assumptions about profit-based motivation 
  • Weak predictive power in complex situation 
  • Victim-blaming