Learning

• Why do some of us learn to be afraid of

spiders?
• How do we learn to be diligent and
disciplined with some Professors?
 Goals
• Learn how we modify behaviour, skills and
acquire knowledge.
 Learning

• A relatively permanent change in behavior brought

about by experience or as a result of practice
1. Change in behavior (better/worse)
2. Changes due to practice and experience (not
changes due to growth and maturation)
3. The change should be relatively permanent
Behaviorsim and behavior analysis
• Learning has roots in Watson’s work.
• Rejected introspection and contents of
sensation, images and feelings as subject
matter of psychology.
• Emphasized the study of observable behavior.
• Skinner later formulated radical behaviorism.
• Evolution provides us with a repertory of
behaviors and all behavior beyond that is
learned.
• Skinner emphasized causes of behavior do not
lie in inner states or mental events but lie in
environmental stimuli.
• Behavior analysis attempts to discover
environmental determinants of learning and
behavior.
• All animal species posses the elementary
processes of learning.
• Classical Conditioning, Pavlov (1849-1936)
also called Pavlovian Conditioning
o In classical conditioning two stimuli are presented
to the learner
o A neutral stimulus gradually brings a response
after it is paired with a stimulus (e.g., food) that
naturally brings about that response
• Pavlovian Experiment
o Bell ringing – neutral stimulus
o Food (Meat) – Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
o Food leads to salivation the Unconditioned
Response (UCR)

Gradually after learning happens, salivation in

response to the bell ringing – Conditioned Response
(CR)
Bell ringing → Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
• Core of Classical Conditioning are reflex
responses- an unlearned response such as
salivation, pupil contraction, eye blinking.
• These are naturally elicited (evoked) by
stimuli, biologically relevant.
• These do not require learning for the stimulus
to control the behavior.
• On the first conditioning trials
o The CS and UCS are paired but no conditioning has yet
occurred
• Stimuli Response
CS followed by UCS → UCR
----------------------------Repeated Pairings----------------------
• Test trial after repeated pairings
o CS presented alone
• Stimuli Response
CS → CR
% CR
Course of Conditioning

Trials
Some more concepts
• Extinction
o Occurs when in classical conditioning CS is
presented alone without the UCS for a couple of
trials.
o The CR gradually decreases and finally stops
Extinction is not forgetting
o After rest when CS is again presented CR occurs-
Spontaneous recovery.
o Reconditioning is quicker.
 CS Alone Reconditioning
Strength of CR

Trials Rest Trials

• Stimulus Generalization
o The subject tended to generalize the conditioned
response to other stimuli that are somewhat
similar to the original conditioned stimulus
Similarity ↑ Generalization ↑
• Stimulus Discrimination
o Learning to make one response to one stimulus
and no response or another response to another
stimulus.
o Balance required between the two, allows creatures
to react efficiently to their environments
• The presentation of CS and UCS must be close
in timing. Different temporal patterns have
been used.
– Delay conditioning, where the CS comes on prior
to the UCS and stays on at least until the UCS is
presented.
– Trace conditioning, where the CS is discontinued
before the UCS is presented.
– Simultaneous conditioning, where both CS and
UCS are presented together.
– Backward conditioning when CS is presented after
the UCS.
 Theories of Classical Conditioning
o Stimulus Substitution- CS
o Simply as a result of pairing with a UCS, acquires
the capacity to substitute for a UCS in evoking
response
CR is not the same as UCR
o Information and expectation
o CS becomes a signal for the UCS thus the learner
responds with this expectation.
o A CS should be intense and contrast with other
stimuli.
• Significance of Classical Conditioning
o Our violent emotions to subtle moods – all could
be conditioned
o Learned very quickly
o Behavior Modification therapy
 Operant Conditioning/Instrumental
Conditioning
o Some action of the learner is instrumental in bringing
about a change in the environment that makes the
action more or less likely to occur again.
o Thorndike gave the Law of effect- behavior and its
consequences.
o Skinner developed a Skinner box (pigeon taught to
peck a key to get food).
o An operant is any behavior that is emitted by an
organism & can be characterized in terms of
observable effect on the environment.
• Learning occurs as an association between
stimuli in the situation and a response that an
animal learned to make. S-R connections
• Cat learned to produce an appropriate
response (pressing a lever) in the stimulus
circumstances(confinement in a puzzle box)
that led to a desired outcome (Consequence)
• Reinforcers- An environmental event that is
the consequence of an instrumental response
more likely to occur again
o Positive reinforcer is a stimulus or event which
when it follows a response increases the
likelihood of it occurring again.
o Negative reinforcer is a stimulus, the cessation or
termination of which when contingent on a
response, increases the likelihood that the
response will occur again.
• Punishment - Different from negative reinforcers.
A stimulus the onset of which when contingent
on a response decreases the likelihood that the
response will occur again
• Omission training (Negative punishment) –
Positive reinforcement is withdrawn following a
response. The effect of the omission of the
reinforcement is to decrease the likelihood of the
response which led to the removal of the positive
reinforcement.
• 3 classes of stimuli
• Some that you are neutral to.
• Appetitive stimulus- you have an appetite for
them.
• Aversive stimulus- you seek to avoid them.
Not the same for all individuals.
• Negative reinforcers are generally noxious
events or a painful experience
o Escape learning- escaping an aversive stimulus.
o Avoidance learning- Avoiding a noxious stimulus
 Types of Reinforcement and Punishment
EFFECT ON BEHAVIOR
Procedure Increases Decreases
Positive reinforcement: Positive punishment:
Example: Giving a raise for Example: Giving a spanking
good performance following misbehavior
Presentation of Result: Increase in frequency Result: Decrease in frequency of
Stimulus of response (good response (misbehavior)
performance)

Negative reinforcement: Negative punishment:

Example: terminating a Example: Removal of favorite toy
headache by taking aspirin after misbehavior
Removal of Result: Increase in frequency Result: Decrease in frequency of
Stimulus of response (taking aspirin) response (misbehavior)
Operant conditioning in your life

Appetitive Stimulus Aversive Stimulus

Positive Positive
Deliver
Reinforcement punishment

Negative Negative
Remove Punishment Reinforcement
 Properties of reinforcers
• Primary Reinforcer – Satisfies some biological
need, works naturally- food, water, shelter etc.
• Secondary Reinforcer (conditioned reinforcer)
– Becomes reinforcing because of association
with a primary reinforcer. Praise,
encouragement, money.
• Schedules of reinforcement
o Fixed-Ratio Schedule – The response must occur a
certain number of times before reinforcement
occurs
o Fixed-Interval Schedule – No reinforcement until a
certain interval of time elapsed
o Variable-Ratio Schedule – Subjects are reinforced
after a variable number of responses
o Variable-Interval Schedule – Time intervals
between responses that are reinforced is variable
Outcome of Different Reinforcement Schedules
• Rate of Learning in Different Schedules of
Reinforcement
o FR – A pause in responding after each reinforced
response and then a rapid run until the next
reinforcement response
o FI – Long pause and gradual acceleration of
responding
o VR and VI – generate a steady rates of response
• Stimulus generalization
o If the stimulus situation is changed the response
still occurs but less readily than it did in the
original stimulus situation
• Stimulus Discrimination
o A process of learning to make one response to
one stimulus and another to another stimulus
(achieved by simply by reinforcing a particular
response to one stimulus and not reinforcing the
same response to another stimulus)
• Shaping – Method of successive
approximations (Reinforcing the steps that
lead to the desired response and that
response eventually occurs)
• Operant Extinction- Behavior does not
produce predictable consequences it returns
to the level before conditioning.
• When punishment works?
1. More intense punishment is effective, in human it
can lead to strong emotional conditioned
responses/will be developed (mild punishment is the
best in the long run)
2. Consistent punishment should be administered
3. Contingent upon the occurrence of some response
4. Stronger the response tendency less effect
punishment (mild) would be
5. People and animals adapt to punishment
6. Positive reinforcement should be given along with
punishment
• Use of punishment
o When a child does something which can be dangerous
– strong punishment should be used
o Should be given immediately in response to the
behavior
o Simple explanation should follow
o While punishing for incorrect behavior is important to
positively reinforce alternative behavior
Do not use punishment as the only means of controlling
behavior
• Uses of Instrumental Conditioning
o Our beliefs, customs, and goals may be learned by
instrumental conditioning.
o Child is socialized- unknowingly reinforcing certain
behaviors.
• Positive reinforcement used in organizations to increase
employee productivity
• Used for behavior modification
1. Quitting habits like smoking
2. Helping mild-mannered people to be more assertive
3. Treating psychological disorders.
Behaviors are maintained because they get
attention and sympathy
 Species- specific tendencies
• Operant conditioning experiment (Breland& Breland,
1951) a racoon required to pick and deposit a coin.
• Would rub the coins, dip them in toy bank and pull
them out.
• Not all aspects of learning under the control of the
experimenter. Biological constraints exist.
• Species-specific tendencies overide changes in
behavior brought by operant learning.
 Taste/Food aversion
• On consuming any substance if it makes one ill we do
not consume that substance again.
• Instance of classical conditioning more powerful
than others, even one pairing- taste aversion is
learned.
• Despite a long interval of 12 hrs.
• Biological preparedness – a particular species has
evolved so that members of the species require less
learning experience than normal to acquire a CR.
• Application of the laws of learning must take into
account the characteristics of both learner and the
reaction being learned
• Prepared behaviors – Predisposed to learn some
things easily (e.g., learned flavor aversion)
• Unprepared behavior – Can be learned with
moderate amount of difficulty
• Contraprepared behavior - learned with great
difficulty
 Cognitive Learning

• Experiments on rats in a maze by Tolman

indicated they had a cognitive map.
• Cognitive Learning is a change in the way
information is processed as a result of
experience a person or animal has had
o Due to experience the meaning and significance of
the events changes
o New associations are formed and stored in the
memory
• Cognitive learning involves forming the perceiving of
new relationships among events (cognition is the
processing of information about the environment
received from the senses). They involve:
1. Selection of information
2. The making of alteration in the selected information
3. The association of items of information with each other
4. Elaboration of information in thought
5. Storage and retrieval from memory
• Latent learning – Learning which occurs but is
not evident in behavior until later, when
conditions for its appearance are favorable
o Occurs without reinforcement of particular
responses
o Changes in the way information is processed
o Eg : Cognitive Maps
• Insight Learning – A person is posed with a
problem, a period of time follows in which no
apparent progress is made and then the solution
comes suddenly
o ‘Aha’ experience
o For sometime zero learning on the curve and all of a
sudden the learning is complete
o Great deal of generalization
1. Solution comes suddenly
2. Perceptual rearrangement helped
3. Solution once arrived can be generalized a lot
• Imitation Learning/ Observational learning by
Bandura occurs when we imitate another
individual called a model (4 steps):
1. Paying attention and perceiving the behavior
2. Remembering the behavior
3. Reproducing the action
4. Being motivated to learn and carry out the
behavior
Applied to studies of aggression learned from TV
 Motivation
• The driving and pulling forces which result in
persistent behavior towards particular goals.
• Process involved in starting, directing &
maintaining our physical & psychological
activities.
• Can’t be observed directly
• Inferred from behavior
• Unconscious motivation however if inferred
correctly- explain a lot.
Functions of motivational concepts
• Relate biology to behavior- Internal states of
deprivation trigger bodily responses that
motivate you to take action to restore
balance.
• Account for behavioral variability- helps
psychologists explain variations in people’s
performance in motivational explanataions
 Functions…..
• Help infer private states from public acts-
observing people’s or own behavior we
conclude about some internal cause or
external motivation.
• Assign responsibility for actions- Importance
to personal responsibility; people are judged
less responsible when external forces were
powerful or actions were influenced by
alcohol/drugs.
 Functions…
• Explain perseverance despite adversity- why
do people persevere despite adversity?
 Theories of Motivation or sources
of motivation
• Drive theories of motivation- pushed towards the
goal
• Internal driving state is aroused, the individual
engages in behavior that leads to the goal
reducing the drive state.
• Driving state, goal directed behavior initiated by
the driving state, the attainment of an
appropriate goal, reduction of the driving state
and subjective satisfaction
• Inborn driving mechanisms & Learned drives
• The internal state arises in response to an
animal’s physiological needs.
• Organisms seek to maintain a state of
equilibrium of biological conditions-
homeostasis.
• Drives are aroused when deprivation occurs
causing disequilibrium or tension activating
behavior that is tension reducing.
 Incentive theories
• Stimulus characteristics of the goal can
sometimes start a train of motivated behavior
• “Pull theories” of motivation
• Certain characteristics of the goal pull one
towards it.
• Goal objects that motivate are known as
“incentives”.
 Optimal-Level Theories
• Certain optimal level of arousal that is
pleasurable.
• Motivated to behave in ways that maintain
that optimal level of arousal.
• “Just-right” theories.
• If too low, a person seeks stimulation or
stimuli to increase it and if too high then
behavior is directed to decreasing it.
 Reversal Theory
• Michael Apter et.al.
• Rejects the idea of motivation as tension
reduction instead hypothesizes 4 states of
“metamotivational states”.
• Only one of the two states in each pair can be
operative. Explain motivation as reversal from
one to the other opposing state.
Principal Characteristics of the Four Pairs of
Metamotivational States
Telic Paratelic

Serious Playful
Goal oriented Activity oriented
Prefers Planning Ahead Living for the moment
Anxiety Avoiding Excitement seeking
Desires progress-achievement Desires fun and enjoyment
Conformist Negativistic
Compliant Rebellious
Wants to keep to rules Wants to break rules
Conventional Unconventional
Agreeable Angry
Desires to fit in Desires to be independent
Mastery Sympathy
Power oriented Care oriented
Sees life as struggle Sees life as cooperative
Tough minded Sensitive
Concerned with control Concerned with kindness
Desires dominance Desire affection
Autic Alloic
Primary concern with self Primary concern with others
Self centered Identifying with others
Focus on own feelings Focus on others’ feelings
 Biological Motives
• Rooted in the physiological state of the body
• Hunger, thirst, desire for sex, temperature
regulation, sleep, pain avoidance and need for
oxygen.
• Aroused because of the body’s urge to
maintain homoeostasis.
 Social Motives

• Complex motive states or needs that are wellsprings of

many human actions.
• Social because they are learned in social groups, part of
growing up in the family, involving other people.
• General states that lead to many particular behaviors.
• Help explain a lot of what a person does.
• These persist over a period of time, never fully satisfied.
• Become persistent characteristics of individuals hence
part of personality
 3 social motives
• Need for Affiliation
• Need for Achievement
• Need for Power
 Need for affiliation
• Concern for establishing, maintaining and
repairing friendly relations
• Makes more phone calls, visits, seeks
approval, dislikes disagreeing with strangers.
 Achievement Motivation

• Need for achievement studied by McClelland et al.

(1953).
• People in whom this need is strong seek to become
accomplished and improve their task performance.
• Task oriented and prefer to work on tasks that are
challenging and on which their performance can be
evaluated in some way.
• Can be seen on the job, in school, in home-making,
athletics.
Sources of Achievement Motivation
• Why are people different. Since these are learnt
motives early life experiences lead to variations.
• Children learn by copying the behavior of parents
and other people who serve as role models.
• Parents expectations are important in the
development of achievement motivation.
Achievement Motivation and behavior
• Degree of expression depends on fear of failure,
when fear of failure is relatively low
• High n-ach people prefer to work on moderately
challenging tasks.
• High n-ach people like tasks in which there is
feedback on the performance
• Tend to be persistent on tasks they perceive as
career related
• On experiencing success raise their levels of
aspiration realistically
• Not Gamblers
• Gender differences exist in the expression of need
for achievement
• Research found that people scoring high on
achievement motivation score low on competitive
motivation
• Competitive motivation improves performance for
people with low achievement motive and lowers
performance in people high in achievement
motivation
• McClelland said achievement is related to societies
economic growth.
 Power Motivation
• Social power as “the ability or capacity of a
person to produce intended effects on the
behavior or emotions of another person”
• Attempt to influence, control, cajole,
persuade, charm others and enhance one’s
own reputation in the eyes of other people.
• Strength differs in person to person.
 Expression of Power Motivation
• Expression depends on
– Socio economic status
– Level of Maturity
– Gender
– Degree to which individual fears his or her own
power motivation
• Power motivation is expressed by
– Impulsive and aggressive actions (Men in lower SES).
– Participation in competitive sports like football.
– Joining and holding office in organizations.
– Among men by drinking and dominating women.
– Obtaining and collecting possessions like fancy cars.
– By associating with people who are not high on need for
power and perhaps more easily controlled.
– Occupations like teaching, diplomacy, clergy etc.
– Building and disciplining their bodies.
 Machiavellianism
• People who express their power motivation by
manipulating and exploiting others in a
deceptive and unscrupulous manner.
• Little warmth in their relationships, weakly
guided by morality, reality oriented and little
interest in ideologies, use lies to manipulate
others, make and break interpersonal
relationships in an opportunistic manner
 Human Aggression
• Aggress verbally or by actions.
• Instrumental aggression and hostile aggression.
• Hostile aggression has its goal in harming another
person.
• In Instrumental aggression the individual uses
aggression to satisfy some other motive, eg. Child
wants aggression.
• Hostile aggression can be active or passive, physical
or verbal, direct or indirect.
• Active/ Passive- Difference between overt
action and a failure to act
• Direct aggression- means face to face
aggression and indirect is without any contact
with the person being attacked
• Physical and verbal- distinction between
bodily harm and attack with words
• Aggression is understood as “the nature of the
beast”.
– According to Freud man possess an aggressive instinct.
• Environmental and Social Causes of Human
Aggression.
– Frustration aggression hypothesis.
• Frustration occurs when motivated behavior is thwarted or blocked.
• This leads to aggressive behavior and that all aggressive behavior is caused by
frustration.
– People do not always react with aggression, it depends on two factors.
• Frustration must be intense, thwarting of high expectation can result in aggression.
• Frustration must be perceived as unjustified and arbitrary action.
 Everyday sources of aggression
• Common everyday source is a verbal insult
and counteragression occurs.
• Compliance to authority
• Unpleasant environmental conditions
• Presence of weapons
• Violence in the media
– Influences acquiring new ways of assaulting others
– OK to respond with aggression
– Steady exposure desensitizes
 Learning and Human aggression
• Importance of imitation
• Modeling is most effective - aggressive behavior is
justified, achieves the desired reward and the
watcher is already angry.

1. Direct observers' attention to one of several possible

behavior sequences.
2. show the observer that certain behaviors are all right,
decreasing inhibitions.
3. Enhance emotional arousal that can facilitate aggression
4. Show some specific aggressive acts that can be copied
 Role of learning
• Instrumental conditioning
– when the aggressive behavior pays off it becomes a
habitual response in many situations.
 Controlling aggression
• Reducing opportunities for imitation.

• Punishment using fines, loss of social acceptance,

embarrassment, imprisonment.

• Works best when punishment is strong, immediately follows

the behavior, instigation for aggression was relatively week,
payoff of aggression was not great and the person perceives
the punishment as legitimate.

• When punishment is used ineffectively frustrates the

aggressor hence increasing aggression.
• Catharsis.

• Awareness of the reasons of aggression

reduce our counter-aggression.

• Certain feelings and emotions are

incompatible with anger and aggression.
 Motive to know and be effective
• Some motives that are persistent and powerful are
the motives of seeking variety in stimulation,
processing information about the world around
oneself, to explore and to be effective in mastering
challenges from the environment.
• Amount of time, effort and money spent into looking
at things, travelling or exploring the environment.
• Experiments on monkeys showed that they learned
to bang open doors of closed boxes which would let
them just look outside.
• Effectance Motivation
– A general motive to act competently and effectively when interacting
with the environment.
– More evident when baby tries to overcome the environment. As one
grows older difficult to differentiate.

• Intrinsic Motives and Extrinsic Motives

– Intrinsic motivation is about internal feelings of
effectiveness, competence and self-determination.
– Extrinsic motivation is directed towards goals external to
the person like money or grades.
Extrinsic rewards may stifle performance as people may
adopt strategies of doing the minimum.
Self-Actualization Motivation by Maslow

Self actualization needs

Esteem needs

Belongingness needs

Safety Needs

Physiological needs
 Frustration and Conflict of Motives
• Sources of frustration
1. Environmental Frustration
2. Personal Frustration
3. Conflict –produced Frustration- motivational
conflict, expression of one motive interferes with
the expression of other motives
– Approach-Approach Conflict
– Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict ( Vacillation or attempt to
leave the conflict situation)
– Approach- Avoidance Conflict
– Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflicts
 Measurement of Social Motives

• Find themes or common threads in samples of action

• Use “Projective tests” for themes of imagined action

or paper and pencil questionnaires for preferences or
observations of actual behavior in certain types of
situations to bring out expressions of social motives
Projective Tests
• Ambiguous or unstructured stimuli people read their
own feelings and needs into the ambiguous material.
• Thematic Apperception Test
Personality Questionnaire
• People answer questions about the strength of their
social motives.
• Called questionnaires or inventories.

Situational Tests
• Creating a situation in which a person’s actions will
reveal his or her dominant motives.
• Children’s aggressiveness can be measured by giving
the child dolls to play with and observing the number
of aggressive responses they make.
Personality
Personality
Understanding oneself entails developing an understanding of one’s
personality.

◼ Allport- “Personality as the dynamic organization within the

individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique
adjustment to his environment”

◼ Mischel(1976)- “Distinctive patterns of behavior including thoughts &

emotions that characterize each individual’s adaptation to the
situations of his or her life.”

• Behavior patterns across situations

• Psychological characteristics of the person that lead to those

behavior patterns.
Personality theories
◼ Understand the structure of adult personality, its origin & its
correlates.
◼ Predicting behavior & life events based on what we know
about personality.
◼ Vary on-
 Starting points and sources of data collection.
 Varying focus, understanding the structure of personality or how
personality developed and continues to grow.
 Different focus on healthy & troubled people.
Theories of Personality
◼ Type & Trait approach-focus on characteristics
◼ Dynamic approaches- on motives impulses &
psychological processes
◼ Learning & Behavioral
◼ Humanistic Approaches- Self and the importance of the
individuals subjective view of the world.
◼ Type Theories- Hippocrates 400 BC .
4 Temperamental types
▪ Sanguine-cheerful ,vigorous
▪ Phlegmatic-slow moving, calm
▪ Melancholic-Depressed, morose
▪ Choleric-Hot-tempered

Many other Typologies

A class of individuals said to share a common collection of
characteristics . Non overlapping categories
▪ Introverts-shyness, social withdrawal, tendency to talk
less
▪ Extraverts-tendency to be outgoing, talkative
William Sheldon (1942)
◼ Related physique to temperament
◼ Endomorphic-fat, soft, round- relaxed, sociable,
fond of eating.
◼ Mesomorph- muscular, rectangular, strong- filled
with energy, courage & assertive tendencies.
◼ Ectomorphs- thin, long, fragile- brainy, artistic
and introverted.
◼ Failed to predict behavior.
◼ Eysenck’s hierarchical Theory

Personality Type (certain characteristics)

habitual response patterns (applicable to many situations)

specific responses (specific situations)

Focus on good-fits
Trait Theories
Descriptive terms like determined, flamboyant, inclined to
make quick decisions are “traits”; make people behave in
distinctive and consistent ways across situations.

Allport’s Theory- Distinctive & personal forms of behaviors

▪ Mostly adjectives that describe how people act, think, perceive &
feel.
▪ Three levels of generality

Cardinal Traits- Dominant and all individual action can be traced to

them
Central Traits- Characterizing an individual’s behavior to some extent
but not in such a complete way as cardinal traits
Secondary traits-influential but only within a narrow range
◼ Idiographic Approach- Entails efforts to
understand, explain and predict
individual’s behavior in various situations.
◼ Consistencies across one person

◼ Nomothetic approach- discovery of

principles of personality that apply to
people in general
◼ Consistencies across individuals
Issues with Trait and Type Theories
◼ Heritability studies show that almost all personality traits
are influenced by genetics.
◼ Consistency paradox, on looking at traits predicting
behavior.
◼ Methodological Issues
 Reliability, getting agreement from different
observers.
 Validity of trait assessment, whether assessments
mean what they actually mean, social desirability
 Situationism
◼ Is it adequate to think of our personalities as a sum of
traits? Do not explain how personality develops or
behavior is generated.
◼ Type and Trait theories involve a search for separable
components of personality and ways by which the
components fit together to form a personality structure.

◼ Dynamic approaches involve a search for processes by

which needs, motives and impulses –often hidden from
view –interact to produce the individual’s behavior.
Freudian Psychoanalysis
◼ Core of personality are the events that are part
of the person’s mind.
◼ According to Freud all behavior is motivated,
some of these motives we are conscious of and
some motivation operates at an unconscious
level.
◼ No accidental happenings cause behavior.
Through analysis of thought associations,
dreams, errors we can learn about unconscious
motives.
◼ Each person has inborn instincts or drives that create
tension in the body.
◼ Originally gave two basic drives
 Self-preservation (meeting needs of hunger & thirst).
 Eros the driving force related to preservation of the
species. Not expressed only in sexual gratification but
in other forms of seeking pleasure and or having
physical contact with others.
 Libido is the source of energy of sexual urges.
 Eros does not appear suddenly at puberty but
operates from birth.
 Later added “Thanatos” or death instinct primitive to
return to inorganic state.
Psychoanalytic Theory
3 parts
1. Structure of the personality comprising of the id, ego,
superego.
2. Personality dynamics in which conscious and
unconscious motivation and ego-defense mechanisms
play an important role.
3. Theory of psychosexual development in which different
motives and bodily regions influence the child at
different stages of growth.
Personality Structure: Id, Ego & Superego

3 interlocking parts
Id- most primitive, biological based urges
- eat, drink, eliminate & sexual stimulation
- the energy that underlies these urges is libido
- operates on the pleasure principle, satisfaction
immediately as the urges arose
- without regard to rules, realities of life

Ego- The elaborate ways of thinking and behaving

constitutes the “executive-function”
- delays the demands of id channelizing them into
more socially acceptable out lets
- works on the “in the service of reality principle”
Superego- conscience-

-mainly prohibitions learnt from parents and other

authorities
-superego may condemn as wrong certain things that the
ego may otherwise do to satisfy the id
-It is the seat for all positive values and moral ideals that
are pursued because they are worthy

Lively ongoing interplay between the id, ego and superego.

Id wants to do what to do what feels good and superego
insists on doing the right thing. Ego arbitrates
3 levels of consciousness-
Conscious, preconscious & the unconscious

➢ Conscious level- we are aware

of certain things around us &
certain conscious thoughts.
➢ Preconscious level- Memories
and thoughts that are easily
available with a moments
reflection
➢ Unconscious- Memories
,thoughts and Motives which
we cannot easily call up.
Why do some ideas and feelings become
unconscious?

Repression- We repress or banish from consciousness,

ideas, memories feelings or motives unacceptable,
forbidden and disturbing.
❖ It is unconscious and automatic.
❖ We don’t choose
❖ Whenever the idea or impulse which is painful and anxiety
causing we must escape
❖ This anxiety triggers repression
According to Freud the repressed material is not just safely
tucked away. It operates underground, converting
repressed conflicts into neurosis.
Neurotic symptoms often bear a symbolic relationship to
repressed material that is causing them.

-Unconscious process also figured in dreams and

accidents.

-Dreams are disguised manifestations of ids motives “royal

road to the unconscious”

-Slips of the tongue

Defense Mechanism
➢ The demands of id are instinctual & amoral and hence
must be blocked by the ego & superego.
➢ Results in anxiety and guilt from which the ego has to be
protected
➢ Defenses are used- The ego disguises, redirects and
copes with the id’s urges.

Reaction Formation- A motive that would arouse unbearable

anxiety if it recognized hence it is converted into its
opposite
Projection and Displacement
Psychosexual stages of development

➢ Freud emphasized biological development and sexual

development
➢ From birth onwards we have innate tendency to seek
pleasure though stimulation of various parts of the body
that are sensitive to touch
➢ The mouth, the anus and the genitals are erogenous
zones
➢ Psychosexual stages
➢ If a child’s need at one psychosexual stage are under
satisfied or over satisfied, then it leads to “fixation”
Oral Stage – birth to 1 year

➢ The infant obtains pleasure by sucking and later by biting

➢ Feeding, mouthing new objects, even relief of teething
pain
➢ Mouth is the source of all pleasure in the first year
➢ A baby given too little or too much or made too anxious
about it-oral fixation
➢ Adulthood excessive oral behavior in terms of concrete
forms eg. Smoking, psychological forms such as
dependence or critical biting personality
Anal Stage- when child is toilet trained and teach them
prohibited behavior
➢ Anus becomes highly sensitive to the stimulation of

“holding on” and “letting go”

➢ Toilet training is first contact with authority

➢ Id is brought under control of the ego

Fixation characterized by
➢ Messiness and disorder

➢ Compulsiveness, over conformity

Phallic Stage- (3-5 years)

➢ After child has been toilet trained there is increase in

awareness of genitals
➢ It is in this stage that children develop sexual feelings
towards the parent of the opposite sex
➢ Oedipus complex & Electra complex
➢ The child may be fearful of the parent of same sex and
fear retaliation
➢ Gradually this anxiety is resolved by identification with
parent. Adopting behavior patterns and ideas.
Latency Period- (6 years through puberty)
➢ According to Freud not very important in the
development if personality
➢ The child learns more about the world and the ego
expands

Genital Stage- Adolescences & beyond

➢ Mature sexual interests appear
➢ The focus lies outside the self and family
➢ Responsible enjoyment of adult sexuality which is the
epitome of healthy development
Jung’s analytical psychology
◼ Jung parted ways from Freud; differences mainly
due to Jung’s belief that childhood psychosexual
development did not play that important a role
for adult adjustment as suggested by Freud.
◼ Jung gave less emphasis to sexual and
aggressive urges arising out of past conflicts .
◼ More emphasis to people’s future-oriented
goals.
◼ Also differed about the nature of the
unconscious.
◼ Jung focused on dreams and fantasies. Tried to
understand the content and meanings of dreams and
visions in people’s lives .
◼ Used word association technique. 100 terms presented
and respondent instructed to respond quickly.
◼ Measured how long it took to respond, changes in
patterns of breathing, perspiration.
◼ Stimulus terms that had long delays were part of
complexes- network of ideas bound together by
emotions
◼ From this arose difference in Jung and Freud’s idea of
unconscious.
◼ Freud’s focus on sexual urges and libido as the basis of
human motivation. Jung provided another driving force
as “only a continuous life urge”, a striving to live and
insure the survival of one’s species & operate as one
coherent whole
◼ Jung also gave other structures of the personality.
◼ Collective unconscious called the archetypes; these
grow out of past experiences of the human race.
Fundamental images, impressions or predispositions
that were common to earlier members of the human
race. Not memories but subjective reactions.
◼ Jung also provided each individual with a personal
unconscious; consists of an individual’s experiences that
are repressed.
◼ Psychologically healthy people come in contact with the
unconscious parts of their personalities which they
integrate with their conscious ego.
◼ Each individual had their own unique way of integration;
this process is individuation.
◼ Limitations
➢ Dynamic theories can not be tested
➢ Cultural environment major influence
➢ Research from studies of disturbed adults
Learning and Behavioral Theories

➢ Behaviors that make up our personality are conditioned or learned

➢ Current conditions help maintain this behavior

➢ Main focus is on testing their theories hence focus on observable

behaviors

➢ Dollard and Miller gave the basic idea that social behavior and
individual behavior can be explained by means of basic learning
principles

➢ Neurosis explained as an outcome of conflict on being attracted and

repelled by a course of action.
➢ Skinner’s radical behavioral perspective drew only from instrumental
conditioning

➢ Reinforcement and punishment influence behavior

➢ Ruled out unobservable like drive, motives and emotions

➢ Personality as a collection of reinforced responses

➢ Bandura and Walters- gave importance to observational learning or

imitation

➢ It requires no direct reinforcement to the learner

➢ Imitator observes the model and experiences the model’s behaviors

and its consequences vicariously

➢ Situationalist approach that diminishes ‘person’ in personality

Humanistic Theories

➢ Have focused on an entity known as the self

➢ 2 distinct meanings

- people’s attitudes about themselves their perceived

traits, abilities, weaknesses
- this is the self-concept/self-Image.
- the executive functions-processes by which an individual
copes, thinks , remembers, perceives and plans
Roger’s Self theory -
Individual's subjective frame of reference which is the phenomenal field
, it may or may not correspond with external reality

- The concept of the self develops out of the phenomenal field

- The ideal self- what the person would like to be.

- Trouble occurs when there are mismatches or incongruence

- Results can be very disturbing

- As an individual needs self-esteem we can distort our perceptions of

our experiences in self-serving ways.
Personality Development- as a child grows parents and
others react to their behavior, sometimes in a positive
way and sometimes with disapproval

Children learn to regard some actions or thoughts as

unworthy and they often react by distorting or denying
these unworthy aspects of self
Both these lead to maladaptive behaviors.
Importance of unconditional positive regard in raising
children.
Unconditional positive self regard is important in adults.
In mature well adjusted individuals there is congruence and
no distortions.
 Maslow’s self actualization
◼ Studied models of self actualized people and found that
1. Open to experience
2. In tune with their inner beings
3. Spontaneous, independent fresh in their appreciation of
others
4. Devote efforts to their goals wanting to be good at it
5. Dedicated fully and creatively to something outside
themselves
6. Related to a few specially loved others in a deep emotional
plane
◼ Had peak experiences, moments of true self actualization
◼ Nature-Nurture debate
◼ Person-situation debate
 Social Psychology

Scientific Study of the ways in which our

interactions, interdependence and influence
affect one’s behavior and thoughts.
• Dyads are two person situations
• Psychologists focus on one and study how the
thoughts and behavior is affected by interacting with
the other. This is the focal person.
• FP observes another person and forms an impression
of the other person through observation.
• Perception of others.
• Social influence change in our behavior due to
interactions with others.
 Social Perceptions
• The focal person forms impressions on the basis
of information
• Inferences or attributions we make about the
cause of behavior
• Important before deciding what kind of
interactions to have with them
• How do we form an impression?
• Information about others is converted into
cognitions about them
• Abundance of information – grouped into
categories- that predict things of importance for
us
• Implicit Personality Theory
• Categories we use constitute our framework for
understanding the world
• Most frequently used categories are traits
– Describe
– Communicate
– Remember
• Traits are perceived to be interrelated, occurring in
clusters.
• Interrelationships could be shared by others in the
same culture or unique to you based on your
personal experiences.
• Combining information- how do you decide
to proceed in the relationship?
– Simply adding up or by averaging
– Some information more important
– Relevance of information in the judgment
– Primacy
– Negative over positive
• Stereotypes
– Prejudgments generated by placing people in
cognitive categories.
– Social stereotypes involve categories that are
defined by ethnic dimension or demographic
dimension and create an expectation of
undesirable behavior.
– Involve ethnocentric thinking , assumption that
one’s own group is best and differences are
undesirable.
Attribution
• Heider’s ‘Naïve’ Psychology – How do we attempt to understand other
people?
• Causes of their actions
• Personal Forces
• Environmental Forces

• Kelley’s Attribution Theory- Action caused by internal or external forces

• Uses the presence – absence test. (Something is a cause when in its
presence an effect occurs)
• Consistency- the extent to which the person we are judging acts the same
way in other times.
• Consensus information- extent to which other people respond to the same
stimulus.
• Distinctiveness- refers to the extent to which the person being judged
responds in the same manner in other contexts
• High Consistency, Consensus and Distinctiveness means
external attribution.
• High consistency with low consensus and low distinctiveness
means internal attribution.
• If consistency is not high then neither internal or external
attribution, the cause could be in temporary specific
behaviors led to the behavior.
• When adequate information about consistency &
distinctiveness is not present people implicitly assume the
two and assume response provides information about
stimulus rather than the person
• Jones & Davis theory of personal attribution- how personal
attributions are made. Does behavior reflect enduring
dispositions?
• Any act involves choices and produces effects for the
individual.
• The perceiver observes only the act and its effects and works
backwards towards inferences about dispositions.
• Also focus on what the person could have done.
• Chosen and Unchosen actions
• Common and Noncommon effects
• The Noncommon effects of the chosen and unchosen actions
yield clues regarding the intentions of a person.
• No. of noncommon effects is important. A large no. makes it
difficult to attribute.
• Another aspect is valence of noncommon effects.
• Effects that are good or desirable or bad or
undesirable.
• If effects are positive and highly desirable, do not tell
much about the individual; however when the
effects are rather negative or undesirable the choice
tells about some personal characteristics.
• Self-attribution- Bem provides that individuals use similar
process for self-attribution that is used for other attribution.
– Become observers of our own behavior, and make
attributions in similar ways of observing others.
– Evaluate whether some strong external force is cause or
internal motives or personality traits.
– Jones & Nisbett provide that individuals see own behavior
more controlled by situations and that of others controlled
by internal forces.
– Reason lies in our being seeing ourselves as stable
personalities in a changing environment while for others
we perceive the environment as stable.
 Biases in social perception
• Fundamental attribution error
• Halo effect
• Assumed-similarity bias
• Self-serving bias
• How can we reduce the tendency to make the
fundamental attribution error?
– Look for what others are doing in the same
situation.
– Ask what you would have done in the same
situation?
– Look for causes that are not so obvious.
– Cultural variations, In interdependent collectivist
cultures people tend to attribute causes to
external factors versus the American culture
where the FA is dominant.
• Social perception guides our reactions to
individuals.
• We convert into meaningful inferences
information, based on our observations of
others behavior and appearances, which is
organized in cognitive categories. Uniqueness
present in each individual framework.
• This process decides how we react to others
and view ourselves.
 Social Influence
• Involves intervention and inducing change.
• Agent & Focal Person
• Happens in imitation, conformity & obedience .

• Initial studies (Triplett,1890s) have found people perform

better in the presence of others- Social Facilitation.
• Later studies reported increase in errors along with
increase in rate of response.

• Zajonc explained these differing findings- Increased arousal

level and enhances dominant responses.
• Further analysis also added - Group members should be
involved with the task
Imitation
• Occurs without the Agent expressing any
desire to influence.
• Change in a FP’s behavior that matches or
copies the agent’s.
• Observing the model provides information on
skills required to perform similar behavior as
well as reassurance about its appropriateness
in a situation.
• Gets optimized when model has high
attention value and possesses characteristics
attractive to an FP in ambiguous situations.
Social Conformity
• Change in beliefs / behavior so that it becomes
more similar to the other group members.
• More than 1 person modeling the behavior & FP
has to respond in the presence of agents.
• Agent has the desire to influence & FP not
changing is termed deviance.
• Besides situations leading to imitation other
situations where conformity arises is when both
FP & agents are members of an intact group
where they can persuade and have the power to
apply sanctions.
Conformity occurs when:-
Group pressure is effective when FP is unsure of proper response.
What happens when group consensus is obviously wrong?
Solomon Asch’s experiment.
Conformity occurred when:
• The characteristics of the group- more attractive and person’s
relative social status in the group.
• Situation in which responses are made- conformity higher
when responses are made public.
• Unanimity of the group increases conformity pressures but
even one ally can reduce conformity drastically.
• Kind of tasks- those with ambiguous answers increase
pressure. Tasks in which a person is less competent relative to
the group
• Conformity also increases when FP is fatigued
• Campbell explains these differences in terms
of social modes or personal modes.
– Acquire information of the world through social or
personal modes.
– In most situations there is agreement.
– We rely on others specially when we believe
them.
– Conformity situations happen when there is
conflict between the two modes.
– How this conflict is resolved depends upon factors
weighing personal or social mode.
Conformity to Norms and Rules
• Standards of behavior agreed upon by the group.(
have agent characteristics)
• Formal agreements or laws, groups interested in
maintaining conformity and deviants are punished.
• Informal norms and rules are upheld by the same
process even though the steps aren’t so explicit.
• Deviants are punished to enforce future conformity
& establishing importance of the group to other
members and to prevent the deviant from having
inequitable advantage.
• The chief advantage of rules and norms is
rules serve in coordinating behavior and avoid
conflicts.
• However sometimes groups do not always
uphold the norms that govern their behavior
when interacting with other groups.
Obedience
• Agent has legitimate right to influence the FP who
has the obligation to obey.
• Happens when agent has higher status and the agent
& FP are part of a system where higher status has
influence over the lower status.
• Limits of an agent’s right and FP’s obligation are not
precisely defined; some commands fall in an
ambiguous area – like conflict with personal values.
• Milgram’s experiment- administering electric shocks
to learner’s on making errors.
• Milgram’s experiments showed 26/40 subjects
continued to administer shock upto 450volts.
• Showed great signs of tension.
• Less obedience when teacher is placed closer to the
learner or the presence of the experimenter is made
less salient.
• Experiment showed that people have a tendency to
obey others who are in authority.
• Reasons: they believed the experimenter would be
responsible for any ill effects.
• Gilbert(1981) explained it as incremental nature of
shock.
• Atrocities during wartime.
• Reasons for conforms
– Social comparison process
– Avoidance of social disapproval
– Need to be liked and accepted

Social comparison process- in ambiguous situations

we look at others behavior or thoughts who are
similar to us.
We resolve the ambiguity by observing the behavior
of others similar to us and follow their lead.
• Avoiding social disapproval- when one
deviates they are the target of social approval.
– Most of us desire to avoid social disapproval and
hence we avoid doing things that would lead to
social censure.
• People also may “go along” because in doing
so they can meet their needs to be liked and
accepted by others.
– Need prominent in teens and preteens.
• Conformity in group decision making.
– Problem solving groups operate in two phases.
– Gathering of information by polling opinion of all
group members.
– Next is the decision making phase in which all
options are weighted and best alternative is
selected.
– Conformity in initial phase of to perceived
consensus is maladaptive.
– Janis called it “group think”
 Social Relationships
factors that help the formation & maintenance of interpersonal
relationships
• Interpersonal Attraction
-We have varying degrees of likeness for people
- Rewarding or reinforcing the interaction
• Proximity
- Increased proximity greater interpersonal attraction
- Increased distance means increased costs
- Repeated interaction of neutral stimulus results in increasingly
positive evaluation
- Those we encounter frequently we make a special effort to make the
encounters run smoothly
• Attitude Similarity
– Greater attraction with increased attitude similarity.
– Perceived as similar to ourselves.
• Physical Attractiveness
- linked with other positive attributes as well.
- In the absence of actual knowledge about the peer’s attitude the
physically attractive were benefitted by subject’s assumption of high
attitude similarity.
- Increases our stature in the eyes of others.
- The effect of physical attractiveness diminishes over time.
The development and maintenance of
relationships
Social Exchange theory by Thibaut & Kelley
• Interdependence of social relationships
• Outcome for each person is the result of rewards / the costs
• Comparison level- subjective standard of judgment to evaluate the
outcome.
– Internal standard based on prior experiences in similar relationships.
– Outcomes can be greater or lesser than CL.
– The extent to which outcomes exceed a person’s CL will define the
goodness they will experience.
– Experiencing good outcomes would result in the person being
rewarded by and attracted to the relationship.
– Outcomes that fall below the person’s CL will create dissatisfaction in
direct relation to how far below the CL they fall.
• Improvement in outcomes will increase the level of
satisfaction in a relationship.
• Level of satisfaction can also be improved with
change in the comparison level.
• Information that lowers the comparison level can be
weighing of the comparison level in relation with
other people’s outcomes.
• Eg. Increase in satisfaction with a roommate on
hearing other people’s troubles.
• The weighting of the CL with other’s outcomes is the
reason why people are fascinated by misfortunes of
others.
• Example- a married couple in a relationship where there is
interdependence .
– H & W can engage in two activities play badminton or
chess.
– H wants to play Badminton and W chess would result in a
poor outcome.
– There is interdependence where outcomes of one are
determined not solely by their own choices by the choice
of the partner as well.
– A scenario of cooperation exists when the W’s outcomes
and H’s outcomes match.
– High satisfaction experienced by such couples;
interpersonal problems would be how to coordinate switch
in choices.
– Another types of situation could be where the W may
obtains her best outcomes when she plays
badminton/chess without H.
– While for the H the best outcomes are still with the W.
– This would be a situation of competition where the
interpersonal problems would be more severe as no
choices exist that will permit both people to obtain their
best outcomes.
– Solution is to trade off, so that each person takes turn at
obtaining their best outcomes.
– However outcomes will be lower than comparable
cooperative relationships.
• However can we say people end relationships
that fall below their CLs and satisfaction?
• NO
• They end it when the outcomes experienceD
in it drop below the outcomes expected in the
next best alternative relationship.
• The comparison level for alternative (CL Alt).
• Explains why people continue in relationships
that are dissatisfying or break relationships
that are satisfying.
Growth & decline of relationships
• Degree of involvement is the crucial distinguishing
characteristic of various types of relationships.
• Unilateral Awareness- awareness before any interaction,
judgment based on overt characteristics such as physical
attractiveness.
• Surface contact-when individuals are interacting, governed
by cultural norms; self disclosure, decisions regarding
sharing of thoughts, feelings past experiences will decide
how far the relationship will go.
• Stage of mutuality- each individual takes some feelings of
responsibility of the other person’s outcomes; mutuality of
norms specific to the particular relationship replaces
cultural norms
• Decline and deterioration of relationships-
– Actual level of rewards may reduce due to
diverging interests or situational factors influence
a partner’s ability to provide rewards.
– The costs of producing a behavior in the
relationship may increase.
– Changes in standards by which one evaluates
one’s outcomes can also change
 Loving
• The experience of love- 3 dimensions
– Passion- Sexual passion and desire
– Intimacy- honesty and understanding
– Commitment- devotion and sacrifice
• Not all loving relationships have all of them.
• Individual differences in the way people
experience love and ability to sustain
relationships.
• Romantic relationships start out with a period
of great intensity and absorption called
passionate love.
• Over time relationships tend to migrate
towards a state of lesser intensity but greater
intimacy called companionate love.
• Cultural factors will influence experiences of
love.
 Justice in Social Relationships
• Judgments based on outcomes in comparison terms
not absolute terms.
• 3 rules
• Contributions rule & equity- a relationship is considered
fair when all individuals involved in it receive outcomes
proportional to their respective contributions.
• Ratio of inputs and outputs.
• On experiencing inquitable or unfair situation they
experience distress and motivated to restore equity.
• By changing actual inequity or psychological inequity.
• Needs rule- outcomes should be distributed in accordance
with the relative amounts of individual need.
• Norms of social responsibility.
• Fair outcomes are those which meet individuals legitimate
needs to avoid hardships and suffering.
• Involves judging the legitimacy of needs, if providing for them
now is considered detrimental in the long run then that need
isn’t legitimate. Or if the need is due to their own laziness,
neglect etc.
• Equality rule- outcomes should be distributed equally among
participants in a relationship irrespective of needs or
contributions.
• Different situations for different rules.