BEHAVIORISM

By:
PRINCESS TIFFANY H. GEMPIS
YVONNE V. WILSON
1 The Human Organism

2 The Unhealthy Personality

3 Related Research

4 Critique of Skinner
The Human Organism
 The Human Organism

01 02 03 04 05

Natural Cultural Inner States Complex Control of

Selection Evolution Behavior Human
Behavior
 Natural Selection

o Human personality is a product of a long evolutionary history.

o Our behavior is determined by genetic composition and especially by our

personal histories of reinforcement.

o Individual behavior that is reinforcing tends to be repeated. Behaviors that,

throughout history, were beneficial to the species tended to survive.

o But not every remnant of natural selection continues to have survival value.
Ex: overeating
Then, it allowed people to survive
Now, obesity has become a health problem; lost its survival value
 Cultural Evolution

o Selection is responsible for those cultural practices that have

survived.

o Contingencies of reinforcement, especially those that have sha-

ped human culture, account for most of human behavior.

o Example:
Toolmaking
Verbal behavior
 Inner States

Self-awareness
01 Each person is subjectively aware of
his or her own thoughts, feelings,
02
recollections, and intentions.
Drives
Drives are not causes of behavior. It
refers to the effects of deprivation
and satiation.

Emotions Purpose and Intention

03 Behaviors followed by delight, joy,
pleasure, and other pleasant
04
emotions tend to be reinforced.
A felt, ongoing purpose may itself be
reinforcing.
Ex: If you believe that your purpose
for jogging is to feel better and live
longer, then that thought acts as a
reinforcing stimulus.
 Complex Behavior
Higher Mental Processes
Thinking, problem solving, and Creativity
reminiscing are covert behaviors that Result of random or accidental
take place within the skin but not behaviors (over or covert) that
inside the mind. happen to be rewarded.

Social Behavior
Groups do not behave, only
individuals do. Individuals
establish groups because they
have been rewarded for doing
so.
Unconscious Behavior
Behavior is labeled unconscious
Dreams when people no longer think
Covert and symbolic forms of behavior about it because it has been
that are subject to the same suppressed through punishment.
contingencies of reinforcement as
other behaviors are.
 Control of Human Behavior
Social Control
- Individuals act to form
social groups because
such behavior tends to be
reinforcing.
Example: Impact on other
people (everything you do
esp. when in a group)
Self Control
- As people can alter the
variables in another person’s
environment, so they can
manipulate the variables
within their own environment.
Ex: less money on hand, less
expenses
The UNHEALTHY PERS
ONALITY
 The Unhealthy Personality
Counteracting Strategies
- When social control is excessive,
people can use three basic
strategies for counteracting it:
• Escape – people withdraw from
the controlling agent either
physically or psychologically
• Revolt – behave more actively,
counteracting the controlling
agent
• Passive resistance – more subtle
than those who rebel and more
irritating to the controllers than
those who rely on escape
(stubbornness)
Inappropriate Behaviors
- Follow from self-defeating
techniques of counteracting social
control or from unsuccessful
attempts at self-control.
- learned and is shaped by positive
and negative reinforcement and
especially by the effects of
punishment.
• Vigorous behavior
• Restrained behavior
• Blocking out reality
• Defective self-knowledge
Related research
 Related Research

How Conditioning Affects How Personality Affects

Personality Conditioning

Reinforcement shapes behavior Different people respond

– one basic assumption of differently to the same
Skinnerian conditioning is that reinforcers, and personality may
reinforcement shapes behavior. provide an important clue about
why this may be so.
Critique of skinner
 Critique of Skinner

1. Generate Research 5. Internal Consistency

- Skinner’s theory of Behaviorism - Very high
was rated very high on its ability - He defined his terms precisely and
to generate research. operationally.
2. Falsifiability 6. Parsimonious
- Most of Skinner’s ideas can be - The theory is free from cumbersome
either falsified or verified. hypothetical constructs, but on the
3. Organize all that is known about human other, it demands a novel expression
personality of everyday phrases.
- Moderate rating
- Skinner’s approach was to describe
behavior and the environmental contingencies
under which is takes place.
4. Guide to Action
- Very high
- Skinnerian techniques have been used to help
phobic patients overcome their fears, etc.
Concept of Humanity
Insert the title of your subtitle Here
 Concept of Humanity
Deterministic
Free will is an illusion; Optimistic
behavior is governed by Of all behaviors, the most
internal or external forces satisfying ones tend to
over which we have no increase in frequency of
control occurence

Uniqueness
Each human has a singular history
of reinforcement contingencies,
behavior and personality are
relatively unique.
Causality
Behavior is caused by
Unconscious Dimension the person’s history of
The complex of environmental reinforcement as well as
contingencies responsible for these by the species’
thoughts, as well as for other behaviors, contingencies for
is beyond people’s awareness. survival.
Thank you!