Unit 2 Learning Approach

• all behaviour is learnt
• capacity to learn from birth
• all shaped by the environment (nurture)
• animals similar to humans, humans understood by studying animals

• assumption 1 - classical conditioning - learning by association
• assumption 2 - operant conditioning - learning by consquences
• assumption 3 - social learning theory - learning by obeservation and imitation

CL***ICAL CONDITIONING = LEARNING BY ***OCIATION

• stimulus = change in environment, an organism registers
• response = behaviour  of organism (emits) as consequence of stimulus
• Pavlov's dogs associated assistants with food -> salivated sight of assistant, no food

• UCS = natural stimulus  ---> UCR = natural reaction
• NS = no association --->CS = associated stimulus ---> CR = learnt reaction

• extinction = suppresion of CR = response stops = unlearn
• spontaneous recovery = revival of dormant CR = prior learnt, quicker
• stimulus generalisation = extending association = similar things

OPERANT CONDITIONING = LEARNING BY CONSEQUENCES

• reinforcement = strengthens behaviour = increases probability response occur
• positive reinforcement = reward for behaviour = repeat to continue
• negative reinforcement = remove unpleasent when behaviour shown = repeat to stop
• punishment = get unpleasent or remove nice = decreases probability response occur = no repeat
•  when and how often reinforce impacts strength and rate
• primary reinforcer = basic human need = food, water, sex, friendship
• secondary reinforcer = associated and exchanged for basic need = money or token economy
• ABC model - antecendent = situation/stimulus = before behaviour, behaviour = response, consequence = reward or punishment

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY = LEARNING BY OBSERVATION & IMITATION

• modelling = observer learns new behaviour by watching  and copying  a role model
•  role  models must be identified with
•   role models  are:  same sex, higher social status, respected/ admired
•  (e.g. celebs or family or teacher)

ARRM :

• Attention - focus and observe behaviour (in person or media)
• Retention - remember behaviour - store
• Reproduction - copy/ imitate behaviour - model
• Motivation - why?  external - physical and property. self reinforcement - emotion. vicarious learning - observe if model not punished more likely to imitate

DESCRIBE:

• tokens secondary reinforcers that when number collected can be exchanged for primary inforcer specific to individual
• to get token show desirable or acceptable behaviour
• treatment progressively more natural - verbal praise, no token
• e.g. psychiatirc institutions - self sufficency  or e.g. kids sticker chart

EVALUATE:

• Allyon & Azrin - T.E system - improved schizophrenics behaviour
• Petry et al - prize draw entries for alcholics sucess
• Sindlear et al - prize draw entries for cocaine users  sucess
• used criminal psych - cut reoffending rates in prisoners
• cost effective - cheap - no training (unlike other therapies)

• time consuming- reward immediatley and consistently
• dependency - behave only to get token
• short lived- return to normal life - no tokens - reward subtle and delayed- old behaviour
• not idnetify cause of old behaviour - allow again
• rewards must outweigh undesirable behaviour!
• cut reoffending prisoner rates - short term not long term

OPERANT CONDITIONING

• positively reinforce gender appropriate behaviour to encourage again
• punish gender inappropriate behaviour to dicourage repetition
• e.g. girl play make up and dolls praised but boy who does ridiculed

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

• model same sex role models -- identified with and significant to indiviual
• ARRM
• e.g. boy wathcing dad do DIY
• media and literture potrayl of gender
• gender appropriate encouraged from birth : clothes, room decor and toys

FOR: SUPPORTING RESEARCH

• Fagot - study 24 families with 20 month olds- praised for gender appropriate toys and emotions- girls less discouraged from gender inappropriate behaviour than boys - operant conditioning - reinforced
• Fafafinis - 2+gender roles -  not enough women, choose boy raise female - accept identity eventhough go against biology

AGAINST RESEARCH

• David Reimer -  born male  but circumcision accident meant raised female -  learnt identity change to male - despite  learnt female behaviour - social learning theory and operant conditioning ineffective
• Reiner & Gaerhart - 14/16 males born male - no or small penis raised girls - identified male

ALTERNATIVE THEORIES

• Biological -  hormones, genes and brain lateralisation - nature
• Psychodynamic - unconcious influences, Oepedius and Electra complex

• observation - primary research method - watching and recording what you see
• BPS guidelines - observation must be in public place, people expect to be watched

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• naturalistic - natural environment - 4 types;
• overt -participant aware being observed
• covert - participant unaware being observed
• partcipant - observer acts part of group
• non-participant - observer not act part of group

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• structured - controlled evironement - variables manipulated by experimenter- lab

NATURALISTIC

• ecological validity - natural setting - natural behaviour
• reliability - once, if again different behaviour - repeated: different time or different researcher - affect behaviour
• reliabilty - 2+ observers agree what seen - inter-observer relaibility

STRUCTURED

•  ecological validity - not natural evironemnt - artficial behaviour
• reliability -controlled envrionment - control extraneous variables - cause-effect conclusions

COVERT

• validity - less likely disrupt or cause behaviour
• ethics - deception, informed consent, right to withdraw

OVERT

• demand charactersitics - participants artificail behaviour
• ethics - informed consent, no deception , right to withdraw

PARTICIPANT

• validity - natural situation - no observer - 'another group member'
• practicality - access data not available to non group - no time notes or observe - shared understanding of data

NON PARTICIPANT

• valdity - observer affect behavour - less natural
• practicality - gather data - no role - less likely miss data

WATSON & RAYNER - LITTLE ALBERT - CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

AIM:

• investigate if emotional responses (fear) can be conditioned

METHOD:

• observation -  L.A no fear - mum worked at same hospital - environement natural - healthy, unemotional - judged less likely affected

PROCEDURE:

• 11 months shown white rat = no fear
• rat + hammer against metal behind head = fear - repeated
• stimulus generalisation - white fluffy things
• 7 weeks later = some fear

BEFORE CONDITIONING

 White rat ------->    No response                    Metal noise ----->  Fear

     NS                                                                  UCS                  UCR

DURING CONDITIONING

White rat + metal noise ---->   Fear

         NS + UCS                      UCR

AFTER CONDITIONING

White rat ----->  Fear

    CS                 CR

RESULTS:

• 1 week - fear rats - learnt emotional response - created association
• stimulus generalisation - extended fear - all white fluffy things
• last test fear intensity lessened

CONCLUSION:

• can classically condition emotional resposne (fear) but diminishes over time (extinction)

GENERALISABILITY

• one male child only - not generalise to other children , adults or females
• andocentric

RELIABILITY

• controls - same noise, baby no fear at start, clear object tested
• if study repeated (unlikely) could test for reliability
• supported Pavlov's dogs - learn by association

APPLICATION

• treatment for phobias - systematic desensitisation - substitute fear with relaxation - reciprocal inhibition - no 2 opposite emotions exist same time - phobia extinct

VALIDITY

•  playing with toys - normal behaviour - natural environment
• artificial task - rat and loud noise 

ETHICS

• no informed consent - mother deceived
• protection - pscyhological ; phobia and distress - physcial; hearing damage
• confidentiality - name changed
• debrief - mother took son away before re-conditioning

BANDURA ET AL - BOBO DOLL - SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

AIM:

• to see if children would imitate agressive role model's behaviour

HYPOTHESES:

1. Children exposed to agressive role model imitate more than other groups
2. Children exposed non- agressive role model less agressive than no-model group
3. Children more likely copy same sex role model
4. Boys imitate agression more than girls, especially same sex models

METHOD:

• sample - 72 boys and girls - Stanford Uni Nursery School - 3 yr 1 month to 5yr 9 months
• 24 agressive condition, 24 non-agressive condition, 24 control
• 12 male 12 female x2 groups (6 same sex, 6 opposite sex x2)
• structured observation - lab - variables control and manipulate
• IV - condition - sex of model - sex of child
• controls - standardised behaviour and toys - matched pairs based before study 5 point linkert scale by teacher - stop confounding variable - inter-rater reliability

PROCEDURE:

STAGE 1 : MODELLING

Room 1

• Child taken to room with toys and model
• agressive model - sat, kicked and raised bobo doll in air and hit with mallet - x3
• non-agressive model - ignored bobo doll
• 10 mins child taken room 2

STAGE 2: AGRESSION AROUSAL

Room 2

• all conditions - room with attractive and lots toys
• told child not allowed to play with them - best toys and for others

STAGE 3: OBSERVATION (FOR DELAYED IMITATION)

Room 3

• agressive and non-agressive toys and Bobo doll
• 20 minutes observed and rate via one-way mirror
• observation agreed by all observers
• intervals 5 secs (time sampling)

RESULTS:

1. agressive condition children directly imitated model more than non-agresive.

2. agressive condition children more non-imitative (novel) behaviour than non-agressive

3. Agressive model greater effect on boys

4. Boys more likely imitate same sex models

5. Girls in agressive condition more physical agression if model opposite sex (male)

6. Girls more verbal agression if model same sex (female)

Conclusion:

•  child exposed to agressive model more likely imitate agressive acts
• boys more agressive than girls, but less likely copy opposite sex model
• proves social learning theory - ARRM

GENERALISABILITY

• ethnocentric- same nursery
• large sample - 72 - both genders - not andocentric

RELIABILITY

• structured observation - controls - standardised verbal lines and actions
• standardised procedure - replicable
• qualitative and quantitative data
• similar results in replications by Bandura

APPLICATION

• media censorship and certification laws

VALIDITY

• low ecological - artificial situation - demand characterisitcs of hit bobo - play fight not agression

ETHICS

• elicited agression in children
• protection - distress of removal of toys

DESCRIPTION

• influence of role models on encouraging teenage eating disorders
• Billie Piper - used to be anorexic - now talks about size 0 models
• size 0 - very small size - difficult achieve
• Victoria Beckham - refuse let size 0 showcase clothes NYFashion Week
• 1 in 100 girls eating disorder - Daily Telegraph
• 8% 14 year olds happy with body - 7/10 said 100% happier if lose 1/2 stone
• 2/3 of 2000 girls blamed celebrities fo want perfect bodies
• +1/2 of 3000 girls media made feel pretty and thin most important - Girlguiding UK
• 95% most influential role models Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss

EXPLAIN:

Social Learning Theory

• imitate role models
• role models: fame, family, teachers, peers
• celebs imitated as successful - reward

Operant conditioning

• role models punished - less likely copy
• size 0 banned from advertising companies - punishment - not imitated