Chapter 16 - Skinner

I. Overview of Skinner's Behavioral Analysis

B. F. Skinner was a radical behaviourist
a doctrine that avoids all hypothetical constructs i.e. ego, traits, drives
He minimised speculation about hypothetical constructs and focused entirely on
observable behaviour
He was also a determinist and an environmentalist;
As a determinist, he rejected the notion of free will, and believed that behaviour
is lawfully determined and can be studied scientifically
As an environmentalist, behaviour must be explained on the basis of
environmental stimuli
History of the individual provides the most useful data for processing and controlling
behaviour

II. Biography of B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1904, the older of two brothers.
While in college, Skinner wanted to be a writer, but after having little success in this
endeavor, he turned to psychology.
Father - lawyer, mother - stayed home
grew up in comfortable, happpy, upper-middle class home where his parents practiced
the values of temperance, service, honesty, and hard work
never practiced any religion
A second son, Edward / Ebbie, was more loved by both parents - Skinner was more
independent and less emotionally attached to his parents
Ebbie died so parents wanted Skinner to come the family boy
inclined toward music and literature

III. Precursors to Skinner's Scientific Behaviorism

Edward L. Thorndike
worked originally with animals and then later with humans
law of effect stated that learning takes place mostly because of the effects that
follow a response
first part: responses to stimuli that are followed immediately be a satisfier
(rewards) tend to be stamped in
second: responses to stimuli that are followed immediately by an annoyer
(punishment) tend to be stamped out
this anticipated Skinner's use of positive reinforcement to shape behavior
John Watson
argued that human behaviour can be studied OBJECTIVELY
consciousness and introspection must play NO role
attacked the notions of instinct, sensation, perception, motivation, mental states,
mind, and imagery
the goal of psychology is the prediction and control of behaviour

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IV. Scientific Behaviorism
human behavior should be studied scientifically, and is best studied WITHOUT
reference to needs, instincts, drives, motives
Do not attribute motivation to human behaviour
Do not assume that people are motivated by internal drives
Although he rejected internal states (thoughts, emotions, desires, etc.) as being outside
the realm of science, Skinner did not deny their existence.
He simply insisted that they should not be used to explain behavior
Cosmology: concern with causation
Psychology must avoid mental factors and confine itself to observable physical
events

A. Philosophy of Science
Scientific behaviourism allows for an INTERPRETATION of behaviour but NOT an
EXPLANATION
Interpretation: permits a scientist to generalize from a simple learning condition to
a more complex one
e.g. skinner genealized from animal studies to children and then to adults
Science begins with the simple and evolves to generalised principles that permits an
interpretation of the most complex
i.e. simple > generalized

B. Characteristics of Science
Skinner held that science has three principle characteristics:
1. its findings are cumulative
2. it rests on an attitude that values empirical observation
three components to the scientific attitude:
1. rejects authority - must stand the test of empirical observations
2. demands intellectual honesty - accept facts even when these facts are
opposed to their wishes and desires
3. suspends judgement - healthy skepticism and willingness to suspend
judgement
3. it searches for order and lawful relationships
all science begins with observation of single events and then attempts to infer
general principles and laws from those events

V. Conditioning
Skinner recognized two kinds of conditioning: classical and operant.
Classical
also known as respondent conditioning
a response is drawn out of the organism by a specific, identifiable stimulus
behaviour is ELICITED from the organism i.e. drawn from the organism
Operant
also known as Skinnerian conditioning
a behaviour is made more likely to recur when it is immediately reinforced
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 behaviour is EMITTED i.e. one that simply appears, which do not previously
exist inside the organism

A. Classical Conditioning
A neutral (conditioned) stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus until it is
capable of bringing about a previously unconditioned response, now called the
conditioned response.

Prior to Conditioning
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
a stimulus that naturally elicits a response without prior learning (usually a
biological response) e.g. food/meat
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
A response that is naturally elicited by the UCS e.g. salivation
UCS > UCR
e.g. Food > Salivation
After Conditioning
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
stimulus that does not naturally elicit any response
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) e.g. lab assistant, which used to be a natural stimulus
a previously neutral stimulus that elicits a response after being associated with
the UCS
it elicits a response even in the absence of UCS
Conditioned Response (CR)
A learned response to the CS that occurs after the CS-UCS pairing

e.g. Watson and Rayner

Pairing of a conditioned-stimulus (i.e. white rat) with an unconditioned stimulus (fear of a
loud sudden) until (the conditioned stimulus) was sufficient to ELICIT the unconditioned
response (fear)
The Case of Little Albert Diagram
1 (NS) > (No Response)
White Mouse > No Response

2 (UCS) > (UCR)

Loud noise > Fear
3 (NS/CS + UCS) > (UCR)
White Mouse + Loud Noise > Fear
4 (CS) > (CR)
White Mouse > Fear

Stimulus Generalization
People may also respond similarly to different environmental stimuli
CR is associated with other similar stimuli that evoke the same response

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 The tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned
stimulus (dog would also salivate to the sound of a SIMILAR tone of a bell)
e.g. a person who reacts with anxiety to the sound of a dentists drill might react
with some slight anxiety to a similar- sounding machine, such as an electric coffee
grinder

B. Operant Conditioning
With operant conditioning, reinforcement is used to increase the probability that a given
behavior will recur.
Organism first does something and then is reinforced by the environment

Three factors are essential in operant conditioning:

1. the antecedent, or environment in which behavior takes place;
2. the behavior, or response
3. the consequence that follows the behavior.

e.g. A - boys home, B - boy dressing himself, C - candy

ABC

Operant Discrimination
not an ability we possess but a consequence of our reinforcement history
e.g. we dont come to the dinner table because we sense food is ready; we come
because our previous experiences of reacting in a similar way have been mostly
reinforced

Stimulus Generalization
def: a response to a similar environment in the absence of previous reinforcement
e.g. a girl buys a ticket to a concert performed by a group she has neither soon or head
but has been told it is similar to her favourite rock group, thus buying a ticket to one
rock concert contains elements identical to buying a ticket to a different rock concert

Shaping
Psychologists and others use shaping to mold complex human behavior so that it
doesnt become a bribery
definition: reinforce responses that are similar to the desired behaviour / successively
reinforce behaviours that approximate or come close to the target behaviour
Used in animal training
desired behaviour for dog is to GET slippers, thus reinforce responses would be
getting near the slippers or smelling the slippers

Extinction
Do not follow a response with a reinforcement
e.g. tantrum > DO NOT give in > no tantrums
classical extinction in a classical conditioning model, operant extinction in operant
conditioning

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Operant Extinction
definition: tendency of a previously acquired response to become progressively
weakened upon non-reinforcement
takes place when reinforcement of a previous learned response is held until the
probability of that response diminishes to zero
behaviour trained on an INTERMITTENT schedule is much more resistant to extinction
the higher the rate of responses per reinforcement, the slower the rate of extinction
the fewer responses an organism must make or the shorter time between
reinforcements, the more quickly extinction will occur

Reinforcement & Punishment

Anything within the environment that strengthens a behavior is a reinforcer. Positive
reinforcement is any stimulus that when added to a situation increases the probability that
a given behavior will occur. Negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior
through the removal of an aversive stimulus. Both positive and negative reinforcement
strengthen behavior. Any event that decreases a behavior either by presenting an aversive
stimulus or by removing a positive one is called punishment. The effects of punishment
are much less predictable than those of reward.

Conditioned reinforcers are those stimuli that are not by nature satisfying (e.g., money),
but that can become so when they are associated with a primary reinforcer, such as food.
Generalized reinforcers are conditioned reinforcers that have become associated with
several primary reinforcers.

Stimulus

Stimulus is Pleasant Aversive

presented after the behaviour Positive Reinforcement Positive Punishment

(behaviour increases) (behaviour decreases)

removed after the behaviour Negative Punishment Negative Reinforcement

(behaviour decreases) (behaviour increases)

positive reinforcement: giving a child dessert for eating her vegetable

negative reinforcement: putting a seatbelt on so there is no annoying sound / using oven
gloves to prevent being burned

positive punishment: shouting at a child for failing a test

negative punishment: a mother takes a toy away from her son who fights his sister for the
toy

Schedules of Reinforcement
focuses on WHEN to give reinforcement
This is a timetable that determines when a behaviour will be reinforced
Continuous Reinforcement
Behaviour is reinforced every time it occurs

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 Used to establish a behaviour
Intermittent Reinforcement
Behaviour is reinforced not all the time
Used to maintain a behaviour
e.g. passing the quiz because we dont know when it will come

There are four basic intermittent schedules:

1. fixed-ratio; the organism is reinforced intermittently according to the number of
responses it makes;
2. variable-ratio; on which the organism is reinforced after an average of a
predetermined number of responses;
3. fixed-interval; the organism is reinforced for the first response following a designated
period of time
4. variable interval; the organism is reinforced after the lapse of varied periods of time.

Type of Schedule of Reinforce a behaviour after Example: pigeons lever pressing

Reinforcement Give Rs after:

Fixed Ratio (its about the A fixed number of responses For every 5 presses, the rat gets a
number) food pellet

another e.g. Salesman has to sell 5

cars in order to get a bonus

e.g. A bricklayer is paid a given

amount of money for every brick laid

Variable Ratio An average number of responses 3, 6, 5, 10 presses (avg. 4 presses)

e.g. slot machine

Fixed Interval (TIME - days, A fixed (amount of) time has Every 3 minutes
weeks, etc) elapsed
e.g. salesman gets paycheck after 2
weeks

Variable Interval An average (amount of) time has 3,5, 10, 12 (a.g 7.5 minutes)
elapsed

*interval = time
*ratio = number

*fixed = exact
*variable = avg.

Variable vs Fixed
All the variables are slower to extinguish, meaning intermittent reinforcement is really
more effective
Extinction of a response will occur earliest when learning occurs under continuous
reinforcement

C. (Extra) Classical vs Operant Conditioning Compared Side-by-Side

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 Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning

Type of behaviour involuntary, inflexible voluntary & flexible

elicited emitted

innate patterns of behaviour does not involve innate patterns

antecedent what comes before it what comes after it

(consequence)

conseq is very critical

stimulus-response S-S-R S-R-S

environment gives something
before and then
e.g. you like a person - smile -
conversation which serves as a
stimulus

human behaviour is a string of

stimulus responses

behaviour as a function of what precedes follows

precedes it

VI. The Human Organism

Psychology must be confined to a scientific study of observable phenomena i.e.
behaviour
Science must begin with the SIMPLE and move to the COMPLEX
Skinner believed that human behavior is shaped by three forces:

1. natural selection,
2. cultural practices
3. the individual's history of reinforcement

A. Natural Selection
our behavior is shaped by the contingencies of survival; that is, those behaviors (e.g.,
sex and aggression) that were beneficial to the human species tended to survive,
whereas those that did not tended to drop out
e.g. natural selection has favoured indies whose pupils dilated and contracted with
changes in lighting

B. Cultural Evolution
Selection is responsible for those cultural practices that have survived
Those societies that evolved certain cultural practices (e.g. tool making and language)
tended to survive.
Currently, the lives of nearly all people are shaped, in part, by modern tools
(computers, media, various modes of transportation, etc.) and language
Humans do not make cooperative decisions to do what is best for their society, but
those societies whose members behave in a cooperative manner tended to survive.
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 The remnants of culture are not all adaptive
e.g.division of labor evolved from the industrial revolution has helped produce
more goods, but it had led to work that is not reinforcing

C. Inner States
Skinner recognized the existence of such inner states but he rejected the notion that
they can explain behavior

1. Self-Awareness
humans are aware of their consciousness and are aware of themselves as part of
their environment
behaviour is a function of the environment
each persons subjectively aware of his or her own thoughts
2. Drives
drives refer to the effects of deprivation and satiation and thus are related to the
probability of certain behaviors, but they are NOT the causes of behavior.
3. Emotions
emotions can be accounted for by the contingencies of survival and the
contingencies of reinforcement; but like drives, they do NOT cause behavior
e.g. indivs who were strongly disposed toward fear were those who escaped from
danger and were able to pass on those characteristics to their offspring
4. Purpose and Intention
purpose and intention are not causes of behavior, although they are sensations
that exist within the skin
physically felt stimuli within the organism and NOT mentalistic events responsible
for behaviour

SDEP

D. Complex Behavior
Abstract and complex behaviour is shaped by natural selection, etc
Human behavior is subject to the same principles of operant conditioning as simple
animal behavior, but it is much more complex and difficult to predict or control.

1. Higher Mental Processes

human thought is the most difficult of all behaviours to analyse
Thinking, problem solving, and reminiscing are covert behaviours and take place
within the skin but not inside the mind
e.g. misplacing car keys and searching for them
Covert behviour - requires the person to covertly manipulate relevant variables
until the correct solution is found
e.g. playing chess
2. Creativity
creativity is the result of random or accidental behaviors (overt or covert) that
happen to be rewarded

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 result from mutations
3. Unconscious Behaviour
nearly all our behavior is unconscious or automatic and that not thinking about
certain experiences is reinforcing
Skinner did not accept the notion of a storehouse of unconscious ideas, but he
accepted the idea of unconscious behaviour
reactive love
4. Dreams
covert and symbolic forms of behavior that are subject to the same contingencies
of reinforcement as any other behavior
agreed with Freud that dreams may serve a wish-fulfillment purpose
dream behaviour is reinforcing when repressed sexual or aggressive stimuli are
allowed to be expressed
5. Social Behaviour
groups do not behave; only individuals do
indivs form clans so that they can be proceed
membership in a social group however is not always reinforcing because:
1. group members are reinforcing them
2. people may not possess the means to leave the group
3. reinforcement may occur on an intermittent schedule
HCUDS

E. Control of Human Behavior

behavior is controlled by env. contingencies i.e. the env is responsible for behaviour
behaviour has nothing to do with personal freedom but is shaped by the contingencies
of survival, the effects of reinforcement, and the contingencies of the social environment

Social Control
Erich Fromm - one of Skinners harshest critics
Fromm said people are not pigeons and cannot be controlled through operant
conditioning techniques
Skinner: I am going to shape Fromms left hand a chopping motion
If Fromms arm came down in a chopping motion, Skinner would smile but if not,
Skinner would be bored so eventually Fromm began to flail his arm

Each of us is controlled by a variety of social forces. There are four basic methods of
social control:
1. operant conditioning, including positive and negative reinforcement and punishment
2. describing contingencies, or using language to inform people of the consequence of
their behaviors; e.g. threats and promises, advertisements
subtle mean: advertising, designed to manipulate people to purchase certain
products
3. deprivation and satiation, techniques that increase the likelihood that people will
behave in a certain way

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 e.g. people deprived of food are more likely to eat; those satiated are less likely to
eat
4. physical restraint, including the jailing of criminals.
this acts to counter the effects of conditioning
e.g. holding children back or putting lawbreakers in prison

ODDP

Self-Control
Although Skinner denied the existence of free will, he recognized that people manipulate
variables within their own environment and thus exercise some measure of self-control,
which has several techniques:

1. physical aids, such as tools e.g. taking extra money so you can impulse buy
2. changing environmental stimuli e.g. turn off tv to study better
3. arranging the environment to allow escape from aversive stimuli e.g. setting an
alarm so that the aversive sound can be stopped only by getting out of bed
4. drugs e.g. a man can take drugs to make his behaviour more placid
5. doing something else e.g. obsessive woman may knit to avoid thinking about
previous guilty experiences

VII. The Unhealthy Personality

Social control and self-control sometimes produce counteracting strategies and
inappropriate behaviors.

A. Counteracting Strategies
People can counteract excessive social control by
1. escape from it,
these people find it difficult to be intimate, tend to be mistrustful
2. revolt against it
behave more actively, counterattacking the controlling agent
e.g. vandalising public property
3. passively resisting it
more subtle than those who rebel and more irritating to controllers than those who
rely on escape
this is the last resort - used when escape and revolt have failed
ERP

B. Inappropriate Behaviors
Inappropriate behaviors follow from self-defeating techniques of counteracting social
control or from unsuccessful attempts at self-control.
these are learned and are shaped by reinforcement and punishment
blocking out reality by paying no attention to aversive stimuli
defective self knowledge, which is manifested in responses such as boasting

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 self-punishment; people punish themselves or by arranging envy variables so that they
are punished by others

VIII. Psychotherapy
Skinner was not a psychotherapist
psychotherapy is the chief obstacle blocking psychologys attempt to become scientific
Operant conditioning principles are used to shape behavior
therapist = controlling agent, who is warm and accepting and supportive
a therapist moulds desirable behaviour by reinforcing slight improved changes in
behaviour
therapists explain behaviours by resorting to fictional constructs e.g. defines
mechanisms

IX. Related Research

Skinner's theory has generated more research than any other personality theory. Much of
this research can be divided into two questions: (1) How does conditioning affect
personality? and (2) How does personality affect conditioning?

A. How Conditioning Affects Personality

A recent study by Stephen Higgens et al. demonstrated that a contingent management
program can be successful in decreasing cocaine use.

B. How Personality Affects Conditioning

For example, Alan Pickering and Jeffrey Gray have developed and tested a reinforcement
sensitivity theory that suggests that impulsivity, anxiety, and introversion/extraversion
relate to ways people respond to environmental reinforcers.

Chapter 16 - Bandura

I. Overview of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura's social cognitive theory takes an agentic perspective, meaning that humans
have the capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of their lives

In contrast to Skinner, Bandura:

1. recognizes that chance encounters and fortuitous events often shape one's
behavior
2. places more emphasis on observational learning
3. stresses the importance of cognitive factors in learning
4. suggests that human activity is a function of behavior and person variables, as well as
the environment
5. believes that reinforcement is mediated by cognition (i.e. cognitively mediated)

II. Biography of Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura was born in Canada in 1925
Only boy in a family of 5 sisters
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 parents are immigrants - dad from poland, mom from ukraine
Bandura was encouraged by his sisters to be independent and self-reliant
learned self-directiveness in the towns tiny school that had few teachers and little
resources
in this environment, learning was left to the initiative of students
others flourished in this atmosphere, Banduras classmates all went on to attend college
Bandura told Richard Evans that his decision to become a psychologist was quite
accidental; it was the result of FORTUITOUS event

III. Learning
Observation - allows people to learn without performing any behaviour
Learning through observing the behaviour of other people
learning can occur in the absence of a response
Bandura departs from Skinners belief - reinforcement is not essential to learning

A. Observational Learning

Modeling
core of observational learning is modelling
involves ADDING and SUBTRACTING from the observed behaviour
modeling involves cognitive processes and is not simply an imitation
more than matching the action of another; involves symbolically represent
information and storing it to use
Factors that determine whether a person will learn from a model
1. characteristics of the model
people are more likely to model high status people than those of low status,
competent individuals rather than incompetent ones, and powerful people
rather than impotent ones
2. characteristics of the observer
people who lack status, skill, or power are more likely to model
i.e. children model more than old people
3. consequences of the behaviour being modelled
the greater the value an observer places on a behaviour, the more likely the
observe will acquire that behaviour
people tend to model behavior that they see as being rewarding to the
model

Processes Governing Observational Learning

Bandura recognized FOUR processes that GOVERN observational learning.

1. Attention
noticing what a model does
before we can model another person, we must attend to that person
factors that regulate attention: (1) have more opportunities to observe individuals
with whom we frequently associate, (2) attractive models are more likely to be

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 observed, (3) the nature of the behaviour being modelled (we observe behaviour
that we think is important or vulnerable to it)
2. Representation
symbolically representing new response patterns in memory
need not be verbal
verbal coding - greatly speeds the process of observational learning
3. Behavioural Production
after we attend to a model and retain what we observe, we produce the beaviour
(1) How can i do this? (2) What am i doing? (3) Am I doing this right?
producing the behavior that one observes
4. Motivation
observational learning is most effective when learners are motivated to perform
the modelled behaviour
the observer must be motivated to perform the observed behavior.
ARBM

B. Enactive Learning
every response a person makes is followed by some consequence
i.e. response > consequence
behaviour can be learned when people think about and evaluate the consequences of
their behaviours
All behavior is followed by some consequence, but whether that consequence reinforces
the behavior depends on the person's cognitive evaluation of the situation.

IV. Triadic Reciprocal Causation

Behaviour is a function of the environment; can be traced to forces OUTSIDE the person
TRC: this system assumes that human action is a result of an interaction among three
variables - environment, behaviour, and personal characteristics (EBP)
1. person means person variables - cognitive factors i.e. memory, anticipation,
planning, and judging

the three reciprocal factors do not need to be of equal strength or to make equal
contributions
relative potency of the three varies with the individual and with the situation

A. An Example of Triadic Reciprocal Causation

a child begs her father for a second brownie
the childs pleas affected fathers behaviour (E > B) and partially determined fathers
cognition (E> P)

B. Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events

The lives of many people have been fundamentally changed by a chance meeting with
another person or by a fortuitous, unexpected event.
Chance encounter: an unintended meeting of persons unfamiliar to each other
fortuitous event: an environmental experience that is unexpected and intent ended
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 Chance encounters and fortuitous events enter the reciprocal determinism paradigm
at the environment point, after which they influence behavior in much the same way as
do planned events
They are not uncontrollable
e.g. a divorced man who wants to remarry can increase his chance by joining a
singles club

V. Human Agency
human agency: means that people can exercise a measure of control over their lives
it is the essence of humanness
an active process of exploring, manipulating, and influencing the environment in
order to attain desired outcomes
humans are self-regulating, proactive, and self-organising, and that they have the power
to influence their own actions to produce desired consequences

Human agency has FOUR core features:

1. intentionality; acts a person performs intentionally
2. foresight; the ability to set goals, anticipate likely outcomes of their actions, and to
select behaviours that will produce desired outcomes and avoid undesirable ones
3. self-reactiveness, which includes people monitoring their progress toward fulfilling
their choices
4. self-reflectiveness, which allows people to think about and evaluate their motives,
values, and life goals
peoples most crucial self-reflective mechanism is self-efficacy

IFSS

The self system gives some consistency to personality by allowing people to observe and
symbolize their own behavior and to evaluate it on the basis of anticipated future
consequences. The self system includes both self-efficacy and self-regulation.

A. Self-Efficacy
How people behave in a particular situation depends in part on their self-efficacy
self-efficacy: refers to peoples beliefs that they are capable of performing
behaviours that can produce desired outcomes in a particular situation
i.e. do you have what it takes?

Efficacy expectations: refers to peoples confidence that they have the ability to
perform certain behaviours
outcome expectancy: refers to ones predictions of the likely consequences of their
behaviour
self-efficacy is not a global or generalised concept
people can have high self-efficacy in one situation and low self-efficacy in another

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 e.g. a job applicant can have confidence that she will perform during a job
interview and remain controlled (i.e. high self-efficacy) but she believes she has
little chance of being offered a position (i.e. low outcome expectations)
self-efficacy
1. does not refer the ability to execute basic motor skills. e.g. walking
2. does not imply that we can perform behaviours without anxiety, fear, stress
3. judgements of efficacy are not the same levels of aspiration

High self-efficacy and a responsive environment are the best predictors of successful
outcomes

Low self-efficacy and a responsive environment - people become depressed

High self-efficacy and an unresponsive environment - intensify effort to change env

Low self-efficacy and an unresponsive environment - feeling of helplessness

What contributes to self-efficacy?

Self-efficacy is acquired, enhanced, or decreased by four sources:
1. mastery experiences; past performances
most influential source
successful past performances raise efficacy expectancies; failure lowers them
six corollaries
1. successful performance raises self efficacy in proportion to the
difficulty of the task (e.g. a highly skilled tennis player gains little self-
efficacy by defeating inferior opponents, but they gain by performing well
against superior opponents)
2. tasks successfully accomplished by oneself are more efficacious than
those completed with the help of others (e.g. team accomplishments do
not increase self-efficacy as much as do with indiv. achievements)
3. failure is most likely to decrease efficacy when we know that we put
forth our best (e.g. to fail when only half-trying is not as inefficacious as to
fall short in spite of our best efforts)
4. failure under conditions of high emotional arousal or distress is not self-
debilitating as failure under maximal conditions
5. failure prior to establishing a sense of mastery is more detrimental to
feelings of personal efficacy than later failure
6. occasional failure has little effect on efficacy
2. social modelling; observing someone of equal ability succeed or fail at a task
self-efficacy is raised when we observe the accomplishments of another person of
equal competence, but is lowered when we see a person fail
3. social persuasion, or listening to a trusted person's encouraging words
persuasions from others can raise or lower self-efficacy
criticisms from a credible source have more efficacious power than do those from a
non credible person

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 efficacious power is related to the perceived status and authority of the persauder
4. physical and emotional states, such as anxiety or fear, which usually lowers self-
efficacy
strong emotions ordinarily lowers performance
when people experience fear, anxiety, they are likely to have LOWER efficacy
expectations

MSSP

B. Proxy Agency
proxy agency: occurs when people have the capacity to rely on others for good and
services
people exercise some partial control over everyday living.
Successful living requires people to seek proxies to supply their food, deliver
information, provide transportation, etc.
however, if one relies too much on the competence and power of others, it may
weaken the persons sense of personal & collective efficacy

C. Collective Efficacy
collective efficacy: refers to the confidence that groups of people have that their
combined efforts will produce social change
At least four factors can lower collective efficacy:
1. humans live in a transitional world; events in other parts of the world can leave
people with a sense of helplessness
2. complex technology can decrease people's perceptions of control over their
environment;
3. entrenched bureaucracies discourage people from attempting to bring about
social change
4. the size and scope of world-wide problems contribute to people's sense of
powerlessness

D. Self-Regulation
Humans have considerable capacity to regulate their own behaviour
Bandura believes that behavior stems from a reciprocal influence of external and
internal factors
People use both reactive and proactive strategies for self-regulation
They REACTIVELY attempt to reduce discrepancies between their accomplishments and
their goal; but after they close the discrepancies, they PROACTIVELY set new and
higher goals for themselves

External Factors in Self-Regulation

People possess limited ability to manipulate the external factors that feed into the
reciprocal interactive paradigm. External factors affect self-regulation in two ways:
1. standards of evaluation
external factors provide people with standards for evaluating their own behavior.
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2. external reinforcement
sometimes we need incentives that emanate from external factors
e.g. monetary retainer or praise

Internal Factors in Self-Regulation

Internal requirements for self-regulation include:
1. self-observation of performance; we must be able to minter our performance,
in achievement situations i.e. painting pictures, we pay attention to quality,
quantity originality of work
in interpersonal situations, i.e. meeting new acquaintances, we monitor sociability
or morality
2. judgemental processes - this helps us regulate our behaviour through the cognitive
mediation, which depend on:
1. personal standards - e.g. a handicapped child may find tying his shoelaces
highly prized
2. standard of reference - we use our own previous levels of accomplishment as
a reference of evaluating present performance e.g. has my singing improved
over the years?
3. valuation of activity - if we place minor value on our ability to wash dishes,
then we will spend little time trying to improve these abilities
4. performance attribution - how we judge the causes of our behaviour
if we believe our success is due to our own effort, we will take pride in our
accomplishments
if we attribute our performance to external factors, we will not get much
self-satisfaction
3. self-reactions
people respond positively or negatively to their behaviours depending on how
these behaviours measure up to their personal standards
people create incentives for their own actions through self-reinforcement or self-
punishment
e.g. a diligent student who completed a reading assignment can reward herself
by watching her favourite TV show
when we fail to meet our standards, behaviour is followed by self-dissatisfaction

C. Self-Regulation Through MORAL AGENCY

Moral Agency has two aspects:
1. doing no harm to people
2. proactively helping people

Internalized self-sanctions prevent people from violating their own moral standards
either through selective activation or disengagement of internal control.
Selective activation: refers to the notion that self-regulatory influences are not
automatic but operate only if activated
It also means that people react differently in different situations, depending on
their evaluation of the situation

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 Disengagement of internal control: people are capable of separating themselves from
the negative consequences of their behaviour / justifying the morality of ones actions,
so that they can disengage themselves from the consequences of their behaviour
disengagement techniques allow people to engage in inhumane behaviours while
retaining their moral standards
e.g. politicians convince their people of the morality of war thus wars are fought
against evil people
Through SA and DIC, people with the same moral standards can behave differently, and
the same person can behave differently in different situations

Mechanisms through which self-control is disengaged or selectively activated:

1. Redefine behaviour, or justifying otherwise reprehensible actions by cognitively
restructuring them. People can use redefinition of behavior to disengage themselves
from reprehensible conduct by:
1. moral justification; justifying otherwise culpable behavior on moral grounds;
2. making advantageous comparisons between their behavior and the even
more atrocities committed by others
the child who vandalises a school building uses the excuse that others broke
even more windows
3. using euphemistic labels to change the moral tone of their behavior.
Nazi leaders calling the murder of Jews the purification of Europe
2. Disregard or distort the relationship between behavior and its detrimental
consequences
This can be done through three ways:
1. people can minimise the consequences of their behaviour
e.g. a driver runs a red light and strikes a pedestrian but the driver says
shes not hurt badly, shell be okay
2. disregard or ignore the consequences of their actions
3. distort or misconstrue the consequences of their actions
a parent who beats her child explains that the child needs to be
disciplined
3. Dehumanise or blame the victims
when victims are dehumanized, they are blamed
e.g. a rapist blames his victim for his crime, citing her provocative dress
4. Displace or diffuse responsibility
displacement; minimize consequences of ones actions by placing responsibility on
an outside source
e.g. an employee who says her boss is responsible for her inefficiency, a
college student who blames prof for low grades
diffuse; spread it so thin that no one person is responsible
e.g. a civil servant can say thats the way things are done around her

VII. Dysfunctional Behavior

A. Depression
Depression can occur in any of the three self-regulatory subfunctions:

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1. self-observation: underestimate their successes and overestimate their failures
2. faulty judgements/processes: set personal standards too high
3. self-reactions: treat themselves badly for their faults and shortcomings

B. Phobias
Phobias: fears that are strong and pervasive enough to have severe delibilitating effects
on ones daily life
e.g. snake phobias prevent people from holding a variety of jobs and from enjoying
recreational activities
Phobias are learned by:
1. direct contact - which are difficult to extinguish because the phobic person
avoids the threatening project
2. inappropriate generalization - e.g. rapes, robbries, or murders cause people
to live more confined lives
3. observational experiences - e.g. if people expect to be mugged to walk
through a park, they will not enter the park

C. Aggressive Behaviors
When carried to extremes, aggressive behaviors can become dysfunctional.
Aggressive behaviour is acquired through observation of others, direct experiences with
positive and negative reinforcements, training or instruction, and bizarre beliefs.
In a study of children observing live and filmed models being aggressive, Bandura and
his associates found that aggression tends to foster more aggression.
Children exposed to an aggressive model displayed more aggressive responses
than those who had not been exposed
There was no difference in the amount of total aggression shown by children in the
three experimental groups
Children in each EXPERIMENTAL group exhibited about twice as much aggressive
behaviour as did those in the control group
Children scolded, kicked, punched, an hit the doll with a mallet
thus, TV violence produces additional aggressive behaviour

VIII. Therapy
The ultimate goal of social cognitive therapy is self-regulation.

Bandura noted three levels of treatment:

1. induction of behavioural changes
e.g. extinguishing fear of height
2. generalization of change to other appropriate situations
3. maintain those changes by preventing relapse

Several Basic Treatment Approaches

1. overt or various modelling - people who observe life/filmed models performing
threatening activities feel less fear and anxiety

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2. covert or cognitive modelling - patients visualise models performing fearsome
behaviours
3. enactive mystery - requires patients to perform behaviours that previously produced
fears

These strategies are more effective when used in combination with one another
The reason for their effectiveness can be traced to cognitive mediation
when people use cognition to increase self-efficacy - i.e. when they become
convinced they can perform difficult tasks - they become able to cope with
previously intimidating consequences

Social cognitive therapists sometimes use systematic desensitization, a technique aimed

at diminishing phobias through relaxation.

IX. Related Research

Bandura's concept of self-efficacy has generated a great deal of research demonstrating
that people's beliefs are related to their ability to enact a wide variety of performances,
including stopping smoking and academic performance.

A. Self-Efficacy and Terrorism

Peter Fischer
ROS - a self report measure of self-efficacy, measures the degree to which people are
intrinsically vs extrinsically religious
When the salience of terrorism was high, intrinsically religious people were in a better
mood and reported greater self-efficacy than nonreligious people
Better mood experienced by intrinsically religious people was due to their increased
feelings of self-efficacy

B. Self Efficacy and Diabetes

Saco and Colleagues (2007)
higher levels of self-efficacy = lower levels of depression, increased adherence to
doctors orders, low BMI, and fewer diabetes symptoms
BMI was positively related to depression
adherence to doctors orders was negatively related to depression
self-efficacy was responsible for the relationship between BMI & depression, and,
adherence & depression
High BMI = less self-efficacy = increased depression
being able to adhere to disease management = increase self-efficacy

C. SCT Goes Global

Bandura has helped produce serial drama that encourage positive chance behaviours,
for TV and radio audiences, so that they can model via observational learning
It has improved viewers perceived efficacy to determine family size, use contraceptives,
promote the status women

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XI. Concept of Humanity
Skinner Bandura

1. generates research v. high high

2. falsifiability high high

3. organizes data moderate high

4. guides action v. high high

5. internal consistency v. high high

6. parsimony difficult to rate high

Skinner - 3,6

Skinner Bandura

1. determinism or free choice deterministic free choice

2. optimistic vs pessimistic optimistic optimistic

3. casual vs teleological causality both / moderate

4. consc vs unconsc unsconscious consc

5. social vs biological more social social

6. uniqueness vs similarities uniqueness uniqueness

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