Few questions have generated as much emotional controversy as the issue of the relative importance of genetic and environmental factors in shaping the physical and psychologic make-up of man. No one will argue the prepotency of genetic factors in determining whether a developing human embryo will be a boy or a girl or will have typically Caucasian or Negroid features. Similarly, no one will disput…
When reinforcement is discontinued after a history of intermittent reinforcement (extinction), the amount and nature of responding depends on the specific history of the organism. After continuous reinforcement (every response is reinforced), extinction is quite rapid. A pigeon, for example, will peck roughly one to 300 times before stopping. However, after some schedules of intermittent reinforce…
execute a given activity, but whether the activity will be carried out at the required time. There is no question, for example, that the depressed patient who stays in bed all day knows how to dress or drive his car or carry out the activities associated with his work. The significant fact is that the performances do not occur. Nor is the ability of the mute schizophrenic to talk an issue. The req…
The essentially temporal nature of reinforcement can be illustrated in a simple animal demonstration (Skinner, 1948). A hungry pigeon is placed in the conditioning apparatus untrained except to eat from the food dispenser. The food magazine is then presented every minute regardless of what the bird is doing. Even though no conditioning is explicitly planned, the operation of the food magazine will…
The ability to sustain behavior in animals and people continuously over long periods of time, and with moment-to-moment predictability, provides a technic which is finding increased application in fields of medical science where problems related to behavior arise. The determination of the effect of a chemical compound, a physiologic factor, or psychologic procedure depends upon the availability of…
An aversive stimulus can be generally defined as one which maintains some behavior of an organism which reduces or removes the aversive stimulus. This is in contrast to positive reinforcement where the production of the stimulus is the reinforcing event. In both cases, however, some response is maintained because it changes the environment. In the simplest experimental paradigm where a response ca…
Just as a stimulus which sets the occasion for positive reinforcement (conditioned reinforcement) acquires some of the properties of positive reinforcement, stimuli which precede an aversive stimulus similarly come to acquire the properties of an aversive stimulus. An animal experiment illustrates the basic process of the development of a conditioned aversive stimulus. A rat is trained to press a …
Although aversive stimuli generate large emotional effects in which broad segments of a repertoire may be depressed or strengthened, a major effect of aversive stimuli is the reinforcement (strengthening, increased frequency) of specific responses which terminate or avoid them. Examples of performances maintained by escape have already been presented. Another example is opening or closing a window…
The behavioral processes discussed so far, both positive and negative, have dealt with specific responses the frequency of which is altered by the direct effect on the environment. Reinforcing stimuli, both aversive and positive, may, however, have broad effects on many response repertoires in addition to their specific reinforcing effects. This is the field of emotion. A loud, sudden noise, for e…
The control of behavior by aversive stimuli is also closely related to the processes by which behavior is maintained through positive reinforcement. This is especially true in the case of punishment which is by definition the application of an aversive event to some behavior reinforced by another stimulus. One major function of aversive stimuli occurs in complex behavior where we are concerned wit…
of Aversive Control The processes involved in control by aversive stimuli are all interrelated. When behavior is influenced by the occurrence of an aversive event by one process, such as punishment, other processes of aversive control, the effect of a preaversive stimulus, for example, will also operate. An aversive stimulus may have a potential range of effects via all of the behavioral processes…
The process of punishment is dealt with here because it represents an interaction between an aversive stimulus and a behavior of an organism maintained by some process of negative or positive reinforcement. The effect of punishment in reducing the frequency of an item in an individual's repertoire is more correctly described as suppression of the behavior rather than its elimination. All of the ex…
The earlier discussion of the discriminative repertoire pointed out that seeing is a complex repertoire, more complicated than the simple effect of an incident stimulus on the receptor of the sense organ. Aversive stimuli also affect the control of behavior by stimuli. An example is a person's selective perception of his own characteristics, in the direction of not noticing undesirable features. P…
Identifying the environmental consequence of the behavior which maintains it and discontinuing the effect produces extinction of the behavior rather than its suppression, as in punishment. Whining in a child, for example, could be eliminated simply by not paying attention to the child unless the child speaks in a normal voice. Here the whining would gradually disappear by virtue of its discontinue…
Even though social behavior consists of very complex interactions among groups of people, many social behaviors can be analyzed by looking at the specific reinforcement contingencies affecting the behavior of each individual. The social interaction is, then, the change in the reinforcing practices of one individual as his behavior is affected by a second individual, or group of individuals, and vi…
In the very young infant, the parental control of the child is largely through satiation, deprivation, and the removal of any aversive stimulus. If the child is kept warm, dry, and fed and is not exposed to extreme noises and physical restraint, the main repertoire of the very young infant is so limited that there is little possibility of parental control except through feeding, holding, cuddling,…
Reflex behavior such as crying is not controlled by its consequences in the environment as an operant response is. Nevertheless, it may come to function in a chain of responses ultimately maintained by operant control, in which the operant repertoire of the individual produces the eliciting stimuli for the reflex. One major interaction between operant and respondent behavior occurs because of soci…
The child's participation in the parental and community social system depends upon the emergence of many new performances and behavioral processes, particularly generalized rein-forcers and the maintenance of behavior in long chains. The generalized reinforcer appears to have special relevance for social institutions, as it is the main process by which the community can bring to bear the reinforce…
Verbal behavior differs from other kinds of performances because it is not reinforced directly. Rather, it provides a discriminative stimulus for another organism who provides, in turn, the reinforcing consequence. When verbal behavior has the form of a vocal response, the only consequence would be vibrations in the surrounding air unless an audience were attending; however, its significance lies …
The simplest form of verbal behavior, present in even the very young child, is similar in its dynamic function to the behavior of a pigeon pecking a key or a rat pressing a bar. The similarity of the two cases is more apparent if a student is substituted for the pellet delivery mechanism in the case of the pigeon. In both the vocal situation (the child) and the nonvocal situation (the pigeon), the…
A very difficult problem in verbal behavior arises when the stimulus controlling the speaker's behavior is accessible only to himself, as, for example, when he says, "My arm itches; I had a twinge in my muscle; I have a headache; I was about to leave the room." In these cases, the speaker is in unique contact with the critical events to which he is referring, and the question therefore arises as t…
A concept of the mechanical basis of heredity is necessary for an understanding of the rest of this chapter. The student is referred to a standard textbook for important details, but a brief resume follows. Each mature human spermatozoan and ovum contains 23 structurally distinct chromosomes. Each chromosome consists of hundreds of genes - the functionally distinct regions which constitute the bui…
That physical characteristics are largely inherited is common knowledge. Parents who are tall, slim, and blonde tend to have children who are tall, slim, and blonde. The association of temperament with physical characteristics is a more difficult problem, however. Stereotypes such as "dumb blonde," "fickle red head," and maxims such as "fat and merry, lean and sad" reveal the general acceptance of…
A problem most relevant to psychiatry and medicine, in general, is the direct inheritability of complex segments of behavior such as personality traits. That both intelligence and temperamental qualities are inheritable to some extent is well known to breeders of domesticated animals. In fact, knowledge of this has made it possible to breed dogs and other mammals for specific qualities which have …
TABLE 1. Incidence of Schizophrenia in Consanguineous Groups FULL Significant progress in understanding the chemical bases of behavior has been a very recent development. Progress had to await the development of adequate technics for measuring behavioral changes which accompany chemical changes in the brain. Also, there are special problems involved in experimentally manipulating the chemical com…
Anxiety refers to that uncomfortable feeling of apprehension or dread with which we are all familiar. It is similar to fear but differentiated from it by some writers by the inability of the anxious person to identify clearly what it is he is apprehensive about. Intense anxiety is usually accompanied by easily identifiable physiologic changes such as palpitation, sweating, pupillary dilation, and …
True hormones are substances secreted by endocrine glands and carried to other parts of the body by the blood where they have profound metabolic effects. The secretions of the posterior pituitary are instances of true hormones secreted by nervous tissue (neurohormones). Recently, the concept of neurohormones, or neurohumors, has been extended to include substances which are chemical mediators of n…
In 1943 H. Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, described some unusual experiences while working in his laboratory. He had difficulty concentrating on his work and noted that the shape and size of his co-workers and laboratory equipment appeared to change. Later, on closing his eyes, he experienced fantastic visual hallucinations in many colors. These experiences lasted for several hours. Hofmann had been wo…
Still another approach to the study of biochemical factors in mental disorders is what might be termed behavioral-assay technics. For example, it has been found that the injection of various extracts of blood taken from schizophrenic patients into laboratory animals sometimes causes behavioral alterations. When proper experimental controls are used in such studies, the observations suggest that th…
It has not always been assumed that the brain is the principal organ concerned with those aspects of the organism variously termed mental, psychologic, or behavioral. Some early Greek physician philosophers placed the soul in the diaphragm, an idea arising from the notion that the vital principle left a man with his final breath at the time of his death. Hence, we speak of death as expiring and th…
Nervous tissue consists essentially of two types of cells: neurons, concerned with the conduction of nerve impulses; and neuroglia, or glial cells. The neuroglia are specialized cells which support the neurons. They probably have other functions as well, such as the transport of nutrients to the neurons and the transport of the products of metabolism away from them. A neuron consists of a cell bod…
As the name suggests, the neocortex is, phylogenetically, the most recent part of the cerebrum to be explored and shows great development in primates and especially man. The neocortex is the organ par excellence subserving those functions we consider uniquely human, or highly developed only in man, such as abstract reasoning, aesthetic values, judgment, and language. There is disagreement among in…
of the temporal lobes. Their observations attracted much attention because of the alterations of emotional aspects of behavior which developed. Further observations were soon made by Kluver and Bucy (26, 27) and others. Normally wild and irascible Rhesus monkeys became tame and docile. They appeared to be "psychically blind" in that they no longer discriminated between objects which are potentiall…
For a long time neuroanatomists have described a loose network (reticulum) of cells in the central core of the upper spinal cord, medulla, pons, and midbrain called the reticular formation. However, the functional significance of this system has been elucidated only recently. Working with monkeys, Magoun and his associates (37, 39) observed that direct electrical stimulation of this reticular core…
The neocortex, limbic system, and R.A.S. appear to be three interrelated systems which have as their end the integrated and adaptive functioning of the organism in its complex environment. The neocortex is concerned primarily with cognitive aspects of behavior such as perceiving, reasoning, and sensing the environment. The limbic system, in its interaction with neocortical areas, insures that appr…
The human infant, like many complex higher organisms, is born abjectly dependent on his environment. He is not ambulatory, cannot therefore forage for food, seek shelter from environmental temperature changes, nor contact the distant external world in order to satisfy his simple physiologic demands. He is also relatively selective in his dietary needs, and thus represents the organism par excellen…
and Response Sets of the Growing Child The transition from infancy to early childhood is associated with two new behavioral repertoires: 1. The child becomes mobile and self-propelled and thus comes to encounter an ever expanding and potentially rewarding or punishing environment not entirely limited by the nurturant climate itself, that is, the mother. 2. He also begins to develop more selective …
Chronic upper respiratory infections, recurrent gastrointestinal difficulties, and other reflections of poor physical condition appear to be associated with overdependent and sustained negativistic activity, with eating and excretory problems, and with excessive nailbiting, but not with jealousy or temper tantrums per se. The studies of Sears fail to reveal any impressive correlation between the s…
Attempts to correlate specific developmental processes and behavioral performances with varying feeding practices as represented in different societies have revealed no convincing relationship. The Hopi Indians wean children quite late, as do the Balinese. Both groups feed their children in the context of expressed physiologic need. The personalities of children studied thus far do not appear to c…
of Family Interactions It is only within relatively recent years that the major impact of social interactions and, in a sense, social learning, has begun to be felt in an animal psychology traditionally dominated by instinct theory and genetic set. Until recent years, such animal activities as suckling, exploration, maternal behavior, and sexual stereotypes were presumed to be largely unlearned an…
Extensive cross-cultural surveys have shown that some form of family is found in every society. There is no known society which has not institutionalized sexual and parental roles in a formal pattern of small nuclear groups integrated with other nuclear groups in an extended kinship system. The patterns vary with respect to size and kinship lines but the basic structure is universal. Furthermore, …
Denial is the growing child's most primitive defense. It is also one of the most common regressive defenses used by all adults during recurrent stressful situations in life. Let us say that a child experiences painful anticipation either of punishment or rejection by a loved and needed parent because of a real or fancied transgression. To cope with the anticipated catastrophe, the child may say, f…
The inescapable circumstances of development for the ordinary child and the intense feelings which accompany interferences with his demands for expression or satisfaction provide countless occasions for the intensification of guilt. Guilt must, of course, be more pervasive and inescapable where the child, rather than his actions, is consistently identified as bad or deserving of punishment and rej…
A dispassionate review of the development of object relationships in early life is rendered difficult because of confusion between the classic metapsychologic usage of the term psychosexual and customary lay interpretation of sexual in adult coital context. The term sexual as used in this chapter refers to pleasurable (libidinal) investment in various objects and activities and, therefore, has psy…
Psychoanalytic metapsychologists teach that there is a shift of pleasurable investment from oral to anal zones and activities at approximately the ninth month of life. It might be inferred that the mouth or oral zone activities lose their important pleasurable significance (reinforcing characteristics) acquired and expanded through earlier experience. Clinical data indicate that this inference is …
Adolescence is a period of rapid physical growth with accompanying changes in genital and accessory sexual structures, fat distribution, pelvic and shoulder girdle configuration, and glandular activity. The period encompasses the years ten to sixteen. There are significant fluctuations in timing and extent of changes during any given interval, but there are no substantial alterations in sequence. …
Prestige is of tremendous importance to the normal adolescent. This derives from the fact that independent achievement, physical attractiveness or prowess, and development of esthetic interests generate strong reinforcements from significant representatives of the home, the school, the church, and the peer environment. It is interesting to note that virtuoso exploitations of sexual outlets do not …
of Human Behavior The wide range of performances through which a man may deal with his physical and social environment is one of the major aspects of human biology. This is the traditional area of psychology in which answers are sought to questions such as "What does a man do?" or "Why does man act?" The problems are concerned with all of the performances with which a man deals, responds to, and i…
In this section of the text we will be dealing with the description of the activities of the organism from the point of view of behavioral rather than neurologic science. Obviously, many processes going on intraorganismically are relevant to how a man acts. Nevertheless, it is still useful to proceed with a natural scientific analysis of the actions of man from the point of view of behavior rather…
The newborn infant's crying, as its eating, is reflexive, elicited by loud sounds, trauma, extremes of temperature, or food deprivation. Later, however, crying comes under the control of operant as well as respondent reinforcement, because it changes the child's environment through the mediation of an adult. The distinction between crying as an operant or a reflex response is made by noticing whet…
of Behavior In general, the stimuli occurring when a response is reinforced come to control the future likelihood of emission of that response. This environmental control of behavior results from different stimuli being present when behavior is maintained by different conditions of reinforcement. Not all stimuli present when a response is reinforced come to control the future likelihood of emissio…
There is considerable variation in the degree of precision of control by the environment over the behavior of the organism. By the very nature of discriminative operant control, behavior frequently occurs on occasions when it can not be reinforced. The errors and incorrect responses of the student as he acquires a new repertoire are such examples, as are many of the common slips and errors which o…
The more closely an individual's behavior is controlled by the environment, the more susceptible it is to disruption by a change in environmental conditions. The continuous development of discriminative control may represent, depending on other contributing factors, either weakening or strengthening of the general behavioral repertoire. The closer the child's behavior conforms to the particular si…
Reinforcers such as attention, approval, and money share a property not present in other more simple conditioned reinforcements, such as the taxi for the individual on the way to the restaurant, the light and sound for the pigeon, or the pencil sharpener for the individual who is disposed to write but whose pencil is broken. In these latter examples, the reinforcing effect of the conditioned reinf…
A response will still occur for some time after it is no longer reinforced. If a further reinforcement occurs before responding ceases, responding will begin anew for another period of time. Such intermittent reinforcement will produce stable states of responding which will be maintained for so long as a schedule of reinforcement is continued. Literally thousands of different schedules of intermit…