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THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Core Concepts

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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
VU
Lesson 34
THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER
The concept of habit, which represents a stable Stimulus-Response connection (SR), is crucial to this
position. In fact, most of the theory is concerned with specifying the conditions under which habits form
and are dissolved.
Habit is the key concept in the theory by Dollard and Miller.
A habit, we have seen, is a link or association between a stimulus (cue) and a response. Learned
associations or habits may be formed not only between external stimuli and overt responses but between
internal ones as well. The bulk of their theory is concerned with specifying the conditions under which
habits are acquired and extinguished or replaced, with little or no attention given to specifying classes of
habits or listing the major varieties of habits that people exhibit.
Core Concepts
1-The Structure of Personality
2- The Dynamics of Personality
3- The Development of Personality
i- Innate Equipment
ii- The Learning Process
iii- Secondary Drive and the Learning Process
iv- Higher Mental Processes
v-Critical Stages of Development
vi-The Social Context
4- Applications of the Model
i- Unconscious Processes
ii- Conflict
5- Psychotherapy
6-Research
7-Summary
8-Evaluation
Biographical Sketch
John Dollard was born in Menasha, Wisconsin, on August 29, 1900. He received secured his M.A. (1930)
and Ph.D. (1931) in sociology from the University of Chicago. From 1926 until 1929 he served as assistant
to the president of the University of Chicago. In 1932 he accepted a position as assistant professor of
anthropology at Yale University and in the following year became an assistant professor of sociology in the
Institute of Human Relations. In 1935 he became a research associate in the institute and in 1948 a research
associate and professor of psychology. He became professor emeritus in 1969.
Neal E. Miller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 3, 1909, and received his B.S. from the
University of Washington in 1931. He received his M.A. from Stanford University in 1932 and his Ph.D. in
psychology from Yale University in 1935. From 1932 until 1935 he served as an assistant in psychology at
the Institute of Human Relations and in 1935-1936 he was a Social Science Research Council traveling
fellow during this time he had training in Psychoanalysis at the Vienna Institute.
Both had very different backgrounds Dollard in Sociology and Miller in Experimental Psychology yet they
joined efforts in developing a Stimulus ­Response Theory or S-R linkage or association.
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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I .Pavlov (1906-1927) discovered a type of learning that became known as classical conditioning.
Pavlov was able to demonstrate that by simultaneous presentation of Unconditioned Stimulus-US (meat
powder) and a Conditioned Stimulus ­CS (sound of footsteps or a bell) would elicit.
A response (salivation) which was originally elicited by Unconditioned Stimulus (US). This act of
salivating at the sound of the foot steps or bell is called Conditioned Response.
J. Watson proposed that psychology should study behavior using the same types of objective
techniques as natural sciences.
His focus was on overt behavior of individual.
E .Thorndike was demonstrating the importance of reward and punishment in the learning process.
Thorndike, Hull, Spence, and Guthrie focused on the learning process as involving the associative
linkage between stimulus and response.
Most cognitive processes are actually Stimulus Response association.
Skinner rejected Hull's approach the goal of Skinner's science is to control, prediction and
interpretation of behavior.
He gave the concept of Operant Conditioning.
He proposed that organisms can learn complicated behaviors by shaping, using the successive
approximations technique.
Successive Approximations Technique
we start reinforcing a behavior that is the first toward final behavior and then gradually reinforce
successively closer approximations to the final behavior.
Example: Learning to drive a car or teaching a retarded child how to feed himself.
What is learning?
According to this theory, in the simplest it is the study of the circumstances under which a response and
a stimulus (cue) become connected.
When learning is completed the SR are bound together so the appearance of stimulus (cue) evokes the
response.
In order to learn:
1- One must want something (drive)
2- Notice something (cue-stimulus)
3- Do something (response)
4- Get something (reward)
Example:
For learning behavior to take place within the subject:
1-One must want something (drive)
2- Notice something (cue-stimulus)
3- Do something (response)
4- Get something (reward)
For a habit to be established the cue-stimulus and response should occur close together not only in
space and in time but the response should be rewarded.
1-The Structure of Personality
Dollard and Miller have consistently shown less interest in the structure of personality than in the pro-
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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cess of learning and personality development. what concepts do they employ to represent the stable and
enduring characteristics of the person? Habit is the key concept in the learning theory by Dollard and
Miller.
i- A habit, we have seen, is a link or association between a stimulus (cue) and a response. Learned
associations or habits may be formed not only between external stimuli and overt responses but
between internal ones as well.
ii- The bulk of their theory is concerned with specifying the conditions under which habits are acquired
and extinguished or replaced, with little or no attention given to specifying classes of habits or listing
the major varieties of habits that people exhibit.
2- The Dynamics of Personality
Dollard and Miller are explicit in defining the nature of motivation and they specify in considerable
detail the development and elaboration of motives. Instead they have focused on certain salient motives
such as anxiety. In their analysis of these they have attempted to illustrate the general process that can
be expected to operate for all motives.
In the process of growth the typical individual develops a large number of secondary drives that serve
to instigate behavior. "These learned drives are acquired on the basis of the primary drives, represent
elaborations of them, and serve as a facade behind which the functions of the underlying innate drives
are hidden" (1950, pp. 31-32).
In the typical modern society secondary drive stimulation largely replaces the original function of
primary drive stimulation. Acquired drives such as anxiety, shame, and the desire to please impel most
of our actions.
It should be obvious also that most of the reinforcements in the ordinary life of human subjects are not
primary rewards but originally neutral events that have acquired reward value by virtue of having
consistently been experienced in conjunction with primary reinforcement. A mother's smile, for
example, becomes a powerful acquired or secondary reward for the infant, with its repeated association
with feeding, diapering, and other caretaking activities that bring pleasure or remove physical
discomfort. Secondary rewards often serve, by themselves, to reinforce behavior. Their capacity to
reinforce is not sustained indefinitely, however, unless they continue to occur on occasion in
conjunction with primary reinforcement. How these changes take place leads us to the general question
of the development of personality."
3-The Development of Personality
The transformation of the simple infant into the complex adult is elaborated by Dollard and Miller.
i- Innate Equipment
ii- The Learning Process
iii- Secondary Drive and the Learning Process
iv- Higher Mental Processes
v-The Social Context
vi-Critical Stages of Development
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Table of Contents:
  1. THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Objectives of Personality Psychology
  2. PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT:Observational Procedures, Rating Scales
  3. MAIN PERSPECTIVES:Psychometrics, observation, Behavioral Coding Systems
  4. SIGMUND FREUD: A PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  5. INSTINCT: WHAT MOTIVATES HUMAN BEHAVIOR?, The Oral Stage
  6. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF SIGMUND FREUD:The Ego, Free association
  7. THEORY OF CARL JUNG:Biographical Sketch, Principles of Opposites, The Persona
  8. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES:Childhood, Young Adulthood, Middle Ages
  9. ALFRED ADLER:Biographical Sketch, Individual Psychology, Feeling of Inferiority
  10. INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY:Fictional Finalism, Social Interest, Mistaken Styles of Life
  11. KAREN HORNEY:Adjustment to Basic Anxiety, Adjustment Techniques
  12. ADJUSTMENT TO BASIC ANXIETY:Moving Towards People, Moving Against People
  13. ERIK ERIKSON:Anatomy and Destiny, Ego Psychology, Goal of Psychotherapy
  14. ERIK ERIKSON:Human Development, Goal of Psychotherapy
  15. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Core Concepts, The Self-System
  16. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Cognitive Process, Tension
  17. CONSTITUTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:The Structure of Physique, Evaluation
  18. SHELDON’S SOMATOTYPE THEORY:The Structure of Physique
  19. MASLOW’S THEORY:Self-Actualizers Aren't Angels, Biographical Sketch
  20. MASLOW’S THEORY:Basic Concepts of Humanistic Psychology, Problem Centering
  21. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Humanistic, Actualizing tendency
  22. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Fully functioning person
  23. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Client Centered Therapy,
  24. KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Biographical Sketch
  25. CORE CONCEPTS OF GEORGE KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  26. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Personality as a
  27. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Secondary Traits
  28. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:Factor Analysis, The Nature of Personality
  29. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:The Specification Equation, Research Methods
  30. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY:Need, Levels of Analysis, Thema
  31. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY (CONTINUED)
  32. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
  33. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:Reciprocal Determinism
  34. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Core Concepts
  35. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Innate Equipment
  36. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Books
  37. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Positive Reinforcement, Generalization
  38. ALBERT ELLIS THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Social Factors
  39. THE GRAND PERFECT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Genes and Biology
  40. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Dispositional
  41. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
  42. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Need
  43. THE GRAND THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Psychosexual Stages of Development
  44. PERSONALITY APPRAISAL:Issues in Personality Assessment
  45. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE DISCIPLINE