THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPECTANCIES UNDER CONDITIONS OF PATTERNING AND DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT

133 Pages·7.336 MB·English

by  LASKO, ALVIN A

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPECTANCIES UNDER CONDITIONS
OF PATTERNING AND DIFFERENTIAL
REINFORCEMENT
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the
Graduate School of the Ohio State
University
By
ALVIN A. LASKO, B.A., M.A.
The Ohio state University
1952
Approved by:
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The writer welcomes the opportunity to express his special
indebtedness to Professor Julian B. Rotter who directed this investi­
gation. He has provided the theoretical formulations upon which the
present study is based and has been a source of knowledge and under­
standing that go far beyond what is reflected here.
I wish also to acknowledge the assistance and suggestions
of Professors George A. Kelly and Delos D. Wickens who served as
members of my advisory committee.
During the course of this research the writer was a United
States Public Health Scholar, and he gratefully acknowledges the
financial grant which made it possible to devote full time to this
study.
My wife, Joan Kalhorn Lasko, has been, throughout all
stages of this investigation, a constant source of assistance,
suggestion and support. A mere acknowledgement of this cannot
express my gratefulness.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER RAGE
I INTRODUCTION .............................. 1
II BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM.................. 6
Historical and Methodological Background. . . 6
Theoretical Explanations. ......... . 20
The Concept of Expectancy................. 29
III THE FORMUIATION OF THE PROBLEM.............. 3U
Descriptive Formulation ................... 3U
Theoretical Formulation ................... 39
Related Research........................... £8
IV METHODOLOGY............................... 66
Apparatus .............. . . . . . 66
Subjects............... 69
Experimental Design ....................... 69
Procedure ....................... . . . . . 72
Measure Used. ................... 73
V RESULTS AND DISCUSSION...................... 77
VI SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.................... 102
BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................... llU
APPENDIX I. Acquisition Trials - Order of Appearance
of Lights, Number of Green Responses on
Each Trial and Analysis of Sequences . . 120
II. Extinction Trials - Number of Green
Responses............................. 12U
III. Calculation of Probability of Occurrence
(E1 ) of Green Light during Initial Rise
to a Maximum during Extinction . . . . . 125
iii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
TABLE RAGE
I Summary of Sequences Appearing in Each Group
up to the Last Acquisition Trial......... 52
II Comparison of Frequencies of Responses at the
First Extinction Trial to Subsequent Trial
with Greatest Frequency of Green Re­
sponses . .............................. 78
III Comparison of Frequencies of Responses of
Groups I, II and III at the Points Where
Groups I and II Have Maximum Green Re­
sponses during Extinction . . . . 81
IV Comparison of Frequences of Responses of
Groups I, II and III at Trial during Ex­
tinction Where the Theoretical Probability
(E1 ) for Green Is 1.0................... 83
V Comparison of Responses duringT rials ^1^60
and Trials 111-120 of Group IV............. 85
VI Observed versus Theoretical (25# - 75#)
Distribution of Responses during Trials
91-120 of Group IV....................... 86
VII Analysis of Variance of Frequency of Green
Responses during Extinction .............. 89
FIGURE
1 Photograph of Apparatus.................... 68
2 Per cent Frequency of Green Responses and
Theoretical Probability (E1) Plotted against
Successive Single Trials during the Initial
Rise to a Maximum during Extinction.
Groups I, II and III..................... 79
3 Per cent Frequency of Green Responses Plotted
against Trials during Extinction.......... 8I1
I4 Per cent Frequency of Green Responses Plotted
against Acquisition Trials (Group IV) . . . 87
iv
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPECTANCIES UNDER CONDITIONS
OF PATTERNING AND DIFFERENTIAL
REINFORCEMENT
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
From the time the infant first is able to differentiate
objects in its environment and begins to grasp the fact that there
is a relationship between these objects and the satisfaction of its
wants, the recognition of such relationships and the behavior re­
sulting from such recognition is only intermittently rewarded.
The child learns that crying results in being picked up and fed.
However, this is not invariable - sometimes he is neither picked
up nor fed. And so it goes throughout the gamut of the learning
experiences of the developing child. It is only in the most rigid
of homes, for example, that every eliminative act is invariably
rewarded or punished. Nor is it rare in the child's life that
a particular behavior is sometimes rewarded, sometimes punished,
and, at still other times, goes wholly unnoticed. In the school
each attempt to arrive at a sum or to spell a word does not meet
with reinforcement, and by the time the individual has matured he
has learned to repeat a given act innumerable times without being
immediately rewarded. Moreover, he has learned that given acts
may be differently rewarded at different times - as in his relation­
1
2
ships with other persons. He may ask for a date on various occasions,
sometimes gaining acceptance, sometimes finding himself rejected.
Yet even when he has been accepted the experience may prove now
pleasurable, now painful.
The concepts of intermittent and differential reinforcement,
which are descriptive of these every-day phenomena, have, however,
received little attention from the psychological theorist. To the
extent that they have been investigated, it has been under the
general rubric of partial reinforcement.
For the clinical psychologist, both as a practitioner and
as a theoretician, the need for formulation of the effects of inter-
\
mittent and differential reinforcement of the same act is obviously
vexy important. Since the behavior patterns with which the practicing
clinician must deal are, at least in part, their products, he re­
quires principles on the basis of which he can evaluate the effects of
these factors as well as the character of the reinforcements as such.
To the extent that he is to bring about changes in behavior, several
tasks confront him. He is required to evaluate existent and poten­
tially available reinforcements and, moreover, must take into account
the fact that such reinforcements can, by and large, only be exper­
ienced in a patterned manner. That is, the behaviors associated with
such reinforcements will yield, from time to time, negative as well as
positive results or, to phrase it another way, will be differentially
reinforced. For the clinical theoretician these factors also must be
taken into account if his formulations and constructions are eventually
to prove useful in the prediction and control of behavior as it is to
be found in the life situation.
The present study is particularly concerned with the problem
of patterning and differential reinforcement. An attempt will be made
to apply certain theoretical formulations from Rotter's social learning
theory to this problem with the hope of contributing to the further
understanding of these variables and of demonstrating the usefulness
and applicability of the particular constructs.
The importance and necessity of research that is oriented
toward the testing of theoretical formulations of a systematic nature
is being increasingly recognized. Outside the area of empiric research
directed toward specific and immediate practical problems, such an
orientation has come to be a basis for the evaluation of the present
worth and' potential value of a research. It is largely through the
use of the hypothetico-deductive method within a theoretical framework
that hypotheses can be formulated and the results of testing such
hypotheses be evaluated and utilized to modify and expand the systema­
tic formulations. It is in such a manner that relationships are estab­
lished and higher order generalizations which integrate all the ele­
ments of a particular level of description are made possible.
Although there is no complete agreement among clinical psy­
chologists as to the definition, operational or otherwise, of per­
sonality, there is a growing tendency to include in such definitions
and discussions the construct of learning as an integral and necessary
part. With this increased recognition of the importance of learning
in personality theory, the interest of some clinicians has turned
u
toward the establishment of a systematic theory of personality based
on learning principles.
Attempts have been made to integrate existent learning
theory into a comprehensive personality theory (11, 35>) • These
attempts have consisted largely of taking learning theory formula­
tions, derived to a great extent from animal studies, and endeavoring
to bring them into consonance with already existent personality theory
formulations, derived mostly from clinical experience with human
beings. The constructs of a particular system are based on assumptions
and postulates and utilize operations which differ from those of other
systems, and attempts to bring them into agreement are at best awkward
and dependent on redefinition as well as selective inclusion and ex­
clusion. Confusion and terminological difficulties result when the
examination of underlying assumptions and postulates requires changes
to effect the reconciliation, because to the extent that the assump­
tions and postulates are effected all that rests upon them takes on
new meaning. What appears requisite is a systematic approach wherein
the constructs utilized are internally consistent, are sufficient to
handle the entire range of operations relating to the problems involved,
and are also based on a single set of assumptions and postulates.
Such a systematic approach should be oriented toward utility in the
area of human relationships. This position, however, neither excludes
animal research nor questions its value. The intention is to point
out that the ultimate goal of a systematic approach must be recognized
in its primary assumptions and the constructions built thereon. It
appears to this writer that the beginnings of one such an attempt at
a systematic approach are to be found in Rotter’s tentative formula
tions of a social learning theory of personality and in the work of
his students.