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1
Value-directed living and the selection ofbehavioural groups
Dr. med. Rainer F. SonntagFacharzt für Psychiatrie & PsychotherapieFacharzt für Psychotherapeutische Medizin
In der Wüste 18, 57462 [email protected]
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Functional Contextualism
Talking correctly (how the world is)
Talking usefully (to achieve some goal)
Two Problems
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First Problem
How to talk about remote & abstract consequences
when reinforcement has to be quite immediate in order to work? – Or:
How is delayed gratification (and self-control) possible?
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Second Problem
Behavioral development is a selection process
What are the units of behavioral selection?
How can we usefully construct the development of complex behavior as a selection process?
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Evolutionary Biology
From nucleic acid fragments to complex organisms
Complexity through addition From genes to groups of genes and
complex, integrated phenotypes From individual organisms to highly
organized societies (animal & human)
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The Process
Variability at different levels Selection at different levels Retention at different levels
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Variability of Behavior
Different levels Single movements Skills Behavioral projects extending in time
Question: What is the unit of selection?
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Selection of Behavior: Salient Consequences
Positive reinforcement Favors some behaviors over others
Punishment Favors some behaviors over others
Negative reinforcement Favors some behaviors over others
Extinction Favors some behaviors over others
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Selection as a
unifying principle
?(Jack
Michael, 1975)
Behavioral Units
A primary, single unit is difficult to find
In the end a behavioral unit is pragmatically defined as a response that can be maintained
by a single reinforcer (within a constant context)
E.g. pressing a lever in a Skinner box
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Molecular & Molar Units
A molecular unit is a topographically defined instance of behavior at a specific time in a specific local situation Mary gives Tom a kiss (at a specific
time and place). The rat presses the lever (at a specific
time and place).
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Molecular & Molar Units
A molar unit is defined as functionally abstracted and extended in time and space Mary loves Tom (many instances). The rat works for food (different
ways). The rat presses the lever (as an
ongoing pattern of behavior)
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Behavioral groups
Behavior chains Deliberately constructed
(Remember: our focus on prediction and influence not explanation)
Serial Bound through a common, direct
reinforcer contacted with the last element of the chain
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Behavioral groups
Behavior syndromes Shaped (assumption!; may also be
deliberately constructable but difficult) Serial & parallel
Singing and playing guitar at the same time Looking sad, feeling down, and telling a sad
story at the same time Emotion, „personality styles“ (Anim. Behav.)
Bound through a common, direct reinforcer
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Behavioral groups Behavior skills („syndromic chains?“)
Social skills Problem solving skills Craftsman skills Psychotherapeutic skills
Bound through Short-term consequences (direct
reinforcement) Long-term consequences (rules; indirect
reinforcement) – How does that work?15
Behavioral groups
Chunks What are they „really“?
Simple answer: relational networks Contingency-shaped (?) Deliberately constructed (e.g.
mnemonics) Bound through verbal stimuli (words,
rules)
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How can we construct how remote consequences work?
Groups of verbal stimuli (rules, stories) bind behaviors together and produce further relational responding. i.e. stimulus A is responded to in terms
of its specified relation to stimulus B Contextual cues specify the relational
response (two steps; one step ?) „Would you, please, pick up my son at
the airport?“ (two hours drive) 17
How can we construct how remote consequences work?
Success depends on knowledge and experience of the listener Are the necessary behaviors in the
repertoire What are the existing relations
between verbal stimuli and behaviors (e.g. say-do correspondence)
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How can we construct how remote consequences work? Verbally related verbal stimuli establish
present stimuli as salient consequences Opening the door to leave the house. Going to the car in the garage. Sitting down in the car. Driving by navigating along landmarks. …
A long vchain of vSDs and vSr/ps (v=verbal)
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Framed coordinately
How can we construct how remote consequences work?
Verbally related verbal stimuli establish present stimuli as salient consequences Taking the wrong turn establish
consequentially contacted landmark stimuli as vSr-
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Framed oppositionally
How can we construct how remote consequences work?
Adverbial phrases can additionally determine the temporal and spacial extension of a behavior (e.g. morality beyond schedules of reinforcement) „Every day“, „once in a month“ „Within two weeks“, „tomorrow“ „When you meet him at the airport say
him to call me immediately“21
How can we construct how remote consequences work?
The salience of a verbally constructed present reinforcer depends on Direct experience with relevant primary
reinforcers For example: Why getting a high grade?
Learning was reinforcing Good grades have been socially reinforced
Clinical significance: present moment work and defusion to promote direct experience
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How can we construct how remote consequences work?
The salience of a verbally constructed present reinforcer depends on Skillfulness in deriving relations For example: Learning was reinforcing
Learning is coordinately related to good grades
High grades are comparatively related to good grades
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Binding Behavioral Groups Chaining & shaping of syndromes
a skill through direct experience Contingency adduction
Two fluent skills are combined through a task that needs both to be mastered
Verbal construction & chunking Ongoing commitment („exercise“)
Resulting in an „molar“ pattern, extended in time
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Selection at different levels
Hierarchical or fractal or pragmatic organization of behavior
From the molecular to the molar
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From previous experience groups of behaviors may be flexibly put together: Binding and splitting dynamics of behavioral group formation
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ABCDEFG
„Original“
behavioral
repertoire
Entire behavioral repertoireincluding flexibility
H
L
K
Selectionby salient
consequences
From previous experience groups of behaviors may be flexibly put together: Binding and splitting dynamics of behavioral group formation
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ABCDEFG
„Original“
behavioral
repertoire
Entire behavioral repertoireincluding flexibility
LSelectionby salient
consequences
If a behavior (e.g. E) is more often reinforced as part of a group (e.g. L) than alone flexibility decreases
Values as behavioral groups
Values are freely chosen, verbally constructed consequences of ongoing, dynamic, evolving patterns
of activity, which establish predominant
reinforcers for that activity that are intrinsic in engagement in the valued behavioral pattern itself
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Values as behavioral groups When training value-directed behavior
we have to combine different behaviors Self-as-context, acceptance, and defusion
(to choose freely) Verbal construction (planning) Initiating action (direct stimulus control) Say-do-correspondence
From planning to stimulus control Learning contextually appropriate transfer of
stimulus functions
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Values as behavioral groups
When training value-directed behavior we have to combine different behaviors Present moment
Contacting my own behavior, environmental events, and correlations between both as an ongoing activity in order to further guide my behavior
Commitment Comparing my ongoing behavior with my
verbally construed values 30
Values as behavioral groups
When training value-directed behavior we have to combine different behaviors Using behavioral events (e.g. anxiety,
urges) according to behavioral history as SDs to take perspective, for example, with
respect to short- and long-term consequences and this behavioral group (e.g. urge,
perspective taking, value) as motivative augmental to decrease avoidance-related and increase value-related stimulus functions
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HHHHHH
Summary of my main point
32
ABCDEFG
ABCDEFG
HH
LL
KK
Selection
by
conse
quenc
es
molar
Tim
e
t1
t2
Summary of my main point Remote consequences are not necessary
conceptually. Temporally extended, evolving patterns of behavior
are maintained by immediate reinforcement. Every patterns is a behavior group that includes
verbal behaviors (rules) which establish reinforcers for the pattern itself.
The reinforcers may be intrinsic to the engagement in the pattern (as in values) or extrinisic and appear along with the emitted behavior pattern in the environment (as in following a track while navigating through a landscape)
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Thank you!
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35
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37
38
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Example: I want to be a caring and supporting father.
What groups of behavior does that entail?
40
From previous experience groups of behaviors may be flexibly put together: Binding and splitting dynamics of behavioral group formation
41
ABCDEFG
„Original“
behavioral
repertoire
Entire behavioral repertoireincluding flexibility
H
L
K
Selectionby salient
consequences
Putting it all together (so far)
Long-term behavioral projects Getting a high grade Building a house
Value-directed living
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This Reminds Me of the Problem of Altruism
Altruism in evolutionary biology:
Given that selection works on individual organisms or genes
How can altruistic behaviors be maintained?
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Answers to the Problem of Altruism
Inclusive fitness (individual selection, i.e. kin-group selection)
Multilevel selection (group selection)
45
Behavioral Analogies
Inclusive fitness
Behavioral chains Functional behavioral groups
(classes)
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Behavioral Analogies
Non-kin groups
Functional verbal groups Verbal concepts Sentences texts books „chunks“
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Natural evolutionary selection
Individual selection Multilevel selection
Individual selection within groupsplus (Individual) selection between groups
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Natural evolutionary selection
Multilevel selection Selection between groups is harder and
faster than within groups For example:
A group with 80% altruists fares better than a group with 20% altruists although
Within both groups egoists fare better than altruists
In the end the number of altruists is constant or rising
49
Natural evolutionary selection
What is the glue?
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Natural behavioral selection
Molecular selection Individual behaviors in a specific context
(a precise point in time and place) Chain selection
A series of individual behaviors Molar selection
Groups of functionally equivalent behaviors extending over contexts (time & places)
51
Natural behavioral selection
What is the glue? Direct reinforcement Biasing behavior-behavior-relations, e.g.
Temporal proximity (e.g. recency effect) Spatial proximity (e.g. contextual
conditioning)
Then a new kind of glue emerges: Arbitrarily applicable relational
responding52
Structure
Population structure Demography, e.g. age, sex, health
status Kinship Non-kin cooperative groups
53
Structure
Behavioral structure Frequency Age Topographical similarity Functional groups
Behavioral chains Behavioral hierarchies
54