Behavior Therapy

Question 1

What is Classical (Respondent) Conditioning?

Answer 1

• Pavlov: Bell rings when food is made available, creates conditioning of dog salivating.
• Refers to what happens prior to learning that creates a response through pairing.
• Associative learning through pairing the unconditioned stimulus (ex. food) and the neutral stimulus (ex. bell). Initially results in unconditioned response (salivation), but overtime it becomes conditioned even without the unconditioned stimulus.

US- food
UR - salivation
NS - bell

NS + US -> UR
|
V
CS + US -> CR

the unconditioned response (ex. salivation) + the neutral stimulas paired with the unconditioned stimulas, results in unconditioned response but over time it becomes conditioned that it develops into a conditioned response.

Question 2

Who was B.F. Skinner?

Answer 2

• Prominent spokesperson on behavioural psychology and can be considered a father of the behavioural approach to psychology
• Championed radical behaviourism, primary emphasis on the effects of environment on behvaiour
• Determinist (no free choice)
• Interested in reinforcement

Question 3

Who was Albert Bandura?

Answer 3

• did pioneering work in the area of social modeling, demonstrating that modeling is a powerful process that explains diverse forms of learning.
• explored social learning theory, role of observational learning and social modeling in human motivation, thought and action.
• renamed his theoritetical approach “social cognitive theory”, shedding light on how we fucnction as self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective and self-regulating beings.
• broadened the scope of behaviour therapy by exploring the inner cognitive-affective forces that motivate human behaviour.
• concentrated on four areas of research: 1) power of psychological modeling in shaping thought, emotion, and action; 2) mechanisms of human agency, or the ways people influence their own motivation and behaviour through choice; 3) people’s perceptions of their efficacy to exercise influence over the events that affect their lives; and 4) how stress reactions and depressions are caused
• showed that people need a sense of self-efficacy and resilience to create a successful life and meet the inevitable obstacles/adversities they encounter