Behavior Therapy Flashcards
Stimulus-response theory (S-R)
- Operant conditioning principle
- An environmental event directly causes a response from the organism
Stimulus-organism-response theory (S-O-R)
- What’s going on inside the organism determines the response
Operant conditioning
- Founded in 1911
- Assumes a behavior is controlled by the environment
- Introduced the ideas of reinforcement and punishment
Classical conditioning
- Founded in the 1920s
- A neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response through repeated pairing with another stimulus
Little Albert experiment
- Example of classical conditioning
- Took a once neutral stimulus (rabbit) (NS) and paired its presence with a loud noise (US) which was frightening (UR)
- Albert then learned to associate the rabbit (CS) with the loud noise (US) and would become upset (CR) just from the rabbit
Temperament
Biological dispositions that express themselves in environmental responses/behaviors
Do pure behaviorists worry about internal experiences?
- No
- Behavior is explained in terms of variables in the environment: learning, situational cues, and temperament
Reinforcement
Should increase the likelihood of a behavior
Positive reinforcement
- Adding something to increase the likelihood of a behavior
- Giving candy to a child after they behave at the doctor
Negative reinforcement
- Taking something away to increase the likelihood of a behavior
- Removing a child’s chores if they do well on a test
- Procrastination; removing the stress by putting off studying
Punishment
Should decrease the likelihood of a behavior
Positive punishment
- Adding something to decrease a behavior
- Giving an alcoholic medicine that will make them throw up if they drink alcohol
Negative punishment
- The removal of something to decrease a behavior
- Taking away a cat’s favorite toy because they threw up on the carpet
Discrimination learning
Learning a behavior that is particular to one or a few specific situations
Generalization
Learning a behavior that can be used everywhere
Vicarious learning/observational learning
Learning behavior through examples/watching
- Bobo doll experiment
Rule-governed behavior/instructional learning
Learning behavior without directly seeing it or experiencing it; learned through contact with rules/teaching
- Not running into a busy street
How can operant conditioning be a source of distress?
- Negative reinforcement in procrastination: taking away stress by not doing work, but eventually you’ll be swamped!
- Positive reinforcement in tantrums: rewarding a child so they will stop actually reinforces their tantrums!