Behavioristic perspective Flashcards
What is personality from a behaviorist point of view?
Our behavioral patterns, that is to say personality is the group of commonly performed responses that a person has learned.
What is operant conditioning?
learning through reinforcement and punishments. rats in a cage learn that pressing a is good if it gives food. or perhaps its “not bad” since it stops the floor from shocking them.
Skinerboxes basically
extra note about loaded terms:
Positive = add
Negative = take away
Reinforce = make them continue to do behavior
Punishment = make them stop to do behavior
What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is learning certain stimuli is connected to others. conditioned responses and natural responses
Pavlov’s dogs is a good example.
Define and explain Thorndike’s law of effect
The consequences of a behavior will either strengthen or weaken that behavior
Define and explain Thorndike’s law of repetition
Repeated practice of a behavior strengthens the association with the desired outcome, making the behavior more likely to occur
What does stimulus discrimination mean?
Give examples.
Stimulus discrimination refers to how well individuals can distinguish between different stimuli, which lead to a different behavioral response.
An example of this ability could be distinguish between a large aggressive dog and a small fluffy dog and being scared of the first but not the second.
Define and explain positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment
Positive = add
Negative = take away
Reinforce = make them continue to do behavior
Punishemnt = make them stop to do behavior
What is extinction referring to from a behaviorist perspective?
From a behaviorist perspective, extinction is referring to the process in which a conditioned stimulus becomes gradually less connected to a behavioral response.
This as a result of said response no longer being reinforced.
as an example if Pavlov started to ring the bell at random times in the day with no food
What does shaping mean?
Shaping a behavior one small step at a time.
rat goes to that side of the square (food)
rat goes to the place around the button (food)
rat has to touch the button (food)
rat has to push in the button (food)
we have now shaped the behavior to push a button onto the rat boi.
Why are consequences of behaviors so essential in behaviorism?
because they are the driving factor behind if a behavior is strengthened or weakened
without any consequences the rate or pattern of behavior would just be random and nothing could be learned from studying them.
What is avoidance associated with and why is it interesting from a behaviorist point of view?
Avoidance refers to the concept of learning through conditioning that a behavior is undesirable but still having the biological drive for it., also referred to as an Approach-Avoidance conflict. There could also be a situation where one is faced with equally undesired outcomes, referred to as an Avoidance-Avoidance conflict.
The concept of avoidance is interesting from a behaviorist point of view because it demonstrates the dilemma of what to do in a situation where you either want to behave in a way you have been taught is wrong, or have to choose between two different unpleasant experiences. This dilemma has no obvious answer, therefore it is interesting to see what choice is made in such a situation, or if a choice is made in the situation.
What is systematic desensitization and what kind of problems is it used for?
Give examples.
Gradually extinguishing a phobia by causing the feared stimulus to become dissociated from the fear response. The goal here is to gradually replace the negative stimulus with a positive one
it can be used to cure phobias in a therapy setting.
Why is it interesting to talk about both immediate consequences and long term consequences of a behavior, from a behavioristic point of view?
Short term ex: Eating a cookie feels good, makes you more likely to eat cookies again.
Long term ex: Eating too many cookies might lead to weight gain over time, but this consequence is delayed.
Behaviorists study how rewards and punishments shape behavior. They know immediate rewards or punishments are stronger motivators than long-term ones.
However, it’s interesting to talk about both because sometimes we need to focus on the long-term consequences to make better decisions—even though we are naturally drawn to the immediate ones.
