Behaviourism and Neobehavioural Approaches Flashcards
Who was John B Watson? 1878-1958
- He studied consciousness through introspection
- Introspection is notoriously an unreliable tool
- decided that behaviour was a reliable measure
What is Functionalism?
a learning process involving relationships between stimuli and responses
What is Associationism?
a learning process involving relationships between stimuli
What is Cognitive?
unseen processes that guide behaviour
What did Skinner focus on?
- rejected inferred motives
- observable events
Using the following constructs of depression and describe their observables:
- Lack of motivation
- Lethargic
- going out less
- sleeping during the day
What are the Operant Conditioning principles?
- Any response that is followed by a reinforcing stimulus tends to be repeated
- A reinforcer is anything that increases the frequency of a response
What is Contingent reinforcement?
Getting the reinforcer is contingent on a certain response
What is positive reinforcement?
something which, when added, increases the probability of response occurrence
What is negative reinforcement?
something which, when removed, increases the probability of response recurrence
What is punishment?
something which, when added, decreases the probability of response occurring
What is a continuous schedule of reinforcement?
behaviour reinforced every time it occurs
What is an intermittent schedule of reinforcement?
behaviour is reinforced sometimes, slower to learn but resistant to extinction
(most effective)
What is superstitiousness?
- Random or regular reinforcement
- We tend to causally link events that co-occur in time
- Leads to strange responses
What is extinction?
- removal of reinforcer
- return to baseline behaviour (or the operant level)
- Will result in spontaneous recovery, as after extinction, rested and returned will reinitiate behaviour for a short period without additional training
What is shaping?
- successive approximations (they are close to the end product so you shape them to it)
- use differential reinforcement (e.g. you are hot.. you are cold)
What is chaining?
- acquire separate skills and put them together
How did Skinner view punishment?
- punishment suppresses a response as long as it is applied but does not weaken the habit
- causes unfortunate emotional by-products (fear and stimulus generalisation)
- Indicates what organisms should not do, not what they should do
What are the issues with punishment and what does it cause?
- it elicits aggression toward the punishing agent and others
- punishment often replaces one undesirable response with another undesirable response
- in the intermediate to long term, punishment does not work as well as a reward
What are alternatives to punishment?
- circumstances causing undesirable behaviour can be changed
- reinforce incompatible behaviour
- best way = extinction
What are some evaluations of respondent conditioning approaches?
- highly deterministic
- idiographic approach emphasized
- very strong empirical support
- widely used in behavioural management
What work did Pavlov conduct? 1849-1936
- Classical Conditioning
- psychic reflex
- dog salivation and stimulus
What is an unconditioned stimulus (US)?
elicits a natural and automatic response
What is an unconditioned response (UR)?
natural and automatic response elicited by the US
What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?
neutral stimulus in that it does not elicit a natural and automatic response
What is a conditioned response (CR)?
the pairing of the CS and US
What is Pavlov’s paradigm?
- CS is presented
- when US occurs, a UR follows
- CS eventually can be presented alone and can elicit a response similar to UR
What did Pavlov use in his paradigm during his experiments?
US = acid UR = salivation CS = sound CR = salivation in response to sound - resulted in higher-order conditioning where CS can then be paired with other CS to bring about CR
What is the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?
- CC elicits an involuntary and automatic response
- OC is voluntary, under the being’s control and depends on the emission of the response
- Associationist vs functionalist
What is the significance of CC for personality?
- creates a system of signs and symbols that allow the anticipation of significant events
- foundations for associationist theories
What work did John Dollard and Neil Miller do?
sought to account for psychoanalytic notions about fundamental drives focus on:
- drive and tension reduction
- drive cues a behaviour to reduce a drive
- reduction in drive reinforces the sequence
only behaviours that result in drive reduction will occur
What are the 4 key aspects of learning by John Dollard and Neil Miller?
- Drive (engine)
- Cue (when/where a response is needed)
- Response (act or thought)
- Reinforcement (reward or non-reward, includes drive reduction)
What is a primary drive?
- hunger, fatgue, pain, sex
- steam boiler model
What is a learned drive?
drive to reduce a feeling e.g. loneliness
What are Cues?
- is a stimulus that immediately precedes the problem behaviour
- these determine when a person will respond, and what response the person will make
What are the responses?
- responses must occur to be rewarded
- an initially weak response can become a dominant response, depending on its reinforcement
What is reinforcement from Dollard and Miller?
- specific event that strengthens the tendancy for a certain response
- drive (or tension) reduction
What happens when you take away a reinforcer?
- response extinguishes but not completely
- a new response needs reinforcement before it does
What is conflict?
approach conflict = conflict between two desirable goals
avoidance conflict = 2 undesirable outcomes
approach-avoidance conflict = co-occurring desirable and undesirable goals
What are 3 core contributions of Behaviourism?
- Introduced empiricism into psychology
- Person/organism-focused
- Wide range of points of leverage
What are some limitations of Behaviourism?
- de-emphasises the private world
- ignores the concept of choice/free will
How can you measure behaviourism?
direct observation only
diary
How can measure neo-behaviourism?
direct observation through to internal subjective states
questionnaires or diaries
