Behaviourist Components Flashcards
Perspective focusing on only observable behaviour
Behaviourism
Briefly describe Pavlov’s classical conditioning
Form association between two types of stimuli…
Unconditioned (US): automatically provokes a response (UR)
Conditioned (CS): does not provoke the response
During conditioning, pair CS and US repeatedly
Describe John Watson’s “Little Albert” experiment
Before Training:
Noise (US) -> Fear (UR)
Rat (CS) -> No response
During Training:
Noise (US) -> Fear (UR)
Rat (CS) presented at the same time
After Training:
Rat (CS) -> Fear (CR)
Second Order Conditioning:
Rat (CS) -> Fear (CR)
Cage presented at the same time
After Second Order Conditioning:
Cage (CS2) -> Fear (CR)
Describe an extinction procedure
Present CS without US
Lose CR to CS
A once-extinguished CR returns
Spontaneous recovery
Why doesn’t extinction often happen naturally?
Avoidance
CR appears due to a range of CS-like stimuli
Generalization
The strength of the response is relative to how similar the stimulus is to the original stimulus
Generalization gradient
CR is very specific to CS
Discrimination
How does conditioning relate to neuroticism?
Neuroticism develops when its very difficult to determine the discriminant stimulus
Describe a modern approach to systemic desensitization
Using VR techniques for systematic desensitization of phobias
Describe Skinner’s operant conditioning as it relates to personality
Personality as a series of reinforcements
No need to consider inner structures of personality
Study of effect of environmental conditions on observable behavior
Deterministic theory (no free will)
Describe the three main components/steps of operant conditioning
1) A baseline rate of behaviour is observed.
2) A consequence of the behaviour is introduced.
3) As the result of the consequence, there is a change in the rate of occurrence of the behaviour.
Describe the types of reinforcement and punishment in terms of the stimulus and its effect on behaviour
Positive reinforcement: Stimulus added, behaviour increases
Negative reinforcement: Stimulus removed, behaviour increases
Positive punishment: Stimulus added, behaviour decreases
Negative punishment: Stimulus removed, behaviour decreases
Provide examples of a pigeon displaying discrimination, extinction, and generalization behaviours (operant conditioning)
Generalization: teach a pigeon to peck a red key to get food; learns to peck any key
Discrimination: give food when pigeon pecks red but not yellow key; learns to peck red key
Extinction: stop delivering food for pecking key; stops pecking
Increase of conditioned behaviour when extinction process begins
Extinction burst
Reinforcing successive approximations of a ( possibly complex) desired behaviour
Shaping
Describe the four key points that summarize behaviourism as it relates to personality
Environment is everything
Personality is simply learned behaviour (so it can be unlearned)
Any organism can have a ‘personality’
Personality is the sum of everything you do
Describe Clark Hull’s application of behaviourism to personality
Learning for the purpose of drive reduction
Key difference: learning is influenced by internal state of organism.
Describe the three key components of social learning theory and the key difference when compared to behaviorism
Habit hierarchy: Develops through learning (rewards and punishments)
Drive reduction (primary and secondary drives): Behaviour only increases if it satisfies a drive
Responses can generalize beyond initial setting (learned)
Key difference: learning changes internal, unobservable hierarchy of habits
