Chapter 10 Behaviourism and the learning approaches to personality Flashcards
Determinism
- The belief that people’s behaviour is caused in a lawful scientific manner.
- Determinism opposes a belief in free will.
ABA research design
- A Skinnerian variant of the experimental method consisting of exposing one subject to three experimental phases:
- (A) a baseline period
- (B) introduction of reinforcers to change the frequency of specific behaviours
- (A) withdrawal of reinforcement and observation of whether the behaviours return to their earlier frequency (baseline period).
ABC assessment
In behavioural assessment, an emphasis on the identification of:
- antecedent (A) events
- the consequences (C) of behaviour
- and (B) a functional analysis of behaviour involving identification of the environmental conditions that regulate specific behaviours.
Behavioral assessment
The emphasis in assessment on specific behaviours that are tied to defined situational characteristics (e.g. ABC approach).
Behaviorism
An approach within psychology, developed by Watson, that restricts investigation to overt, observable behaviour.
Classical conditioning
A process, emphasized by Pavlov, in which a previously neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a response because of its association with a stimulus that automatically produces the same or a similar response.
Conditioned emotional reaction
Watson and Rayner’s term for the development of an emotional reaction to a previously neutral stimulus, as in Little Albert’s fear of rats.
Counterconditioning
The learning (or conditioning) of a new response that is incompatible with an existing response to a stimulus.
Discrimination
In conditioning, the differential response to stimuli depending on whether they have been associated with pleasure, pain or neutral events.
Extinction
In conditioning, the progressive weakening of the association between a stimulus and a response: in classical conditioning because the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditional stimulus, and in operant conditioning because the response is no longer followed by reinforcement.
Operant conditioning
Skinner’s term for the process through which the characteristics of a response are determined by its consequences.
Operants
In Skinner’s theory, behaviours that appear (are emitted) without being specifically associated with any prior (eliciting) stimuli and are studied in relation to the reinforcing events that follow them.
Punishments
An aversive stimulus that follows a response.
Reinforcer
An event (stimulus) that follows a response and increases the probability of its occurrence.
Sample approach
Mischel’s description of assessment approaches in which there is an interest in the behaviour itself and its relation to environmental conditions, in contrast to sign approaches that infer personality from test behaviour.
Schedule of reinforcement
In Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, the rate and interval of reinforcement responses (e.g., response ratio schedule and time intervals).
Shaping
In Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, the process through which organisms learn complex behaviour through a step-by-step process in which behaviour increasingly approximates a full, target response.
Sign approach
Mischel’s description of assessment approaches that infer personality from test behaviour, in contrast to sample approaches to assessment.
Situational specificity
The emphasis on behaviour as varying according to the situation, as opposed to the emphasis by trait theorists on consistency in behaviour across situations.
Successive approximations
In Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, the development of complex behaviours through the reinforcement of behaviours that increasingly resemble the final form of behaviour to be produced.
Systematic desensitization
A technique in behaviour therapy in which a competing response (relaxation) is conditioned to stimuli that previously aroused anxiety.
Target behaviors or target responses
In behavioural assessment, the identification of specific behaviours to be observed and measured in relation to changes in environmental events.
Token economy
Following Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, an environment in which individuals are rewarded with tokens for desirable behaviours.
Variable (schedules of reinforcement)
Schedules of reinforcement in which the relation of behaviours to reinforcers changes unpredictably.
Fixed (schedules of reinforcement)
Schedules of reinforcement in which the relation of behaviours to reinforcers remains constant.
Functional analysis
In behavioural approaches, particularly Skinnerian, the identification of the environmental stimuli that control behaviour.
Generalization
In conditioning, the association of a response with stimuli similar to the stimulus to which the response was originally conditioned or attached.
Generalized reinforcers
In Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, a reinforcer that provides access to many other reinforcers (e.g., a money).
Maladaptive response
In the Skinnerian view of psychopathology, the learning of a response that is maladaptive or not considered acceptable by people in the environment.
What approach to personality did behaviourism promote?
The school of thought known as behaviourism promoted a learning approach to personality.
Define the learning approach to personality.
The learning approach suggests that the patterns of social behaviour that we see as indications of an individual’s personality are learned through environmental experience.
Who provided the first foundation for a behavioural approach to the study of persons?
Pavlov’s work on classical conditioning, combined with Watson’s extension of this work to humans in the case of Little Albert, provided the first foundation for a behavioural approach to the study of persons.
Who provided the second foundation for a behavioural approach to the study of persons?
BF Skinner provided a second foundation through his work on operant conditioning. Skinner and his colleagues developed a highly systematic database showing how reinforcements determine the behaviour of animals in Skinner boxes.
What was one key explanation Skinner made?
Skinner explained how principles of learning were relevant to questions of profound importance, including the question of whether people have free will.
When did behaviourism dominate psychology?
Behaviourism dominated psychology in the mid-20th century, but then its influence waned.
What contributed to the downfall of behaviourism?
Behaviorism failed to provide convincing research-based explanations for uniquely human phenomena, such as people’s inherent tendency to assign subjective meaning to events. The growth of cognitive psychology, caused the downfall of behaviourism.
Did behaviourists merely conduct laboratory research with animals?
No. They developed many useful applications of the principles of learning.
What are some of the useful applications of the principles of learning that the behaviourists developed?
Clinical applications in which the goal of the clinician is to provide new environmental experiences through which the client can learn new, more adaptive forms of behaviour. Systematic desensitization and token economy programs are two examples of the application of behavioural principles.
What are the basic points of emphasis of learning approaches to personality?
-Empirical research is the cornerstone of theory and practice
-Personality theory and applied practice should be based on principles of learning.
-Behavior is responsive to reinforcement variables in the environment and is more situation specific than suggested by other personality theories (e.g., trait,
psychoanalytic)
-The medical symptom–disease view of psychopathology is rejected, and emphasis
instead is placed on basic principles of learning and behavior change.
Who was the founder of the approach to psychology known as behaviorism?
John B. Watson (1878–1958)
