Chapter 13

Question 1

What is classical conditioning? (Behaviorism)

Answer 1

involves learning through associations between stimuli

ex. If someone has encounters with a cat who scratches them as a child, they may develop a fear response to cats.

The cat (neutral stimulus) is presented right before the scratching (unconditioned stimulus) which leads to a fear response (unconditioned response)

Question 2

What was Watson’s idea of behaviourism?

Answer 2

Should abandon subjective inner thoughts

only focus on subjective external reactions / behaviours

Question 3

What is operant conditioning? (Behaviorism)

Answer 3

learning through the consequences of behavior

ex. offering praise when they do something positive

Question 4

What was B. F. Skinner. Skinner’s radical behaviorism?

Answer 4

challenged the extent to which we can observe the inner causes of our behavior.

when we introduce an inner cause like anxiety to explain our actions, we may think we have identified the cause of the behavior, but we are mistaken.
– When you say you began eating because you were hungry, you have only put a label on your behavior. You have not explained why you are eating.

Question 5

Pavlov;’s dog’s example of classical conditioning:

Answer 5

Hungry dogs

show food (unconditioned stimulus)

They salivate (unconditioned response)

Pair unconditioned stimulus with bell (conditioned stimulus)

Later: Unconditioned response to conditioned stimulus alone.

Question 6

process of building one conditioned S-R (existing stimulus-response association) association on another is called ?

Answer 6

second-order conditioning.

Question 7

Limitations of classical conditioning?

Answer 7

Must be reinforced or they forget it (disappearance of the conditioned S-R association is called extinction.)

Two events together wont always give classical conditioning

Question 8

What is Thorndike’s law of effect?

Answer 8

that behaviors are more likely to be repeated if they lead to satisfying consequences and less likely to be repeated if they lead to unsatisfying consequences

Question 9

A consequence that increases the frequency of a behavior that precedes it is called… ? (operant conditioning)

Answer 9

reinforcement

Question 10

Consequence that decreases the behavior is called a… ? (Operant conditioning)

Answer 10

Punishment

Question 11

Explain the four operant conditioning procedures:

1. Positive reinforcement
2. Negative reinforcement
3. Extinction
4. Punishment

Answer 11

1. Positive reinforcement
   - Increase behavior
   Give reward following behavior
2. Negative reinforcement
   -Increase behavior
   Remove aversive stimulus following behavior
3. Extinction
   -Decrease behavior
   Do not reward behavior
4. Punishment
   -Decrease behavior
   Give aversive stimulus following behavior or take away positive stimulus

Question 12

Why is the effectiveness of punishment limited?

Answer 12

1. punishment does not teach appropriate behaviors; it can only decrease the frequency of undesired ones (tells child not to hit, but doesn’t give them healthy avenue to express anger)
2. effective, punishment must be delivered immediately and consistently.
3. punishment can have negative side effects. Although parents intend to suppress a certain act, a child might associate other behaviors with the punishment (ex. child who is punished for hitting a toy against a window may stop playing with toys altogether)

Question 13

What is the shaping technique with operant conditioning?

Answer 13

desired behavior are reinforced. For example, you might reward the withdrawn patient for getting out of bed and sitting among the other patients.
Once this behavior is established, you might reinforce him only when he is near or in the art therapy room

Basically build up to desired behavior

Question 14

What is stimulus generalization in operant conditioning? (How does discrimination help?)

Answer 14

A child rewarded for acting politely around relatives will probably act politely around new acquaintances. The polite response has been generalized from the stimulus of the relative to the new stimulus, the stranger

To fix this: Have strangers not be kind with child, will learn only some people reward them with kindness (super harsh man)

Question 16

What is behavior-environment-behavior interactions?

Answer 16

not only does the environment influence our behavior, but also that behavior then determines the kind of environment we find ourselves in, which can then influence behavior, and so on.

The way people treat you (environment) is partly the result of how you act (behavior)

Question 17

How do we get behavior potential?

Answer 17

expectancies + reinforcement values

Expectancies are what we believe will happen if we act a certain way. (ex. likelihood an all nigher will help u do better on the test)

reinforcement values: that is, how much we think we will like each of the possible consequences we expect (will staying up all night make me feel better?)

Question 18

what about situations we encounter for the first time where we have no basis for forming an expectation? (expectancies)

Answer 18

Rely on generalized expectancies—beliefs we hold about how often our actions typically lead to reinforcements and punishments.

Continuum: locus of control.

– extreme internal orientation. These individuals believe that most of the time what happens to them is the result of their own actions or attributes.

–extreme external orientation. They maintain that much of what happens to them is the result of forces outside their control, including chance.

Question 19

What is behavior potential?

Answer 19

You have several courses of action to choose from. (yelling, running, chatting, crying etc)

Each of these responses has a different likelihood of occurring,

Question 20

What is the social-cognitive theory?

Answer 20

Humans aren’t passive like behaviorism says
– Ppl are unique (can’t compare to test rat in cage reacting to sugar)

Question 21

What is reciprocal determinism?

Answer 21

The notion that external determinants of behavior, internal determinants of behavior, and behavior all influence one another.

Question 22

What are several features unique to humans that must be considered to fully understand personality?

Answer 22

• people use symbols and forethought as guides for future action
• Imagination: Instead of working our way through rewards and punishments in a trial-and-error fashion every time we face a new problem, we imagine possible outcomes, calculate probabilities, set goals, and develop strategies.

Self-regulation: Our daily actions are largely controlled by what he calls self-regulation. Although we often strive to obtain external rewards, we also work toward self-imposed goals with internal rewards.

Question 23

What is Observational learning?

Answer 23

Learning that results from watching or hearing about a person modeling the behavior

*Note: important distinction between learning and performance. Behaviors learned through observation need not be performed. (ex. For example, although you have probably never picked up a pistol and shot another human being, you’ve observed this behavior in movies often enough for it to be part of your behavioral repertoire.)

Question 24

Why do we perform some of the behaviors we learn through observation but not others? (Observational Learning)

Answer 24

our expectations about the consequences. That is, do you believe the action will be rewarded or punished?

In the case of shooting another person, most of us expect this behavior will be punished—if not in a legal sense, then through self-punishment in the form of guilt and lowered feelings of worth.

Question 25

if we have never performed the behavior, where do we get our expectations about consequences? (observational learning)

Answer 25

from observing others. Specifically, was your model for the behavior rewarded or punished?

Question 26

Explain Bobo doll experiement:

Answer 26

Nursery school children watched a television program in which an adult model performed four novel aggressive acts on an adult-size plastic Bobo doll (adults were either rewarded or punished)

Nearly all the children in all three groups could perform the behaviors when asked. -
– However, whether they chose to perform the behavior when left alone depended on the consequences they expected. Although all the children had learned how to act aggressively, the ones who had seen the model rewarded were significantly more likely to perform the behaviors than those who had seen the model punished.

Question 27

What do behaviourists argue about our irrational fears? (give example)

Answer 27

associations formed through classical conditioning

• Little albert (mouse) classical conditioning

Question 28

Why do irrational fears not get removed without reconditioning? (why still scared of mouse for years, even if no loud sound)

Answer 28

operant conditioning may take over. Imagine a 3-year-old girl who falls off a tall slide.

The pain and fear she experiences are paired with the slide, and those feelings re-emerge the next time she approaches the playground. Her anxiety increases as she gets closer and closer to the slide.
Quite likely, she’ll decide to turn away and try the slide some other time, thereby reducing the anxiety.
What has happened in this situation is that the act of avoiding the slide has been reinforced through negative reinforcement.

Question 29

How can we prevent phobias?

Answer 29

A boy who has had many pleasant experiences with dogs is not likely to develop a fear of the animal when one untrained dog snarls at and bites him.

Question 30

Explain the issue of reinforcing the wrong behaviour:

Answer 30

A socially anxious girl may have found the only escape from the criticism and ridicule she received at home was to avoid family contact as much as possible (negative reinforcement), a behavior she then generalized to other people

A man suffering from paranoid delusions may believe he has thwarted a plan to kidnap him by staying in his house all day, thereby rewarding the behavior.

Question 31

Treatment for phobias: systematic desensitization (Classical Conditioning Applications)

Answer 31

the old association between the feared stimulus and the fear response is replaced with a new association between the stimulus and relaxation.

Work through scenarios:
might be walking up a flight of stairs, followed by a scene of him standing on an 8-foot ladder. Highly anxiety-provoking scenes are placed at the end of the hierarchy, such as looking out from the top floor of a skyscraper or flying in a small airplane.
– relaxation training, they imagine the scenes while they practice relaxing

Question 32

Treatment for phobias: Aversion therapy
(Classical Conditioning Applications)

Answer 32

therapists try to rid clients of undesirable behaviors by pairing aversive images with the behavior. For example, for a client trying to quit smoking, the image of a cigarette might be paired with images of becoming nauseated and vomiting.

Question 33

What is the General application (Operant Conditioning Applications)?

Answer 33

Find how often behavior occurs (ex. child throwing tantrum)
Once we know how often the behavior occurs under the current system of rewards and punishments, we change the contingencies. If it’s a desired behavior, the environment is altered so the client is rewarded for it. If it’s undesired, punishment is introduced or reinforcement is reduced.
(With tantrum: parents might be told to stop rewarding the action with attention and concern) (punishments might be introduced, such as not allowing the child to watch television for 24 hours after a tantrum. )

Question 34

What is a group contingency intervention (Operant Conditioning Applications)

Answer 34

Offers rewards to all members of a group when the entire group meets the behavior goal. For example, to reduce the amount of swearing on the playground, an elementary teacher might reward each member of the class with a treat at the end of each day she hears no swear words during recess. Group contingency interventions have been found to especially effective with school-aged children

Question 35

What is Biofeedback (Operant Conditioning Applications)?

Answer 35

requires special equipment that provides information about somatic processes. A woman suffering from anxiety might use a machine that tells her when she is tightening and relaxing certain facial and back muscles, a reaction she is otherwise not aware of.

she may learn to reduce tension on her own and thereby overcome her anxiety. In operant conditioning terms, the woman was reinforced for producing the response that lowered her muscle tension, as indicated by the machine. As with other reinforced behaviors, she soon learned to make the relaxation response.

Question 36

What is self-efficacy?

Answer 36

A person’s expectancy that he or she can successfully perform a given behavior.

Question 37

Explain the difference between outcome expectations and efficacy expectations?

Answer 37

outcome expectation is the extent to which people believe actions will lead to a certain outcome.

An efficacy expectation is the extent to which people believe they can perform the actions that will bring about the particular outcome.

Question 38

What are the four sources of efficacy expectations?

1. enactive mastery experiences.
2. vicarious experiences
3. verbal persuasion
4. Physiological and affective states

Answer 38

1. enactive mastery experiences.
   - These are successful attempts to achieve the outcome in the past
   - If done something before, high efficacy expectations
   -history of failures can lead to low efficacy expectations
2. vicarious experiences
   - Seeing other people perform a behavior without adverse effects can lead us to believe that we can do it too.
   - “If she can do it, so can I,”
3. verbal persuasion
   - Telling someone who is reluctant to stand up to the boss “you can do it” might convince the person to assert his or her rights.
   However, this expectation will be easily crushed if the actual performance isn’t met with the expected result.
4. Physiological and affective states
   - Stressed and sweaty before calling a male coworker = might interpret she’s too nervous to go through with it
   - If she’s calm she might be fine to

Question 39

How can a therapist help a client overcome a fear of heights if the client is afraid to leave the first floor of a building?

Answer 39

guided mastery

therapist arranges the situation so that the client is almost guaranteed a successful experience

A client with a fear of driving might begin by driving a short distance on a secluded street

This step is followed with gradually longer drives on busier streets.

With each successful experience, the client strengthens the belief that he or she is capable of driving in traffic

Question 40

Is self-efficacy just good for fears and bad habits?

Answer 40

No

Can help overcome:

-Childhood depression
- PTSD
-Drunk driving
-Anxiety etc

Question 41

How to observe bad habits?

Answer 41

1. Direct Observation
   - therapist usually can’t watch a client all day long, it is often possible to observe a representative sample of the client’s behavior
   - A good definition includes examples of behaviors to be counted and rules for dealing with borderline cases. (ex. almost throwing a tantrum)
   -Can improve accuracy by having multiple observers
2. Self-Monitoring
   -clients observing themselves.
   -often ask clients to keep records of when and where they engage in certain behaviors.
   - Clients are sometimes surprised by what they find. For example, people trying to watch their weight may discover that they eat more when they’re alone, when they’re watching television, or after they’ve had a drink.
3. Observation by Others
   - Parents and teachers can often record the frequency of a child’s problem behaviors

Question 42

What is analogue behavioral observation?

Answer 42

analogue behavioral observation: a therapist might stage a dance for clients suffering from acute shyness or ask a couple to enter into a discussion that recently sparked a disagreement. Occasionally behavior therapists ask clients to role-play. A therapist helping a man to be more assertive might ask the client to imagine that someone just cut in front of him in line. The client then acts out what he would do in that situation. In this case, the way the client acts in the role-playing exercise is probably similar to the way he acts when confronting real-life situations.

Question 43

Strengths of behavioral/social learning approach?

Answer 43

1. founded in empirical research
2. development of some useful therapeutic procedures.
   -Studies find these procedures to be effective in treating a number of psychological problems, especially when combined with elements from cognitive therapies
3. use of baseline data and objective criteria for determining success or failure
   - Other approaches often begin treatment without first determining the level of the problem;
4. behavior therapy may be the most useful approach when working with certain populations, such as children or severely emotionally disturbed patients

Question 44

Criticisms of behavioral/social learning approach?

Answer 44

1. too narrow in its description of human personality.
   - Skinnerian brand of behaviorism, which rejects the usefulness of examining inner feelings and intuition
2. (for traditional behaviorism), is that human beings are more complex than the laboratory animals used in behavioral research.
3. these treatments sometimes distort the real therapy issues by reducing everything to observable behaviors
   - A behavior therapist might count the number of times the man engages in pleasant activities and set up a treatment program that rewards him for going to parties, talking with friends, reading good books, and so on. These activities might make the man feel better. However, critics might argue that the therapy has not addressed the real problem but has only temporarily diverted the client’s attention from the concerns that caused him to seek therapy