Chapter 13 Behaviourism and Learning Approaches

Question 1

ABA research design

Answer 1

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, and (A) withdrawal of reinforcement and observation of whether the behaviours return to thair earlier frequency (baseline period)

Question 2

ABC assessment

Answer 2

In behavioural assessment, an emphasis on the identification of antecedent events and the consequences ( C ) of behaviour, and a functional analysis of behaviour involving identification of the environmental conditions that that regulate specific behaviours

Question 3

Behavioural assessment

Answer 3

The emphasis in assessment on specific behaviours that are tied to defined situational characteristics (ABC approach)

Question 4

Behaviourism

Answer 4

An approach within psychology, developed by Watson, that resticts investigation to overt, observable behaviour

Question 5

Classical conditioning

Answer 5

A process, emphasized by Pavlov, in which a previously neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a response because of its assoiation with a stimulus that automatically produces the same or a similar response

Question 6

Conditioned emotional reaction

Answer 6

Watson and Rayners term for the development of an emotional reaction to a previously neutral stimulus, as in Little Alberts fear of rats

Question 7

Counterconditioning

Answer 7

The learning (or conditioning) of a new response that is incompatible with an existing response to a stimulus

Question 8

Determinism

Answer 8

The belief that peoples behaviour is caused in a lawful scientific manner; determinism opposes a belief in free will

Question 9

Discrimination

Answer 9

In conditioning, the differential response to stimuli depending on whether they have been associated with pleasure, pain, or neutral events

Question 10

Extinction

Answer 10

In condtioning, the progressive weakening of the association between a stimulus and a response; in classical condtioning extinction occurs because the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus, an in operent conditioning it occurs because the response is no longer followed by reinforcement

Question 11

Fixed (schedules of reinforcment)

Answer 11

Schedules of reinforcement in which the relation of behaviours to reinforcers remains conctant

Question 12

Functional analysis

Answer 12

In behavioural approaches, particularly Skinnerian, the identification of the environmental stimuli that control behaviour

Question 13

Generalization

Answer 13

In conditioning, the association of a response with stimuli similar to the stimulus to which the response was originally conditioned or attached

Question 14

Generalized reinforcer

Answer 14

In Skinners operant condtioning theory, a reinforcer that provides access to many other reinforcers (money)

Question 15

Maladaptive response

Answer 15

In the Skinnerian view of psychopathology, the learning of a response that is maladaptive or not considered acceptable by people in the environment

Question 16

Operant conditioning

Answer 16

Skinners term for the process through which the characteristics of a response are determined by its consequences

Question 17

Operants

Answer 17

In Skinners theory, behaviours that appear (are emitted) without being specifically associated with and prior (eliciting) stimulus and are studied in relation to the reinforcing events that follow them

Question 18

Punishment

Answer 18

An aversive stimulus that follows a response

Question 19

Reinforcer

Answer 19

An event (stimulus) that follows a response and increases the probability of its occurrence

Question 20

Sample approach

Answer 20

Mischels 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

Question 21

Schedule of reinforcement

Answer 21

In Skinners opeant conditioning theory, the rate and interval of reinforcement of responses (response ratio schedule and time intervals)

Question 22

Shaping

Answer 22

In Skinners operant conditioning theory, the process through which organisms learn complex behaviour through a step-by-step processes in which behaviour increasingly approximates a final, target response

Question 23

Sign approach

Answer 23

Mischels description of assessment approaches that infer personality from test behaviour, in constrast with sample approaches to assessment

Question 24

Situtional specificity

Answer 24

The emphasis on behaviour as varying according to the situation, as opposed to the emphasis by trait theorists on consistency in behaviour across situations

Question 25

Successive approximation

Answer 25

In Skinners operant conditioning theory, the development of complex behaviours through the reinforcement of behaviours that increasingly resemble the final form of behaviour to be produced

Question 26

Systematic desensitization

Answer 26

A technique in behaviour therapy in which a competing response (relaxation) is conditioned to a stimulus that previously aroused anxiety

Question 27

Target behaviours (target responses)

Answer 27

In behavioural assessment, the identification of specific behaviours to be observed and measured in relation to changes in environmental events

Question 28

Token economy

Answer 28

Following Skinners operant conditioning theory, an environment in which individuals are rewarded with tokens for desirable behaviours

Question 29

Variable (schedules of reinforcment)

Answer 29

Scgedules of reinforcment in which the relation of behaviours to reinforcers changes unpredictably