Chapter 13:The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach Flashcards
Classical Conditioning
Responding to stimuli in your environment by pairing these stimuli with events that already elicited a response
Overt Behavior
Behavior that can be observed, predicted, and eventually controlled by scientists
Operant Conditioning
Repeating behaviors only if they were met with a positive reinforcement rather than negative
Radical Behaviorism
The extent to which we are able to observe the inner causes of our own behavior
Classical Conditioning
Existing stimulus-response Ex: cringing when you see a spider •Unconditioned Stimulus(UCS) •Unconditioned Response(UCR) •Conditioned Stimulus(CS) •Conditioned Response(CR)
Second-Order Conditioning
Process of building one conditional S-R association on another
Extinction
Gradual disappearance of the conditioned S-R association
The Law of Effect (Thorndike)
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
Operant Conditioning
Concerns the effect certain kinds of consequences have on the frequency of behavior
•Reinforcement
•Punishment
Positive Reinforcement
Behavior increases because it is followed by the presentation of a reward
Negative Reinforcement
Removal or lessening of an unpleasant stimulus when the behavior occurs
2 methods for decreasing undesired behaviors
- Ceasing reinforcements and thereby allowing the behavior to extinguish
- Frequency of a behavior is reduced when it is followed by an aversive stimulus=Punishment
Limitation of the effectiveness of punishment
- Does not teach appropriate behaviors
- To be effective, punishment must be delivered immediately and consistently
- Can have negative side effects
- Undesirable traits may be learned through modeling
- Can create negative emotions
Shaping
Successive approximations of the desired behavior are reinforced
Generalization
Tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the one used in the initial conditioning
•Stimulus Generalization
Discrimination
Learned tendency to respond only to stimuli that result in reinforcement and not to similar , but unrewarded, stimuli
Social Learning Theory
Outside forces influence your actions and beliefs
Behavior-Environment-Behavior Interactions
Not only does the environment influence our behavior, but that behavior then determines the kind of environment we find ourselves in, which can then influence behavior and so on
Behavior Potential (Rotter)
Likelihood that a given behavior will occur in a particular situation
What determines the strength of the behavior potential?
- Expectancy
2. Reinforcement value
Expectancies (Rotter)
Estimations on deciding to take up a task
•Generalized Expectancies (beliefs we hold about how often our actions typically lead to reinforcements and punishments)
Locus of Control (Rotter)
One end of the dimension individuals can have an extreme internal orientation (those who believe that most of what happens to them is the result of their own actions or attributes) and the other end individuals can hold an extreme external orientation (those who maintain that much of what happens to them is the result of forces outside their control, such as chance or powerful others)
Reinforcement Value (Rotter)
Degree to which we prefer one reinforcer over another
Social-Cognitive Theory: Albert Bandura
There are both internal and external determinants of behavior, but behavior is not determined exclusively by either or by a simple combination
Reciprocal Determinism (Bandura)
External determinants of behavior, such as rewards and punishments, and internal determinants, such as beliefs, thoughts, and expectations, are part of a system of interacting influences that affect not only behavior but various parts of the system as well
Self-Regulation
Ability to develop and apply rewards and punishments for internal standards of behavior
Observational Learning
Learning by observing or reading or just hearing about other people’s actions
Systematic Desensitization
Old association between the feared stimulus and the fear response is replaced with a new association between the stimulus and relaxation
AversionTherapy
Therapists try to rid clients of undesirable behaviors by pairing aversive images with the behavior
Biofeedback
- Used to treat psychological problems
* Requires special equipment that provides info about somatic processes
Self-Efficacy (Bandura)
A person’s expectancy that he or she can successfully perform a given behavior
•ex: if you quit smoking it’s because you can convince yourself you can
Outcome Expectation (Bandura)
Extent to which people believe actions will lead to a certain outcome
Efficacy Expectation (Bandura)
Extent to which people believe they can perform the actions that will bring about the particular outcome
Where do efficacy expectations come from and how can therapists change these expectations in their clients?
- Enactive Mastery Experiences: Successful attempts to achieve the outcome in the past
- Vicarious Experiences: seeing other people perform a behavior with good results leads us to believe that we can do it too
- Verbal Persuasion
- Psychological and affective states
Analogue Behavioral Observation
Therapist creates a situation that resembles the real world setting in which the problem behavior is likely to occur
Strengths of the Behavioral/Social Learning Approach
- Solid foundation in empirical research
2. Development of useful therapeutic procedures
Criticisms of the Behavioral/Social Learning Theory
- Too narrow in its description of human personality
- Human beings are more complex than the laboratory animals used in behavioral research
- These therapists distort the real therapy issues when they reduce everything to observable behaviors
Which 2 psychologists are related to Behavioral/Social Learning?
Skinner & Bandura
