individual differences Flashcards
what are individual differences
- how people differ because of different environmental influences and experiences
why do people differ according to learning theories
environmental influences - patterns of reward
different behavior being observed - leading to different patterns of behavior
how does classical conditioning explain individual differences
- experiences lead to different associations between a neutral stimulus and a unconditioned stimulus leading to the unconditioned response which changes after learning so the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response becomes the conditioned response
how does operant conditioning explain individual difference s
- predicts that patterns of reward shape differences
how does social learning theory explain individual differences
- individuals are exposed to different role models modelling different behaviors
- different experiences or each individual explains individual differences in behavior
how must a role model act
powerful and relevant in the eyes of the observer
how can a role model act relevant to somebody ?
high status
if they share similar characteristics to the observer
how to people learn stereotypical gender roles
- gender role and identity is a set of behaviours that are learned from the environment
- giving individual differences because people have different learning experiences
why is someone more likely to copy a role model who is the same gender as them
- they are more similar to them
- they will be reinforced/punished by the behaviour they imitate and its likely the child will be reinforced for acting the gender appropriate way, and punished for gender inappropriate behaviour
- they will have observed consequences of other people’s behaviour and will be motivated to avoid/copy it depending on whether it was reinforced or punished
what study did Fagot carry out ?
- she observed children around 2yrs old playing at home with their parents
- she recorded the reinforcements and punishments the parents provided
what did Fagot discover
- boys and girls were reinforced/punished for different behaviours
what did Fagot see boys being reinforced/ punished for ?
playing with gender appropriate toys, e.g bricks and punished for playing with dolls
what did Fagot observe girls being reinforced/punished for ?
- reinforced for staying close to the parent
- punished for rough and tumble play
what can Fagot conclude
boys and girls are reinforced for gender appropriate behaviour and punished for gender inappropriate behaviour
- supports idea that individual differences arise from how gender role behaviour is learnt from the childs environment
give example of classical conditioning which supports that we learn differently, not always at the same speed
Pavlov found that not all dogs responded to stimuli he presented the same way
Classical conditioning is sensitive to individual differences as some animals (and people) may only need ‘one trial’ learning but others need pairing of UCS with NS several times before learning occurs
give evidence of how operant conditioning supports if we respond to reinforcements and punishments in the same way ?
Vaughan et al - trained calves to urinate in specific locations following a system of reward, caused some calves to make this link more quickly than others
which individual differences does operant conditioning suggest could affect our learning speed ?
age
ability
temperament
motivation
how does the social learning theory explain why some children are more likely to imitate behaviour than others ?
- Bandura acknowledged that children would have different temperaments, and prior experiences which were extraneous variables that weren’t controlled
- self esteem and self efficacy plays a role in modelling
self efficacy
how an individual feels about their capability to succeed at a task. According to SLT an individual will only copy a behaviour if they believe they are capable of doing so
- why some are more likely to imitate than others
developmental psychology
study of how behaviour changes as a person grows up
generally focuses on children’s development
how does operant conditioning suggest we learn language
from our environment and consequences of our actions
how can a child learn language through positive reinforcement
- reward infant vocalisations e.g babbling
- this increases frequency of vocalisation
- reinforcement when babies start to associate words with meanings
give an example of how a baby is reinforced to help them associate words with meanings
if they babble milk and a mother gives them milk as reward, makes them more likely to make the link
after initial vocalisation reinforcements, how do parents get babies to continue to develop their language using operant conditioning
- parents pay less attention to vocalising
- motivates baby to vary babbling
- if they produce more recognisable speech sounds, parents respond excitedly = rewarding child
- once this becomes normalised, parents ignore again until the shaping process results in sentences, being able to speak
why do people disagree with skinner, and suggest that operant conditioning and reinforcement alone won’t teach a child how to speak ?
- learning cannot account for the rapid rate at which children acquire language, as shaping takes time and language development is very quick
- there is an infinite number of sentences in a language which can’t all be learnt by imitation
- ignores biology
what study did Brown and Hanlon conduct which disagrees with operant conditioning being the reason for language development
- shows parents rarely reinforce grammar but focus on accuracy of statements instead
- making it less likely that shaping enables children to learn grammar
- children also make errors which can’t result from imitation
how are girls treated differently to boys
- they are given more maternal toys, e.g dolls, prams
- boys are given more masculine toys, e.g weapons, army figures
- girls are given more pink, frilly clothes with bows
- boys tend to have more simple clothes in darker colours
reinforcer
a stimulus that increases the likelihood of a specific response occurring
behaviour shaping
where complex behaviour is learnt through rewarding the behaviour in stages until the complex behaviour is learnt
how does reinforcement explain how gender behaviour is learnt
- when playing with toys a girl reaches for a barbie doll and the parents smile and clap at her motivating her to play with the doll again
how can a gender appropriate behaviour be learnt by behaviour shaping
parents telling their son off for reaching for his sisters toys, until he doesn’t anymore and then praising him when he plays with weapon toys
- when they take him to the shops they praise him for choosing a more masculine toy and buy it for him
how do children learn gender behaviour through modelling
- children imitate role models who are more similar to them so if a boy sees their male role model playing rugby, they may imitate that behaviour and become interested in that sport too which are seen as ‘more male’
what evidence supports modelling in gender development
bobo doll experiment - children were more likely to imitate their same sex role model
what did Sears et al discover about gender development
- parents allowed their sons to be more aggressive than their daughters
- some mothers thought being a boy meant being aggressive
- parents thought they respond the same to boys and girls but tend to intervene more when girls are aggressive
give a weakness of gender development explanations
lots of the studies were conducted in the US in the 1970s, which may not reflect gender socialisation in other times/places
what did Dweck et al find to support gender development explanations
teachers reinforced boys for getting things right but girls for working neatly
what did David Reimer suggest, which disagrees with explaining gender development
- our gender behaviour is innate and even the strongest models and reinforcers could not make someone act in a way they are not predisposed to act
what happened to David Reimer
- born as a a male
- suffered damage to his penis due to failed circumcision
- was brought up as a girl and never told he was biologically female
- in his upbringing Reimer was more drawn to ‘boy things’ and felt out of place being a girl
- suffered from depression
- when he discovered he was born male, he immediately transitioned back
