Intro to Behaviour Mod Flashcards
Behavior Analysis:
-The Experimental Analysis of Behavior
- the natural science approach to the study of the behavior of organisms
- derived from the behaviorist psychology of prominent early scientists
- Ivan P. Pavlov, Edward L. Thorndike, John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner
Behavior - is what
people do and say.
-Characteristics of behaviour
-involves people’s actions. Behaviors have dimensions that can be measured. Frequency, duration and intensity. They have an impact on the environment, physically and social. Behavior is lawful that is its occurrence is systematically influenced by Environmental events.
overt behavior
is an action that can be observed and recorded by a person’s other than the one engaged in in the behavior
-Covert behaviors
also called private events, are not observable by others. Thinking as an example
Behavior Modification – is
the applied science and professional practice concerned with analyzing and modifying behavior.
- Analyzing means identifying the functional relationship between environmental events and a particular behavior to understand the reasons for the behavior or to determine why the persons behaved as he or she did
- Modifying means developing and implementing procedures to help people change their behavior. It involves altering environmental events to influence behavior.
Target Behavior
behavior to be modified
Behavioral excess
an undesirable target behavior the person wants to decrease in frequency, duration, intensity
-Behavioral deficit
is a desirable target behavior the person wants to increase in frequency, duration, and intensity
-controlling variables
human behavior is controlled by events in the immediate environment and the goal of behavior modification is to identify those events (controlling variable)
-law of effect
the law states that a behavior that produces a favorable effect is more likely to be repeated in the future
The Basic Goal of Psychology:
-Explain the behavior of organisms
- The psychological approach
- behavior originates in “the mind,”
- our thoughts, feelings, thoughts, processes, regarded as necessary in accounting for behavior
- cannot fully explain behavior without appealing for the mind
- The Natural Science Approach
- behavior is a natural phenomenon and must be accounted for like any other natural phenomenon
- manipulated variables must be independently verifiable (i.e. measurable)
- Assumptions:
1. All behavior is caused
2. Causes precedes their effects (evidence that thoughts follow actions)
3. When confronted with competing explanations, the most parsimonious (makes the least number of assumptions) is preferred (Occam’s Razor)
4. The causes of behavior include only natural (i.e. publicly observable) phenomena
Beware of Cake (and Circular Logic)
-he didn’t eat the cake because……
- willpower
- We know he has willpower because….
- he didn’t eat the cake
- Circular Logic (bad)
- explanation = description
Circular Logic in Scientific Writing (an example)
- Cognitive psychology: “. . . An approach to scientific psychology – that encourages psychologists to infer unobservable constructs based on observable phenomena
- why is this circular? – existence of “unobservable constructs” that is inferred that it is format he very thing it is trying to explain. However, if you had a way to verify it independently, it would not be circular
- how do you scientifically infer an unobservable (i.e. unmeasurable) phenomena
The Experimental Method
- the Hypothesized Cause (independent variable (X)) – causality — The Phenomenon to be Explained (dependent Variable (Y))
- Hypothesis: exposing rats to caffeine makes them work harder for their food (placed in an operant conditions chamber, or Skinner Box)
- Dependent Variable:
- lever presses across time (progression: 1, 2, 3, 4 . . )
- Independent Variable
- amount of caffeine ( 0, 16, 32 mg/kg)
- Results:
- when the rats were in the chamber for 30 minutes, at 16mg, the rats worked significantly harder, at 0mg and 32mg, they gave up after 12 minutes or so
- rats work harder with moderate dose
- larger dose is no better than control
- Questions:
- are these doses reasonable for a small rat?
- how reasonable is it to extrapolate to humans
- what about long-term exposure to caffeine
- what else could have been plotted on the X-axis
- What about Amphetamine? – oh it worked
how can we prove this unmeasured, invisible cause
be proven and how is it useful?
Going back to the Basic goal of psychology, we should be able to:
Explain: Predict the Behavior and Control the Behavior
-how do we use an unobservable process to
predict and control behavior?
A Functional (i.e. causal) Relationship
- lets say you want a coke a drink but don’t have one, then you see a machine, you out in money and get a coke. That is a functional relationship: Coke = f (money)
- the function of a vending machine is to give you a coke when insert some money
-Behavior = f (Organism, Environment)
- Organism: is a shorthand way of referring to physiology, genetics, prior learning
- Environment: refers to current environmental stimuli being encountered
- functional relationship: when changes in an independent variable (X) cause orderly changes in a dependent variable (Y).
- practice has a causal role on how well someone knows their multiplication tables
Notes About Behavior
-behavior:
anything an organism does that can be measured (Reber, 1995)
- People are not blank slates
- individuals/species have varying genetic makeups
- individuals/species have varying learning histories
- Behavior is not static or discrete
- it is a continuous process (like evolution) and shared by the environment (also like evolution)
- the pure Stimulus-Response Model of behavior is not accepted anymore (it’s a straw man)
- Behavior has measurable lawful dimensions
- frequency, duration, intensity, latency, topography
- Behavior is spelled with a “u”
Selection as a Causal Process (turning a doorknob)
- Variations in speed, technique, strength, hand
- Variations are selected:
- Become probable based on how well they work.
- Behavior is changed by experiences in the environment
