Lecture 1 Flashcards
What did JB Watson (1913) focus on?
The stimilus that affects behaviour (overt behaviour-behaviour you can actually observe)
Who carried out the ‘Little Albert’ experiment?
JB Watson (1913)
What is ‘The Law of Effect’?
Behaviour that changes because of its consequences.
What did Thorndike (1998) focus on?
Consequences of behaviour
What did BF Skinner (1938) focus on?
Radical Behaviourism, experimental analysis of behaviour and operant conditioning.
What are the three themes of behaviour analysis?
Radical behaviourism, the experimental analysis of behaviour and applied behaviour analysis.
What is radical behaviourism?
The philosophy of behaviour analysis. Behaviour is a function on ontogenic and phylogenic, not will, mind or self.
What is phylogeny?
The evolutionary history of a species.
What is ontogeny?
The development of an organism during its lifetime
What happens as a function of phylogeny and ontogeny?
Behaviour occurs.
What are the 6 assumptions of radical behaviourism?
Determinism, empiricism, experimentation, philosophic doubt, replication and parsimony.
What is determinism?
Use science to determine behaviour is lawful and determined.
What is empiricism?
Define, systemically observe, and accurately and reliably measure the phrnomenon of interest.
What is experimentation?
Idetification of functional relations.
Observing DV and manipulating IV.
What is philsophic doubt?
Questioning things regarded as fact, knowledge is regarded as doubt. Keeping an open mind, but not so much that your brains fall out (james oberg)
What is replication?
The repeating of experiments and the repeating of independent variable conditions within experiments.
What is parsimony?
The idea that simple, logical explanations must be ruled out before more complex or abstract explanations are considered.
What is Experimental Analysis of Behaviour (EAB)?
Study of organisms, continous observation, description of functional relations, automated recording, rate of response, visual analysis of data display.
What is a functional relation?
When you have identified that the IV has an effect on the DV.
Why does EAB study?
The study of functional relations between the behaviour and environmental events.
What is operant behaviour?
Behaviour which is influenced by the consequeces that have followed that behaviour in the past.
What is the 3 term contingency in EAB?
S-R-S.
Stimuli in enviro- response- stimulus
What is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)?
The scientific application of behavioural principles to issues of social importance.
When was JABA (journal of applied behav. analysis) founded?
1968
What are the 7 dimensions of ABA?
Applied, behavioural, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, effective, general.
What does the analytic dimension of aba mean?
Functional relations between events and behaviour.
What does the technological dimension of aba mean?
Procedures are identified and precisely described.
What does the conceptually systematic dimension of aba mean?
Procedures are reported in terms of the relevant behavioural principles
What does the effective dimenion of aba mean?
Must improve the behaviour under investigation to a practical degree.
What doe the general dimension of aba mean?
Behaviour change has generality if it lasts over time, appears in novel environments, or spreads to novel behaviours.
Which variable is manipulated by researchers?
Independent Variable (IV)
What variable is measured by researchers?
Dependent variable (DV).
Who said, ‘I am a radical behaviourist simply in the sense that i find no place in the formulation for anything which is mental’?
Skinner (1964)
What is mentalism?
Consists of appealing to initiating causes from an ‘inner’ dimension when trying to explain behaviour.
What is dualism?
Where the ‘mind’ is presumed to cause behaviour. Probably most common form of mentalism.
What kind of psychology uses mentalism?
Contempary cognitive paychology
What are to behavioural objections to mentalism?
Meta-physical and meta-theoretical objections.
What is a meta-psychical objection to mentalism?
The concept of literal dualism. Raises the inpossibly difficult issue of how non-spatiotenporal can cause physical event to occur.
What is a meta-theoretical objection to mentalism?
The incompleteness of such accounts when measured against the goals of science.
What is Methodological Behaviourism?
Concerned with dealing with public, observable events. The only behaviour that exists is that you can see.
What does behav. analysis say about thoughts and feelings?
That they are part of behaviour and are caused by the environment.
What does mentalism say about thoughts and feelings?
That they cause behaviour.
What are private events?
Thoughts, feelings, emotions, attitudes. They are private because only the person who has them can observe them.
What are some examples of private events?
“I went to a movie because i felt like laughing”
“I hit him because I was angry”
“She is good at public speaking bcoz she has great self confidence”
What is the problem with private events?
We need to explain it just as much as we need to explain public behaviour. We need to do this in order to be able to increase the chances of it.
