Relationships And Behavior

Question 1

Behavioral learning

Answer 1

Process in which an individual determines what behaviors are culturally appropriate and how behaviors result in specific outcomes
- can result in modifications of behavior in order to optimize results
Behaviorism: psychological field which is the study of external observable behaviors rather than internal motivations and thoughts

Question 2

Associative learning

Answer 2

AKA conditioning
Behaviorists study the learning that involves association between certain stimuli and specific responses
Two types of conditioning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning

Question 3

Classical Conditioning

Answer 3

Test subject develops a response to a previously neutral stimulus by associating the stimulus with another stimulus that already elicited that response
E.g. Pavlov’s dogs, where Pavlov theorized the process of classical conditional during studies of salivation in dogs

Question 4

Unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response

Answer 4

unconditioned stimulus: stimulus that elicits a particular behavior
Unconditioned response: A response present before any learning from unconditioned stimulus
I.e. dogs salivating when presented with food

Question 5

Neutral stimulus

Answer 5

Stimulus eliciting no response

Question 6

Conditioned stimulus and response

Answer 6

Conditioned stimulus: A stimulus associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response
Conditioned response: Elicited response learned by associated unconditioned stimulus with conditioned stimulus
Pavlov’s research showed than many neutral stimuli can eventually become conditioned stimuli if they are regularly presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus

Question 7

Acquisition and Extinction

Answer 7

Acquisition: Stage of learning over which a conditioned response to a new stimulus is established
Learned behaviors that are not reinforced can be unlearned
Extinction: disappearance of conditioned response due to unlearning to associate two stimuli
Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of conditioned response after period of extinction
- Repeated cycles of extinction and spontaneous recovery, but strength of recovery decreases each time

Question 8

Stimulus generalization and discrimination

Answer 8

Stimulus generalization: Tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response
Stimulus discrimination: Can learn to differentiate between the two stimuli by presenting one similar stimuli without other unconditioned stimuli and the other similar stimuli with the unconditioned stimuli

Question 9

How does classical conditioning influence human behavior?

Answer 9

Pays an important role in how humans interact
Affects likes, dislikes, fears, and behaviors
May associate ice cream with sickness if contracting a stomach virus after eating ice cream
Advertisers: use calming music or celebrities to build positive associations to brands
Treatment of phobias: feared stimulus is presented with no negative consequences

Question 10

Operant Conditioning

Answer 10

Type of associative learning in which an individual becomes more or less likely to carry out a certain behavior based on its consequences
Associated with the experiments of BF Skinner who studied animals using a Skinner box (operant conditioning chamber)
- for example, delivery of food to rats after certain behaviors and shocking the floor after other behaviors

Question 11

Reinforcement and Punishment in Operant conditioning

Answer 11

Reinforcement: Consequence that increases the likelihood of a behavior (such as delivery of food)
- positive reinforcement: introduction of a reinforcing stimulus in response to a desired behavior
- negative reinforcement: removal of an unpleasant stimulus in response to a desired behavior
Punishment: Stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a behavior
- positive punishment: introduction of a consequence to decrease a behavior
- negative punishment: removing a stimulus (maybe something desired) to decrease a behavior
Reinforcement and punishment of behavior in operant conditioning can be either positive or negative, which have nothing do to with whether the procedure is pleasant or unpleasant

Question 12

Primary reinforcer and primary punisher

Answer 12

primary: those that relate to physiological need, harness physiological needs and the drive for survival
- do not require learning to increase the likelihood of a response
Primary reinforcer example: delivery of food
Primary punisher: exposure to extreme temperatures

Question 13

Secondary reinforcers and punishers

Answer 13

Secondary: require learning and social context to affect behavioral decisions, but once learned, they can be just as effective at controlling behavior as primary reinforcers and punishers
Secondary / conditioned reinforcer examples: money, praise, prestige, and good grades
Secondary / conditioned punisher examples: fines, scolding, ostracism, and bad grades

Question 14

Is reinforcement or punishment more effective?

Answer 14

Positive reinforcement is much more effective than punishment for establishing desirable behavior patterns

Question 15

Escape conditioning

Answer 15

Learned behavior allows the subject to escape the unpleasant stimulus

Question 16

Avoidance conditioning

Answer 16

Learned behavior allows the subject to avoid the unpleasant stimulus altogether by employing a specific response
E.g. a mouse learns to move to one half of the cage after a whistle blow because when the whistle is blown one half of the cage floor is electrified

Question 17

Reinforcement Schedule

Answer 17

Describes how often and under what conditions a behavior is reinforced

• Disappearance of a behavior through extinction is affected by the reinforcement schedule that was used to establish the behavior
• Continuous vs. partial / intermittent reinforcement

Question 18

Schedule of partial reinforcment

Answer 18

Fixed ratio: rewards provided after a specified number of responses
- reward given after every third time a mouse presses a lever
Variable-ratio: rewards are provided after an unpredictable number of responses
- reward is given after a mouse presses a lever 3 times, then 5 times, then 2 times
Fixed-interval: rewards to a response are provided after a specified time interval has passed
- reward is given 20 seconds after the first time a mouse presses a lever
Variable-interval: rewards to a response are provided after an unpredictable time interval has passed
- reward is given 3 minutes after the first time a mouse presses a lever, then 2 minutes, etc.

Question 19

Compare and contrast the effects of continuous vs. partial reinforcement?

Answer 19

Continuous reinforcement is the most rapid way to first establish a response
Behaviors that were established with partial reinforcement take longer to establish, but are much more resistant to extinction (e.g. gambling)

Question 20

Shaping

Answer 20

Type of operant conditioning that shapes behavior toward a certain response by reinforcing successive approximations toward the desired behavior

Question 21

Innate behaviors

Answer 21

Developmentally fixed behaviors
Heavily influenced by the physiology and genetic inheritance of the organism and are difficult or impossible to change through learning
(E.g. male sticklebacks that have red bellies instinctively attacking anything red due to territorial-ness)
- innate behaviors are fixed

Question 22

Cognitive processes

Answer 22

Processes and patterns of thinking that are necessary for the associative learning of non-instinctual behaviors

• Animals must have sufficient higher level brain function to recognize connection between cause and effect and then choose a new course of behavior
• Animal must also have cognitive and physical abilities to perform new behavior asked of it

Question 23

Observational learning

Answer 23

Learning based on modeling, which consists of witnessing another person’s actions, retaining information on that person’s behavior, and later re-enacting what was learned through that observation in one’s own behavior
Can be task-oriented, as in previous example, or can have a more general influence on an individual’s behavior
Especially important in childhood
- learn to model behavior after that of their parents or other prominent adults in their lives
- species must have intelligence necessary to recognize a novel behavior in others, to remember the behavior, and to apply it to their own life in appropriate situations
- helps people benefit form being introduced to new skills and techniques
- allows people to learn from mistakes of others to avoid making the same mistakes

Question 24

Mirror neurons

Answer 24

Specialized nerve cells that fire both when a person is completing an action and when the person observes someone else completing the same action

• help humans understand the actions of others and learn by imitation
• helps in observational learning
• observer must have at least some neural capacity for experiencing vicarious emotions (feeling the emotions of others as though they are one’s own) in order to learn from successes and mistakes of others through observation

Question 25

Behavior

Answer 25

Defined as the sum of coordinates responses of organisms to internal and external stimuli that they experience
Partially influenced by biology of the organism, like genetic inheritance and neural connections that can predispose organisms toward certain behavioral patterns, while hormones form the endocrine system can influence behavioral changes in a relatively direct and immediate manner
- natural selection selects for behavior in the same way that it selects for other fitness traits (select against inappropriate and maladaptive behavior)

Question 26

Verbal communication

Answer 26

Exhibited by humans and confers a wide variety of evolutionary advantages

• transfer knowledge and ideas form one individual to the next with a high level of precision
• However, most communication is non-verbal

Question 27

Non-verbal communciation

Answer 27

Communication between people that does not involve words

• Includes body language, touch, appearance, and facial expressions
• Most communication is non-verbal

Question 28

Animal signals

Answer 28

Consists of vocalizations (distress calls) or use of visual stimuli, touch, and smell for communications

Question 29

Social behavior

Answer 29

Defined as all interactions taking place between members of the same species
- communication between members of a species is crucial to survival because it allows most animals to engage in a wide variety of social behavior
Built into biological makeup of many species
Types:
- attraction: factors that draw members of a species together
- aggression: conflict and competition between individuals
- attachment: forming relationships between individuals
- social support: finding help through social connections

Question 30

Foraging behavior

Answer 30

Set of behaviors through which animals obtain food
- type of social behavior that can be observed in many species
- optimize foraging behavior to maximize energy available through food and minimize energy expenditure involved in obtaining it
- social behavior can increase foraging efficiency by allowing knowledge of effective
techniques to be passed from individual to individual
- teamwork of tribes of ice-age humans to kill a mammoth

Question 31

Mating behavior

Answer 31

Behavior surrounding propagation of a species through reproduction
- success at reproduction determines whether or not an individual’s genes survive in the population, natural selection
Mate choice: process by which one member of species chooses another individual with which to reproduce
- determined by attempts to judge genetic qualities, overall health, potential parenting skills of prospective mates

Question 32

Altrusim

Answer 32

Behaviors that are disadvantageous to individual acting, but confer benefits to other members of social group

• appears to have no evolutionary benefit, because one assumes these genes would quickly be eliminated from a population
• one theory of propagation of altruism is inclusive fitness: overall fitness by considering not only the individual’s own progeny, but also the offspring of its close relatives which share much of its genetic makeup

Question 33

Game theory

Answer 33

Use of mathematical models to represent complex decision making in which the actions of other group members must be taken into account

• helps understand and model decision making processes that govern competition, altruism, and other social behaviors
• interactions between organisms can be modeled as a multiplayer game in which each player carries out competitive or cooperative strategies and decisions that maximize evolutionary fitness
• success depends not only on their own strategy, but also on strategies and decisions of other ‘players’
• presupposes that most successful strategies result in greater fitness and will be favored by natural selection
• e.g. prisoner’s dilemma where two prisoners have option to confess in which other person receives longer sentence and they go free

Question 34

Social interaction

Answer 34

Revolves around communication and cooperation, but can involve group dynamics and power differences

• Can take place on many levels, including between individuals, or within groups of people
• Social group: set of people who interact with each other and share some elements of identity (dyad: two people, triad: three people)

Question 35

Primary group or secondary group

Answer 35

Classified based on level of intimacy
Primary group: characterized by relatively permanent intimate relationships among a small number of people (families and close friends)
Secondary group: impersonal relationships among larger groups of people, tend to be more goal-oriented and less permanent

Question 36

Social networks

Answer 36

People are connected into large networks through webs of weaker social interactions, such as friends of friends

Question 37

Organization

Answer 37

Collection of individuals joining together to coordinate their interactions toward a specific purpose
Formal organizations: Official organizations with specific rules and guidelines
- bureaucracy: type of formal org with a focus on efficiency and effectiveness to accomplish goals of organization

Question 38

Characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy as identified by Max Weber

Answer 38

Characteristics:
- Specialized and organized ina clear hierarchy
- Written rules and regulations with thorough record keeping
- Ideal bureaucracy is impartial and impersonal
All aimed at improving efficiency

Question 39

Sociological perspectives on bureaucracy

Answer 39

Iron law of oligarchy: criticizes hierarchical nature of bureaucracy, bc people at top of hierarchy will inevitably come to value power over purpose of organization and thus will focus more on staying in power than achieving goal
McDonaldization: extends concept of bureaucracy to effect of chain stores on consumerism and society as a whole
- chains are predictable, uniform, efficient, and automated and leads to loss of originality and creativity

Question 40

Aspects of collective behavior

Answer 40

Displayed by groups, networks, and organizations
Fashion: particular social pattern that large groups follow for long period of time
Fad: novel social pattern that has a quick rise and fall in popularity
Mass hysteria (moral panic): collective behavior in which groups of people feel real or imagined threat to social order and respond in a hysteric manner
- dramatized reporting by mass media can exacerbate moral panic
- Can progress to a riot, where group that is feeling threatened grows frustrated to point of violence and destruction

Question 41

Role

Answer 41

An individual’s expected behavior in a particular situation

Question 42

Role conflict

Answer 42

AKA role strain
Two or more roles that an individual plays have conflicting requirements
- role strain: demands of a single role become overwhelming

Question 43

Role exit

Answer 43

Individual stops identifying with a particular role

Question 44

Status

Answer 44

Single individual will play distinct roles in different groups or situations depending on person’s status or social position within group, network, or organization

• Ascribed status: status assigned to a person either at birth or later in life (gender, race, and socioeconomic status)
• Achieved status: status that a person intentionally earns, such as doctor or boss

Question 45

Self-presentation

Answer 45

How a person is perceived in an interaction

- humans modify behaviors to affect their self-presentation

Question 46

Impression Management

Answer 46

Process of consciously masking behavior choices in order to create a specific impression in the minds of others
- E.g. social media is used as a form of impression management to project desired self-presentation

Question 47

Dramaturgical approach to impression management

Answer 47

Uses metaphor from theater to help explain human behavioral patterns in social situations

• impression management takes place in all aspects of human interaction
• person’s behavior is an ongoing performance of self that changes according to situation
• theory implies that self is not a fixed, unchangeable entity, but rather can be formed and reformed through interactions with others
• person has both a front stage and back stage self for various social situations
• front stage self: behavior that a player performs in front of an audience when they know they are being watched, they carry out behavioral conventions that are meaningful to audience in attempt to give them certain perception of their behavior
• back stage self: when players are together, but no audience is present, still a region of performance, but payers can let go of conventions necessary for front stage self, perform different self

Question 48

Group dynamics

Answer 48

• behaviors of people within groups depend not only on individual desires and intentions, but also on dynamics of the group structure
• important in the context of decision-making
• when group works together smoothly, may agree with each other so much that they exclude alternative possibilities, considerations, and decisions

Question 49

Groupthink

Answer 49

Phenomenon where a group’s members tend to think alike and agree for the sake of group harmony

• members may self-censor ideas or opinions that go against group norms or may be pressured by other group members to keep silent on such opinions
• suppression of dissenting opinions creates illusion that group is unanimous in actions, which leads members to believe that decision is correct
• can be adaptive, bc allows quick and efficient decisions, but can lead to disastrous outcomes

Question 50

Group polarization

Answer 50

Through interactions and discussions of group, attitude of group as a whole toward a particular issue becomes stronger than attitudes of individual members
- demonstrates that group decisions tend not to be average of individual desires, instead reflecting desires taken to an extreme

Question 51

Peer pressure

Answer 51

Social influence exerted by one’s peers to act in a way that is acceptable or similar to own behaviors
- can be an extremely powerful motivator and is connected to desire for social acceptance

Question 52

Social facilitation

Answer 52

Tendency to perform better when a person knows they are being watched

• usually most pronounced for tasks at which the performed is highly practiced or skilled
• when carrying out new or uncomfortable tasks, individual often performs worse in front of audience than they would on their own
• depends on variety of factors that include mood, situation, and differences in personality, such as levels of anxiety, extroversion, and self-esteem

Question 53

Diffusion of responsibility

Answer 53

People in a large, anonymous crowd are less likely to feel accountable for outcome of a situation or to feel responsibility to take action

• sense of responsibility is diffused among many people present
• responsible for many behavior changes associated with close proximity to others
• bystander effect: where onlookers in a crowd fail to offer assistance to a person who is in trouble bc they assume someone else will help, when fewer people are present, more likely that any one person will help another in distress, bc in large crow individual action assumed to be not as critical and that inaction excusable bc other people in same situation similarly did not help

Question 54

Social loafing

Answer 54

Members of a group decrease pace or intensity of own work with intention of letting other group members work harder

• group members attempt to do less work and in essence gain a ‘free ride’
• happens when feel like not accountable for their own portions of greater project
• less likely when feel that other people are not available, willing, or able to complete necessary work
• another example of diffusion of responsibility

Question 55

Deindividuation

Answer 55

Immersion in a group overrides a person’s sense of self
People lose awareness of their individuality and instead immerse themselves in the mood or activities of a crowd
- can lead to actions that would otherwise go against individuals’ moral principles
- individuals no longer feel responsible for own behavior
- sometimes desirable: uniforms used to encourage deindividuation in situations where taking mindset of group is important, help people conform to social norms and expectations of group membership, but profound and destructive effects result when people fail to consider repercussions of actions (genocides, mob mentality from following orders)

Question 56

Socialization

Answer 56

Process by which people learn customs and values of their culture

• begins very early in childhood and continues to develop and evolve over a lifetime
• members of a culture learn what customs and ideologies are valued and encouraged among their communities
• Gain an understanding of social norms: rules that community members are expected to follow
• Happens through observational learning and through operant conditioning in which ‘proper’ behaviors are rewarded and unacceptable behaviors are met with criticism or punishment

Question 57

Agents of socialization

Answer 57

Comprised of groups and people who influence personal attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors

• agents include people such as family, friends, and neighbors, social institutions such as religion or school, consumption of mass media, and environments that include interactions with other people
• individuals learn what actions are acceptable by observing both behaviors of others and reactions of others to own behaviors

Question 58

Social control

Answer 58

More direct form of socialization in which one group or individual imposes a set of rules to control behavior of others

• informal: parents disciplining children
• formal: creation of laws to control citizens

Question 59

Conformity

Answer 59

Tendency of individuals to change their attitudes, opinions, and behaviors to align with group norms

• normal phenomena for social animals
• somewhat necessary for smooth functioning of social communities

Question 60

Obedience

Answer 60

Describes behavioral changes made in response to a command by an authority figure (contrast to conformity which involves influence of one’s peers and culture)
Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience: subjects were told they were participating in a study on learning and that they were to act as the teacher
- Authority figure (person in white coat) directed teacher (research participant) to administer electrical shocks of increasing intensity to another person (learner) when they produced incorrect answers to questions
- Milgram studied whether people would adopt behavior that went against their own ethical codes if authority figure instructed them to do so
- behavior sometimes more the function of a situation than of personal qualities of participants

Question 61

Deviance

Answer 61

When a person is unable to recognize social norms or chooses not to follow them

• behavior violates social expectations / norms
• deviant behavior is often met with disapproval because of societal importance of maintaining rules

Question 62

Stigma

Answer 62

Negative social label that changes a person’s social identity by classifying labeled person as abnormal or tainted in some respect

• stigma, ostracism, and other forms of escalated social punishment are societal tools used to keep members within confines of acceptable behavior
• stigma towards people with mental illness prevents individuals from seeking mental health treatment

Question 63

Societal perspectives on deviance

Answer 63

Attempt to explain the role of deviance in society
Strain theory
Differential association theory
Labeling theory

Question 64

Anomie

Answer 64

Strain in social expectations and norms may lead to individuals losing moral guidance due to pressures of pursuing social expecations

Question 65

Strain theory

Answer 65

Deviance arises when there is a conflict between societal expectations and socially condoned methods of achieving those expectations

• commonly used to explain motivation for crime
• individual under pressure bc they are unable to achieve societal expectation of economic success may decide to deviate form socially acceptable way of gaining wealth

Question 66

Differential association theory

Answer 66

Suggests that deviance arises from social learning

• If predominant behavior of a group deviates from societal norms, individuals who are socialized by that group will learn to be deviant
• Breaking of rules can be learned

Question 67

Labeling Theory

Answer 67

Proposes that particular behaviors are societally defined as deviant based on the group that carries out those behaviors

• label of deviant is ascribed to a person who is a part of a group that community views as deviant
• Once a person is identified as deviant, actions are also considered deviant

Question 68

Transmission and Diffusion of culture

Answer 68

Transmission: Passage of culture from one generation to another
Diffusion: Spread of culture from one population to another, such as when a country adopts cultural aspects of another
Methods of transmission and diffusion have evolved from oral communication to writing
- globalization with technology has increased pace of cultural diffusion

Question 69

Assimilation and culture shock

Answer 69

Assimilation: Process by which an individual or group becomes part of a new culture
- occurs through a variety of means, including language acquisition and gaining knowledge about social roles and rules of newly adopted culture
Culture Shock: Feeling of disorientation that occurs due to an encounter with an unfamiliar culture
- four stages: honeymoon phase, negotiation phase, adjustment phase, mastery phase

Question 70

Stages of Culture shock

Answer 70

Honeymoon phase: initial period of excitement
Negotiation phase: problems such as language barriers and homesickness may arise during this period
Adjustment and Mastery phase: assimilation takes place over course of these phases

Reverse culture shock can occur when someone returns to original culture after adapting new culture
- Feeling of otherness due to changes an individual underwent while immersed in new culture

Question 71

Subculture

Answer 71

Culture that is shared by smaller group of people who are also part of a larger culture, but have specific cultural attributes that set them apart from larger group
US contains many subcultures (multicultural country)

Question 72

Multiculturalism

Answer 72

Practice of valuing and respecting differences in culture
- includes the belief that the harmonious coexistence of separate cultures is a valuable goal,, rather than encouraging all cultures to blend together through assimilation

Question 73

Popular Culture

Answer 73

Designates most widespread cultural patterns of society

• big-budget Hollywood movies and Top-40 radio songs
• transmitted via mass media, defined as any means of delivering standardized messages to large audience (TV)
• mass media criticized for exposing consumers to violence and reinforcing gender and racial stereotypes
• increasing numbers of media outlets has led to reduced regulation of content and increased spread of false information

Question 74

Countercultures

Answer 74

Groups whose members adopt cultural patterns in opposition to larger culture and tend to acquire cultural messages from sources that are less mainstream than mass media

Question 75

Cultural lag

Answer 75

Time culture takes to adjust to technological innovations

• particularly evident with development of new medical technologies
• genetic technologies are quickly advancing

Question 76

Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism

Answer 76

Ethnocentrism: Belief that one’s group is of central importance and includes the tendency to judge practices of other groups by one’s own cultural standards
- can contribute to establishment of a sense of identity, but can result in misunderstanding and conflict
- encourages people to define themselves in terms of social groupings (in-group and out-group)
Cultural Relativism: Practice of trying to understand a culture on its own terms and to judge a culture by its own standards

Question 77

In-group and Out-group

Answer 77

In-group: group with which an individual shares identity and toward which they feel loyalty
Out-group: group with which they do not identify toward which they may feel competition or hostility

Question 78

Bias and Prejudice

Answer 78

Bias: Individual favors the in-group and devalues out-groups (in the case of in-groups and out-groups)
Prejudice: Strengthened in-group identity can lead to misunderstandings or strict unjustified generalizations about other groups or categories of people
- often underlie antagonistic feelings or conflict
Prejudice is based in thoughts and attitudes

Question 79

Processes that contribute to prejudice

Answer 79

Power, prestige, and class contribute to the effect that prejudice has on the lives and opportunities of individuals as well as the structure of social institutions
Schemas, which are organizing patterns of thought that are used to categorize and interpret information, thus shaping individual attitudes and perspectives contribute to development of prejudice

Question 80

Stereotype

Answer 80

Type of schema closely associated with prejudice
Concept about a group or category of people that includes the belief that all members of that group share certain characteristics
Stereotypes can be positive, negative, or neutral

Question 81

Stereotype threat

Answer 81

Refers to anxiety and resulting impaired performance that a person may experience when confronted with a negative stereotype about a group to which they belong or when they feel their performance may confirm a negative stereotype about that group
Stereotype threat can cause stereotypes to be self-fulfilling prophecies where the stress and lowered expectations accompanying negative stereotypes contribute to making stereotypical beliefs into reality
E.g. racial profiling which is unjust, immoral, possibly unconstitutional

Question 82

Discrimination

Answer 82

Unfair treatment of others based on their membership in a specific social group
Ideas and impressions that make up prejudice and stereotypes can lead to very real effects on actions and behaviors
Effects of discrimination are mediated by factors such as power, prestige, and class
Individual in powerful social position can inflict more damage on quality of life and opportunities available to a person in a less powerful position than vice versa (power differential)
Describes actions and behaviors

Question 83

Individual discrimination and Institutional discrimination

Answer 83

Individual discrimination: One person behaves negatively toward another because of that person’s membership in a specific social group or category
Institutional discrimination: level of social institutions when they employ policies that differentiate between people based on social grouping
Can be influenced by biological, social, and cultural factors and is a learned behavior that can be passed down through generations
- landlord’s refusal to rent houses on property to women (individual) vs. religions barring women from becoming high-ranking members or leaders of clergy (institutional)