Test 1 Flashcards
What is Behavior?
Any activity of an organism that can be observed or somehow measured.
What is learning?
A relatively permanent change in behavior that results from some type of experience.
What causes change in behavior? (4 things)
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Observational learning
- Fixed action patterns
Classical conditioning
process by which certain inborn behaviors come to be produced in new situations.
Operant conditioning
Strengthening or weakening of a behavior as a result of its consequences.
Observational learning
The act of observing someone else’s behavior facilitates the development of a similar behavior in oneself.
Fixed action patterns
Inherited, instinctive behavior patterns.
Law of similarity
Events that are similar to each other are readily associated with each other.
eg. Cars are associated with trucks
Law of contrast
Events that are opposite are readily associated.
eg. The word “wealth” may bring to mind the word “poverty”.
Law of contiguity
Events that occur in close proximity to each other in time or space are readily associated. (Closeness).
Law of frequency
The more frequently two items occur together, the more strongly they are associated.
eg. Associating a friend with her perfume over time.
Mind-Body dualism: Founder & definition
Descartes; Some human behaviors are reflexes that are automatically elicited by external stimulation, while other behaviors are freely chosen and controlled by the mind.
John lock
(empiricists) Almost all knowledge is a function of experience.
Wilhelm Wundt & Edward Titchener
(Structuralism) Assumes it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements that compose it.
William James
(functionalist) Assumes the mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us. As an adaptive process, learning was of great interest.
John B. Watson
Disliked previous approaches & wanted psychology to be a true science.
Behaviorism is
a natural science approach to psychology that focuses on the study of environmental influences on observable behavior.
Watsons Methodological Behaviorism
Extreme; Study of observable behavior. “S-R Theory”. Learning involves the development of a connection between the environmental event & a specific behavior. (eg. Lights turn off in a classroom (s) and talking stops (r)).
Hull’s Neobehaviorism
disagreed w/ Watson. Thought events that cant be directly observed can still be operationalized (eg. Thirst defined as a number of minutes since last drink).
Agreed with Watson. Shared the view that psychology’s mentalistic emphasis must go & also took a pure S-R approach to learning. (Behavior must be rewarded for learning to take place).
Watson’s Methodological Behaviorism (simplified)
Environmental Events → (no internal events)→ Observable characteristics
Hull’s Neobehaviorism
Environmental Events →Internal events → observable behavior.
Food deprivation→Hunger→Food seeking behavior
Dolman’s Cognitive behaviorism
Disagreed with Watson & Hull. Viewed behavior as “ goal-directed”. Believed that internal cognitive processes like”expectations” and “hypotheses” guided behavior instead of just physiological process. (Learning can occur even if its not readily apparent).
Agreed w/ Watson & Hull: Necessary to incorporate internal process to explain behavior.
Latent Learning
(Tolman) Learning occurs despite any observable indication; Only becomes apparent under different circumstances.
Dolman’s Cognitive Behaviorism (simplified)
Environmental events → Internal events (expectations & hypotheses) →Observable behavior
Bandora’s Social learning Theory
Emphasized expectations as having a primary role in the learning process. Proposed “reciprocal determinism”.
Reciprocal determinism
Env. events, observable behavior, and “person variables” (thoughts & feelings) have a reciprocal influence on each other.
Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism
- Emphasized influence of environmental consequences on overt & covert behavior and rejects internal events as explanation for behavior.
- Believed that thoughts & feelings were themselves behaviors that needed to be explained by environmental events.
- Agreed w/ Watson: Disliked the increasing interest in internal processes.
- Not as mechanistic as Watson & Hull
