Week 09: Chapters 14 and 15

Question 1

learning

Answer 1

In behaviorism, a change in behavior as a result of experience.

Question 2

behaviorism (or behaviorist approach)

Answer 2

The theoretical view of personality that focuses on overt behavior and the ways in which it can be affected by rewards and punishments in the environment. A modern variant is the social learning approach, which adds a concern with how behavior is affected by observation, self-evaluation, and social interaction; also called the learning approach.

Question 3

functional analysis

Answer 3

In behaviorism, a description of how a behavior is a function of the environment of the person or animal
that performs it.

Question 4

empiricism

Answer 4

The idea that everything a person knows comes from experience.

Question 5

associationism

Answer 5

The idea that all complex ideas are combinations of two or more sim- ple ideas.

Question 6

hedonism

Answer 6

The idea that people are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Question 7

utilitarianism

Answer 7

The idea that the best society is the one that creates the most happiness for the largest number of people.

Question 8

habituation

Answer 8

The decrease in response to a stimulus on repeated applications; this is the simplest kind of learning.

Question 9

classical conditioning

Answer 9

The kind of learning in which an unconditioned response (such as salivating) that is naturally elicited by one stimulus (such as food) becomes elicited also by a new, conditioned stimulus (such as a bell).

Question 10

learned helplessness

Answer 10

A belief that nothing one does matters, derived from an experi- ence of random or unpredictable reward and punishment, and theorized to be a basis of depression.

Question 11

operant conditioning

Answer 11

Skinner’s term for the process of learning in which an organism’s behavior is shaped by the effect of the behavior on the environment.

Question 12

respondent conditioning

Answer 12

Skinner’s term for classical conditioning.

Question 13

reinforcement

Answer 13

In operant conditioning, a reward that, when applied following a be- havior, increases the frequency of that behavior. In classical conditioning, this refers to the pairing of an unconditioned stimulus (such as food) with a conditioned stimulus (such as a bell).

Question 14

punishment

Answer 14

An aversive consequence that follows an act in order to stop the act and prevent its repetition.

Question 15

expectancy value theory

Answer 15

Rotter’s theory of how the value and perceived attainability of a goal combine to affect the probability of a goal-seeking behavior.

Question 16

expectancy

Answer 16

In Rotter’s social learning theory, the degree to which an individual believes a behavior will probably attain its goal.

Question 17

efficacy expectation

Answer 17

In Bandura’s social learning theory, one’s belief that one can perform a given goal-directed behavior.

Question 18

self-efficacy

Answer 18

One’s beliefs about the degree to which one will be able to accomplish a goal if one tries.

Question 19

self-concept

Answer 19

A person’s knowledge and opinions about herself.

Question 20

observational learning

Answer 20

Learning a behavior by watching someone else do it.

Question 21

reciprocal determinism

Answer 21

Bandura’s term for the way people affect their environments even while their environments affect them.

Question 22

personality processes

Answer 22

The mental activi- ties of personality, including perception, thought, motivation, and emotion.

Question 23

priming

Answer 23

Activation of a concept or idea by repeatedly perceiving it or thinking about it. The usual result is that this concept or idea comes to mind more quickly and easily in new situations.

Question 24

chronic accessibility

Answer 24

The tendency of an idea or concept to come easily to mind for a particular individual.

Question 25

perceptual defense

Answer 25

The process of failing to perceive stimuli that an individual might find disturbing or threatening.

Question 26

short-term memory (STM)

Answer 26

The stage of information processing in which the person is consciously aware of a small amount of information (about seven chunks) as long as that information continues to be actively processed.

Question 27

chunk

Answer 27

Any piece of information that can be thought of as a unit. A chunk can vary with learning and experience. The capacity of short-term memory is seven chunks, plus or minus two.

Question 28

goal

Answer 28

In learning and cognitive approaches to personality, a desired end state that serves to direct perception, thought, and behavior.

Question 29

strategy

Answer 29

A sequence of activities directed toward a goal.

Question 30

entity theory

Answer 30

In Dweck’s theory of motivation, an individual’s belief that abilities are fixed and unchangeable.

Question 31

incremental theory

Answer 31

In Dweck’s theory of motivation, an individual’s belief that abilities can increase with experience and practice.

Question 32

procedural knowledge

Answer 32

What a person knows but cannot really talk about; sometimes called knowing how.

Question 33

emotional intelligence

Answer 33

The ability to perceive emotions accurately in oneself and others and to control and use one’s own emotions constructively.

Question 34

cognitive control

Answer 34

Using rational thinking to regulate one’s emotions and to control how one reacts to emotional feelings.

Question 35

emotional circumplex

Answer 35

The emotion circumplex is a two-dimensional circular space model of human emotion that expresses emotions as points or vectors. According to the paradigm, all human emotions may be represented by two main dimensions: valence and arousal.

The degree of pleasantness or unpleasantness of emotion, ranging from negative to positive, is valence. Arousal is the degree of activity or energy associated with a feeling, ranging from low to high.

Emotions are arranged in a circular area by the emotion circumplex, with emotions with comparable valence and arousal levels clustered together. For example, feelings like pleasure, enthusiasm, and love are positioned in the high valence and high arousal quadrants. At the same time, melancholy, boredom, and exhaustion are found in the low valence and low arousal quadrants.

The emotion circumplex model has been extensively employed in emotion research to understand better the links between various emotions and the physiological and neurological systems that underpin them.