Week 1: Introduction

Question 1

Applied Behaviour Analysis

Answer 1

A technology of behaviour in which basic principles of behaviour are applied to solving real-world problems

Question 2

Behaviour

Answer 2

Any activity of an organism that can be observed or measured

Question 3

Behaviour Analysis

Answer 3

Behavioural science
From Skinner’s radical behaviourism
(experimental analysis of behaviour)

Question 4

Behaviourism

Answer 4

A natural science approach to psychology
Environmental influences on observable behaviour
Watson - high value in nonhuman animals.

Question 5

British Empiricism

Answer 5

Philosophy that almost all knowledge is a function of experience.
John Locke.
Conscious mind uses finite set of basic elements and association to create complex thought patterns.

Question 6

Cognitive Behaviourism

Answer 6

Intervening variables, usually hypothesized cognitive processes (expectations or hypotheses), to explain behaviour.
“Purposive behaviourism.”

Question 7

Cognitive Map

Answer 7

The mental representation of one’s spatial surroundings

Question 8

Countercontrol

Answer 8

The deliberate manipulation of environmental events to alter their impact on our behaviour

Question 9

Empiricism

Answer 9

In psychology, the assumption that behaviour patterns are mostly learned rather than inherited (nurture)

Question 10

Evolutionary Adaptation

Answer 10

An inherited trait that has been shaped through natural selection. Ex: flexion response, ability to learn.

Question 11

Functionalism

Answer 11

The mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us. Should focus on those adaptive processes (learning).
William James.
Used introspection and saw similarities between human and nonhuman animals.

Question 12

Introspection

Answer 12

The attempt to accurately describe one’s conscious thoughts, emotions and sensory experiences

Question 13

Latent Learning

Answer 13

Learning that occurs in the absence of any observable indication of learning and only becomes apparent at a later time

Question 14

Law of Contiguity

Answer 14

A law of association in which events that occur in close proximity to each other in time or space are readily associated with each other

Question 15

Law of Contrast

Answer 15

A law of association in which events that are opposite from each other are readily associated with each other

Question 16

Law of Frequency

Answer 16

A law of association in which the more frequently two items occur together the more strongly they are associated with each other

Question 17

Law of Similarity

Answer 17

A law of association in which events that are similar to each other are readily associated with each other

Question 18

Learning

Answer 18

A relatively permanent change in behaviour that results from some type of experience

Question 19

Methodological Behaviourism

Answer 19

Watson.
Psychology should study only behaviours that can be directly observed.
S-R Theory.

Question 20

Mind-Body Dualism

Answer 20

Descartes’ philosophical assumption that some human behaviours are bodily reflexes that are automatically elicited by external stimulation while other behaviours are freely chosen.

Question 21

Nativism

Answer 21

The assumption that a person’s characteristics are largely inborn (Nature)

Question 22

Natural Selection

Answer 22

The evolutionary principle according to which organisms that are better able to adapt to environmental pressures are more likely to reproduce and pass along those adaptive characteristics that those that cannot adapt

Question 23

Neobehaviourism

Answer 23

Utilizes intervening variables, in the form of hypothesized physiological processes to help explain behaviour.
Inferences about events can be operationalized.
S-R Theory.

Question 24

Radical Behaviourism

Answer 24

Emphasizes the influence of the environment on overt behaviour, rejects the use of internal events to explain behaviour and views thoughts and feelings as behaviours that themselves need to be explained

Question 25

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 25

The assumption that environmental events, observable behaviour, and “personal variables” (internal events) reciprocally influence each other

Question 26

Social Learning Theory

Answer 26

A brand of behaviourism that strongly emphasizes the importance of observational learning and cognitive variables in explaining human behaviour

Question 27

S-R Theory

Answer 27

The theory that learning involves the establishment of a connection between a specific stimulus (S) and a specific response (R)

Question 28

Structuralism

Answer 28

Assume that it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements that compose it.
Introspection.
Sysematic observation.
Willhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener.

Question 29

Aristotle

Answer 29

Empiricist - knowledge acquired through experience

4 Laws of Association

Question 30

Titchener & Wundt

Answer 30

Structuralists

Question 31

William James

Answer 31

Functionalist

Question 32

John B. Watson (4)

Answer 32

Methodological Behaviourism
Dump mentalism
S-R Theory
Extremist - 3 basic emotions only - learn rest.

Question 33

Hull (2)

Answer 33

Inferences are scientific.

Neobehaviourism.

Question 34

Tolman (5)

Answer 34

Cognitive Behaviourism 
Analyze on broader level
Cognitive Map 
Latent Learning 
Learning and Performance

Question 35

Bandura (5)

Answer 35

Social Learning Theory 
Observational learning and cognitive variables 
Broad behaviour patterns 
Introspection 
Reciprocal Determinism

Question 36

Skinner (5)

Answer 36

Radical Behaviourism 
Internal events need explaining 
Main focus on the environment 
Countercountrol 
Molar perspective

Question 37

Descartes

Answer 37

Mind-Body Dualism

Nonhuman animal behaviours are completely reflexive.

Question 38

John Locke

Answer 38

British empiricist.

Tabula Rosa - newborn’s mind is a blank slate.

Question 39

Components of natural selection

Answer 39

1. Traits vary within species and between species.
2. Many traits are heritable.
3. Organisms must compete for limited resources.

Question 40

Intervening Variables

Answer 40

Mediating events.

Intervene between a cause (food deprivation) and an effect (speed of running towards food).