Week 5 Flashcards
Behaviorism
A psychological approach that emphasises environmental influences on observable behaviours
Skinner’s perspective of personality
- A person does not have an inner self that causes an individual to act in a certain way. Rather people act in accordance to what behaviours are rewarded and punished
Skinner on Biological Nature of Personality
- Biology is important but is not the concern of psychologists
- The brain is inaccessible to psychologists but environmental variables can be manipulated to alter behaviour
- i.e. when teaching a child to read, we cultivate a reading friendly environment and praise them for reading in opposed to directly alter their brain
Skinner and Subjectivity
- We do have covert thoughts and feelings that influence our behaviour i.e. a toothache may make us more distant and snappy
- These stimuli and responses can only be observed by the behaving individual themselves and thus are not a matter for psychologists
3 Term Contingency
Antecedent
Behaviour
Consequence
Antecedent
A stimulus that cues an organism to perform a learned behaviour
Reinforcement
-A stimulus that follows a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated
- Always increases behaviour
Positive Reinforcement
The administration of a stimulus to increase the possibility of a behaviour recurrence
- Giving praise or a bonus to reward good work
Negative Reinforcement
- The removal of an unpleasant stimulus to increase the probability of a behaviours recurrence
- Reducing a jail sentence to reward good behaviour
Punishment
A stimulus that follows a behaviour and decreases the probability of a behaviours recurrence
Positive Punishment
-The administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviors recurrence
- Being reprimanded for bad behaviour
Negative Punishment
The removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviours recurrence
- Normally the removal of a pleasant stimulus
- Removing a teens phone for not studying
Operant Conditioning
A learning process in which the consequences of an action determine the likelihood that it will be performed in the future
Personality Development and Operant Conditioning
- Our characteristic response tendencies are shaped by reinforcers and other consequences that follow behaviour
- If telling jokes at a party leads to attention and compliments, one may be more likely to act witty a d humorous in the future
Skinner on Consistency
-People show consistency in their behaviour because they have acquired patterns of such response tendencies through their experience over time in a particular environment
- An ambitious and hardworking individual may exist in stimulating environments i.e. school, work etc that promotes and reinforces such behaviours
Contingencies of Behaviour
- The same person may act differently in different situations i.e. in a library and a pub
- Similarly, kids of similar traits may have vastly different behaviour depending on their environment i.e. a soldier or an ambitious student
Strengths of Skinner’s Theory
- Naturalistic and practical scientific approach to psych
- Extremely successful in applied arena
