what is functional analysis?

functional analysis maps out exactly how behavior is a function of the environmental situation

What is learning and what approaches are used in the study of it?

learning  is the change of behavior as a function of  experience

Learning-based approaches come in two varieties: behaviorism and the social learning theories

What is behaviorism and what ideas are fundamental to it?

Behaviorism believes that all knowledge worth having comes from direct, public observation.

Implies that your personality is simply the sum of everything you do.  approach to personality, then, is generally based on B data,

Three ideas in particular are fundamental: empiricism, associationism, and hedonism.

Empiricism is The idea that all knowledge comes from experience. Experience is the direct product of reality itself

ASSOCIATIONISM

Explains how learning happens. claim that any two things, including ideas, become mentally associated as one if they are repeatedly experienced close together in time.

HEDONISM AND UTILITARIANISM

Hedonism provides an answer for why people do anything at all.

Hedonism is  Motivation

Hedonism claims that people learn for two reasons: to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Utilitarianism, which claims that the best society is one that creates the most happiness for the largest number of people.

complication is that utilitarianism puts the goal of the most happiness for the most people above all other goals,

What types of learning is identified through the behaviorist approach?

identifies three types of learning: habituation, classical (or emotional) conditioning, and operant conditioning

in classical conditioning the conditioned response is essentially passive with no impact of its own. Conditioning: The animal learns to operate on its world in such a way as to change it to that animal’s advantage.

opponent processes serves to lessen effects of drugs/stimuli and increase tolerance. opponent processes might be triggered through anything related to the stimuli i.e. for drug addicts, needles or their usual spot

Operant conditioning utilizes a system of reinforcements and punishments to aid in the learning of behavior. People are shaped through their environment

Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations.

Who are the main contributors to classic conditioning and what were their contributions?

Ivan Pavlov and John b. Watson

Pavlov’s finding showed that conditioning is more than a simple pairing of stimuli; it involves teaching the that one stimulus is a warning or signal of the other

John Watson assumed that the essential activity of life was to learn a vast array of responses to specific environmental stimuli, an individual’s personality consists of learned stimulus-response (S-R) associations

each person’s patterns will be idiosyncratic

Describe learned helplessness

Learned helplessness, is a mental state in which an organism forced to bear aversive stimuli, or painful or unpleasant stimuli, becomes unable or unwilling to avoid subsequent encounters because it has learned that it cannot control the situation.

One feels fear when one knows what the danger is, and has a reason to think that danger is impending.

One feels anxiety when the source of danger is unclear, or when one has no idea when the danger might actually arrive

Who were the main contributors to operant conditioning and what were their contributions?

Thorndike and Skinner

The Law of Effect: (Thorndike) all learnt behavior is moderated by their outcome. (behavior with positive outcomes will be repeated and behaviors with negative outcomes avoided)

Skinner developed techniques of operant conditioning, reinforcements and punishments

If behavior is followed by a good result—reinforcement—the behavior becomes more likely. If the behavior is followed by a punishment, it becomes less likely

Describe punishment, who employs it most and why

Punishment is an aversive consequence that follows an act in order to stop it and prevent its repetition.

Punishment frequently is used by three kinds of people: parents, teachers, and bosses. This may to  Start some behaviors Maintain some behaviors Prevent some behaviors

how can punishment be done effectively?

five  principles of effective punishment  are

Availability of Alternatives,

Behavioral and Situational Specificity,

Timing and Consistency,

Conditioning Secondary Punishing Stimuli

and Avoiding Mixed Messages:

Availability of Alternatives:

alternative response must not be punished and should be rewarded

Behavioral and Situational Specificity:

Be clear about exactly what behavior you are punishing and the circumstances under which it will and will not be punished. basis of the common parenting advice never to punish a child for being a “bad

Timing and Consistency:

a punishment needs to be applied immediately after the behavior you wish to prevent, every time that behavior occurs. Otherwise may not understand which behavior is forbidden. result will be general inhibition and fearfulness

Conditioning Secondary Punishing Stimuli:

Avoiding Mixed Messages:

What are the dangers of punishment?

Punishment arouses emotion,

consistency is difficult,

severity is hard to determine,

punishment teaches misuse of power

and punishment motivates concealment

Punishment Arouses Emotion:

punisher may get carried away

These powerful emotions are not conducive to clear thinking. As a result, the punishee is unlikely to “learn a lesson,”

It Is Difficult to Be Consistent:;

 state and emotion effects willingness to be punitive

It Is Difficult to Gauge the Severity of Punishment

 in both a physical and emotional sense it is hard to gauge

Punishment Teaches Misuse of Power:

 Specifically, it teaches that big, powerful people get to hurt smaller, less-powerful people.

Punishment Motivates Concealment:

The prospective punishee has good reasons to conceal behavior that might be punished

What are the shortcomings of behaviorism?

Shortcomings of behaviorism

Behaviorism ignores motivation, thought, and cognition.

Classic behaviorism, to a surprisingly large extent, is based on research using animals.

Behaviorism is that it ignores the social dimension of learning.

it treats the organism as essentially passive

What is Dollard’s and Miller’s key take on social learning?

key idea of their social learning theory is the concept of the habit hierarchy.

The behavior you are most likely to perform at a given moment resides at the top of your habit hierarchy, while your least likely behavior is at the bottom

rewards, punishments, and learning rearrange the habit hierarchy

consists of drive reduction theory. Frustration-aggression hypothesis and approach-avoidance conflict

Drive Reduction theory states what? Whose social learning theory is it associated with?

Drive Reduction Theory

A drive is a state of psychological tension that feels good when the tension is reduced.

Motivation is found in needs, which produce psychological drives.

Three kinds of drive are important. Primary, secondary and negative drives

Primary drives include those for food, water, physical comfort, avoidance of physical pain, sexual gratification,

Secondary drives include positive drives for love, prestige, money, and power,

Negative drives such as the avoidance of fear and of humiliation

Part of Dllard’s & Miller’s social learning theory

Explain the approach-avoidance conflict

conflict between desire and fear.

five key assumptions:

 1 An increase in drive strength will increase the tendency to approach or avoid a goal.

2.  Whenever there are two competing responses, the stronger one will win out.

3.  The tendency to approach a positive goal increases the closer one gets to the goal.

 4.  The tendency to avoid a negative goal also increases the closer one gets to that goal.

5.  Tendency to avoid is  stronger than tendency to approach

What is Rotter’s social learning theory and what does it consist of?

theory primarily concerns decision making and the role of expectancies focuses on beliefs about reward and punishment. Contains expectancy value theory and locus of control

What are the two kinds of expectancies people hold? What theory are they associated with?

have two kinds of expectancies: specific and general.

A specific expectancy is the belief that a certain behavior, at a certain time and place, will lead to a specific outcome. High generalized expectancy. Outcomes are directly a function of what they do;

Generalized expectancies. Are general beliefs about whether anything you do is likely to make a difference. low generalized expectancies. believe that they have very little control over what happens to them; they hav

Associated with expectancy value theory which Assumes that behavioral decisions are determined also by beliefs about the likely results of behavior.

An expectancy for a behavior is an individual’s belief, or subjective probability, about how likely it seems that the behavior will attain its goal

What term did Rotter use to refer to generalized expectancy?

Rotter sometimes referred to generalized expectancy as locus of control.

People with internal locus of control are those with high generalized expectancies  

Those with external locus of control have low generalized expectancies

locus of control (and generalized expectancy) can vary across the domains of one’s life

What was the focus of Bandura’s social learning theory?

efficacy expectations (self-efficacy) and observational learning

 efficacy expectations Refer to the belief that one can accomplish something successfully, but also that one’s interpretation of reality matters more than reality itself.   

Efficacy is the perceived probability that you can do something in the first place.

emphasized that efficacy expectations should be the key target for therapeutic interventions

What is observational learning?

observational learning is, learning a behavior vicariously, by seeing someone else do it

demonstration of how this process can work with his “Bobo doll” studies Bandura showed that a child who watches an adult hit the doll is likely to later hit the doll as well, especially if the child sees the adult rewarded for the aggressive behavior

Describe reciprocal determinism

reciprocal determinism, is an analysis of how people shape their environments

 3 important aspects: the environment, the social situations and the "self-system"

the environment

Specific rules and contingencies that immediately reshape your life.

Social situations

Social situations in your life change, because you are there. You control contingencies that, in turn, influence your behavior.

Self-system

A “self-system” develops that has its own effects on behavior, independent of the environment

What is cognitive-affective personality? Who founded it?

the most important aspect of the many systems of personality and cognition is their interaction

Personality, , is “a stable system that mediates how the individual selects, construes, and processes social information and generates social behavior

Proposed by Mischel

Consists of person variables that characterize properties and activities of the cognitive system and if…then contingencies

What was Cognitive-affective personality first proposed as and how was it revised?

first proposed was called “cognitive social learning theory”

claimed that individual differences in personality stem from four person variables that characterize properties and activities of the cognitive system: Cognitive & behavioral competencies, Encoding & personal constructs, subjective stimulus values and self-regulatory systems and plans

1. Cognitive and Behavioral Construction Competencies:

such properties as IQ, creativity, social skills, and occupational abilities.

2. Encoding Strategies and Personal Constructs:

include a person’s ideas about how the world can be categorized and efficacy expectations

 3.  Subjective Stimulus Values:

an individual’s beliefs about the probabilities of attaining a goal if it is pursued. It also includes how much people value different rewarding outcomes;

4.  Self-Regulatory Systems and Plans:

set of procedures that control behavior, including self-reinforcement, selection of situations, and purposeful alteration of the situations selected.

Updated version had five

 the new variable was affects, or feelings and emotions

Change because it became clear that affects and emotions profoundly influence social information processing and coping behavior

A repertoire of actions triggered by particular stimulus situations is the definition of what? What is the advantage of this?

An if…Then contingency is A repertoire of actions triggered by particular stimulus situation

main advantage of the if . . .  then idea is its specificity.

A trait such, provides only general guidance for predicting behaviour

 Re-conceptualizing the trait in if . . .  then terms might allow the specific prediction of behaviour

also more sensitive to the way people change their behavior across situations

What achievements can the learning approach claim?

can boast three major achievements.

First, learning theorists approached the goal of establishing psychology as an objective science that can take its place among the other sciences

 Second, learning theorists recognize how people’s behavior depends on the environment and even the specific, immediate situation...

 Third, the learning approaches have contributed a technology of behavior change.

What are the limitations of learning theories?

1. It is not clear that the effects of behavioral therapies on phobias, addictions, and other problems are generalizable and long-lasting

2.  Theories still tend to underappreciate the degree to which the characteristic ways people think can cause them to respond differently to the same situation

people and their behavior are much harder to change than the learning theories suggest. People tend to remain who they are

What is it that each psychological approach reminds us of

the trait approach reminds us of the importance of individual differences;

the biological approach reminds us of the influences of anatomy, physiology, and genetics;

the psychoanalytic approach reminds us of the power of the unconscious;

The humanistic approach reminds us of the importance of consciousness. In this list of job descriptions,

The learning approach is to remind us that physical and social environments and specific situations also cause what we do and shape who we are.