Chap 14 Flashcards
Learning, as defined by behaviourists. define.
the change of behavior as a function of experience
Learning-based approaches to personality come in two varieties…
- behaviorism
- social learning
Earlier on we looked at which were more important determinants of behavior—persons or situations.
Behaviorists would definitely vote for…
The situation.
social learning theories were eventually relabelled what?
cognitive social learning theory
What perspective of personality believes the following:
Personality does not include traits,
unconscious conflicts, psychodynamic processes, conscious experiences, or anything else that cannot be directly observed.
Behaviorist.
functional analysis: define.
In behaviorism, a description of how a behavior is a function of the environment of the person or animal that performs it.
What is the ‘environment’, according to behaviorists?
the rewards and punishments in the physical and social world.
Behaviorism traditionally identifies three types of learning: list them.
1) habituation,
2) classical (or respondent) conditioning
3) operant conditioning.
Habitation: Define.
an innate response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged presentations of that stimulus.
Movies display levels of mayhem and gore that, at one time, would have been considered unthinkable.
What effect does being exposed to such images, again and again, have on people?
it might make them “comfortably numb.”
Repeated exposure to
violent video games can make an individual’s personality more
AGGRESSIVE and LESS EMPATHETIC
People who win millions of dollars in a
lottery have a pretty exciting day, but, over the long run, end up…?
What is this an example of? Explain.
a) about as happy as they were before.
b) Habitation. They become used to their millionaire status.
Are people good at affective forecasting?
Is this based on it being good or bad forecasting?
people tend to overestimate the emotional impact of future events, both good and bad.
ex. Winning that big promotion won’t make you as happy as you expect, over time, but flunking that test won’t make you as miserable as you anticipate either
Define: Classical Conditioning
Example.
a) 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).
b) Pavlov Dogs, as described above.
Define: Learned Helplessness
Example?
a) A belief that nothing one does matters, derived from an experience of random or unpredictable reward and punishment, and theorized to be a basis of depression.
b) Dog being shocked on both sides of a cage, jumping does not effect the shock. Eventually, when one side stops being shocked, the dog is helpless and does not attempt to jump to the safe side.
respondent conditioning is also known as what?
Classical Conditioning, as described by skinner.
Operant Conditioning: define.
Example?
a) 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.
b) Edward Thorndike was putting hungry cats in a device he called the “puzzle box”.
The cats could escape only by doing some specific, simple act, such as pulling on a wire or pressing a bar. The box would then spring open, allowing the cat to jump out and find a bit of food nearby. Then Thorndike would put the cat back in the box, to try again.
The cats escaped more and more quickly.
A reinforcement makes behaviour ____ likely
more
A punishment makes a behaviour ____ likely
less
What is ‘Shaping’ (Skinner)
to develop practical techniques for changing behavior that can produce results with both animals and humans. (think of Skinner teaching the pigeon to turn)
Skinner & the podium: how did students affect Skinner’s lecturing?
What theoretical model of learning is this based on?
a) Student would look bored as Skinner lectured, but perk up when he took a step back from the podium. The continued to do this throughout the semester with greater and greater distance until Skinner why pretty much by the doorway when lecturing.
b) Operant Conditioning
Define: Reinforcement (In Operant Conditioning Context)
Define Again: Reinforcement (In Classical Conditioning Context)
a) Operant: A reward that, when applied following a behavior, increases the frequency of that behavior.
b) Classical: refers to the pairing of an unconditioned stimulus (such as food) with a conditioned stimulus (such as a bell).
German psychologist Wolfgang Köhler studied what animal?
What process did he add to Social learning Theory? Define.
a) Chimpanzees (solving puzzles for food)
b) Insight.
Definition: Insight learning is the sudden understanding of the relation between a problem and a solution.
(By learning through insight, the correct solution not only appears seemingly out of nowhere but also repeated readily of subsequent presentations of that problem.)
What are the shortcoming of behaviorism? (4)
1) behaviorism ignores thinking,
motivation, and emotion.
2) based primarily on animal studies
3) Ignores social dimension of learning
4) treats the animal/person as purely passive to their environment - humans can choose their environment (generally) moreso than a pigeon placed in a box by Skinner.
Insight leads to what kind of learning theory?
Social Learning Theory.
