Chapter 1

Question 1

Applied Behavior Analysis

Answer 1

a technology of behavior in which basic principles of behavior are applied to solving real-world issues

Question 2

Behavior

Answer 2

any activity of an organism that can be observed or somehow measured

Question 3

Behavior Analysis (experimental analysis of behavior)

Answer 3

the behavioral science that grew out of Skinner’s philosophy of radical behaviorism

Question 4

Behaviorism

Answer 4

a natural science approach to psychology that traditionally focuses on the study of environmental influences on observable behavior

Question 5

British Empiricism

Answer 5

a philosophical school of thought which maintains that almost all knowledge is a function of experience

Question 6

Cognitive Behaviorism

Answer 6

a brand of behaviorism that utilizes intervening variable, usually in the form of hypothesized cognitive processes, to help explain behavior. Sometimes called “purposive behaviorism”

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 behavior

Question 9

Empiricism

Answer 9

in psychology, the assumption that behavior patterns are mostly learned rather than inherited. Also known as the nurture perspective

Question 10

Evolutionary Adaptation

Answer 10

an inherited trait (physical or behavioral) that has been shaped through natural selection

Question 11

Functionalism

Answer 11

an approach to psychology which proposes that the mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us, and that the focus of psychology should be

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 under a different set of conditions

Question 14

Law of Contiguity

Answer 14

A law of association, according to 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, according to 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, according to which the more frequently two items occur together, the more strongly they are associated with each other.

Question 17

Law of Parsimony

Answer 17

the assumption that simpler explanations for a phenomenon are generally preferable to more complex explanations

Question 18

Law of Similarity

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Learning

Answer 19

a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from some type of experience

Question 20

Methodological Behaviorism

Answer 20

a brand of behaviorism which asserts that, for methodological reasons, psychologist should study only those behaviors that can be directly observed

Question 21

Mind-Body Dualism

Answer 21

Descartes’ philosophical assumption that some human behaviors are bodily reflexes that are automatically elicited by external stimulation, while other behaviors are freely chosen and controlled by the mind.

Question 22

Nativism

Answer 22

the assumption that a person’s characteristics are largely inborn; also known as the nature perspective

Question 23

Natural Selection

Answer 23

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 than those that cannot adapt

Question 24

Neobehaviorism

Answer 24

a brand of behaviorism that utilizes intervening variables, in the form of hypothesized physiological processes, to help explain behavior

Question 25

Radical Behaviorism

Answer 25

a brand of behaviorism that emphasizes the influence of the environment on overt behavior, rejects the use of internal events to explain behavior, and views thoughts and feelings as behaviors that themselves need to be explained

Question 26

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 26

the assumption that environmental events, observable behavior, and “person variables” (including internal thoughts and feelings) reciprocally influence each other.

Question 27

Social Learning Theory

Answer 27

a brand of behaviorism that strongly emphasizes the importance of observational learning and cognitive variables in explaining human behavior. It has more recently been referred to as “social-cognitive theory”

Question 28

S-R theory

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Structuralism

Answer 29

an approach to psychology which assumes that it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements that compose it