Topic 5 - The Power of the Situation & Topic 6 - Cognition: It's Not Easy Thinking Green Flashcards

1
Q

environment shapes behaviour

A

the total physical, social, political, and economic situation in which a person behaves is very powerful and often override internal influences on our behaviour

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2
Q

B = ƒ ( P , E )

A

behavior is a function of the interaction between the person and the person’s environment

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3
Q

contingencies

A

external forces that affect the behaviour of individuals in that particular situation

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4
Q

antecedents

A

cues that precede behaviour

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5
Q

consequences

A

outcomes that reward or punish

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6
Q

reinforcers

A

consequences that reward, strengthen or increase the likelihood of behaviour

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7
Q

punishment

A

consequences that decrease the probability of behaviour

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8
Q

intermittent reinforcement

A

occurs when the pleasant consequence happens only sometimes

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9
Q

behavioural extinction

A

the weakening of the behaviour

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10
Q

fixed ratio schedule

variable ratio schedule

A

X after occurrences n=Y

X or Y after occurrences n=Z

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11
Q

fixed interval schedule

variable interval schedule

A

X if occurrences n>0 within Y timeframe, Y = fixed

X if occurrences n>0 within Y timeframe, Y = varied

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12
Q

contingency trap

A

unsustainable behaviours where the immediate rewards are not in line with distant punishers

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13
Q

social dilemma

A

self-interest against what is best for the greater good

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14
Q

commons dilemma

A

occurs when individuals are tempted by personal benefits to overuse a shared resource

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15
Q

public goods dilemma

A

when they must decide whether to contribute to a pooled resource

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16
Q

habits

A

patterns of responding to particular stimuli, built through repeated association

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17
Q

social influence

A

behaviour is shaped by the behaviour, suggestions, requests, and reactions of others

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18
Q

modeling

A

watching and imitating what others do

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19
Q

reference groups

A

any group that people use as a point of comparison to form their own attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviours

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20
Q

conform

A

to behave as others behave

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21
Q

social norms

A

general guidelines about what sort of conduct is typical, expected, or correct in that situation

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22
Q

descriptive norm

A

a guideline about what most people typically do in a particular situation that varies across situations

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23
Q

injunctive norm

A

what the culture as a whole approves of as the appropriate way to behave

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24
Q

persuasion

A

the ultimate goal of persuasion is behaviour change

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25
Q

credibility

A

the believability of information, resting largely on the trustworthiness and expertise of the information source or message

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26
Q

psychological reactance

A

a motivation to resist or rebel

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27
Q

compliance

A

changing one’s behaviour due to the request or direction of another person

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28
Q

foot-in-the-door technique

A

people are more likely to comply with a request (that they might be tempted to refuse) when it is first preceded by a less costly request (that they almost certainly will not refuse)

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29
Q

cognitive dissonance

A

when we experience a contradiction between our behaviours and attitudes, or between our various behaviours

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30
Q

insufficient external justification

A

acting in a discrepant way that we must resort to other tactics to relieve our dissonance, such as to adjust our behaviour so as to bring the disparate elements back in line

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31
Q

counter-attitudinal advocacy

A

when individuals find themselves in a situation promoting a position that they do not hold

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32
Q

strategic self-presentation

A

attempt to control others’ impressions

33
Q

social comparison

A

evaluating ourselves against other people

34
Q

relative deprivation

A

a feeling that we may have our needs met, but they could be met with more style or grandeur

35
Q

relative social status

A

how we rank compared to others

36
Q

Behavioral engineering

A

the intentional manipulation of contingencies that currently create or maintain specific behaviours to motivate new behaviours instead

37
Q

antecedent strategies

A

behavioural engineering strategies that focus on the stimuli that signal behaviour

38
Q

consequence strategies

A

behavioural engineering strategies that focus on the outcomes of behaviour

39
Q

Antecedent Strategies: Information

A

Providing information about problems and behavioural solutions.
This approach includes providing justification for why certain behaviours are desirable. It can also provide instructional details.

40
Q

Antecedent Strategies: Prompt

A

a cue meant to trigger behaviour

41
Q

Antecedent Strategies: Modeling

A

When attempting to influence others, demonstrating appropriate behaviour often leads to better retention and increased use of a new behaviour than simply describing when and how to perform desired behaviours

42
Q

Consequence Strategies: Incentives

A

Use of extrinsic rewards for behaviors

43
Q

extrinsic rewards

A

external benefits, such as money and social recognition

44
Q

intrinsic rewards

A

just doing the behaviour can feel rewarding in and of itself, such as:
feeling a sense of purpose
developing competence
making progress toward a goal

45
Q

Consequence Strategies: Informational Feedback

A

Simply giving people feedback about what they have accomplished can be reinforcing

46
Q

Consequence Strategies: Social Feedback

A

Engineered social feedback typically includes information that encourages people to make social comparisons between their own environmental
behaviour and the behaviour of others.

47
Q

single action bias

A

sometimes when people take a small first step, they stop there because just doing something is enough to alleviate the (punishing) worry that is motivating them

48
Q

rebound effect

A

When the first behavioural change is a big one, people sometimes feel entitled to be less responsible in other domains

49
Q

Self-control

A

occurs when one changes antecedent and consequent stimuli in order to change one’s own behaviour

50
Q

cognition

A

the thought processes of the human brain

51
Q

analytic system

A

conscious, deliberate, and analytic, such as consulting your memory for specific information, or choosing between two possible ideas

52
Q

automatic system

A

happen automatically and without conscious effort, like seeing an image in the mind’s eye or feeling emotion

53
Q

sensation

A

process in which the sensory organs transmit information to the brain

54
Q

perception

A

interpreting sensory information by drawing on memories of past experience within the brain

55
Q

sensory adaptation

A

Stimuli that do not change, or that change very slowly, quickly lose their ability to activate a response from our sensory neurons

56
Q

Temporal discounting

A

Immediate needs and wants frequently override concerns about the future because humans value short-term circumstances more than those far away in time. It makes it unlikely that we will give something up today to alleviate long-term problems.

57
Q

Affect

A

the automatic system’s spontaneous emotional response to every situation we encounter

58
Q

psychological distance

A

the sense that a problem is far removed from the personal here and now

59
Q

defence mechanisms

A

an unconscious psychological operation that functions to protect a person from anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors
e.g.
denial
rationalization

60
Q

emotion-focused coping

A

mental strategies to minimize negative emotions. may alleviate anxiety for a while, it leads to greater suffering in the long-term if it allows the underlying cause of discomfort to worsen

61
Q

Problem-focused coping

A

a concerted effort to eliminate the source of discomfort

62
Q

Mortality salience

A

awareness of the inevitability of one’s own demise

63
Q

heuristics

A

shortcuts in the brain that allow it to come to a decision by ignoring all but a few pieces of information

64
Q

availability heuristic

A

tendency to make a judgment based on what is effortlessly available in memory

65
Q

priming

A

an unconscious activation of related concepts

exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention

For example, the word NURSE is recognized more quickly following the word DOCTOR than following the word BREAD.

66
Q

mental models

A

the simplified memory representations the brain holds for the things we think about

67
Q

belief perseverance

A

the irrational drive to maintain cherished notions, even in the face of contradictory evidence

68
Q

confirmation bias

A

the tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values

69
Q

environmentalists

A

people who work to protect our communities and our natural resources from environmental issues

70
Q

Stereotypes

A

a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people

71
Q

loss aversion

A

a heightened negative reaction to giving something up

72
Q

framing

A

presenting information in ways that illuminate its relevance

73
Q

charismatic megafauna

A

the large, best-known and most beloved wild animals

74
Q

mindfulness

A

the awareness of where one’s mind is in the moment

75
Q

Effectiveness knowledge

A

helps people aim for the most impactful behaviours, so that their conscious efforts are not misdirected

76
Q

How-to knowledge

A

Knowing how to do something, and perhaps having a chance to practice

77
Q

Systems knowledge

A

provides the larger picture behind our problems and reveals how seemingly separate issues are interconnected

78
Q

green defaults

A

make sustainability the pre-set option unless people deliberately opt out