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Questions and Answers
What is the primary distinction made in the learning-performance distinction?
Which of the following statements accurately describes acquisition in classical conditioning?
Which scenario best exemplifies spontaneous recovery?
What is a key factor in the process of classical conditioning?
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What does stimulus generalization refer to?
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In classical conditioning, an unconditioned response is best defined as:
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Which example demonstrates habituation?
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What is a conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning?
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What type of reinforcement involves the removal of an aversive stimulus following a behavior?
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Which type of memory requires conscious effort to recall specific facts or events?
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In observational learning, what factor increases the likelihood of an observer imitating a model's behavior?
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Which schedule of reinforcement provides reinforcement after an average number of responses?
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Which type of memory is characterized by holding brief sensory experiences before they are processed?
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What is the primary difference between reinforcement and punishment in behavior modification?
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What is the limited capacity of short-term memory, as proposed by Miller's magic number?
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Which type of punishment involves the removal of a desirable stimulus following a behavior?
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What cognitive process involves mental representation of information based on sensory input?
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In the context of operant conditioning, what is defined by behaviors followed by satisfying consequences becoming more likely?
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What type of memory is specifically related to storing knowledge about how to perform tasks?
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Which cognitive component of working memory is responsible for processing visual information?
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What will likely decrease the probability of imitating a behavior observed in a model?
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Which type of processing at encoding has been shown to be the most effective for retention during retrieval?
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In the context of serial position effects, what describes the improved recall of items at the end of a list?
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What is the function of mnemonics in memory enhancement?
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Which trait theory is characterized by 16 broad factors derived from factor analysis?
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What psychological theory posits that behavior is largely influenced by powerful unconscious forces?
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According to the levels of processing theory, which of the following represents the shallowest level of processing?
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What is a key characteristic of traits in the Big Five Model?
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In Eysenck's personality dimensions, which factor is associated with emotional stability versus instability?
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What is proactive interference in the context of memory retrieval?
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What trait is associated with high levels of aggression and impulsive behavior according to psychoticism?
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What are prototypes used for in memory categorization?
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Freud's concept of fixation in psychosexual development mainly affects which aspect of personality?
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How does elaborative rehearsal enhance memory retention?
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The concept of schemas primarily contributes to which cognitive function?
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What does the ID primarily operate on?
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Which of the following best describes the superego?
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What is the primary function of defense mechanisms?
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Which of the following criticisms is NOT typically associated with Freud's theories?
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What motivates behavior according to humanistic theories?
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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs emphasizes that:
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What concept is central to Carl Rogers' Self Theory?
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What happens when there is a larger discrepancy between one's self-perception and experiences according to Rogers?
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What key factor influences self-efficacy according to Bandura?
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Social-cognitive theories are criticized for overlooking what aspect?
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In Mischel’s Cognitive-Affective Theory, which cognitive affective unit involves our emotional responses?
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What is the role of praise in developing an intrinsic locus of control?
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Which of the following aspects differentiates social-cognitive theories from trait theories?
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What is a potential consequence of denying or distorting reality to maintain self-consistency?
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What is the primary focus of personality psychology?
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Which learning method primarily involves learning through reinforcement and punishment?
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What type of memory is characterized by conscious recall and includes episodic and semantic memories?
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In the context of social psychology, what does groupthink refer to?
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What concept does attribution theory primarily investigate?
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Which of the following describes the relationship between classical conditioning and a conditioned response?
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What defines implicit (non-declarative) memory compared to explicit (declarative) memory?
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What is a major criticism of behaviorism as a psychological approach?
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Which aspect of memory is responsible for maintaining information over time?
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What is the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) in Pavlov's experiment?
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What concept reflects the tendency to behave differently in a group versus individually?
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Which of the following is a characteristic of observational learning?
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In the context of social influence, what is the concept of compliance?
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Which of the following is a key component of Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
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What is one limitation of the psychodynamic theories in understanding personality?
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How does the concept of psychic determinism relate to Freud's theories?
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Which aspect of Carl Rogers' Self Theory emphasizes the development of self-concept?
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What is a central premise of Bandura's Social-Cognitive Theory?
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Which criticism is often directed towards Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?
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In the context of Behavioral Genetics, what is the implication of higher correlation between identical twins compared to fraternal twins?
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How does Maslow's concept of self-actualization influence humanistic theories?
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What flaw is noted regarding the evaluation of social-cognitive theories?
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What term describes the mental strategies used by the ego to minimize conflict between the id and superego?
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Which of the following reflects a primary drive according to Freud's theories?
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Which of the following accurately describes the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?
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What is the role of the central executive in working memory?
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What characterizes implicit memory compared to explicit memory?
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Which of the following best defines proactive interference?
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What is the significance of Miller's magic number in memory theory?
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In terms of encoding, which method provides the deepest processing of information?
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Which component of working memory is specifically responsible for managing visual and spatial information?
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What is a key characteristic of the primacy effect in memory recall?
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How does chunking contribute to the improvement of short-term memory?
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How do schemas aid in cognitive processing?
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What feature distinguishes the Big Five personality model from other personality theories?
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What does elaborative rehearsal aim to achieve?
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Which personality theory is characterized by the identification of 16 source traits?
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Which of the following statements about declarative memory is correct?
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Study Notes
Learning
- Learning involves consistent behavior change based on experience.
- The learning-performance distinction refers to the difference between what is learned and what is displayed.
- Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus due to repeated exposure.
Classical Conditioning
- A form of learning where one stimulus predicts another, creating learned associations.
- Discovered by Ivan Pavlov while studying canine digestion.
- Key elements include stimuli and reflexes.
- Pavlov observed dogs salivating before food, associating external cues like sounds with food.
Conditioning Terms
- An unconditioned stimulus (UCS) naturally elicits a behavior.
- An unconditioned response (UCR) is the behavior elicited by the UCS.
- A conditioned stimulus (CS) is a neutral stimulus that, after association with the UCS, can elicit behavior.
- A conditioned response (CR) is the behavior elicited by the CS.
Features of Classical Conditioning
- Repeated pairing of a neutral stimulus with a biologically significant stimulus turns the neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus.
- Observed in reflexes like salivation, pupil contraction, and knee jerks.
- Pairing stimuli with naturally eliciting reflexes leads to associating the stimulus with the behavior.
Processes of Conditioning
- Acquisition is the process where the conditioned response is first elicited and strengthens over repeated trials.
- Extinction is the weakening of the conditioned response due to the absence of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.
- Spontaneous recovery is the sudden reappearance of the conditioned response after a period without exposure to the unconditioned stimulus.
Acquisition & Timing
- Timing of stimulus presentation is crucial for acquisition.
- Different presentations include:
- Forward-short delay (bell ringing followed by food).
- Forward-trace (bell ringing, then stopping, and then food).
- Simultaneous (food and bell at the same time).
Processes of Conditioning
- Stimulus generalization is the automatic extension of conditioned responses to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.
- Stimulus discrimination is learning to respond differently to stimuli that differ from the conditioned stimulus.
Classical Conditioning Applications
- Used in behavioral therapies to treat phobias and anxieties by pairing a feared stimulus with a relaxing, positive experience.
Operant Conditioning
- Learning procedures that manipulate behavior consequences to observe their impact.
- Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect proposes that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences become more likely to occur.
- Based on the idea that behaviors are emitted voluntarily and influenced by the environment and their consequences.
Schedules of Reinforcement
- Partial reinforcement effect suggests that responses acquired under partial reinforcement are more resistant to extinction compared to continuous reinforcement.
- Reinforcers can be delivered according to ratios (number of responses) or intervals (time).
Schedules of Reinforcement
- Fixed-ratio: Reinforcement after a fixed number of responses.
- Variable-ratio: An average number of responses between reinforcers is predetermined.
- Fixed-interval: Reinforcement for the first response after a fixed period of time.
- Variable-interval: An average interval between reinforcers is predetermined.
Reinforcers
- Negative reinforcement involves the removal of an aversive stimulus after a behavior, leading to an increase in that behavior.
- Escape conditioning allows escape from an aversive stimulus.
- Avoidance conditioning allows avoidance of an aversive stimulus before it begins.
Punishment
- A punisher is any stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a response when made contingent upon it.
- Punishment is the delivery of a punisher after a response.
- Positive punishment involves the delivery of an aversive stimulus after a behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.
- Negative punishment involves the removal of a desirable stimulus after a behavior, leading to a decrease in that behavior.
Reinforcement vs. Punishment
- Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior, while punishment decreases it.
Observational Learning
- Learning through observing the experiences of others, also known as social learning.
- Individuals may exhibit similar behavior after witnessing another person's behavior being reinforced or punished.
Bandura & Social Learning
- Bandura's Bobo doll experiments demonstrated that children imitated aggressive behavior they observed in a model.
- Observing a model being rewarded increases the likelihood of imitating that behavior, while seeing the model punished would decrease it.
Bandura & Social Learning
- Factors contributing to a model's influence include reinforcement, similarity to the observer, and the complexity of the observed behavior.
Memory
- The ability to store and retrieve information.
- Dynamic and ever-changing, as current experiences influence past memories.
- Types of memory are influenced by different parts of the brain.
Memory
- Implicit memory: information is available without conscious effort (e.g., typing).
- Explicit memory: conscious effort is needed to recover information (e.g., testing).
- Procedural memory: memory for how to do things (e.g., making dinner).
- Declarative memory: recollection of facts and events (e.g., remembering a formula).
Information Processing Theory
- Sensory information is taken into the brain.
- Information is processed, analyzed, and stored for later use.
- Stored information forms the basis for behaviors and interactions.
Memory Processes
- Encoding: mental representation in memory based on information processing.
- Storage: retention of encoded information over time.
- Retrieval: recovery of stored information at a later time.
Sensory Memory
- Sensory register/Sensory memory briefly holds each sensory experience until it is processed.
- It allows large amounts of information to be stored for very brief durations (approximately 0.5 seconds).
- The auditory version is called echoic memory.
Short-Term Memory (STM)
- STM is the mechanism for focusing cognitive resources on a small set of mental representations.
- STM involves preservation of recent experiences involving retrieval from long-term memory (LTM).
- Miller’s magic number: STM has a limited capacity of 7 +/- 2 items.
- Strategies for improving STM include rehearsal and chunking.
Working Memory
- Working memory (WM) is involved in tasks such as reasoning and language comprehension.
- WM is the foundation for the fluidity of thought and action.
- WM consists of three components:
- Phonological loop/phonological encoding: processing sounds and words.
- Visuospatial sketchpad/visual encoding: processing visual information.
- Central executive/motor encoding: coordinating and controlling the other components.
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
- LTM is the storehouse of experiences, events, information, skills, words, categories, rules, and judgments acquired from sensory and short-term memories.
- LTM involves the preservation of information for retrieval at any later time.
- LTM has an unlimited capacity, although not all information from working memory becomes a long-term memory.
Retrieval Cues
- Retrieval cues are stimuli that help search for a particular memory and can be generated internally or externally.
- Recall: reproduction of previously learned information.
- Recognition: realizing that a certain stimulus is one you have seen or heard before.
- Recognition cues are often stronger and more straightforward than recall cues.
Encoding and Retrieval Process
- Encoding specificity: memories emerge most efficiently when the context of retrieval matches the context of encoding.
- Context-dependent memory: recall is influenced by the context and distinctiveness of the experience.
- Transfer-appropriate processing: memory is best when the type of processing at encoding transfers to processes at retrieval.
- Priming: the first experience of an item "primes" memory for later experiences and makes it more likely to be recalled.
Serial position effect
- Primacy effect: better memory for items at the beginning of a list.
- Recency effect: better memory for items at the end of a list.
Levels of Processing Theory
- Information processed at a deeper level is more likely to be retained.
- Structural encoding (shallow): focusing on the structural properties of words (how it looks).
- Phonological encoding (intermediary): focusing on the sound qualities of words.
- Semantic encoding (deepest): focusing on the meaning of the words.
Improving Memory
- Elaborative rehearsal: enhancing memory by elaborating on the material to be learned.
- Mnemonics: devices that encode a long series of facts by associating them with familiar and previously encoded information.
Structures in LTM
- Concepts are mental representations of categories, based on family resemblance or prototypical features.
- Objects are categorized best at a basic level using a hierarchical representation of concepts.
- Example: piece of fruit, apple, Granny Smith.
- Schemas: frameworks or knowledge clusters about objects, people, and situations; generalizations used to interpret situations.
Using Concepts in Memory
- Prototypes: a representation of the average member of a category (e.g., a chair with a back and four legs).
- Exemplars: categorization based on comparison to examples in memory (dining chairs vs. lawn chairs).
Forgetting
- Interference: retrieval cues fail to point effectively to one specific memory.
- Proactive interference: past information makes it difficult to acquire new information.
- Retroactive interference: new information makes it difficult to remember old information.
What is Personality?
- A complex set of psychological qualities that influence an individual’s behaviors across different situations and over time.
- Described as being fluid and stable.
- Personality theories are used to understand, predict, and classify individual behaviors.
- Three common characteristics of personality:
- Individuals differ in their personalities.
- Behavior is caused by internal factors.
- Personality guides and directs our behavior.
Personality “Traits”
- Enduring qualities or attributes that predispose individuals to behave consistently across situations.
- Describe our typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling, contributing to individual uniqueness.
- Traits are placed on a continuum.
Universal Traits?
-
Cattell's 16 Personality Factors (16PF):
- Identified source traits by surveying all words in the English language that described personality characteristics, resulting in 170 adjectives.
- Used Factor Analysis to create 16 broad factors on a continuum.
-
Eyesenck’s Dimensions of Extraversion and Neuroticism:
- Linked to Hippocrates' Humours.
- Reticular Formation: regulates arousal levels, influences approaches and avoidance behaviors.
- People fall anywhere in the circle between extraversion and introversion, and neuroticism and stability.
Extraversion-Introversion
- Driven by levels of cortical arousal in the brain.
- Introverts have higher base levels of activation, avoid further stimulation, and have low pain tolerance.
- Extroverts have lower base levels of activation, seek further stimulation, and have high pain tolerance.
Neuroticism-Stability
- Driven by the limbic system and autonomic nervous system.
- People with high neuroticism experience more labile and longer-lasting autonomic nervous system reactions.
Psychoticism
- Driven by hormonal function and neurotransmitters.
- Increased levels of androgens (testosterone) and reduced serotonin levels lead to heightened aggressiveness, impersonal attitudes, and antisocial behavior.
Big 5 Traits
- Costa and McCrae’s Big Five Model (NEO):
- Describes five broad traits that underlie all personality traits.
- Used today, with cross-cultural validation.
Five Factor Model Dimensions
- Openness to Experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Evaluating Trait Theories
- Advantages:
- Describe individuals' personalities.
- Disadvantages:
- Do not explain how behavior is generated or how personality develops.
- Only portray a static view of personality.
- Need for a profile and change in traits.
Traits & Personality
-
Behavioral Genetics:
- Studies the heritability of traits by examining the degree to which traits and behavioral patterns are linked in identical (MZ) and fraternal (DZ) twins.
- MZ twins have a higher correlation for similar traits (.50) compared to DZ twins.
-
Consistency Paradox/Person-Situation Controversy:
- If traits predict behavior and are stable, why is there a paradox of consistency in behavior across different situations?
- The answer lies in the interplay of state and traits, or nature and nurture.
Psychodynamic Theories
- Psychodynamic theories assume powerful unconscious inner forces shape personality and motivate behavior.
- Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory: one of the most influential theories suggesting all behavior is motivated by psychic energy.
- Innate drives form tension systems.
- Two basic drives: self-preservation and sexual drive (eros).
Psychosexual Development
- Psychic Energy: manifests in forms of libido/eros (sexual desires) and thanatos (death instinct).
- Eros operates from birth and manifests in stages.
- Linked to pleasure in different erogenous zones and conflicts to be resolved (e.g., Oedipus complex).
- Too much gratification or frustration in any stage leads to fixation.
- Fixation is linked to adult personality characteristics.
Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
- Psychic Determinism: all mental and behavioral reactions (symptoms) are determined by earlier experiences.
- Emphasizes how unconscious processes shape behavior.
- Manifest Content: thoughts and feelings in awareness.
- Latent Content: concealed thoughts and memories, revealed through Freudian slips and dreams.
Structure of Personality
- ID:
- Storehouse of fundamental drives (unconscious, irrational, impulsive).
- No contact with the outer world.
- Operates on the Pleasure Principle.
- SUPEREGO:
- Storehouse of society's values, standards, and morals (conscience).
- In conflict with the ID.
- EGO:
- The reality-based aspect of self (acts as a referee between the ID and SUPEREGO).
- Conscious level, logical thinking.
- Operates on the Reality Principle.
Defense Mechanisms
- Ego Defense Mechanisms:
- Mental strategies used by the ego to defend itself against daily conflicts between ID impulses seeking expression and the SUPEREGO's demand to deny them.
- Repression: the primary defense mechanism, with additional defenses used when anxiety is present.
Evaluating Freud’s Theories
- Theories were criticized for:
- Vague and non-operationally defined concepts.
- Unable to reliably predict behavior, applied retrospectively.
- Developmental theory not based on studies with children.
- Minimal attention to traumatic experiences.
- Focus on clinical populations.
- Androcentric (male-centered) bias.
Humanistic Theories
- Key aspect: self-actualization.
- The constant striving to realize one's inherent potential.
- Motivation for behavior: comes from unique tendencies (innate and learned) to develop and change towards this goal (Rogers, Maslow, Horney).
- The goal is unique to each person.
- Self-actualization sometimes conflicts with the need for approval from self and others.
- Unconditional positive regard from others is critical.
- This helps us cope with interpersonal and intrapsychic defenses.
Humanistic Theories
- Holistic: explain people's separate acts in terms of their entire personalities.
- Dispositional: focus on innate qualities within a person that exert a major influence over the direction of behavior.
- Phenomenological: emphasize an individual's frame of reference and subjective view of reality rather than the observer.
Hierarchy of Needs
- Human needs are organized from most basic to personal and advanced needs (Maslow).
- Lower needs must be met first, allowing higher-level needs to be activated.
Humanistic Approach: Rogers
- Carl Rogers' Self Theory:
- Central concept: self-concept.
- Organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.
- In early life, children cannot separate themselves from their environment.
- Self-concept develops over time (the "Me" and the "not Me").
- Once established, individuals are motivated to maintain it.
- Self-Consistency: consistency among self-perceptions.
- Congruence: consistency between self-perceptions and experience.
Roger’s Self-Concept
- Self: the person I think I am.
- Ideal Self: the person I think I want to be.
- Congruence: consistencies between the two.
- Larger discrepancies between self-perception and experiences lead to more psychological problems.
- Individuals may deny or distort reality to maintain self-consistency.
- Healthy Adjustment/Fully Function Self: achieved when there is congruence.
- Karen Horney believed individuals require specific conditions to create a flourishing "real self".
Evaluating Humanistic Theories
- Theories were criticized for:
- Fuzzy concepts that are hard to research.
- Lack of focus on individual characteristics compared to human nature.
- Neglect of important environmental variables.
Social-Cognitive Theories
- These theories highlight the role of learning and environmental contingencies in personality.
- Personality is learned behavior.
- Behavior influences future learning experiences - specific circumstances are crucial for understanding why.
Julian Rotter and Expectancy Theory
- Expectancy: the likelihood of consequences given a specific behavior.
- Reward Value: the desirability or dread of consequences.
- Reinforcement: the impact of rewards or punishments on future behaviors.
Expectancy Theory
- Expectancy and Reinforcement: behavior is governed by two factors (Rotter).
- Expectancy: the likelihood of consequences given a specific behavior.
- Reinforcement: how much we desire or dread consequences.
- Intrinsic and Extrinsic Locus of Control
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Locus of Control
- Intrinsic Locus of Control: motivation comes from the inherent nature of the activity.
- People are motivated by the inherent nature of the activity, mastering something new, or the natural consequences of the activity.
- Affected by how praise is given - needs to be sincere, focused on effort, and not in comparison to others.
- Extrinsic Locus of Control: motivation is external to the activity and activated by external rewards or threats of punishment.
- Must be desired by the person to be a motivator.
- Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events.
Social-Cognitive Theories
-
Mischel’s Cognitive-Affective Theory:
- Behavior is an interaction of persons and situations.
- Depends on person variables and situational variables, moving beyond traits.
- Comprised of five cognitive affective units:
- Encoding strategies: how we perceive and interpret situations.
- Expectancies and beliefs: our predictions about the consequences of our actions.
- Goals and values: what we desire to achieve.
- Affective responses: our emotions and feelings.
- Competencies and self-regulatory skills: our abilities to control our thoughts and behaviors.
-
Bandura also believed self-efficacy was central to personality.
- Self-efficacy is an individual's beliefs about their abilities and expectations about achieving success based on those abilities.
What Influences Self-Efficacy?
- Mastery Experiences: actual accomplishments.
- Vicarious Experience: observations of others' successes or failures.
Evaluating Social-Cognitive Theories
- Social-cognitive theories argue that personality is shaped by a complex interplay of individual factors, behavior, and the environment.
- Criticized for overlooking emotions and unconscious motivation.
- Also criticized for vaguely explaining the development of personal constructs and competencies.
- These theories are well-defined and researched.
- They emphasize the importance of understanding current behavior.
- Despite criticism, they have contributed significantly to psychology, education, and treatment.
Milgram Experiment Replication
- Jerry M. Burger replicated Milgram's study in 2009.
- The replication involved recruiting participants through advertisements in the Mercury News and Craigslist.
- The study found that 70% of participants had to be stopped from delivering a 150-volt shock.
- This replication highlighted the powerful influence of situational factors on behavior.
Social Psychology
- Explores how individuals are influenced by others.
- Key concepts include social influence, group dynamics, attribution theory, prejudice and discrimination, and interpersonal relationships.
Social Influence
- Refers to the process by which individuals are persuaded or influenced by others.
- Includes concepts like conformity, compliance, and obedience.
Group Dynamics
- Examines how individuals behave within groups.
- Topics include groupthink, polarization, and social loafing.
Attribution Theory
- Explains how individuals interpret the behavior of others.
- Differentiates between dispositional (internal) and situational (external) attributions.
Prejudice and Discrimination
- Investigates the causes, effects, and reduction strategies for prejudice and discrimination.
Interpersonal Relationships
- Studies factors that influence attraction, love, and attachment styles.
Personality
- Focuses on individual differences in patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Trait Theory
- Attempts to identify and measure specific personality traits.
- The Big Five personality traits include Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
Psychoanalytic Theory
- Developed by Sigmund Freud.
- Emphasizes the unconscious mind, the id, ego, and superego.
- Uses concepts like defense mechanisms to explain personality.
Humanistic Theory
- Emphasizes self-actualization and individual growth.
- Prominently recognized in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Personality Assessment
- Objective tests involve standardized assessments like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Big Five Inventory (BFI).
- Projective tests utilize ambiguous stimuli for individuals to project their thoughts and feelings. These include tests like the Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
Memory
- The process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information.
Types of Memory
- Sensory Memory: Briefly holds sensory information for a short duration.
- Short-term Memory: Stores a limited quantity of information for a short period (usually 15-30 seconds).
- Long-term Memory: Holds information for an extended period, possibly for years.
- Explicit (Declarative) Memory: Involves conscious recall and can be further categorized into episodic (personal experiences) and semantic (general knowledge) memories.
- Implicit (Non-declarative Memory): Includes unconscious skills and actions, known as procedural memories.
Key Processes in Memory
- Encoding: Converts information into a format suitable for storage.
- Storage: Maintains information over time.
- Retrieval: Accesses stored information when needed.
Learning
- A relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience.
Types of Learning
- Classical Conditioning: Learning through association, as exemplified by Pavlov's experiments with dogs.
- Operant Conditioning: Learning through reinforcement and punishment, demonstrated in Skinner's experiments.
- Observational Learning: Learning by observing others, famously illustrated in Bandura's Bobo doll experiment.
Key Concepts in Learning
- Reinforcement: Increases the likelihood of a behavior.
- Punishment: Decreases the likelihood of a behavior.
- Cognitive Learning: Learning that involves mental processes and can occur without direct experience, including insight learning.
Founders of Behaviorism
- John Watson founded the school of thought known as behaviorism.
- Ivan Pavlov conducted research on classical conditioning.
- B.F. Skinner is known for his work on operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning
- A form of associative learning where learned associations are made between stimuli.
- Pavlov's experiments showed that dogs began to salivate in anticipation of food, even before the food was presented, after repeated exposure to stimuli associated with food.
Classical Conditioning Terminology
- Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally elicits a behavior.
- Unconditioned Response (UCR): The natural behavior elicited by the UCS.
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to elicit a response after being associated with the UCS.
- Conditioned Response (CR): The learned response to the CS.
Key Points about Classical Conditioning
- It is a fundamental learning process that explains how we acquire associations between stimuli.
- The process involves the pairing of a neutral stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally elicits a response (UCR).
- It is applied in many areas, from understanding animal behavior to treating phobias and addiction.
- Classical conditioning is distinct from operant conditioning, which focuses on the consequences of behavior.
Memory
Implicit vs. Explicit Memory
- Implicit memory includes unconscious skills and actions acquired through experience without conscious effort.
- Explicit memory requires conscious effort to recall information.
Procedural vs. Declarative Memory
- Procedural memory is memory for how to do things.
- Declarative memory is recollection of facts and events.
Key Processes in Memory
- Encoding: Converts information into a format suitable for storage.
- Storage: Maintains information over time.
- Retrieval: Accesses stored information when needed.
Short-Term Memory (STM)
- STM is the mechanism for focusing cognitive resources on a small set of mental representations.
- STM involves the preservation of very recent experiences & brief retrieval of information from Long-Term Memory (LTM) when needed.
- STM capacity is limited (often referred to as Miller's magic number: 7 +/- 2 items).
Strategies for STM Improvement
- Rehearsal: Involves repeating information repetitively.
- Chunking: Involves grouping items based on similarity or other organizing principles.
Working Memory
- Involves resources for reasoning and language comprehension.
- Foundation for the fluidity of thought and action and integration of information.
- Three components:
- Phonological loop/phonological encoding
- Visuospatial sketchpad/visual encoding
- Central executive/motor encoding
Memory Tests
- Recall: Reproduction of information to which you were previously exposed.
- Recognition: Realization that a certain stimulus is one you have seen or heard before.
Types of Memories
- Episodic: Memories for personally experienced events.
- Semantic: General, categorical memories, not linked to specific episodes where memory was obtained (e.g., brushing your teeth).
Priming
- First experience of an item primes memory for later experiences, making it more likely to be recalled.
Serial Position Effect
- Primacy effect: Improved memory for items at the start of a list.
- Recency effect: Improved memory for items at the end of a list.
Encoding Levels
- Structural encoding: Paying attention to the structural properties of words & how it looks (shallow).
- Phonological (phonemic) encoding: Paying attention to the sound qualities of words (intermediate).
- Semantic encoding: Paying attention to the meaning of the words (deepest processing).
Elaborative Rehearsal
- Enhances memory by elaborating on the material to be learned.
Mnemonics
- Devices that encode a long series of facts by associating them with familiar and previously encoded information.
Concepts
- Mental representations of the categories we form.
- Based on family resemblance or prototypical features.
- Objects are best categorized at a basic level (hierarchical representation of concepts).
Schemas
- Conceptual frameworks, or clusters of knowledge, regarding objects, people, and situations.
- Generalizations that can be applied to interpret situations.
Using Concepts in Memory
- Prototypes: Representation of the average member of a category (e.g., chair – a back, four legs).
- Exemplars: Categorization based on comparison to examples in memory (dining chairs vs.lawn chairs).
Interference
- Interference occurs when retrieval cues do not point effectively to one specific memory.
- Proactive interference: Information previously acquired makes it more difficult to acquire new information.
- Retroactive interference: Acquisition of new information makes it difficult to remember old information.
Personality
- A complex set of psychological qualities that influence an individual’s characteristic patterns of behaviour across different situations and over time.
- Personality is fluid versus stable.
- Personality theories seek to understand and predict behaviour.
- Three underlying characteristics:
- People differ and are consistent across situations.
- Behaviour is caused by internal factors, not environmental factors.
- Behaviour is guided and directed by internal factors.
Approaches to Classifying Personality
- Approaches classify people according to types or traits of personality.
Traits
- Enduring qualities or attributes that predispose individuals to behave consistently across situations.
- The sum total of typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that makes a person unique.
Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors (16PF)
- Identified source traits.
- Surveyed all words in the English language that described personal characteristics (170 adjectives).
- Used Factor Analysis to create 16 broad factors on a continuum.
Eysenck’s Dimensions
- Dimensions of extraversion and neuroticism are linked to Hippocrates’ humours.
- Reticular formation is linked to approach or avoidance behaviour.
- People fall anywhere in the circle.
Costa and McCrae & the Big Five (NEO)
- Five factor model describes broad traits that are argued to underlie all traits we have.
- Model is still used today and is cross-cultural.
- Advantages:
- Describe people’s personalities.
- Disadvantages:
- Don’t explain how behaviour is generated and personality develops.
- Only portray a static view of personality.
- We need a profile and change in traits.
Behavioural Genetics
- Examine the degree to which traits and behaviour patterns are linked with identical (MZ) and fraternal (DZ) twins.
- Some studies predict MZ twins to be similar (0.50 correlation) – lower for DZ twins.
Psychodynamic Theories
- All psychodynamic theories share the assumption that powerful inner forces (our unconscious) shape personality and motivate behaviour.
- Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is one of the most influential.
- All behaviour was motivated by psychic energy.
- Innate drives form tension systems
- Two basic drives: self-preservation and sexual desires (libido)
- Eros operates from birth and manifests in stages.
- Too much gratification or too much frustration at any stage leads to fixation.
- Fixation is linked to adult personality characteristics.
Object Relations Theory
- People are motivated by a need to have relationships with others.
- Personality forms in the relationship between children and their caregivers.
- These relationships become working models/unconscious influence.
Psychic Determinism
- Assumption that all mental and behavioural reactions (symptoms) are determined by earlier experiences.
- Freud emphasized how unconscious processes can shape behaviour (iceberg concept).
- Manifest content – thoughts and feelings in awareness.
- Latent content – concealed thoughts and memories (revealed through Freudian slips and dreams).
Components of the Psyche:
- ID: Storehouse of fundamental drives (unconscious, irrational, and impulsive).
- Superego: Storehouse of society’s values, standards, and morals (our “conscience”).
- Ego: Reality-based aspect of self (referee between id and superego).
Ego Defence Mechanisms
- Mental strategies the ego uses to defend itself in the daily conflict between id impulses that seek expression and the superego’s demand to deny them.
- Repression is the primary defence mechanism.
Criticisms of Freud’s Theories
- Concepts are vague and not operationally defined.
- Doesn’t reliably predict behaviour, applied retrospectively.
- Developmental theory but not based on studies with children.
- Minimizes traumatic experiences and its interpretation as dreams.
- Looked at clinical populations.
- Androcentric (male-centred) bias.
Humanistic Theories
- Key aspect is self-actualization.
- Constant striving to realize one’s inherent potential.
- Motivation for behaviour comes from unique tendencies (innate and learned) to develop and change towards this goal (Rogers, Maslow, Horney).
- Self-actualization sometimes conflicts with the need for approval from self and others (role of unconditional positive regard from others).
- Positive regard helped us to cope with interpersonal and intrapsychic defences.
Carl Rogers Self Theory
- Central Concept = self-concept.
- Organized, consistent set of perceptions and beliefs about oneself.
- Our early lives children cannot separate themselves from their environment.
- Self-concept develops over time (e.g., the Me and the not Me).
- Once established, tendency to maintain it (self-consistency).
- Consistency among ‘self-perceptions’.
- Congruence – consistency between self-perceptions and experience.
Social-Cognitive Theories
- Bandura stresses interaction of individual factors, behaviour, and environment (self reflection & self reactiveness, reciprocal determinism, Triarchic Reciprocal Causality).
- Must examine all components to understand personality.
Learning Theories
- Past theories have neglected to consider the role of learning and environmental contingencies in personality.
- Personality is learned behaviour.
Julian Rotter & Expectancy Theory
- Behaviour is motivated by the expectation of rewards.
- Expectancy – likelihood of consequences given behaviour.
- Reinforcement – how much we desire or dread consequences.
- Intrinsic – motivated by inherent nature of an activity (make oneself feel good).
- Extrinsic – motivation is external to the activity, not inherent (activated by external rewards).
Mischel’s Cognitive-Affective Theory
- Behaviour is an interaction of persons and situations (goes beyond traits).
Criticisms of Social-Cognitive Theories
- Theories overlook emotion and the impact of unconscious motivation.
- Vague explanations of development of personal constructs and competencies.
- Only focus on current behaviour.
Conclusion
- Social-cognitive theories have led to major contributions to psychology, education, and treatments.
- Multiple perspectives are coming together, as well as being well defined and researched.
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Test your knowledge on classical conditioning concepts such as learning-performance distinction, acquisition, and spontaneous recovery with this quiz. Explore key terms and examples that illustrate the various principles of classical conditioning.
