Chapt 1-Intro: Historical Background and Schools of Behaviorism

applied behavior analysis

A science and technology of behavior that is concerned with applying the basic principles of behavior toward the analysis and improvement of real-world issues. (Skinner)

basic behavior analysis

The basic science that grew out of Skinner's philosophy of radical behaviorism, which experimentally investigates thebasic principles of behavior, especially operant conditioning. Also known as the "experimental analysis of behavior."(Skinner)

behavior

Any activity of an organism that can be observed or somehow measured.

behaviorism

A natural science approach to psychology that emphasizes the study of environmental influences on observable behavior. (Watson)

British empiricism

A philosophical school of thought that maintains that almost all knowledge is a function of experience. (John Locke)

cognitive behaviorism

A brand of behaviorism that uses intervening variables, usually in the form of hypothesized cognitive processes, to help explain behavior. Sometimes called "purposive behaviorism." (Tolman)

cognitive map

The mental representation of one's spatial surroundings. empiricism In psychology, the assumption that behavior patterns are mostly learned rather than inherited. Also known as the nurture perspective (or, rarely, as nurturism). (Tolman)

evolutionary adaptation

A helpful genetic trait (physical or behavioral) that has been shaped through natural selection. (Darwin)

functionalism

An approach to psychology that proposes that the mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us and that the focus of psychology should be the study of those adaptive processes. (James)

introspection

The attempt to accurately describe one's internal conscious thoughts, emotions, and sensory experiences.

latent learning

Learning that occurs in the absence of any observable indication of learning and only becomes apparent at a later time.

law of contiguity

A law of association in which events that occur in close proximity to each other in time or space are readily associated with each other.

law of contrast

A law of association in which events that are opposite from each other are readily associated with each other.

law of frequency

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

law of similarity

A law of association in which events that are similar to each other are readily associated with each other.

learning.

A relatively enduring change in behavior that results from some type of experience.

methodological behaviorism.

A brand of behaviorism that asserts that for methodological reasons, psychologists should study environmental influences only on those behaviors that can be directly observed (also known as "classical behaviorism"). (Watson)

mind-body dualism.

Descartes's philosophical assumption that some human behaviors are bodily reflexes that are automatically elicited by external stimulation, while other behaviors are freely chosen.

nativism.

The assumption that a person's characteristics are largely inborn. Also known as the nature perspective.

natural selection.

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 organisms that cannot adapt. (Darwin)

neobehaviorism

A brand of behaviorism that utilizes intervening variables, in the form of hypothesized physiological processes, to help explain behavior (Sometimes called "deductive behaviorism.") (Hull)

radical behaviorism.

A brand of behaviorism that emphasizes the influence of the environment on overt behavior, rejects the use of thoughts and feelings (internal events) to explain behavior, and instead views thoughts and feelings as private behaviors that themselves can be explained through environmental influences. (Skinner)

reciprocal determinism.

The assumption that environmental events, observable behavior, and "person variables" (including thoughts andfeelings) reciprocally influence each other. (Bandura)

social learning theory.

A brand of behaviorism that strongly emphasizes the importance of observational learning and cognitive variables in explaining human behavior. Also known as "cognitive social learning theory" or "social cognitive theory." (Bandura)

S-R theory (or stimulus-response theory).

The theory that learning involves the establishment of a connection between a specific stimulus (S) and a specific response (R). (Watson/Hull)

structuralism.

An approach to psychology that assumes that it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements that compose it. (Titchener)