The Art of Changing Human Behaviour

Behaviourism

The theory that the study of the human mind should be based on people's actions and behaviour, and not on what they say that they think or feel.

Pavlov

A medical doctor specialising in digestion and was studying dogs when he unintentionally discovered conditioning

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together

Classical conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Operant conditioning

Behavior that is reinforced (rewarded) is likely to be repeated, while behavior that is punished will occur less frequently.

John Watson

A famous Behaviourist who believed given an infant he could train them to be or do anything good or bad.

B.F. Skinner

A famous Behaviourist who created the operant chamber box working with animals and reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food.

Negative reinforcement

The reinforcement of a response by the removal, escape from, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus

Partial Reinforcement

A type of learning in which behavior is reinforced intermittently

Shaping

Learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behavior

Social Cognitive theory

The theory that people can learn by watching models and imitating their behaviour.

Albert Bandura

The researcher who conducted the Bobo doll experiment

Modelling

Observing, identifying with and copying the behaviour of a role model.

Mirror Neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.

Four factors involved in SCT

Attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation

Role models

People we admire and whose behavior we imitate

The Sabido method

A method for designing and producing radio and television drama that aims to change people's behavior.

3 types of character in the Sabido Method

Positive role models, negative role models and transitional characters.

Compliance

A type of social influence where an individual does what someone else wants them to do, following his or her request

or suggestion.

Principles of compliance

Reciprocity, authority, consensus, scarcity, consistency and liking.

Hovland-Yale 3 factors to persuade

Source, message and audience

The Elaboration-Likelihood Model

The theory identifying two ways to persuade: a central route and a peripheral route

Orange

Comfort and affordability

Yellow

Attention and Excitement

Green

Balance and growth

Blue

Trust and Security

Purple

Royalty and sophistication

Black

Style and luxury

Red

Urgency and Excitement

Positive punishment

Adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior

Negative punishment

Taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behaviour

Unconditioned stimulus

A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

Unconditioned response

A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

Neutral stimulus

A stimulus that does not initially elicit a response

Conditioning

The process of getting a participant to associate a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus

Scarcity

A compliance technique to increase people's perceived value of things that have few available

Personal appeal

A compliance technique that appeals to feelings of friendship

Ingratiation

A compliance technique that uses compliments or flattery

Social proof

A compliance technique that encourages people to behave in a way that others are

Reciprocity

A compliance technique used to persuade people to behave in a certain way due something they will receive in return

Foot in the door

A small request is made first and is then followed up with a larger one (the larger one being what is really

wanted)

Door in the face

A large request is made first and is then followed up by a small one (the smaller one being what is really wanted)

The central route

Being persuaded by the message itself (e.g. car specification)

The peripheral route

Being persuaded by factors other than the message (i.e. an attractive or celebrity communicator)

Affect

The involuntary response to a stimulus

Positive affect

Joy, hope and pleasure

Negative affect

Anger, fear and shame