Behavioral Psychology Concepts

These flashcards cover key vocabulary related to behavioral psychology concepts drawn from the lecture notes.

Operant Learning Theory

A theory stating that behaviors followed by positive consequences are more likely to be repeated, while those followed by negative consequences are less likely to occur.

Thorndike's Law

A principle stating that behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are strengthened, while those followed by unsatisfying outcomes are weakened.

Positive Reinforcement

A technique used to encourage a behavior by pairing it with a positive consequence.

Punishment

A technique used to reduce undesired behaviors by applying an aversive consequence after the behavior.

Habituation

A decrease in response strength when a stimulus is repeatedly presented and is neither rewarding nor harmful.

Prospect Theory

A behavioral economic theory that describes how people make choices in situations involving risk, highlighting that losses loom larger than gains.

Endowment Effect

The phenomenon where people value an item more highly once they own it, leading to an increased perceived worth.

Disposition Effect

A bias where individuals hold onto losing investments too long while selling winning investments too soon.

Loss Aversion

The tendency to prefer avoiding losses rather than acquiring equivalent gains, making losses feel more significant.

Schema

A cognitive structure that organizes knowledge, usually hierarchically and not typically expressed verbally.

Personae

Cognitive structures that represent typical behaviors and characteristics of 'stock characters' or stereotypes.

Attention (in perception)

The process by which certain stimuli are selected for further processing based on factors like intensity, motion, and background contrast.

Organization (in perception)

The categorization of selected stimuli so that they are made sense of, often relying on concepts like figure-ground perception.