Behaviorism and the Learning Approaches to Personality

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, theoretical concepts, principles, and applications of behaviorism, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning.

Behaviorism

An overall approach to psychological science proposing that personality is gradually acquired through environmental experiences and basic learning processes.

Determinism

The philosophical position that an event is caused by prior events according to basic scientific laws, opposing the belief in free will.

Situational Specificity

The expectation in behaviorism that an individual's behavior will vary significantly across different environments due to varying rewards and punishments.

Simple Systems Strategy

A scientific research strategy of studying a simpler organism or system (e.g., animals in laboratory settings) to learn about principles relevant to a more complex system.

John B. Watson

The founder of behaviorism who emphasized the study of observable behavior, rejected introspection, and conducted the Little Albert study.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

A Russian physiologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904 and discovered the foundational principles of classical conditioning through research on dog digestion.

Classical Conditioning

A process in which an initially neutral stimulus comes to elicit a strong response after becoming associated with another stimulus that naturally produces a response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that automatically and reflexively elicits a response without prior learning or conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An automatic, unlearned reflexive reaction produced by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a learned response after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response elicited by a conditioned stimulus following classical conditioning.

Conditioned Withdrawal

A form of classical conditioning where an organism learns to avoid or withdraw from a stimulus that was originally neutral.

Generalization

The process in classical conditioning where a response conditioned to a specific stimulus is also elicited by other similar stimuli.

Discrimination

The process in conditioning where an organism learns to differentiate among similar stimuli and responds only to specific ones based on differential reinforcement.

Extinction

The progressive weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Experimental Neuroses

Disorganized, anxious behavior produced in laboratory animals when forced to discriminate between extremely similar stimuli.

Conditioned Emotional Reaction

An emotional response, such as fear, that is learned through classical conditioning, as demonstrated in Watson and Rayner's research with Little Albert.

Systematic Desensitization

A therapeutic technique developed by Joseph Wolpe that uses counterconditioning and deep muscle relaxation to systematically eliminate anxiety responses.

Counterconditioning

A learning procedure in which an individual learns a new response that is physiologically incompatible with an existing undesired response.

Anxiety Hierarchy

An ordered list of anxiety-arousing stimuli grouped by themes and ranked from least disturbing to most disturbing for use in systematic desensitization.

Aplysia

A species of sea slug studied by Eric Kandel to identify the cellular and synaptic changes that occur in the nervous system during classical conditioning.

B. F. Skinner

A leading 20th-century American psychologist who developed the theory of operant conditioning and advocated for behaviorism as a comprehensive philosophy of behavior.

Operants

Behaviors emitted by an organism without any specific environmental eliciting stimulus.

Reinforcer

An event or stimulus following a response that increases the probability of that response occurring again.

Generalized Reinforcers

Secondary reinforcers (such as money) that gain reinforcing power through association with many other primary reinforcers.

Skinner Box

An isolated laboratory apparatus designed by B. F. Skinner to precisely observe, control, and measure operant behaviors and reinforcement schedules.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Specific patterns or rules determining the timing and frequency with which reinforcements follow responses, including interval, ratio, fixed, and variable schedules.

Shaping (Successive Approximations)

A step-by-step procedure of reinforcing behaviors that increasingly approximate a complex target behavior.

Punishment

The delivery of an aversive stimulus following a behavior in order to decrease the probability of that behavior occurring again.

Functional Analysis

An assessment procedure aimed at identifying the specific environmental conditions that control, elicit, and reinforce target behaviors.

ABC Assessment

A behavioral assessment method that examines the Antecedent conditions, the Behavior itself, and the Consequences of the behavior.

Target Behaviors

Specific, objectively defined responses selected for observation, measurement, and alteration during behavioral assessment and treatment.

Baseline Period

An initial measurement phase during behavioral assessment where target behaviors are counted prior to introducing any therapeutic intervention.

ABA Research Design

An experimental strategy that measures behavior at baseline (A), during reinforcement treatment (B), and after withdrawing reinforcement (A) to demonstrate control over the behavior.

Sign Approach

An assessment approach where a test response is interpreted as a sign or indicator of an unseen inner psychological trait or structure.

Sample Approach

A behavioral assessment approach where a response is viewed merely as a representative sample of behavior emitted under specific environmental circumstances.

Token Economy

An applied operant conditioning environment where desirable behaviors are rewarded with tokens that can be exchanged for desired privileges or items.