Understanding Human behavior: Exam 3 Study Guide

Classical Conditioning

- Stimuli and response

- We take in stimuli and respond to them

- We can be conditioned (aka learn) to certain stimuli

Operant Conditioning

Conditioning through reinforcement or punishment

Social Learning

Learning through observing and watching others

Pavlov's Conditioning Experiment

⚛︎Studied dog's digestion and salivating

⚛︎Found dogs would salivate before food was present

⚛︎We can be conditioned to learn certain stimuli

⚛︎The Office clip with the computer sound and mints

Neutral Stimuli (NS)

Object does not cause a response naturally

Unconditioned Stimuli (UCS)

Object does cause response naturally

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

Natural response to particular stimuli

Conditioned Stimuli (CS)

The NS becomes conditioned when paired enough with the UCS

Conditioned Response (CR)

The new response to the CS alone

The Little Albert Study ... Conditioning

⚛︎ Researched by John Watson (unethically)

⚛︎ Conditioning fear response

⚛︎ Pairing neutral stimuli with negative stimuli

The Little Peter Study ... Counter-Conditioning

⚛︎ Researched by Mary Cover Jones

⚛︎ We can undo associations between the NS and UCS

⚛︎ Systematic desensitization

⚛︎ Flooding/immersion therapy

Edward Thorndike's Law of Effect

⚛︎ Responses with satisfying results = strengthened

⚛︎ Responses with discomfort = weakened

⚛︎ Behavior is determined by enviorment

Positive Reinforcement

Give positive to increase a behavior

Negative Reinforcement

Take away negative to increase a behavior

Positive Punishment

Add negative/unpleasent to stop a behavior

Negative Punishment

Take away good to stop a behavior

Primary Forms of Reinforcement

⚛︎ Things important for survival

⚛︎ Innate and universal

Ex: Food, water, sleep

Secondary Reinforcement

⚛︎ Culturally imbedded

⚛︎ Learned as rewards for reinforcers

Ex: Stickers, praise, money, grades

Behaviorism

⚛︎ We learn by punishment

⚛︎ We are shaped by environment

⚛︎ Determinism = We dont have a say in what we do because we are always reacting to our environment

⚛︎ We only study what can be measured and observed

The Fall of Behaviorism

⚛︎ New ideas about human learning

⚛︎ Saw behaviorism as too limited

⚛︎ There has to be a way to know what happens in the mind

⚛︎ Ways it still lives on: animal training, counter conditioning/exposure, token economies

Albert Bandura and Social Cognitive Theory

⚛︎ Dynamic between person and enviorment

⚛︎ Mediating mechanism = stimulus --> mind/mental process --> response

⚛︎ Social cognitive theory of learning ... learning through observation

The Bobo Doll Experiment

⚛︎ Challenged theory of vicarious catharsis ... whereas vicarious catharsis said that watching violent behavior made you feel better and less angry, the Bobo Doll experiment found that it doesn't always make you feel better and the behavior can still be replicated and doesn't always lessen the change of it happening just because a person watched someone else be violent

⚛︎ Learned and increased new aggressive behaviors regardless of watching the aggression live, video, or cartoon

Social Cognitive Theory

⚛︎ Learned by observation in social settings, media, and personal experience

⚛︎ Learning is not always an observable change

⚛︎ Cognitive process is important for learning ... mediating mechanism

⚛︎ We can impact environments ... reciprocal determinism

Encoding

Putting the information into the memory system

Storage

Retaining information overtime

Retrieval

Accessing stored information

Recall vc Recognition

⚛︎ Recognition = Recognizing memory

⚛︎ Recall = Pulling memory out

Sensory Memory

⚛︎ Memory for sensory information

⚛︎ Stored briefly in original sensory form

⚛︎ Required attention to move it into working memory

⚛︎ Limited capacity ... 7+2 bits of information. Some say it can last for 20 seconds while some say longer

⚛︎ Susceptible to decay ... overtime we forget

⚛︎ Susceptible to interference

Proactive Interference

Old information that interferes with new information (ex: meeting someone with the same name as a friend)

Retroactive Interference

New information making it hard to remember old information

Chunking

Grouping bits together ... the more chinks you. make, the more you can remember

Primacy

⚛︎ Better memory for items at beginning of list

Recency

Better Memory for items at the end of list

Working Memory

⚛︎ Type of short term memory

⚛︎ Temporary storage

⚛︎ Allowing for processing and manipulation of information

⚛︎ Requires controlled attention

Explicit Long-Term Memory

⚛︎ Semantic memory = recall information like terms or vocabulary

⚛︎ Episodic memory = recalling events

Implicit Long-Term Memory

⚛︎ Procedural memory = physical things we remember on autopilot (muscle memory)

⚛︎ Perceptual memory = 'this feels familiar'; memory of sensations

Levels of Processing

⚛︎ Surface shallow level encoding

⚛︎ Deep processing = meaning based encoding

Keeping Long Term Memory

⚛︎ Generation effect = putting/generating

⚛︎ Enactment Effect = acting or behaving

Mnemonic Devices

⚛︎ Chunking = Grouping information into smaller chunks so you can remember better

⚛︎ Acronyms = The first letter of a set of information made into one word to help memory

⚛︎ Acrostic = Each letter/word stands for something

⚛︎ Method of Loci = Associating memory with places on a map or filing cabinet, for mainly 'visualizing information in a specific place'

⚛︎ Peg-Words = Associating number and words that usually rhymes

⚛︎ Dual Coding = Visualizing what you're learning, exceptionally helpful in learning language ...pairing audio and visual

⚛︎ Rhymes and Songs = Associating information with song/melody

Cognition

A mental activity that includes thinking and understanding

Thinking

Mental manipulation of information that we are processing that is based on representations of knowledge about the world

Schema

Cognitive structure that help us perceive, organize, and process information

Stereotypes

Allows for faster processing and is based on a person's membership in certain groups...however tit impacts behavior towards others

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts that help us make choices unconsciously...however they can lead to bias, errors, or faulty decisions

Language

A system of communication that uses sounds and symbols along with having its own structure/grammatical rules

Phoneme

The basic sound of speech that acts as building blocks of language

Morphene

Smallest language unit that has meaning

Syntax

System of rules and structure for what makes sense that governs how words and phrases are combined to make a sentence

Semantics

Study of system meanings for words, phrases, and sentences

Development of language

⚛︎ Babies can distinguish sounds immediately after birth

⚛︎ Learn sounds of their family's language

⚛︎ From babbling to full vocabulary in adulthood (Full vocabulary = 60k+ words!)

⚛︎ Telegraphic speech as toddlers (aka 'broken sentences')

Common Ground

Needed for shared meaning and understanding

Culture Values in Language

Can impact language through tone, context, body language, and facial expression

Intelligence

The ability to reason and make decisions, interpret events, solve problems, understand complex ideas, and learn quickly and adapt to challenges

Testing for Intelligence

Standardized tests that measure different parts of intelligence such as cover and knowledge, visuospatial reasoning, working memory, and problem solving

Formula for Intelligence

IQ = Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100

Mental Age vc Chonological Age

⚛︎ Mental age = intellectual standing compared to same aged peers

⚛︎ Chronological Age = actual physical age

Controversies of IQ Testing

Biased measurements that weren't accessible to everyone and were predominately English-based

⚛︎ First sample groups were originally done on only upper class white males

⚛︎ There are other types of intelligences

James-Lange Theory of Emotions

⚛︎ Published 'what is emotion' in 1884

⚛︎ Emphasis on the body and psychological response

⚛︎ Emotion = response to external stimuli

⚛︎ Contemporary with Carl Lange ... together they created the James-Lange theory of emotion

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotions

⚛︎ By Walter Bradford Canon and Philip Bard

⚛︎ The thalamus and hypothalamus are critical

⚛︎ Similar physiological reactions to different emotions

⚛︎ Unethical animal studies by removing certain parts of animal's brains

⚛︎ Simultaneous triggering of physiological and subjective experience

Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotions

⚛︎ Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer

⚛︎ 1962 study using epinephrine vc placebo shots and a confederate

⚛︎ Misattribution of arousal

⚛︎ The physiological response alone is not enough we also need interpretation

⚛︎ Past experiences help us interpret

Affect

⚛︎ Generic term, broad range o f feelings that people experience

⚛︎ Can be either 'mood' or emotion

Emotion

⚛︎ State that lasts a limited amount of time

⚛︎ Usually directed at someone or something

Mood

⚛︎ Emotional state that typically lasts for hours, days, weeks, or longer

⚛︎ Unclear cause

Aristotle's View on Emotions

⚛︎ Emotions impact judgement

⚛︎ Focus on virtues ... aka 'we shouldn't be controlled by emotions but rather virtue'

Church Father's View on Emotions

⚛︎ 'The passions' and divine impassible ... aka passions = bad like lust/rage/etc

⚛︎ Jesus as fully God and fully human

Darwin's View on Emotions

Builogy, evolution, and adaptive emotions

Circumflex Model of Emotion + Their Dimensions

⚛︎ Arousal/Activation = excitement or energy

⚛︎ Valence = pleasant to unpleasant

Four Main Functions of Emotions ... Social and Anti-Social Meanings

⚛︎ Affection = communal relating, warmth, building affiliations

⚛︎ Attachment = human 'imprinting', developing secure base

⚛︎ Assertion = resist challenges, maintain some sense of self, move upward socially

⚛︎ Hostility = exludes, denigrates, destroy others

Three Main Theorists for the Psychology of Religion

⚛︎ William James

⚛︎ Kenneth Pargament

⚛︎ Julie Exline

William James

⚛︎ Research on religion and spirituality and its relationship to psychological well-being

⚛︎ Wrote 'the Varieties of Religious Experience' in 1901

⚛︎ Until the 80s, there was a general focus on the positive aspects of religion and spirituality on psychological well-being

Kenneth Pargament

⚛︎ Positive and negative religious coping

⚛︎ Religious/spiritual struggle

Julie Exline

⚛︎ Impact of anger toward God on mental health

⚛︎ Anger towards God and social acceptance of anger

Four responses to Anger

1) Approach = Draw Close

⚛︎ Did better/about the same

2) Surpress = avoid negative feelings

⚛︎ Did worse

3) Protest = question, complain, argue

⚛︎ Did better

4) Disengage = exit or turn away

⚛︎ Did worse/about the same