principles of behavior - exam 1

chapters 1-3

behavioral approach

focusing on external events as causes of behavior and behavior changes

cognitive approach

focusing on intervening variables to explain behavior

water-drinking behavior (in-class example)

cognitive approach: drink water b/c of thirst

behavioral approach: drink water b/c of water deprivation

why avoid intervening variables?

they complicate things; fool us into thinking the intervening variable is the cause of behavior

determinism

all events of the world (including human behavior) are determined by physical causes

• behavior can be analyzed by techniques of science

• preferred to free will

free will

some nonphysical entity, such as will or soul can direct human behavior

• behavior cannot be studied scientifically

chaos theory

complex systems may be inherently unpredictable

• can argue that this does not go against determinism

what is behavior?

any activity of an organism that can be observed or somehow measured

• activity may be internal or external

  • may or may not be visible to others

learning

a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from some type of experience

• change in behavior does not have to be immediate

four basic principles of behavior

operant conditioning, classical conditioning, observational learning, rule-governed behavior

classical conditioning

pavlovian or respondent conditioning

• process by which certain inborn behaviors come to be produced in new situations (reflexive/involuntary)

provide an example of CC

bell: food → salivation

bell → salivation

operant conditioning

invalid the strengthening or weakening of a behavior as a result of its consequences

• voluntary or goal-directed behaviors

consequence of the behavior serves to strengthen future occurrences of that behavior

provide examples of OC

• opening IG to watch favorite social media person

• study diligently to obtain a passing grade

rat learned to press lever to obtain food

• lever press → food pellet

  • likelihood/probability of lever pressing increases in the future

observational learning

involves observation of a model’s behavior, which facilitates the development of similar behavior in an observer

OL learning example

learning to ski by watching the instructor ski

rule-governed behavior

learning through written or spoken language

nativist (nature)

assumes that a person’s abilities and behavioral tendencies are largely inborn

• plato’s view: learning is a process of inner reflection to uncover the knowledge that already exists within

empiricist (nurture)

assumes that a person’s abilities & tendencies are mostly learned

• Aristotle’s view: knowledge is not inborn, it is acquired through experience

Aristotle’s four laws of association

• similarity

• contrast

• contiguity

• frequency

*contiguity & frequency still considered important aspects of learning

law of similarity

events that are similar are easily associated

law of contrast

events that are opposite are easily associated

law of contiguity

events close in space and time are easily associated

law of frequency

two items occurring frequently are more strongly associated

mind-body dualism

descartes’: some human behaviors are reflexes that are automatically elicited by external stimulation

• other behaviors are freely chosen and controlled by the mind

suggests that some behaviors are mechanistic (reflexive) and can be scientifically investigated

british empiricists

believed almost all knowledge is a function of experience

• newborn’s mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) on which environmental experiences are written

  • the mind is a finite set of basic elements that are combined through associations

structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt - method of introspection

idea that you can determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements composing it

functionalism

William James

assumes that the mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us

• psychologists should study these adaptive processes

behaviorism

the study of environmental influences on observable behavior

law of parsimony

simplest possible explanation for a phenomenon is always preferred; interpret animal’s behavior in terms of lower + more primitive processes (reflex, habit) rather than more mentalistic processes (decision, imagination)

divider; chapter 2

functional relationship

relationship between changes in an independent variable (environment) ad changes in a dependent variable (behavior)