Behavioral Perspectives, Genetics, and Epigenetics in Personality

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering classical and operant conditioning principles, radical behaviorism, behavioral contingencies, and behavioral genetics alongside epigenetic mechanisms and inheritance.

Classical Conditioning

A learning procedure in which a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus) is paired with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response (unconditioned stimulus) until the neutral stimulus elicits the same response on its own.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically evokes a specific physiological or behavioral response without prior conditioning.

Behaviorist Manifesto

John B. Watson's 1913 paper titled 'Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it,' which advocated transforming psychology into an objective natural science focused entirely on observable behavior rather than conscious awareness and introspection.

Tabula Rasa

The 'blank slate' doctrine embraced by John B. Watson, proposing that human beings are born without innate mental content and that behavior is entirely shaped by experience and environment.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

The behavioral principle formulated by Edward Thorndike stating that any behavior followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, whereas any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped.

Operant

In B.F. Skinner's framework, a behavior emitted by an organism that operates on the environment to generate consequences, which in turn determine the future probability of that behavior.

Operant Conditioning Chamber (Skinner Box)

An experimental apparatus developed by B.F. Skinner containing response mechanisms (such as levers), food dispensers, signal lights, and electric grids to systematically investigate operant contingencies in animals.

Radical Behaviorism

B.F. Skinner's philosophy defining behavior as 'everything an organism does,' maintaining that internal mental events like thoughts and feelings are valid behaviors to be explained rather than causes of behavior.

Dead Person Test

A practical rule of thumb used in behaviorism stating that if a dead person can do it (e.g., remaining silent or staying motionless), it does not qualify as behavior.

Behavioral Contingency

A structured 'If… then' relationship specifying the immediate environmental consequences that follow a specific behavior.

Reinforcement Contingency (Positive Reinforcement)

The immediate, response-contingent presentation of a reinforcer, which results in an increased future frequency of that response.

Reinforcer

Any stimulus, event, or condition whose presentation immediately follows a response and increases the frequency of that response in the future.

Punishment Contingency (Positive Punishment)

The immediate, response-contingent presentation of an aversive condition, resulting in a decreased future frequency of that response.

Aversive Condition

Any condition with which an organism tends to minimize contact, or any condition whose termination immediately following a response increases the future frequency of that response.

Escape Contingency (Negative Reinforcement)

The immediate, response-contingent removal of an ongoing aversive condition, resulting in an increased future frequency of that response.

Penalty Contingency (Negative Punishment)

The immediate, response-contingent removal of a reinforcer, resulting in a decreased future frequency of that response.

Avoidance Contingency

The immediate, response-contingent prevention of an impending aversive condition that has not yet occurred, resulting in an increased future frequency of that response.

Avoidance Principle

The behavioral principle stating that a response becomes more frequent in the future if it has immediately prevented an aversive condition from occurring in the past.

Functional Analysis

A behavioral approach used to understand personality by defining trait concepts (such as Extraversion or Neuroticism) strictly in terms of observable behaviors and identifying the specific environmental reinforcers maintaining them.

Behavioral Genetics

A field of study that investigates how personality and behavioral traits are passed down through genes, examining how genetic variation influences broad patterns of behavior across populations.

Eugenics

A social philosophy aimed at improving the genetic quality of the human population through selective breeding, which removes reproductive autonomy from the individual.

Sir Francis Galton

The 19th-century scientist who coined the term 'eugenics' and proposed a merit-based grading system to offer early marriage and reproductive incentives to 'able' couples.

Elaine Riddick

A victim of North Carolina's state eugenics program who was sterilized without consent at age $13$ in $1968$ after delivering a child resulting from rape, who spent $50$ years seeking justice and was awarded $47{,}000$ dollars in $2017$.

Heritability

A population statistic representing the proportion of phenotypic variation in a given trait within a population that can be attributed to genetic variance rather than environmental influence or chance (ranging from $0$ to $1$).

Heritability Coefficient Formula

The mathematical formula used to estimate heritability by comparing twin correlations: $\text{Heritability coefficient} = (r_{\text{MZ}} - r_{\text{DZ}}) \times 2$.

Concordance Rate

The statistical probability that one member of a twin pair or biological relative group will express a given trait or condition, given that the other member expresses it (e.g., approximately $50\%$ in monozygotic twins for schizophrenia).

Niche-Picking

The tendency of individuals to actively select, construct, or seek out environmental settings that correspond to and reinforce their genetic predispositions.

Epigenetics

The study of changes in organisms brought about by modifications in gene expression and cellular readout rather than by altering the underlying DNA sequence.

DNA Methylation

An epigenetic mechanism involving the addition of a methyl group (one carbon and three hydrogen atoms) to DNA, which tightly coils the structure, blocks access to the genetic material, and silences gene activity.

Histones

Spools of protein around which DNA winds; the tightness of this winding dictates whether genes are accessible for transcription.

Histone Acetylation

The molecular process in which acetyl groups bind to histone tails, loosening the tightly wound chromatin and rendering the DNA accessible so that genes can be actively expressed.

Glucocorticoid Receptors

Stress-modulating receptors in the brain whose genes become heavily methylated in rat pups subjected to maternal inattention, impairing their physiological stress regulation in adulthood.

Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance

The transmission of epigenetic marks and environmentally induced behavioral or physiological traits from parents to offspring without alterations to the underlying DNA nucleotide sequence.

M71 Receptors

Specific olfactory receptors in mice that detect cherry blossom scent, which multiplied in number and triggered fear shuddering across unexposed offspring generations following parental fear conditioning.

Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) Inhibitors

Compounds that promote histone acetylation to alter gene expression, approved for select cancers and under research for PTSD and depression by enhancing hippocampal plasticity and facilitating fear extinction.

Tail Suspension Test

An animal model of depression in which a rodent is suspended off the ground by its tail; a longer duration of active struggling after drug administration serves as an indicator of antidepressant efficacy.

Behavioral Despair Test (Forced Swimming)

An animal paradigm for assessing antidepressant efficacy wherein a rat is placed in a cylinder filled with water, measuring the duration of forceful swimming versus passive floating.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung's analytical psychology concept referring to the inherited reservoir of memory traces, symbols, and spiritual heritage common to all humankind, which conceptually foreshadowed transgenerational epigenetic concepts.