CLASSICAL CONDITIONING, OPERANT CONDITIONING, AND SOCIAL LEARNING

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

A learning process where a response to a stimulus is evoked after repeated association with a stimulus that normally elicits that response.

NEUTRAL STIMULUS

A stimulus that, before conditioning, does not trigger a specific target response (e.g., a bell).

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a physiological or emotional response without any prior learning (e.g., food).

UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE

The natural, automatic, and unlearned physiological response to an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to food).

CONDITIONED STIMULUS

A previously neutral stimulus that, after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, acquires the capability to trigger a learned response (e.g., the bell after pairing).

CONDITIONED RESPONSE

The learned or trained response displayed toward a previously neutral stimulus that has become a conditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to the bell).

EXTINCTION

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

GENERALIZATION

The tendency for a conditioned response to occur in response to novel stimuli that are structurally or contextually similar to the original conditioned stimulus.

JOHN B WATSON

The prominent psychologist recognized as the founder of behaviorism who conducted the famous Little Albert Experiment.

LITTLE ALBERT EXPERIMENT

A classic study demonstrating that emotional reactions like fear can be classically conditioned in human infants using a white rat and a loud noise.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

A learning paradigm where voluntary behaviors are shaped, maintained, or altered by the consequences that follow them as they operate on the environment.

REINFORCEMENT

An operant consequence that serves to increase the future likelihood, frequency, or strength of the behavior it follows.

PUNISHMENT

An operant consequence that serves to decrease the future likelihood, frequency, or strength of the behavior it follows.

EXTINGUISHED BEHAVIOR

An operant process where a voluntary behavior returns to its baseline or original level when it is no longer reinforced by the environment.

MOWRERS TWO FACTOR THEORY OF AVOIDANCE LEARNING

A behavioral framework explaining how fear-based avoidance behaviors are originally learned through classical conditioning and subsequently maintained over time through operant conditioning.

STAGE ONE ACQUISITION

The initial phase of Mowrer's theory where a neutral stimulus is paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus, causing fear to be learned through classical conditioning.

STAGE TWO MAINTENANCE

The secondary phase of Mowrer's theory where an individual learns to escape or bypass the conditioned stimulus, achieving anxiety relief which serves as negative reinforcement to maintain the avoidance behavior.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

An operant conditioning process where a desirable or rewarding stimulus is presented following a behavior, which increases the future likelihood, frequency, or strength of that behavior.

NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT

The removal, reduction, or avoidance of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus following a behavior, which increases the future likelihood of that behavior.

POSITIVE PUNISHMENT

An operant conditioning process where an unpleasant or aversive stimulus is presented following a behavior, which decreases the future likelihood, frequency, or strength of that behavior.

NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT

An operant conditioning process where a desirable or rewarding stimulus is removed or subtracted following a behavior, which decreases the future likelihood, frequency, or strength of that behavior.

PHOBIAS

Anxiety conditions characterized by the intense avoidance of a feared stimulus, which provides immediate, though temporary, relief from anxiety and locks the individual into a self-perpetuating behavioral cycle.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER

A disorder where an intrusive obsession causes intense anxiety, prompting the individual to perform a functional compulsion to reduce that anxiety, thereby negatively reinforcing the behavior.

SOCIAL LEARNING

A learning framework emphasizing that behaviors are acquired through the observation, imitation, and modeling of others rather than solely through direct personal experience.

HITTING DOLL EXPERIMENT

Albert Bandura's foundational Bobo doll experiment demonstrating that children learn and replicate complex aggressive behaviors simply by observing a model.

SELF EFFICACY

An individual's internal confidence and belief in their personal capability to successfully execute the specific actions required to achieve a desired outcome.

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

The process through which individuals learn appropriate or complex social behaviors chiefly by watching, encoding, and imitating the actions of external models.

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

A theory highlighting that cognitive processes are actively at work during observation, where people learn chunks of behavior and mentally organize them into complex new patterns.

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

The passive behavioral state where individuals or animals develop a perceived lack of control over their circumstances after repeated exposure to uncontrollable, adverse events.

THREE DIMENSIONS OF REFORMULATED LEARNED HELPLESSNESS MODEL

The cognitive attributional framework classifying how depressed individuals explain negative events, using internal, stable, and global explanations.

INTERNAL ATTRIBUTION

A cognitive style where an individual blames a negative event entirely on their own personal, internal failings.

STABLE ATTRIBUTION

A cognitive style where an individual views the cause of a negative event as permanent, thinking it will always be their fault.

GLOBAL ATTRIBUTION

A cognitive style where an individual believes the cause of a specific negative event is pervasive and will extend across a wide variety of unrelated life issues.

LEARNED OPTIMISM

A cognitive resilience pattern where people faced with considerable stress and difficulty maintain an upbeat, optimistic attitude, allowing them to function better psychologically and physically.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

A branch of psychology focusing primarily on positive things, human strengths, and optimal functioning rather than pathology.

PREPARED LEARNING

An evolutionary concept stating that humans have become highly prepared to rapidly learn fears of specific objects or situations over the course of evolution because it directly contributes to species survival.

HOPELESSNESS THEORY

A cognitive theory of depression defined by a fatalistic, negative expectation that highly desired outcomes will not occur, or that highly aversive outcomes will occur, combined with the belief that one has no control over them.

PRIMARY GAIN

The direct, unconscious relief from internal psychological conflict or painful emotions that an individual experiences by developing physical or psychological symptoms.

SECONDARY GAIN

The external, tangible advantages or benefits a person receives from others as a byproduct of their medical or psychological symptoms, which unconsciously reinforces the continuation of the illness.