OOAP Psych AMSCO Ch 10: Social Learning & Biological Factors

anxiety hierarchy

A rank-ordered list of what the client fears, starting with the least frightening and ending with the most frightening

behavior therapy

a treatment process that focuses on changing unwanted behaviors through rewards and reinforcements

Biofeedback

a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension

cognitive map

a mental representation of the physical features of the environment

Contingency Theory

posits that for learning to take place, a stimulus must provide the organism with a reliable signal that certain events will take place

Desensitization

reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity in response to a stimulus

latent learning

learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Phobias

irrational fears of specific objects or situations

reciprocal inhibition

the presence of one emotional state can inhibit the occurrence of another, such as joy preventing fear or anxiety inhibiting pleasure

signal relations

signals that initiate that learning will take place

systematic desensitization

A type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

taste aversion

a learned avoidance of a particular food

abstract learning

Understanding concepts rather than learning to simply press a bar or peck a disk in order to receive a reward

emotion-focused coping

coping strategies that change the impact of a stressor by changing the emotional reaction to the stressor

Expectancies

in Bandura's view, what a person anticipates in a situation or as a result of behaving in certain ways

Gestalt Psychology

a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts

insight learning

the process of mentally working through a problem until the sudden realization of a solution occurs

instinctive drift

the tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning

learned helplessness

the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

locus of control

the tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives

Premack Principle

The concept, developed by David Premack, that a more-preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less-preferred activity.

problem-focused coping

a type of coping in which people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor

self-control

ability to inhibit an impulse to act

mirror neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another person/animal doing that same action

Modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

observational learning

learning by observing others; also called social learning

reciprocal determinism

Bandura's idea that though our environment affects us, we also affect our environment

self-efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness

social cognitive theory

The view of psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development.

vicarious learning

learning something by watching someone model the behavior

vicarious reinforcement

process where the observer sees the model rewarded, making the observer more likely to imitate the model's behavior

Albert Bandura

researcher famous for work in observational or social learning including the famous Bobo doll experiment

John Garcia

found the effects of radiation on rats (taste aversion)

Mary Cover Jones

behaviorism/learning; pioneer in systematic desensitization, maintained that fear could be unlearned

David Premack

argued that the more probable response in any pair of responses could reinforce the less probable response—demonstrating that reinforcement is a relative, not an absolute property

Robert Rescorla

researched classical conditioning; found subjects learn the predictability of an event through trials (cognitive element)

Edward Tolman

researched rats' use of "cognitive maps"

Joseph Wolpe

described use of systematic desensitization to treat phobias