psych 403 UW-Madison exam 3

Learning-based approaches

Learning-based approaches

-behaviorism and social learning theories

-idea that stimuli that occur close together will elicit the same response AND behaviors followed by pleasant outcomes tend to be repeated

Behaviorism

study of how a person's individual behavior is a direct result of their environment, particularly the rewards and punishments that the environment contains

functional analysis

goal of behaviorism

determining how behavior is a function of one's environment

Habituation

a decrease in responsiveness with each repeated exposure to something

Consequences of habituation

-become numb to violence displayed in media

-exposure related to more aggression ad less empathy and prosociality

affective forcasting

predicting how you will feel in the future

-normally not actually true/accurate

classical conditioning

(aka respondant conditioning) the kind of learning in which an unconditioned response that is naturally elicited by one stimulus becomes elicited also by a new, conditioned stimulus

--> the conditioned response is essentially passive with no impact of its own

learned helplessness

belief that nothing one does really matters

-happens when events seem to occur randomly and cannot be predicted

-creates anxiety/depression

operant conditioning

the process of learning in which an organism's behavior is shaped by the effect of the behavior on the environment

(aka when the animal learns to operate on the world in such a way as to change it to the animal's knowledge)

Thorndike's Puzzle Box

Edward Thorndike put cats in this box and observed how long it took to escape

--> treats were nearby, cats learned quickly

Reinforcement

in operant conditioning, a good result that makes a behavior more likely

Punishment

in operant conditioning, a result that makes a behavior less likely

shaping

raising the criterion for reward until the desired behavior is produced

social learning theory

uses expectancy (the degree to which an individual believes a behavior will probably attain its goal)

-Kohlers chimps developed insight from solving puzzles (understanding the situation)

shortcomings of behaviorism

• ignores motivation, thought, and cognition

• primarily based on animal reasearch

• ignores social dimension of learning

• organisms are treated as essentially passive

locus of control

how much you think your actions will determine the consequences in your life

Rotter's theory of behaviorism

locus of control; focused on how people decide what to do based on their understanding of the likely consequences of their actions

self-efficacy

(Bandura) the expectation that one can accomplish something successfully

--> affects persistance

self-concept

your knowledge and opinion of yourself (ex. attractiveness, ability)

goal of psychotherapy

improve self-efficacy

how to change behavior

change efficacy expectations by watching someone else accomplish the behavior (modeling) or forcing yourself to do the behavior

observational learning

humans learn nearly everything by observation; do yourself vs. watch someone else do it

motivation

What do you want? How will you try to get it?

- goals and strategies

motivation goals

the end that one desires

- being aware of long term goals can help a person make better decisions and organize short term goals

- drive behavior by influencing what you attend to, think about, and do

short term goal

needed to achieve long term goals

long term goal

goals that you plan to accomplish at a later point, longer timespan

idiographic goals

goals that are unique to the individuals who pursue them

current concerns

an ongoing motivation that persists in the mind until the goal is either attained or abandoned

personal projects

the efforts put into goals

personal strivings

long-term goals that can organize broad areas of life

properties of ideographic goals

• conscious at least some of the time

• describe thoughts and behaviors aimed at fairly spesific outcomes

• can change over time

• assumed to function independantly

limitation of ideographic goals

goals are not coherently organized

nomothetic goals

the relatively small number of essential motivations that almost everyone pursues

(work and social interaction)

McCellend's three primary motivations

needs for achievement,

affiliation/intimacy

powerde

Emmons's five

enjoyment

self-assertion

esteem

interpersonal success

avoidance of negative affect

judgement goals

seeking to judge or validate an attribute in oneself

development goals

desire to improve oneself

mastery orientation

from developmental goals; trying harder after failing

helplessness

from judgment goals; giving up after failing

entity theories

beliefs that personal qualities are unchangeable; lead to judgment goals

incremental theories

beliefs that personal qualities can change with time and experience; lead to developmental goals

Motivation Strategies

defensive pessimism (vs. optimism)

defensive pessimism

assume the worst will happen

optimisim

assuming that the best will happen

emotion

type of procedural knowledge, a set of mental and physical procedures (how body and mind respond)

Stages of Emotional Experience

1. appraisal: judging a stimulus as emotionally relevant

2. physical responses, facial expressions, nonverbal behavior

3. motives: to perform a behavior based on the emotion

--> can happen at the same time or diff order, often physical first

six core emotions

happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust

--> same meaning across cultures

emotions circumplex

Functions of emotions

indv. differences in emotional life

emotional experience: extraverts tend to experience MORE POS. emotions than introverts

preference for emotions: people differ in their DESIRE to feel specific emotions

affect intensity: some people experience emotions MORE STRONGLY than others

rate of change: higher rates are associated with being described by others as FEARFUL and HOSTILE

emotional intelligence

accurately perceiving emotions in oneself and others and controlling and regulating one's own emotions

Alexithymia

having so little emotional awareness that one is virtually unable to think or talk about their own feelings

cognitive control

using rational thinking to control how one feels and responds to the way one feels

--> used to control and regulate emotions

cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS)

if... then contingencies (actions triggered by particular stimulus situations)

behavioral signature (a person's pattern of if... then contingencies; similar to S-R conception of personality

Beliefs, emotions, and action tendencies (BEATS)

people have basic needs that combine to produce emergent needs, from which the final need for self-coherence or meaning in life emerges

motivations --> goals --> BEATS

basic needs

trust, control, self-esteem

emergent needs

predictability, acceptance, competence

personality as a verb

-Personality is something a person does

-thinking, wanting, feeling

-learning, motivation, emotion

the I (ontological self)

a somewhat mysterious entity that does the observing and describing; experiences life and makes decisions; people differ in level of self-awareness

contents and purposes of the self

influences behavior

organizes memories, impressions, and judgements of others

MOST IMPRTNT: organizes knowledge

psychological self

our abilities and personalities; the central aspect of the self

jobs and purposes of the self

• self regulation

• info processing filter

• help us relate to others

• identity

self-regulation

ability to restrain impulses and keep focused on long-term goals

information-processing filter

helps us to remember the information that really matters to us and keep it organized

two types of self knowledge

declarative and procedural knowledge

declarative knowledge

the facts and impressions that we consciously know and can describe

procedural knowledge

knowledge expressed through actions rather than words

relational self

patterns of social skills and styles relating to others

implicit self

unconscious self-knowledge we are not aware of these characterstics, but they influence our behavior

declarative self

all of your conscious knowledge or opinions about your own personality traits (includes overall opinion and a more detailed opinion about your traits and abilities)

self-esteem

your overall opinion about whether you are good or bad, worthy or unworthy, or somewhere in between

low self esteem in related to

advantagesare the reverse of the disadvantages reflection of success and acceptance

how to increase self-esteem

accomplish important tasks

gender differences in self-esteem

men have higher rates diff. increased between 1970s-1990s, declined since

self-schema

all of one’s ideas about the self, organized into a coherent system

-where the declaratice self resides

-can be assessed with S data or B data

long-term memory (LTM)

permanent memory storage elaboration is useful for moving info to the LTM (thinking deeply about something)

self-reference effect

the enhancement of long-term memory that comes from thinking of how info relates to the self → self-schema is rich, well-developed, and often used

possible selves

the images we have, or can construct, of the other possible ways we might be

what do possible selves influence?

-may affect our goals

-evidence that is affects mate preference

-want future selves that fulfill the needs of self-esteem, competence, and meaning

-people want to fulfill needs for similar future selves

self-discepancy

people have two kinds of desired selves, and the difference between these and one’s determines how people feel

ideal self

-view of what you could be at your best

-focused on the pursuit of pleasure and rewards

-discrepancy leads to depression because of disappointment at failing to achieve rewards

ought self

-view of what you should be

-focused on the purpose of pleasure and rewards

-discrepancy leads to anxiety because of fear of not avoiding punishment

procedural self

patterns of behavior that are characteristic of an individual and the behavior through which people express who they are (unique aspects of what you do, ways of doing things, procedures, NOT conscious, learned by doing)

rational-self schema

self-knowledge based on past experiences that directs how we relate to the important people in our lives

implicit selves

self-relevant patterns that are not readily accessible to consciousness → includes rational self, measure with IAT, implicit self-esteem

implications of implicit selves

we have attitudes and feelings about many things of which we are not entirely aware, and this influences our emotions and behaviors

implicit association test (IAT)

a measure of reaction time, in which participants are asked to push one of two buttons as quickly as possible, depending on which of four concepts is displayed to them

acquiring and changing procedural knowledge

-practice some desired aspect of the self (ex. being social) and feedback (ex. therapist)

-does not require a teacher who is good at what is being taught (ex. therapist does not have to be extraverted)

-acquire experiences of what you want your new procedural self to be

How many selves?

many selves are theorized to exist

Problems with many selves theory

a unitary and consistent sense of self and congruence are associated with mental health

how do we decide which self to be?

where does one stop fractioning the self?

working self-concept

the view that the self is continuously changing

--> strongly influenced by who the person is with

active self

depends on where you are and who you are with; the experience of the self may change across situations

congruence

acting in accordance with one's personality traits

self-concept differentiation

seeing oneself as having different personalities in different contexts

--> too much is associated with poor psychological adjustment

the really real self

really only one self; feeling of being the same person persists across the entire life span

--> even with brain damage, memory loss, and mental illness, the self persists

identity

an individuals sense of self

2 ways identity is defined

1. a set of physical, psychological, and interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly shared with any other person

2. a range of affiliations (ex. ethnicity, gender) and social rules

CONSISTENCY

many different identities

examples include: child, sibling, parent, friend, gender, race, ethnicity, place of origin, age, student, sexual orientation, social class, occupation, relationship, et.

intersectional identities

Crenshaw 1989; acknowledge complexity of belonging simultaneously to several groups; problems facing women of colour, diff races, diff nationalities, immigrants

interseconality

a framework for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of potential discriminations and disadvantages