rule governed behavior: verbal description of a contingency behavior generated through exposure to rules
- ex: doing homework listed on the course syllabus
- human characteristic
some disadvantages of rule governed behavior
- less efficient than behavior that has been directly shaped by natural contingencies
- ex: rule governed is don’t be late for school / the bus. missing the bus is more powerful than just agreeing to the rule.
- rule governed is insensitive to actual contingencies of reinforcement in a particular setting
personal rules in self-regulation
- personal rules / self-instructions: verbal descriptions of contingencies that we present to ourselves to influence our behavior
- do to others what you would have them do to you
- say-do correspondence: match what we say we are gonna do with what we actually do at a later time
- clear, specific rules are important
- “i’m a man of my word”
- bright boundaries: clear and distinctive boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behavior
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contagious behavior - instinctive / reflexive
stimulus enhancement: when attention is drawn to a stimulus
observational learning in classical (vicarious emotional responses) operant (acquisition and performance)
imitation: copy model behavior
social learning and aggression: watching violence has big impacts