Term
| Romanes anecdotal methods |
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Definition
| The anecdotal method is based on personal observation and recollections rather than regulated study. This is useful when attempting to gain insight for further empirical research, but, alone, it is not regarded as a tool with which theories can be supported or facts can be developed. |
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Definition
| Morgan's canon is a rule relating to animal behaviour, which states that it should be explained as simply as possible. It is named after British psychologist C. Lloyd Morgan. |
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Term
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Definition
| Tropism, response or orientation of a plant or certain lower animals to a stimulus that acts with greater intensity from one direction than another. It may be achieved by active movement or by structural alteration. Forms of tropism include phototropism (response to light), geotropism (response to gravity), chemotropism (response to particular substances), hydrotropism (response to water), thigmotropism (response to mechanical stimulation), traumatotropism (response to wound lesion), and galvanotropism, or electrotropism (response to electric current). |
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Term
Jennings and emphasis on complex behaviors
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Definition
Opposed Loeb's mechanistic approach to animal behavior
- Working in Max Verworn's lab, studied the unicellular paramecia whose behavioral complexity convinced him that Loeb's theory of tropisms was not valid even for the behavior of simple creatures
- However, both Loeb and Jennings believed studying simpler organisms could help our understanding of more complex organisms (an idea that is at the heart of early behaviorism)
- Both also stressed the importance of experimentation and objectivity and trained early behaviorists (Watson and Lashley) |
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Term
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
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Definition
| Acts that produce satisfaction in a given situation become associated with that situation, when the situation recurs, the act is likely to recur. |
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Term
Pavlov and the conditioned reflex
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Definition
Reflexes that are conditional or dependent on the formation of an association or connection between a stimulus and a response.
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Term
Watson
Predict and control
S-R
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Definition
| stimulus-response: First, being able to predict something doesn’t necessarily mean we can control it. Earthquakes and hurricanes make the point. To predict something, however, does seem to imply an understanding of its controlling variables - the things that make it happen or not. Control implies prediction - if we can control something we can tell, that is predict, when it will occur. Prediction doesn’t imply that we can command the things (variables) necessary to make it happen, but we do understand those variables. Often if we know how to control something we can make it occur. Knowing about combustion allows us to predict that if certain things happen, fire will be the outcome. |
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Definition
| Positivism is a philosophical theory stating that certain knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations. Thus, information derived from sensory experience, interpreted through reason and logic, forms the exclusive source of all certain knowledge |
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Definition
| a 20th century philosophical movement holding that all meaningful statements are either analytic or conclusively verifiable or at least confirmable by observation and experiment and that metaphysical theories are therefore strictly meaningless. — called also logical empiricism. |
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Term
Tolman’s cognitive behaviorism
Cognitive maps
Insight learning
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Definition
cognitive map, which is an internal representation (or image) of external environmental feature or landmark. He thought that individuals acquire large numbers of cues (i.e. signals) from the environment and could use these to build a mental image of an environment
Tolman is virtually the only behaviorists who found the stimulus-response theory unacceptable, because reinforcement was not necessary for learning to occur. He felt behavior was mainly cognitive. |
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Term
Hull’s hypothetico-deductive reasoning
Intervening variables
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Definition
The hypothetico-deductive model (or method) has been proposed as a description of scientific method. According to this description scientific inquiry and research proceeds by means by formulating hypotheses that can be either proved or disproved through experimentation and observation.
Hull was interested in studying intervening variables that affected behavior such as initial drive, incentives, inhibitors, and prior training (habit strength). Like other forms of behavior theory, reinforcement is the primary factor that determines learning |
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Term
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Definition
| A Skinner box, also known as an operant conditioning chamber, is an enclosed apparatus that contains a bar or key that an animal can press or manipulate in order to obtain food or water as a type of reinforcement. |
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Term
Operant Conditioning & Shaping
Reinforcement
Punishment
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Definition
Operant conditioning: a learning situation that involves behavior emitted by an organism rather than being elicited by a detectable stimulus.
Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.
• Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior. |
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Term
Schedules of reinforcement
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Definition
| Conditions involving various rates and times of reinforcement. |
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Term
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Definition
Goal of psychology to improve the human condition
Apply knowledge to design of technology and social institutions
Baby-tender (aircrib)
Failed due to negative public perception of behaviorism
Project Pigeon
Teaching machine
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Term
Cognitive psych as scientific revolution?
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Definition
| The cognitive revolution was an intellectual movement that began in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes. It later became known collectively as cognitive science. |
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Term
| Computers, Information Theory, Control Theory, Cybernetics |
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Definition
Information theory studies the quantification, storage, and communication of information.
Cybernetics, control theory as it is applied to complex systems. Cybernetics is associated with models in which a monitor compares what is happening to a system at various sampling times with some standard of what should be happening, and a controller adjusts the system's behaviour accordingly |
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Term
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Definition
| Fitts' law states that the amount of time required for a person to move a pointer (e.g., mouse cursor) to a target area is a function of the distance to the target divided by the size of the target. |
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Term
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Definition
Information is not stored explicitly but as relations between nodes in a network
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Term
Supernatural causes -> magical ritual and prayer as treatments
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Definition
Pervasive through middle ages (due to religion being the main focus) and somewhat common today; Being of beyond natural laws; Evil Spirits, Demons, Ghosts, and Ghouls. A modernish example would be Voodoo; Potions and other practices are typically used
trepanation: opening a hole in ones skull as a cure for mental disorders (Originally thought to release evil spirits)
Exorcism: the act of freeing someone from demonic possession; Primarily associated with religion and the use of religion to purify the soul; Prayer |
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Biological causes -> biological means of treatment (bloodletting, medicine)
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Definition
Biological: perspective that stresses links between biology and behavior; Any illness is due to an imbalance
Early Greek physicians
Hippocrates: biological causes, 4 bodily humors.
Illness = imbalance
Galen’s 4 humors = 4 temperaments
Phlegmatic (green) = sluggish, flat affect
Sanguine (red) = Cheerful
Choleric (yellow) = Ill tempered (Type A personality?)
Melancholic (black) = Sad (depressed?)
Bloodletting, Modern medicine
neurotransmitters, hormones, genetics
Medication as treatment
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Term
Psychological causes -> psychological treatment (cognitive behavior therapy, shaping, extinction)
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Definition
Psychological: Of, affecting, or arising in the mind; related to the mental and emotional state of a person; Traumatic experiences, Improper learning associations
Early childhood experiences: Conditioned fear, phobias
Freud’s stages: guilt, anxiety, conflict
Traumatic experiences
Improper learned associations
Cognitive behavior therapy
Weaken associations between improper S-R chains
Alter response to stimuli
Relaxation techniques
Weaken associations between connected thoughts
Alter thinking patterns
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Term
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Definition
| Empiricist (Scientific) and Materialist (NOT mental) ignore the emotional, irrational and phenomenological aspects of humanity; Ex. look to art to find inner struggles and sublimated needs; Expression of oneself is important to find one's true self (free will is required for this) |
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Definition
Emphasis on Instinctual desires and drives (Unconscious); precursor to Freudian thoughts
Will to Survive (Schopenhauer): Transcendence (rising above) defines man; drive to live; Sublimation (Channeling) of desires creates art and other creative pieces; Fear of death leads to the desire not to give up, but giving in leads to unfulfillable cycle of needs.
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Term
Study of the energy flows within the mind
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Definition
Psychodynamics
how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts; Energy flows within the mind |
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Freud’s Personality Theory
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Definition
Id (Freud's theory): Primary process (Frustration leads to memory) and Mental development (mental images to get happy); basic instinctual drives all humans have (irrational unconscious driven by sexual, aggressive, and pleasure-seeking desires)
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Term
| Freud’s Psychosexual Development |
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Definition
Stage 1: Oral: Mouth seeks pleasure. Conflict: weaning; too much or too little stimulation leads to take "in" or over stimulus;
Stage 2: Anal: (Toilet training) pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control; Frustration can develop due to delay; Two possibilities: Too strict leading to retaliation, or reaction formation (frugality); Over praised leads to being too generous
Stage 3: Phallic: Males: Oedipus complex (Love for mom/ hate for dad); Castration anxiety (fear of damage being done to their genitalia by the parent of the same sex). Females: Penis Envy (anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis); Electra Complex (Hate for mom/ love for dad)
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Term
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Definition
humanistic psychology, which was viewed by Maslow and others as an alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism
Four tenets of Third-Force Psychology
1. freewill (we control ourselves) 2. subjective reality (everyone is unique) 3. Psychology is not a science (no universal rules) 4. Phenomenology (goal of psych is to define the whole person not reducing into laws of behavior) occurs when there is direct conflict between id and ego; by-product of fear of freedom
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Term
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Definition
Will to Power (Nietzsche): Instinctual desires are what makes us who we are, and the only way to obtain true potential is to understand and follow the desires to completion; Inner desires must become outer desires ; Free will is required to be able focus on needs and become a true version of yourself
Superman (Nietzsche): Fulfillment of all desires and our true needs; unlocking our true potential |
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Term
| Freud's personality theory |
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Definition
Ego (Freud's theory): Reality principle (Distinguish between fantasy and reality, more practical about goals); Secondary process (frustration leads to perception and motor functions) and Perceptual-motor development; rationalizing conscious, what one can do - fulfills the Id's needs in realistic ways that work better for us long term
Super Ego (Freud's Theory): Ego- ideal, contains lists of making good behavior (Rewards and punishes the ego); Conscience, contains lists of morally bad behaviors; |
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Term
| Freud's psychosexual development |
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Definition
Stage 4: Latent: Nothing Happens; If stuck in this phase - immaturity and inability to make adult connections
Stage 5: Genital: Adolescence to Adulthood; Interpersonal relations, freedom to love/work; We do what we do for sex
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Term
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Definition
Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow)
Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active; Self actualization is reaching one's full human potential
Unconditional Positive Regard (Rogers): an attitude of total acceptance toward another person; Important pre-condition for self-actualization; Lack of causes self-esteem to go down and prevent achieving one's unique potential (due to worry about others attitudes) |
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