Short Analysis about Behaviorism and the Learning Approaches to Personality

A Skinnerian variant of the experimental method consisting of exposing one subject to 3 experimental phases: (A) a baseline period, (B) introduction of reinforcers to change the frequency of specific behaviors, and (A) withdrawal of reinfocement and observation of whether the behaviors return to their earlier frequency (baseline period).

In behavioral assessment, an emphasis on the identification of antecedent events and the consequences (C) of behavior, and a functional analysis of behavior involving identification of the environmental conditions that regulate specific behaviors

The emphasis in assessment on specific behaviors that are tied to defined situational characteristics (e.g., ABC approach)

An approach within psychology, developed by Watson, that restricts investigation to overt, observable behavior.

A process, emphasized by Pavlov, in which a previously neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a response because of its association with a stimulus that automatically produces the same or a similar response.

Watson and Rayner's term for the development of an emotional reaction to a previously neutral stimulus as in Little Albert's fear of rats.

The learning (or conditioning) of a new response that is incompatible with an existing response or stimulus.

The belief that people's behavior is caused by a lawful scientific manner; determinism opposes a belief in free will.

In conditioning, the differential response to stimuli depending on whether they have been associated with pleasure, pain, or neutral events.

In conditioning, the progressive weakening of the association between a stimulus and a response; in classical conditioning extinction occurs because the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by reinforcement.

schedules of reinforcement in which the relation of behaviors to reinforcers remains constant.

In behavioral approaches, particularly Skinnerian, the identification of the environmental stimuli that control behavior.

In conditioning, the association of a response with stimuli similar to the stimulus to which the response was originally conditioned or attached.

In Skinner's operant conditioning theory, a reinforcer that provides access to many other reinforcers (e.g. money).

In the Skinnerian view of psychopathology, the learning of a response that is maladaptive or not considered acceptable by people in the environment.

Skinner's term for the process through which the characteristics of a response are determined by its consequences.

In Skinner's theory, behaviors that appear (are emitted) without being specifically associatated with any prior (eliciting) stimuli and are studied in relation to the reinforcing events that follow them.

An aversive stimulus that follows a response.

Mischel's description of assessment approaches in which there is an interest in the behavior itselg and its relation to environmental conditions, in contrast to sign approaches that infer personality from test behavior.

In Skinner's operant conditioning theory, the rate and interval of reinforcement of responses (e.g., response ratio schedule and time intervals).

In Skinner's operant conditioning theory, the process through which organisms learn complex behavior through step-by-step processes in which behavior increasingly approximates a final, target response.

Mischel's description of assessment approaches that infer personality from test behavior, in contrast with sample approaches to assessment.

The emphasis on behavior as varying according to the situation, as opposed to the emphasis by trait theorists on consistency in behavior across situations.

In Skinner's operant conditioning theory, the development of complex behaviors through the reinforcement of behaviors that increasingly resemble the final form of behavior to be produced.

A technique in behavior therapy in which a competing response (relaxation) is condition to stimuli that previously aroused anxiety.

In behavioral assessment, the identification of specific behaviors to be observed and measured in relation to changes in environmental events.

Following Skinner's operant conditioning theory, an environment in which individuals are rewarded with tokens for desirable behavior.

Schedules of reinforcement in which the relation of behaviors to reinforcers changes unpredictably.