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Summary Theme 2 Personality Psychology Notes
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These are the notes for Theme 2 of the Personality Psychology course.
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THEME 2I. BEHVIORIST VIEW OF THE PERSON
• Behaviorism sees people as machines (Skinner stated that people 'create the machine in
[their] own image').
• People are viewed as a collection of machine-like mechanisms → behaviorism explores
how these mechanisms learn and how they change in reaction to the environmental input
we receive.
• If we view people as machines, we imply that a response is caused by/determined by a
prior event with the cause being something that can be understood according to the basic
laws of science (=DETERMINISM)
• Determinism stands in opposition to the belief of " free will" <=> behaviorists believe
people have no free will.
II. BEHAVIORIST VIEW OF THE SCIENCE OF PERSONALITY
• The 2 basic assumptions of behaviorism:
1. Behavior must be explained in terms of the causal influence of the environment on the
person.
2. Understanding people should be done using lab research where the subjects are either
people or animals.
Environmental determinism: studies how environmental factors determine human behavior
* Similar to physics - throw a rock and watch the force of gravity act upon it.
→ We are subject to physical laws which can be understood through scientific analysis <=>
identify the forces in the environment that act upon it, causing its behavior.
!!! Thoughts and feelings and actions are viewed as a product of the environment as well – most
radical feature of behaviorism.
• Environmental determinism has multiple implications:
o highlights situational specificity of behavior → expect situational variability in
action as people adapt to different situations.
o treatment of psychopathology => 'mental illnesses' are a result of maladaptive
environments and therapy in supposed to provide a good, new environment;
Research strategy, observable variables
o manipulation of environment → carefully controlled lab experiments;
o one must study things that are observable;
o !!! can be impractical, unethical to manipulate environmental variables as there
are many variables that are related and we can't single out a specific one;
, o !!! behaviorism studies simple responses and simpler organisms, not human
beings (lab animals) → simple system strategy;
Summary:
1. Empirical research in the cornerstone of theory and practice.
2. Personality theory and applied practice should be based on principles of learning.
3. Behavior is influenced by reinforcement variables in the environment and is more
situation specific than suggested by other personality theories (e.g. trait, psychoanalytic)
4. The medical symptom-disease view of psychopathology is rejected, and emphasis is
placed on basic principles of learning and behavior change.
III. WATSON, PAVLOV & CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Watson's Behaviorism
• John B. Watson (1878-1958) is the founder of behaviorism.
→ rejected introspection;
→ he expanded his theoretical base by using Pavlov's findings
Theory of Classical Conditioning
• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1986) was a Russian physiologist, founder of classical conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is a process through which an initially neutral stimulus ends up
eliciting a strong response because it becomes associated with another stimulus which
produces a response.
**process:
Unconditioned Stimulus - food → Unconditioned Response - salivating
sounding the bell (Conditioned Stimulus) before giving food repeatedly
CS - bell → Conditioned Response – salivating
• If we want to make someone avoid a stimulus we use conditioned withdrawal.
US - shock to paw → UR - retreat of paw
CS - bell before shock → CR - retreat of paws to bell sound
!!! The response to a conditioned stimulus can be associated with a similar stimulus →
GENERALISATION
• If in repeated trials only some stimuli are followed by the US, the animal will recognize
differences among stimuli → leads to discrimination.
• !!! If the CS is presented without the aftershock them the reaction to the CR will
gradually disappear → EXTINCTION
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