Study Guide for Test 3

secondary reinforcer

...A secondary reinforcer, sometimes called a conditioned reinforcer, is a stimulus or situation that has acquired its function as a reinforcer after pairing with a stimulus that functions as a reinforcer. This stimulus may be a primary reinforcer or another conditioned reinforcer (such as money). An example of a secondary reinforcer would be the sound from a clicker, as used in clicker training. The sound of the clicker has been associated with praise or treats, and subsequently, the sound of the clicker may function as a reinforcer. As with primary reinforcers, an organism can experience satiation and deprivation with secondary reinforcers

negative reinforcement

...Negative reinforcement: the taking away of an aversive stimulus to increase certain behavior or response. Example: Turning off distracting music when trying to work. If the work increases when the music is turned off, turning off the music is a negative reinforce

positive reinforcement

...Positive reinforcement: the adding of an appetitive stimulus to increase a certain behavior or response. Example: Father gives candy to his daughter when she picks up her toys. If the frequency of picking up the toys increases or stays the same, the candy is a positive reinforcer

Boo Boo Doll experiment

...The Bobo doll experiment was the name of two experiments conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961 and 1963 studying patterns of behavior associated with aggression. Bandura hoped that the experiments would prove that aggression can be explained, at least in part, by social learning theory. The theory of social learning would state that behavior such as aggression is learned through observing and imitating others. The experiments are important because they sparked many more studies on the effects of violent media on children

When is shaping used

...The students that shaped the behavior of a psychology professor

unconditional response

...n classical conditioning, the unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. For example, if the smell of food is the unconditioned stimulus, the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the unconditioned response

instinct drift

...tendency for an animal behavior to event to generally controlled patterns. each animal cones into the world instinct drift differs form species to species some responses that cannot be tamed into an animal

insight

...sight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. Insight can be used with several related meanings: * a piece of information * the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively in Greek called noesis * an introspection * the power of acute observation and deduction, penetration, discernment, perception called intellection or noesis * an understanding of cause and effect based on identification of relationships and behaviors within a model, context, or scenario (see artificial intelligence) An insight that manifests itself suddenly, such as understanding how to solve a difficult problem, is sometimes called by the German word Aha-Erlebnis. The term was coined by the German psychologist and theoretical linguist Karl Bühler. It is also known as an epiphany. n psychology and psychiatry, insight can mean the ability to recognize one's own mental illness.[1] This form of insight has multiple dimensions, such as recognizing the need for treatment, and recognizing consequences of one's behavior as stemming from an illness.[2] A person with very poor recognition or acknowledgment is referred to as having "poor insight" or "lack of insight." The most extreme form is Anosognosia, which is the total absence of insight into one's own mental illness. Many mental illnesses are associated with varying levels of insight. For example, people with obsessive compulsive disorder and various phobias tend to have relatively good insight that they have a problem and that their thoughts and/or actions are unreasonable, yet are compelled to carry out the thoughts and actions regardless.[3] Patients with Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and various psychotic conditions tend to have very poor awareness that anything is wrong with them.[4] "Insight" can also refer to other matters in psychology. Problem solving behavior requiring insight is the subject of insight phenomenology. An insight is the derivation of a rule which links cause with effect. The mind is a model of the universe built up from insights. Thoughts of the mind fall into two categories: 1. Analysis of past experience with the purpose of gaining insight for use within this model at a later date 2. Simulations of future scenarios using existing insights in the mind model in order to predict outcomes A mature mind has assimilated many insights and understands cause and effect. When insight is not subordinate to a validation discipline like the 'scientific method', fallacious thinking can result in a confused mind. Intuition, which is often described in the popular literature as an alternative thought process, is merely another manifestation of insight.[5] In this process, multiple bits of seemingly unrelated data are linked together and a hypothesis or plan of action is generated. Usually this process is generated in a novel situation. Such a circumstance links data which had previously seemed unrelated.[6] The categories and analytical process, however, are not distinct from any other form of insight. The only difference is the degree of novelty of the stimulus

catastrophes

..a traumatic event like hurricane, tornadoes ,tsunamis

fixed interval

..re those where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. This schedule causes high amounts of responding near the end of the interval, but much slower responding immediately after the delivery of the reinforcer.

Operanant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is a form of learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the reinforcement of consequences of the behavior. Operant conditioning is distinguished from classical conditioning which is also called respondent conditioning) in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of "voluntary behavior" or operant behavior. Operant behavior operates on the environment and is maintained by its consequences, while classical conditioning deals with the conditioning of reflexive (reflex) behaviors which are elicited by antecedent conditions. Behaviors conditioned via a classical conditioning procedure are not maintained by consequences

post tramatic stress disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder[note 1] (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma.[1][2][3] This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,[1] overwhelming the individual's ability to cope. As an effect of psychological trauma, PTSD is less frequent and more enduring than the more commonly seen acute stress response. Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased arousal—such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hypervigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria (both DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10) require that the symptoms last more than one month and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning Posttraumatic stress disorder is classified as an anxiety disorder, characterized by aversive anxiety-related experiences, behaviors, and physiological responses that develop after exposure to a psychologically traumatic event (sometimes months after). Its features persist for longer than 30 days, which distinguishes it from the briefer acute stress disorder. These persisting posttraumatic stress symptoms cause significant disruptions of one or more important areas of life function.[4] It has three sub-forms: acute, chronic, and delayed-onset. Psychological trauma PTSD is believed to be caused by experiencing any of a wide range of events[6] which produces intense negative feelings of "fear, helplessness or horror"[7] in the observer or participant.[1] Sources of such feelings may include (but are not limited to): * experiencing or witnessing childhood or adult physical, emotional, or sexual abuse;[1] * experiencing or witnessing physical assault, adult experiences of sexual assault, accidents, drug addiction, illnesses, medical complications;[8] * employment in occupations exposed to war (such as soldiers) or disaster (such as emergency service workers);[8] * getting a diagnosis of a life-threatening illness[1] Children or adults may develop PTSD symptoms by experiencing bullying or mobbing.[9][10] Approximately 25% of children exposed to family violence can experience PTSD.[11] Preliminary research suggests that child abuse may interact with mutations in a stress-related gene to increase the risk of PTSD in adults.[12][13][14] Multiple studies show that parental PTSD and other posttraumatic disturbances in parental psychological functioning can, despite a traumatized parent's best efforts, interfere with their response to their child as well as their child's response to trauma.[15][16] Parents with violence-related PTSD may, for example, inadvertently expose their children to developmentally inappropriate violent media due to their need to manage their own emotional dysregulation.[17] Clinical findings indicate that a failure to provide adequate treatment to children after they suffer a traumatic experience, depending on their vulnerability and the severity of the trauma, will ultimately lead to PTSD symptoms in adulthood.[18] [edit] Evolutionary psychology

stress

Stress is a term that is commonly used today but has become increasingly difficult to define. It shares, to some extent, common meanings in both the biological and psychological sciences. Stress typically describes a negative concept that can have an impact on one's mental and physical well-being, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be both tangible and intangible. The term stress had none of its contemporary connotations before the 1920s. It is a form of the Middle English destresse, derived via Old French from the Latin stringere, "to draw tight."[1] It had long been in use in physics to refer to the internal distribution of a force exerted on a material body, resulting in strain. In the 1920s and 1930s, the term was occasionally being used in biological and psychological circles to refer to a mental strain, unwelcome happening, or, more medically, a harmful environmental agent that could cause illness. Walter Cannon used it in 1926 to refer to external factors that disrupted what he called homeostasis.[2] Homeostasis is a concept central to the idea of stress. In biology, most biochemical processes strive to maintain equilibrium, a steady state that exists more as an ideal and less as an achievable condition. Environmental factors, internal or external stimuli, continually disrupt homeostasis; an organism's present condition is a state in constant flux wavering about a homeostatic point that is that organism's optimal condition for living. Factors causing an organism's condition to waver away from homeostasis can be interpreted as stress. A life-threating situation such as a physical insult or prolonged starvation can greatly disrupt homeostasis. On the other hand, an organism's effortful attempt at restoring conditions back to or near homeostasis, oftentimes consuming energy and natural resources, can also be interpreted as stress. In such instances, an organism's fight-or-flight response recruits the body's energy stores and focuses attention to overcome the challenge at hand. The ambiguity in defining this phenomenon was first recognized by Hans Selye in 1926 who loosely described stress as something that "...in addition to being itself, was also the cause of itself, and the result of itself."[3] First to use the term in a biological context, Selye continued to define stress as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand placed upon it." Present-day neuroscientists including Bruce McEwen and Jaap Koolhaas believe that stress, based on years of empirical research, "should be restricted to conditions where an environmental demand exceeds the natural regulatory capacity of an organism."[4] Despite the numerous definitions given to stress, homeostasis appears to lie at its core. Biology has progressed in this field greatly, elucidating complex biochemical mechanisms that appear to underlie diverse aspects of stress, shining a necessary light on its clinical relevance and significance. Despite this, science still runs into the problem of not being able to settle or agree on conceptual and operational definitions of stress. Because stress is ultimately perceived as a subjective experience, it follows that its definition perhaps ought to remain fluid. For a concept so ambiguous and difficult to define, stress nevertheless plays an obvious and predominant role in the everyday lives of humans and nature alike.

approach approach

...Approach-approach conflicts occur under two conditions: people are attracted about equally to goals. But, carrying out one goal means abandoning the other. For example, you have to choose between buying a car or traveling to Europe. On the same night you want to attend a party and a movie. Research suggest that approach-approach conflicts are easier to resolve than any other type. As you tentatively near one goal ( say, a brown sweater or a shopping expedition), its attractiveness rises. As you emphasize the advantages ( it is warm, it is cheap), you are closer to your choice. At the same time, the appeal of the other goal decrease, and the conflict ends. People generally resolve approach-approach conflicts easily because they always result in something pleasant. Moreover, the alternatives can be achieved in turn. You may be able to purchase the sweater next month

Classical Conditioning

...Classical conditioning is a technique used in behavioral training. A naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response. Then, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response without the presence of the naturally occurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response.

avoidence avoidence

...When a person is simultaneously repelled by two goals (objects, actions, or whatever) and obliged to select one, psychologists call it avoidance-avoidance conflict. For example, you must choose to clean your room or do the dishes. Research shows that as organisms approach an unattractive choice, it becomes more repellent. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts arouse a great deal of anxiety typically, and they are difficult to resolve. People are likely to waver between the unpleasant alternatives and attempt to escape from the conflict altogether.

Punishment more effective

...Why is it that punishment seems to work in some instances, but not in others? Researchers have found a number of factors that contribute to how effective punishment is in different situations. First, punishment is more likely to lead to a reduction in behavior if it immediately follows the behavior. Prison sentences often occur long after the crime has been committed, which may help explain why sending people to jail does not always lead to a reduction in criminal behavior. Second, punishment achieves greater results when it is consistently applied. It can be difficult to administer a punishment every single time a behavior occurs. For example, people often continue to drive over the speed limit even after receiving a speeding ticket. Why? Because the behavior is inconsistently punished

Type C

...e two most frequently noted characteristics of cancer-prone personality are found in Type C personality. Type C personalities are described as suppressing emotional expression, and denying strong emotional reactions; failing to cope successfully with stress, with a reaction of giving up, linked with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness

unconditonal stimulus

...n classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus

health psycology

Health psychology is concerned with understanding how biological, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors are involved in physical health and illness. Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behavior change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct research. Although its early beginnings can be traced to the kindred field of clinical psychology, four different divisions within health psychology and one allied field have developed over time. The four divisions include clinical health psychology, public health psychology, community health psychology, and critical health psychology.[1] The allied field is occupational health psychology. Organizations closely associated with the field of health psychology include Division 38 of the American Psychological Association and the Division of Health Psychology of the British Psychological Society. Recent advances in psychological, medical, and physiological research have led to a new way of thinking about health and illness. This conceptualization, which has been labeled the biopsychosocial model, views health and illness as the product of a combination of factors including biological characteristics (e.g., genetic predisposition), behavioral factors (e.g., lifestyle, stress, health beliefs), and social conditions (e.g., cultural influences, family relationships, social support). Psychologists who strive to understand how biological, behavioral, and social factors influence health and illness are called health psychologists. The term "health psychology" is often used synonymously with the terms "behavioral medicine" and "medical psychology". Health psychologists work with many different health care professionals (e.g., physicians, dentists, nurses, physician's assistants, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists, and chaplains) to conduct research and provide clinical assessments and treatment services. Many health psychologists focus on prevention research and interventions designed to promote health and reduce the risk of disease. While many health psychologists provide clinical services as part of their duties, others function in non-clinical roles, primarily involving teaching and research. Leading journals include Health Psychology, the Journal of Health Psychology, the British Journal of Health Psychology, and Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being. * Clinical health psychology (ClHP) is a term that refers to the application of scientific knowledge, derived from the field of health psychology, to clinical questions that may arise across the spectrum of health care. ClHP is one of many specialty practice area for clinical psychologists. It is also a major contributor to the prevention focused field of behavioral health and the treatment oriented field of behavioral medicine. Clinical practice includes education, the techniques of behavior change, and psychotherapy. In some countries, a clinical health psychologist, with additional training, can become a medical psychologist and, thereby, obtain prescription privileges. * Public health psychology (PHP) is population oriented. A major aim of PHP is to investigate potential causal links between psychosocial factors and health at the population level. Public health psychologists present research results to educators, policy makers, and health care providers in order to promote better public health. PHP is allied to other public health disciplines including epidemiology, nutrition, genetics and biostatistics. Some PHP interventions are targeted toward at-risk population groups (e.g., undereducated, single pregnant women who smoke) and not the population as a whole (e.g., all pregnant women). * Community health psychology (CoHP) investigates community factors that contribute to the health and well-being of individuals who live in communities. CoHP also develops community-level interventions that are designed to combat disease and promote physical and mental health. The community often serves as the level of analysis, and is frequently sought as a partner in health-related interventions. * Critical health psychology (CrHP) is concerned with the distribution of power and the impact of power differentials on health experience and behavior, health care systems, and health policy. CrHP prioritizes social justice and the universal right to health for people of all races, genders, ages, and socioeconomic positions. A major concern is health inequalities. The critical health psychologist is an agent of change, not simply an analyst or cataloger. A leading organization in this area is the International Society of Critical Health Psychology. Health psychology is both a theoretical and applied field. Health psychologists employ diverse research methods. These methods include controlled randomized experiments, quasi-experiments, longitudinal studies, time-series designs, cross-sectional studies, and case-control studies as well as action research. Health psychologists study a broad range of variables including genotype, cardiovascular disease (cardiac psychology), smoking habits, religious beliefs, alcohol use, social support, living conditions, emotional state, social class, and much more. Some health psychologists treat individuals with sleep problems, headaches, alcohol problems, etc. Other health psychologists work to empower community members by helping community members gain control over their health and improve quality of life of entire communities. [edit] Relationship to occupational health psychology A separate but related discipline, occupational health psychology (OHP) is a relatively new field that emerged out of the confluence of health psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and occupational health.[2] The field is concerned with identifying psychosocial characteristics of workplaces that affect the health and well-being of people who work. OHP is also concerned with developing strategies to effect change at workplaces in order to improve the health of people who work. For more detail on OHP, see the entry on occupational health psychology.

Line Judgment Study

The experimenter arrives and tells you that the study in which you are about to participate concerns people's visual judgments. She places two cards before you. The card on the left contains one vertical line. The card on the right displays three lines of varying length. The experimenter asks all of you, one at a time, to choose which of the three lines on the right card matches the length of the line on the left card. The task is repeated several times with different cards. On some occasions the other "participants" unanimously choose the wrong line. It is clear to you that they are wrong, but they have all given the same answer. What would you do? Would you go along with the majority opinion, or would you "stick to your guns" and trust your own eyes? If you where involved in this experiment how do you think you would behave? Would you conform to the majority's viewpoint? Asch Conformity Experiment Asch believed that the main problem with Sherif's (1935) conformity experiment was that there was no correct answer to the ambiguous autokinetic experiment. How could we be sure that a person conformed when there was no correct answer? Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classic experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgment task. If the participant gave an incorrect answer it would be clear that this was due to group pressure. Aim: Solomon Asch (1951) conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. Procedure: Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity, whereby 123 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in a 'vision test'. Using the line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with four to six confederates. The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task. The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven participants were also real participants like themselves. Each person in the room had to state aloud which comparison line (A, B or C) was most like the target line. The answer was always obvious. The real participant sat at the end of the row and gave his or her answer last. In some trials, the seven confederates gave the wrong answer. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trails (called the critical trials). Asch was interested to see if the real participant would conform to the majority view. Asch Conformity Experiment Asch believed that the main problem with Sherif's (1935) conformity experiment was that there was no correct answer to the ambiguous autokinetic experiment. How could we be sure that a person conformed when there was no correct answer? Asch (1951) devised what is now regarded as a classic experiment in social psychology, whereby there was an obvious answer to a line judgment task. If the participant gave an incorrect answer it would be clear that this was due to group pressure. Aim: Solomon Asch (1951) conducted an experiment to investigate the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform. Procedure: Asch used a lab experiment to study conformity, whereby 123 male students from Swarthmore College in the USA participated in a 'vision test'. Using the line judgment task, Asch put a naive participant in a room with four to six confederates. The confederates had agreed in advance what their responses would be when presented with the line task. The real participant did not know this and was led to believe that the other seven participants were also real participants like themselves. Each person in the room had to state aloud which comparison line (A, B or C) was most like the target line. The answer was always obvious. The real participant sat at the end of the row and gave his or her answer last. In some trials, the seven confederates gave the wrong answer. There were 18 trials in total and the confederates gave the wrong answer on 12 trails (called the critical trials). Asch was interested to see if the real participant would conform to the majority view. asch (1951) line study of conformityasch (1951) line study of conformity Results: Asch measured the number of times each participant conformed to the majority view. On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials. Over the 12 critical trials about 75% of participants conformed at least once and 25% of participant never conformed. Conclusion: Why did the participants conform so readily? When they were interviewed after the experiment, most of them said that they did not really believe their conforming answers, but had gone along with the group for fear of being ridiculed or thought "peculiar". A few of them said that they really did believe the group's answers were correct. Apparently, people conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence). Evaluation: All participants were male students who all belonged to the same age group (biased sample). The task (judging line lengths) was artificial (low in ecological validity) as it is unlikely to happen in everyday life. Therefore, it is not similar to a real life situation demonstrating conformity. Finally, there are ethical issues: participants were not protected from psychological stress which may occur if they disagreed with the majority. Asch deceived the student volunteers claiming they were taking part in a 'vision' test; the real purpose was to see how the 'naive' participant would react to the behavior of the confederates. The Asch (1951) study has also been called a child of its time (as conformity was the social norm in 1950's America). The era of individualism, 'doing your own thing', did not take hold until the 1960s. Perrin and Spencer (1980) carried out an exact replication of the original Asch experiment using British engineering, mathematics and chemistry students as participants. The results were clear cut: on only one out of 396 trials did a participant conform with the incorrect majority. This shows the Asch experiment has poor reliability. Factors Increasing Conformity Factors Decreasing Conformity Size of the Group * Conformity tends to increase as the size of the group increases. * However, there is little change in conformity once the group size reaches 4-5. With one other person (i.e. confederate) in the group conformity was 3%, with two others it increased to 13% and with three or more it was 32% (or 1/3). * Because conformity does not seem to increase in groups larger than four, this is considered the optimal group size. Lack of Group Unanimity / Agreement * When one other person in the group gave a different answer from the others, and the group answer was not unanimous, conformity dropped. * Asch (1951) found that even the presence of just one confederate that goes against the majority choice can reduce conformity as much as 80%. * This suggests that individuals conform because they are concerned about what other people think of them (i.e. normative influence). Difficulty of Task * When the (comparison) lines (e.g. A, B, C) were made more similar in length it was harder to judge the correct answer and conformity increased. * When we are uncertain, it seems we look to others for confirmation. The more difficult the task the greater the conformity. Answer in Private * When participants were allowed to answer in private (so the rest of the group do not know their response) conformity decreases. * This is because there is less groups pressure and normative influence is not as powerful, as there is no fear of rejection from the group.

primary appraisal

the first toward a stress appearing which involves estimating the severity , of the stress-or and classifying it as a treat. The three components of primary appraisal are goal relevance, goal congruence, and type of ego-involvement.[1] In the primary appraisal stage, an individual first evaluates an event in terms of personal goal relevance[9] If an event is deemed relevant to an individual's personal goals, an emotion is generated; if not, an emotion will not ensue.[9] Then the individual appraises ongoing events to the extent that the event is congruent or incongruent with the individual's goals.[9] If the goal is congruent, the consequent event will be evaluated as positive. If the goal is incongruent, then negative emotions will be elicited.[9] The specific emotion experienced by the individual depends on the secondary appraisal(s) linked to the primary appraisal

effects of stress on the immune system

... The immune system is a collection of billions of cells that travel through the bloodstream. They move in and out of tissues and organs, defending the body against foreign bodies (antigens), such as bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells. There are two types of lymphocytes: B cells- produce antibodies which are released into the fluid surrounding the body's cells to destroy the invading viruses and bacteria. T cells (see picture opposite) - if the invader gets inside a cell, these (T cells) lock on to the infected cell, multiply and destroy it. immune system The main types of immune cells are white blood cells. There are two types of white blood cells - lymphocytes and phagocytes. When we're stressed, the immune system's ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections. The stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system (e.g. lowers the number of lymphocytes). Stress can also have an indirect effect on the immune system as a person may use unhealthy behavioral coping strategies to reduce their stress, such as drinking and smoking. Stress is linked to: headaches; infectious illness (e.g. 'flu); cardiovascular disease; diabetes, asthma and gastric ulcers. Stress has three main direct effect on illness gastric ulcer stress Stress responses have an effect on digestive system. During stress digestion is inhibited. After stress digestive activity increases. This may affect the health of digestive system and cause ulcers. Adrenaline released during a stress response may also cause ulcers. Stress responses increase strain upon circulatory system due to increased heart rate etc. Stress can also affect the immune system by raising blood pressure. Hypertension (consistently raised blood pressure over several weeks) is a major risk factor in coronary heart disease (CHD) However, CHD may be caused by eating too much salt, drinking too much coffee or alcohol. Stress can also have an indirect effect on illness as it is associated with all manner of bad habits (coping strategies), for example smoking, drinking alcohol to excess, poor diet due to lack of time, lack of exercise for the same reason, lack of sleep etc. All of these are likely to have an adverse effect on a person's health so could cause some of the ill-effects attributed to stress per se. Stress and Immune Function immune system graph Short term suppression of the immune system is not dangerous. However, chronic suppression leaves the body vulnerable to infection and disease. A current example of this is AIDS - Acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Here the immune system is suppressed leaving the vulnerable to illness. Stress would just lead to frequent illness and infections. Stress responses increase strain upon circulatory system due to increased heart rate etc. This may increase a person's risk of developing disorders of the heart and circulation e.g. coronary heart disease (CHD). Individuals with type A personality have a greater risk of developing CHD. Stress responses have an effect on digestive system. During stress digestion is inhibited. After stress digestive activity increases. This may affect the health of digestive system and cause gastric ulcers The executive monkey study by Brady (1958) seems to support this theory. Kiecolt-Glaser et al., (1984) Aim: To investigate whether stress of important examinations has an effect on the functioning of the immune system Procedure: exam * This was a natural experiment. The researchers took blood samples from 75 first year medical students (49 males and 26 females), all of whom were volunteers. * Blood samples were taken: (a) one month before their final examinations (relatively low stress), and (b) during the examinations (high stress) * Immune functioning was assessed by measuring T cell activity in the blood samples. * The students were also given questionnaires to assess psychological variables such as life events and loneliness. Findings: The blood sample taken from the first group (before the exam) contained more t-cells compared with blood samples taken during the exams. t-cell The volunteers were also assessed using behavioral measures. On both occasions they were given questionnaires to assess psychiatric symptoms, loneliness and life events. This was because there are theories which suggest that all 3 are associated with increased levels of stress. Kiecolt-Glaser et al found that immune responses were especially weak in those students who reported feeling most lonely, as well as those who were experiencing other stressful life events and psychiatric symptoms such as depression or anxiety. Conclusion: Stress (of the exam) reduced the effectiveness of the immune system. Evaluation: Difficult to unravel the relationship for certain. Does stress cause illness or does being ill make you more prone to stress? Also many of the studies do not take into account for the other factors which affect people's lives. These can be drugs, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, general health, diet, physical activity, sleep patterns, age and medication. Although many studies try to control these factors it is very unlikely to gain complete control. How to cite this article: McLeod, S. A. (2010). Simply Psychology; Stress and the Immune System. Retrieved 18 April 2012, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/stress-immune.html

"go all the way" in Milgrams Obedience

...The Milgram experiment was one of the most seminal experiments in all of psychology and specifically in social psychology. It was performed by Stanley Milgram at Yale University and the results were published in 1963[1]. The study focused on obedience to authority and showed that people were willing to perform dangerous and even deadly actions against other people under instruction from an authority figure. Milgram wanted to address issues that were central to the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal. Eichmann insisted throughout his trial that he was "only following orders". Milgram asked the question: "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"[2] Milgram recruited 40 men between 20 and 50 to participate in an experiment that would test their willingness to harm another person while "only following orders." he subject was brought into the room and met with another individual they were told was also a volunteer (in actuality it was someone working for the experiment, a confederate). The researcher told both participants they would be participating in an experiment that would test punishment's effects on learning. Then the researcher presented the subject and the confederate each with a piece of paper, which they were told would either say teacher or learner. The subject thought there was a 50 percent chance he would be one or the other, but in reality the subject was always the teacher and the confederate always the learner. Afterwards, the confederate went behind a wall and the subject sat at a desk with what looked like an electric-shock generator. The subject was given a list of words that were paired together. He was instructed to read the word pairs to the other individual and then say the first word and ask what word was paired with it. The subject gave four possible answers and the learner would push a button that would light up in front of the teacher to signify the answer. The teacher was then supposed to give a shock if the answer was wrong, or move on to the next word if correct. For each wrong answer the shock voltage would be turned up a notch. The subject was under the impression a real electric shock was given each time. But in reality no shock was ever administered. Instead the activating of the "electric-shock generator" would play a clip from an audio tape that gave more and more distraught responses. The confederate would, after a few shocks, pound on the wall and complain about a heart condition. A few shocks later the confederate would cease all communications. At various times the subject was likely to protest to the researcher about the experiment, the purpose, or the dangers to the other individual. At any time the researcher would simply offer only one of these responses: 1. Please continue. 2. The experiment requires that you continue. 3. It is absolutely essential that you continue. 4. You have no other choice, you must go on. If the subject still wanted to stop the experiment after all four verbal prods then it would be stopped. If the subject did not stop, the experiment would end after the maximum voltage of 450 volts was administered for the third time. Many people when they first hear about the outline of the experiment often predict only a few people will proceed to the maximum voltage. In fact, Milgram asked 19 psychology majors before the experiment what they thought would happen. The average was that barely over one percent would go all the way. The results are often surprising the first time you see them: 26 out of the 40 participants (65 percent) administered the full shock, and not a single subject stopped before 300 volts. All the subjects, at one point at least, expressed concern, many offering to give back their compensation if they could quit, but with the single sentence prod from the researcher they continued. Of the subjects that did stop early, none checked on the learner, or inquired about their welfare. Several other studies have replicated Milgram's work, with over 60 percent being the standard number of individuals that are willing to deliver a fatal shock

Name of operaant conditioning

...The scientific study of operant conditioning dates from the beginning of the twentieth century with the work of Edward L. Thorndike in the U.S. and C. Lloyd Morgan in the U.K. Graduate student Thorndike's early experimental work, looking at cats escaping from puzzle boxes in William James' basement at Harvard, led to his famous "Law of [Effect]": Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal...will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation...; those which are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort...will have their connections with the situation weakened...The greater the satisfaction or discomfort, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond. (Thorndike, 1911, p. 244) Thorndike soon gave up work with animals and became an influential educator at Columbia Teachers College. But the Law of Effect, which is a compact statement of the principle of operant reinforcement, was taken up by what became the dominant movement in American psychology in the first half of the twentieth century: Behaviorism. The founder of behaviorism was John B. Watson at Johns Hopkins university. His successors soon split into two schools: Clark Hull at Yale and Kenneth Spence at Iowa were neo-behaviorists. They sought mathematical laws for learned behavior. For example, by looking at the performance of groups of rats learning simple tasks such as discrimination the correct arm in a T-maze, they were led to the idea of an exponential learning curve and a learning principle of the form V(t+1) = A(1-V(t)), where V is response strength A is a learning parameter less than one, and t is a small time step. Soon, B. F. Skinner, at Harvard, reacted against Hullian experimental methods (group designs and statistical analysis) and theoretical emphasis, proposing instead his radical a-theoretical behaviorism. The best account of Skinner's method, approach and early findings can be found in a readable article -- "A case history in scientific method" -- that he contributed to an otherwise almost forgotten multi-volume project "Psychology: A Study of a Science" organized on positivist principles by editor Sigmund Koch. (A third major behaviorist figure, Edward Chace Tolman, on the West coast, was close to what would now be called a cognitive psychologist and stood rather above the fray.) Skinner opposed Hullian theory and devised experimental methods that allowed learning animals to be treated much like physiological preparations. He had his own theory, but it was much less elaborate that Hull's and (with one notable exception) he neither derived nor explicitly tested predictions from it in the usual scientific way. Skinner's 'theory' was more an organizing framework than a true theory. It was nevertheless valuable because it introduced an important distinction between reflexive behavior, which Skinner termed elicited by a stimulus, and operant behavior, which he called emitted because when it first occurs (i.e., before it can be reinforced) it is not (he believed) tied to any stimulus. The view of operant behavior as a repertoire of emitted acts from which one is selected by reinforcement, immediately forged a link with the dominant idea in biology: Charles Darwin's natural selection, according to which adaptation arises via selection from a population that contains many heritable variants, some more effective - more likely to reproduce - than others. Skinner and several others noted this connection which has become the dominant view of operant conditioning. Reinforcement is the selective agent, acting via temporal contiguity (the sooner the reinforcer follows the response, the greater its effect), frequency (the more often these pairings occur the better) and contingency (how well does the target response predict the reinforcer). It is also true that some reinforcers are innately more effective with some responses - flight is more easily conditioned as an escape response in pigeons than pecking, for example. Contingency is easiest to describe by example. Suppose we reinforce with a food pellet every 5th occurrence of some arbitrary response such as lever pressing by a hungry lab rat. The rat presses at a certain rate, say 10 presses per minute, on average getting a food pellet twice a minute. Suppose we now give additional food pellets on a random basis, independent of the animal's lever pressing. Will he press more, or less? The answer is less. This is an effect of weakening the contingency (Skinner's usage) between lever pressing and food. Lever pressing is less predictive of food than it was before, because food sometimes occurs at other times. Exactly how all this works is still not understood in full theoretical detail, but the empirical space - the effects on response strength (rate, probability, vigor) of reinforcement delay, rate and contingency - is well mapped.

operanant

...any behavior that is voluntary

learned helplessness

Learned helplessness, as a technical term in animal psychology and related human psychology, means a condition of a human person or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.[1] Organisms which have been ineffective and less sensitive in determining the consequences of their behavior are defined as having acquired learned helplessness.. In Part 1 of Seligman and Steve Maier's experiment, three groups of dogs were placed in harnesses. Group 1 dogs were simply put in the harnesses for a period of time and later released. Groups 2 and 3 consisted of "yoked pairs." A dog in Group 2 would be intentionally subjected to pain by being given electric shocks, which the dog could end by pressing a lever. A Group 3 dog was wired in parallel with a Group 2 dog, receiving shocks of identical intensity and duration, but his lever didn't stop the electric shocks. To a dog in Group 3, it seemed that the shock ended at random, because it was his paired dog in Group 2 that was causing it to stop. For Group 3 dogs, the shock was apparently "inescapable." Group 1 and Group 2 dogs quickly recovered from the experience, but Group 3 dogs learned to be helpless, and exhibited symptoms similar to chronic clinical depression. In Part 2 of the Seligman and Maier experiment, these three groups of dogs were tested in a shuttle-box apparatus, in which the dogs could escape electric shocks by jumping over a low partition. For the most part, the Group 3 dogs, who had previously learned that nothing they did had any effect on the shocks, simply lay down passively and whined. Even though they could have easily escaped the shocks, the dogs didn't try. In a second experiment later that year, Overmier and Seligman ruled out the possibility that the Group 3 dogs learned some behavior in Part 1 of the experiment, while they were struggling in the harnesses against the "inescapable shocks," that somehow interfered with what would have been their normal, successful behavior of escaping from the shocks in Part 2. The Group 3 dogs were immobilized with a paralyzing drug (Curare), and underwent a procedure similar to that in Part 1 of the Seligman and Maier experiment. A similar Part 2 in the shuttle-box was also undertaken in this experiment, and the Group 3 dogs exhibited the same "helpless" response. However, not all of the dogs in Seligman's experiments became helpless. Of the roughly 150 dogs in experiments in the latter half of the 1960s, about one-third did not become helpless, but instead managed to find a way out of the unpleasant situation despite their past experience with it. The corresponding characteristic in humans has been found to correlate highly with optimism: an explanatory style that views the situation as other than personal, pervasive, or permanent. This distinction between people who adapt and those who break down under long-term psychological pressure was also studied in the 1950s in the context of brainwashing.

major life changes

a change in your life like moving ,death.

Pavlov's experiment

...Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian or respondent conditioning, Pavlovian reinforcement) is a form of conditioning and learning[1] that was first demonstrated by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1927).[2] In classical conditioning two stimuli are presented in close succession repeatedly, until the response given to one becomes associated with the other.[3] In the most well known example Pavlov paired the neutral stimulus of a ringing bell with the positive unconditional stimulus of food repeatedly, until the ringing bell caused the dog to salivate. In this example the ringing bell had become a conditional stimulus once it took on the association with food. If two stimuli are always presented together, eventually the organism will respond to the neutral stimuli in the same fashion as the response to the pair of the neutral stimulus and the paired stimulus. This learned consistency is called the conditional response

Taste Aversion

...Conditioned taste aversion[1], also known as Garcia effect (after Dr. John Garcia), and as "Sauce-Bearnaise Syndrome", a term coined by Seligman and Hager,[2] is an example of classical conditioning or Pavlovian conditioning. Conditioned taste aversion occurs when a subject associates the taste of a certain food with symptoms caused by a toxic, spoiled, or poisonous substance. Generally, taste aversion is caused after ingestion of the food causes nausea, sickness, or vomiting. The ability to develop a taste aversion is considered an adaptive trait or survival mechanism that trains the body to avoid poisonous substances (e.g., poisonous berries) before they can cause harm. This association is meant to prevent the consumption of the same substance (or something that tastes similar) in the future, thus avoiding further poisoning. However, conditioned taste aversion sometimes occurs in subjects when sickness was merely coincidental and not related to the food (for example, a subject who gets a cold or the flu shortly after eating bananas might develop an aversion to the taste of bananas) While studying the effects of radiation on various behaviours during the 1950s, Dr. John Garcia noticed that rats developed an aversion to substances consumed prior to being irradiated. To examine this, Garcia put together a study in which three groups of rats were given sweetened water followed by either no radiation, mild radiation, or strong radiation. When rats were subsequently given a choice between sweetened water and regular tap water, rats who had been exposed to radiation drank much less sweetened water than those who had not. Specifically, the total consumption of sweetened water for the no-radiation, mild radiation and strong radiation rats was 80%, 40% and 10%, respectively. This finding ran contrary to much of the learning literature of the time in that the aversion could occur after just a single trial and over a long delay. Garcia proposed that the sweetened water became regarded negatively because of the nausea inducing effects of the radiation, and so began the study of conditioned taste aversion. Many scientists were skeptical of Garcia's findings because it did not follow the basic principles of classical conditioning. However, Garcia replicated his results multiple times. He demonstrated that the particular stimulus used in classical conditioning does matter. An internal stimuli produced an internal response while an external stimuli produced an external response; but an external stimuli would not produce an internal response and vice versa

conformity

...Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms.[1] Norms are implicit rules shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others and among society or social group. This tendency to conform occurs in small groups and/or society as a whole, and may result from subtle unconscious influences, or direct and overt social pressure. Conformity can occur in the presence of others, or when an individual is alone. For example, people tend to follow social norms when eating or watching television, even when alone. People often conform from a desire for security within a group—typically a group of a similar age, culture, religion, or educational status. This is often referred to as group think: a particular way of thinking individuals engage in that succeeds realistic appraisal of other courses of action. Unwillingness to conform carries the risk of social rejection. Conformity is often associated with adolescence and youth culture, but strongly affects humans of all ages.[2] Although peer pressure may manifest negatively, conformity can have good or bad effects depending on the situation. Driving on the correct side of the road could be seen as beneficial conformity.[3] Conformity influences formation and maintenance of social norms, and helps societies function smoothly and predictably via the self-elimination of behaviors seen as contrary to unwritten rules. In this sense it can be perceived as (though not proven to be) a positive force that prevents acts that are perceptually disruptive or dangerous. As conformity is a group phenomenon, factors such as group size, unanimity, cohesion, status, prior commitment, and public opinion help determine the level of conformity an individual displays.

hassles

...Daily hassles (minor irritations). During daily interaction with your environment (which means: living your life) people can run into all sorts of situations that can give stress. You lost your keys, you have social obligations you don't want to go to. You experience noise from your environment. You have not slept well. All items that are not so large to call them life event, but definitely cause stress. The difference between daily hassles and life events is the period of stress; often being disturbed during studying for instance, can give the same amount of stress and anger like any item from the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, but will last much shorter. Life events require larger psychological adaptation than daily hassles, because you have to adapt to a great change in your life. A daily hassle is not a change at all. Traffic congestion at Kosmodamianskaya embankm... Other examples of daily hassles are: to feel alone, fear of rejection, worry about the meaning of life, not enough money for basic maintenance or clothing, worry about owing money, too little time for all obligations, not having slept enough, dissatisfaction with work, not liking your colleagues, traffic, problems with your child, side effects of medication.

double approach

...Double approach-avoidance conflicts have two goals, each with good and bad points. The only available job is dull but will provide income. Should I go out with Agne or lina? Agne is intelligent but hard to talk while Lina is talkative but simple. Like single approach-avoidance conflicts, double approach-avoidance conflicts are anxiety-provoking and hard to resolve. Real conflicts may not fit neatly into these categories because people often face more than two choices. Moreover, when examined closely, all options in a conflict have both positive and negative aspects. At the very least, the selection of any appealing option limits other choices; the adoption of any negative option has an attraction , removing the conflict and the anxiety it generated. In short, life conflicts are likely to be of the approach-avoidance type.

emotion focused coping

...Emotion-focused coping gets a "bad rap" in the research literature, as it is generally found that this kind of coping is not as effective and can contribute to poor health outcomes. Coping by denying the existence of problems, procrastinating, and distracting ourselves through things like spending, smoking, drinking, drugs, sex, and the like may help us feel relatively better in the short run, but can be devastating in the long run to mental and physical health. However, if a situation truly cannot be changed, emotion-focused coping can be appropriate. Acceptance, seeking positive social support, and prayer may not have the power to directly address problems, but can help make us less vulnerable to experiencing all the sensations and thoughts of stress.

eustress

...Eustress is a term coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye which is defined in the model of Richard Lazarus (1974) as stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfillment or other positive feelings. Eustress is a process of exploring potential gains # Meeting or engaging in a challenge. # Coming in first place in a race. # Getting a promotion at your job. # Watching a suspenseful or scary movie. # Love, marriage, Sexual intercourse or childbirth. # Riding a roller coaster. # The holidays. # Engaging in exercise, especially weight training

controlled response

...In classical conditioning, the conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. For example, let's suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in response the the smell is a unconditioned response, and a the sound of a whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle

obdedience

...In human behavior, obedience (or hearsomeness) is 'a form of social influence in which a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure' (Coleman,2006)]] [1][2] Obedience differs from compliance, which is behavior influenced by peers, and from conformity, which is behavior intended to match that of the majority. Obedience can be seen as both a sin and a virtue. For example in a situation when one orders a person to kill another innocent person and he or she does this willingly, it is a sin. However when one orders a person to kill an enemy who will end a lot of innocent lives and he or she does this willingly it can be deemed a virtue. Humans have been shown to be surprisingly obedient in the presence of perceived legitimate authority figures, as shown by the Milgram experiment in the 1960s, which was carried-out by Stanley Milgram to find how the Nazis managed to get ordinary people to take part in the mass murders of the Holocaust. The experiment showed that obedience to authority was the norm, not the exception. A similar conclusion was reached in the Stanford prison experiment.

latent learning

...Latent learning is a form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response; it occurs without obvious reinforcement to be applied later. [1] Latent learning is when an organism learns a new concept in its life, however, the knowledge is not immediately expressed. Instead, it remains dormant, and may not be available to consciousness, until specific events/experiences might need this knowledge to be demonstrated. For instance a child may observe a parent setting the table or tightening a screw, but does not act on this learning for a year; then he finds out later on that he knows how to do these. In a classical experiment, Tolman and C.H. Honzik (1930) placed three groups of rats in mazes and observed their behavior each day for more than two weeks. The rats in Group 1 always found food at the end of the maze; the rats in Group 2 never found food; and the rats in Group 3 found no food for 10 days, but then received food on the eleventh. The Group 1 rats quickly learned to rush to the end of the maze to find their food; Group 2 rats did not learn to go to the end; Group 3 acted as the Group 2 rats until food was introduced on Day 11. Then they quickly learned to run to the end of the maze and did as well as the Group 1 rats by the next day

learning

...Learning is acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves. Learning is not compulsory, it is contextual. It does not happen all at once, but builds upon and is shaped by what we already know. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process,rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge. Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, schooling, or training. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how learning occurs is part of neuropsychology, educational psychology, learning theory, and pedagogy. Learning may occur as a result of habituation or classical conditioning, seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent animals.[1][2] Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness. There is evidence for human behavioral learning prenatally, in which habituation has been observed as early as 32 weeks into gestation, indicating that the central nervous system is sufficiently developed and primed for learning and memory to occur very early on in development.[3] Play has been approached by several theorists as the first form of learning. Children play, experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact. Vygotsky agrees that play is pivotal for children's development, since they make meaning of their environment through play. The context of conversation based on moral reasoning offers some proper observations on the responsibilities of parents.

John B Watson experiment

...One might consider the experiment Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner carried out to be one of the most controversial in psychology in 1920.[says who?] It has become immortalized in introductory psychology textbooks as the Little Albert experiment. The goal of the experiment was to show how principles of, at the time recently discovered, classical conditioning could be applied to condition fear of a white rat into "Little Albert", an 11-month-old boy. Watson and Rayner conditioned "Little Albert" by clanging an iron rod when a white rat was presented. First, they presented to the boy a white rat and observed that he was not afraid of the rodent. Second, they presented him with a white rat and then clanged an iron rod. "Little Albert" responded by crying. This second presentation was repeated several times. Finally, Watson and Rayner presented the white rat by itself and the boy showed fear (to see a video of this study: video). This study demonstrated how emotions could become conditioned responses.[17] As the story of "Little Albert" has made the rounds, inaccuracies and inconsistencies have crept in, some of them even due to Watson himself.[citation needed] An ethical problem of this study is that Watson and Rayner did not uncondition "Little Albert".[18] In 2009, Beck, Levinson, and Irons sought out "Little Albert" to see how Watson's study affected his life. They found that he had died from hydrocephalus at the age of 6. Thus, we[who?] cannot conclude to what extent this study had an effect on "Little Albert's" life.[19] On 25 Jan. 2012, Tom Bartlett of The Chronicle of Higher Education published a report that questions whether John Watson knew of cognitive abnormalities in Little Albert that would greatly skew the results of the experiment

optimism

...Optimism is a mental attitude that interprets situations and events as being best (optimized), meaning that in some way for factors that may not be fully comprehended, the present moment is in an optimum state. The concept is typically extended to include the attitude of hope for future conditions unfolding as optimal as well. The more broad concept of optimism is the understanding that all of nature, past, present and future, operates by laws of optimization along the lines of Hamilton's principle of optimization in the realm of physics. This understanding, although criticized by counter views such as pessimism, idealism and realism, leads to a state of mind that believes everything is as it should be, and that the future will be as well. A common idiom used to illustrate optimism versus pessimism is a glass with water at the halfway point, where the optimist is said to see the glass as half full, but the pessimist sees the glass as half empty. The word is originally derived from the Latin optimum, meaning "best." Being optimistic, in the typical sense of the word, ultimately means one expects the best possible outcome from any given situation. This is usually referred to in psychology as dispositional optimism. Researchers sometimes operationalize the term differently depending on their research, however. For example, Martin Seligman and his fellow researchers define it in terms of explanatory style, which is based on the way one explains life events. As for any trait characteristic, there are several ways to evaluate optimism, such as various forms of the Life Orientation Test, for the original definition of optimism, or the Attributional Style Questionnaire designed to test optimism in terms of explanatory style. While the heritability of optimism is largely debatable, most researchers agree that it seems to be a biological trait to some small degree, but it is also thought that optimism has more to do with environmental factors, making it a largely learned trait.[1] It has also been suggested that optimism could appear to be a hereditary trait because it is actually a manifestation of combined traits that are mostly heritable, like intelligence and temperament.[2] Optimism may also be linked to health

pessimism

...Pessimism is a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. Value judgments may vary dramatically between individuals, even when judgments of fact are undisputed. The most common example of this phenomenon is the "Is the glass half empty or half full?" situation. The degree in which situations like these are evaluated as something good or something bad can be described in terms of one's optimism or pessimism respectively. Throughout history, the pessimistic disposition has had effects on all major areas of thinking. Through history, some have concluded that a pessimistic attitude, although justified, must be avoided in order to endure. Optimistic attitudes are favored and of emotional consideration.[10] Al-Ghazali and William James have rejected their pessimism after suffering psychological, or even psychosomatic illness. Criticisms of this sort however assume that pessimism leads inevitably to a mood of darkness and utter depression. Many philosophers would disagree, claiming that the term "pessimism" is being abused. The link between pessimism and nihilism is present, but the former does not necessarily lead to the latter, as philosophers such as Albert Camus believed. Happiness is not inextricably linked to optimism, nor is pessimism inextricably linked to unhappiness. One could easily imagine an unhappy optimist, and a happy pessimist. Accusations of pessimism may be used to silence legitimate criticism. The economist Nouriel Roubini was largely dismissed as a pessimist, for his dire but accurate predictions of a coming global financial crisis, in 2006. Personality Plus opines that pessimistic temperaments (e.g. melancholy and phlegmatic) can be useful inasmuch as pessimists' focus on the negative helps them spot problems that people with more optimistic temperaments (e.g. choleric and sanguine) miss.

primary reinforcer

...Primary reinforcers A primary reinforcer, sometimes called an unconditioned reinforcer, is a stimulus that does not require pairing to function as a reinforcer and most likely has obtained this function through the evolution and its role in species' survival.[7] Examples of primary reinforcers include sleep, food, air, water, and sex. Some primary reinforcers, such as certain drugs, may mimic the effects of other primary reinforcers. While these primary reinforcers are fairly stable through life and across individuals, the reinforcing value of different primary reinforcers varies due to multiple factors (e.g., genetics, experience). Thus, one person may prefer one type of food while another abhors it. Or one person may eat lots of food while another eats very little. So even though food is a primary reinforcer for both individuals, the value of food as a reinforcer differs between them

problem focused coping

...Problem-focused coping is the category of coping strategies that change stressful situations. In contrast, emotion-focused coping is aimed at changing our negative feelings about stressful situations, and meaning-focused coping is aimed at drawing positive emotion out of stressful circumstances. Problem-focused coping is generally found in research to be the most positive to overall health. Doing things like active, planful problem-solving, seeking specific kinds of assistance from others to help us work on change (such as information, financial support, or expertise), and asserting opinions and boundaries lead people to not only change their circumstances, but also (as a kind of "side effect") feel more empowered. This kind of coping is appropriate when there are elements of a stressful situation that we have actual influence over - that is, they are changeable. When we apply problem-focused coping to stress that can't be changed, we tend to feel frustrated, defeated, or disillusioned.

Wrong using sever punishment

...Punishment also has some notable drawbacks. First, any behavior changes that result from punishment are often temporary. "Punished behavior is likely to reappear after the punitive consequences are withdrawn," Skinner explained in his book About Behaviorism. Perhaps the greatest drawback is the fact that punishment does not actually offer any information about more appropriate or desired behaviors. While subjects might be learning to not perform certain actions, they are not really learning anything about what they should be doing. Another thing to consider about punishment is that it can have unintended and undesirable consequences. For example, while approximately 75 percent of parents in the United States report spanking their children on occasion, researcher have found that this type of physical punishment can lead to antisocial behavior, aggressiveness and delinquency among children. For this reason, Skinner and other psychologists suggest that any potential short-term gains from using punishment as a behavior modification tool need to be weighed again the potential long-term consequences.

social psychology

...Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.[1][page needed] By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all psychological variables that are measurable in a human being. The statement that others' presence may be imagined or implied suggests that we are prone to social influence even when no other people are present, such as when watching television, or following internalized cultural norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations. In Kurt Lewin's conceptual formula, behavior (B) can be viewed as a function (f) of the person (P) in the environment (E), B = f(P, E).[2][page needed] In general, social psychologists have a preference for laboratory-based, empirical findings. Social psychology theories tend to be specific and focused, rather than global and general. Social psychology is an interdisciplinary domain that bridges the gap between psychology and sociology. During the years immediately following World War II, there was frequent collaboration between psychologists and sociologists.[3] However, the two disciplines have become increasingly specialized and isolated from each other in recent years, with sociologists focusing on "macro variables" (e.g., social structure) to a much greater extent. Nevertheless, sociological approaches to social psychology remain an important counterpart to psychological research in this area. In addition to the split between psychology and sociology, there has been a somewhat less pronounced difference in emphasis between American social psychologists and European social psychologists. As a broad generalization, American researchers traditionally have focused more on the individual, whereas Europeans have paid more attention to group level phenomena (see group dynamics

Shaping

...The differential reinforcement of successive approximations, or more commonly, shaping is a conditioning procedure used primarily in the experimental analysis of behavior. It was introduced by B.F. Skinner[1] with pigeons and extended to dogs, dolphins, humans and other species. In shaping, the form of an existing response is gradually changed across successive trials towards a desired target behavior by rewarding exact segments of behavior. Skinner's explanation of shaping was this: We first give the bird food when it turns slightly in the direction of the spot from any part of the cage. This increases the frequency of such behavior. We then withhold reinforcement until a slight movement is made toward the spot. This again alters the general distribution of behavior without producing a new unit. We continue by reinforcing positions successively closer to the spot, then by reinforcing only when the head is moved slightly forward, and finally only when the beak actually makes contact with the spot. ... The original probability of the response in its final form is very low; in some cases it may even be zero. In this way we can build complicated operants which would never appear in the repertoire of the organism otherwise. By reinforcing a series of successive approximations, we bring a rare response to a very high probability in a short time. ... The total act of turning toward the spot from any point in the box, walking toward it, raising the head, and striking the spot may seem to be a functionally coherent unit of behavior; but it is constructed by a continual process of differential reinforcement from undifferentiated behavior, just as the sculptor shapes his figure from a lump of clay. the reinforcement of simple tamp in behavior that lead to a desired, more complex behavior

Law of effect

...The law of effect basically states that "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation."[1] Thorndike came up with the demonstration of the law of effect and Ogden hurried forward to say that after all a dynamical account of such relationships is preferable and that the retroaction of satistaction simply means that a total temporal integration is most firmly established with it has completed itself. An example is often portrayed in drug addiction training. When a person uses a substance for the first time, they are more likely to feel the need when in the same situation at a later time to use that substance again. Over time, the person will only have to be in the same place for them to feel the need to take a drug. Over time, the person will also develop a tolerance, increasing dosage of the drug when used, making it dangerous for the user should they chose to take the drug in another context

Type B

...The theory describes Type B individuals as perfect contrast to those with Type A personalities. People with Type B personalities are generally apathetic, patient, relaxed, easy-going, no sense of time schedule, having poor organization skills, and at times lacking an overriding sense of urgency. These individuals tend to be sensitive of other people's feelings

punishment removal

...This type of punishment is also known as "punishment by removal." Negative punishment involves taking away a desirable stimulus after a behavior as occurred. For example, when the student from the previous example talks out of turn again, the teacher promptly tells the child that he will have to miss recess because of his behavior.

single approach

...When a person is attracted to and repelled by one goal we have a single approach-avoidance conflict. A single option, in other words, has a bittersweet quality. For example, an otherwise appealing career may require a lot of education. A luxurious car is costly. Should I have the dentist take care of my cavity? These conflicts also are difficult to resolve and generates much anxiety.

cognitive meditational theory

...initial cognitive appraisial of a situation determines what emotion we will feel in that situation . Your appraisal of your emotion determines your specific emotion. control your emotions determine how we perceive situations in life. example: student thinks she will get a poor grade cause the teacher doesn't like her. Fear of bear if bear gets killed.

conidtioned stimulus

...n classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. For example, suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus and a feeling of hunger is the unconditioned response. Now, imagine that when you smelled your favorite food, you also heard the sound of a whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times with the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the conditioned response. In this case, the sound of the whistle is the conditioned stimulus.

neutral stimulus

...neutral stimulus is a stimulus which initially produces no specific response other than focusing attention. In classical conditioning, when used together with an unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus

variable ratio

...occur when a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a high steady rate of responding. Gambling and lottery games are good examples of a reward based on a variable ratio schedule

variable interval

...occur when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. This schedule produces a slow,

social norms

...ocial norms are described by sociologist as being laws that govern society's behaviors [1]. Although these norms are not considered to be formal laws within society all time time, they still work to promote a great deal of social control [2]. Social norms can be enforced formally (e.g., through sanctions) or informally (e.g., through body language and non-verbal communication cues [3]. If people do not follow these norms then they become labeled as deviants and this can lead to them being considered the outcast of society [4]. It is important to note that what is considered "normal" is relative to the location of the culture in which the social interaction is taking place [5]. Norms in every culture create conformity that allows for people to become socialized to the culture in which they live [6]. Sociology's theorists such as Talcott Parsons and Karl Marx have both come up with theories for why they believe norms are needed in society [7]. According to Parsons of the functionalist school, norms dictate the interactions of people in all social encounters [8]. On the other hand, Marx believes that norms are used to promote the creation of roles in society which allows for people of different levels of social class structure to be able to function properly [9]. Marx claims that this power dynamic creates social order [10]. As social beings, individuals learn when and where it is appropriate to say certain things, to use certain words, to discuss certain topics or wear certain clothes, and when it is not. Thus, knowledge about cultural norms is important for impressions, [11] which is an individual's regulation of their nonverbal behavior. One also comes to know through experience what types of people he/she can and cannot discuss certain topics with or wear certain types of dress around [12]. Typically, this knowledge is derived through experience (i.e. social norms are learned through social interaction) [13]. An example of the need to police his or her behavior would be when people go to a job interview in the white collar work force and dress properly in order to give a great first impression so that they get the job

fixed ratio

...re those where a response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses. This schedule produces a high, steady rate of responding with only a brief pause after the delivery of the reinforcer

Type A

..Type A The theory describes a Type A individual as ambitious, rigidly organized, highly status conscious, can be sensitive, care for other people, are truthful, impatient, always try to help others, take on more than they can handle, want other people to get to the point, proactive, and obsessed with time management. People with Type A personalities are often high-achieving "workaholics" who multi-task, push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence. Under Psychodynamic theory (derived from Freudian Psychology), Type A personality is related to Anal retentiveness. In his 1996 book, Type A Behavior: Its Diagnosis and Treatment, Friedman suggests that Type A behavior is expressed in three major symptoms: free-floating hostility, which can be triggered by even minor incidents; time urgency and impatience, which causes irritation and exasperation usually described as being "short-fused"; and a competitive drive, which causes stress and an achievement-driven mentality. The first of these symptoms is believed to be covert and therefore less observable, while the other two are more overt .

4 elements of observational learning

Albert Bandura called the process of social learning modeling and gave four conditions required for a person to successfully model the behavior of someone else: * Attention to the model - In order for the behavior to be learned, the observer must pay attention to the modeled behavior. Novel situations tend to draw more attention. * Retention of details - The observer must be able to recall the modeled behavior. * Motor reproduction - The observer must have the motor skills to reproduce the action. * Motivation and opportunity - The observer must be motivated to carry out the action they have observed and remembered, and must have the opportunity to do so. Motivations may include past reinforcement, promised incentives, and vicarious reinforcement. Punishment may discourage repetition of the behavior.[1]

higher ordered conditioning

In classical conditioning, second-order conditioning or higher-order conditioning is a form of learning in which a stimulus is first made meaningful or consequential for an organism through an initial step of learning, and then that stimulus is used as a basis for learning about some new stimulus. For example, an animal might first learn to associate a bell with food (first-order conditioning), but then learn to associate a light with the bell (second-order conditioning). Honeybees show second-order conditioning during proboscis extension reflex conditioning[1]. Third order conditioning can then follow with a further stimulus being added and the response elicited can be weak. Also known as shaping behavior. Often related to B. F. Skinner's studies with pigeons. Another example would be Skinner first conditioned a pigeon to walk up to a ball, then conditioning it to touch the ball with its beak. He would thus use a second-order to shape the animal's behavior. Often used with biological predispositions

distress

In medicine, distress is an aversive state in which a person is unable to adapt completely to stressors and their resulting stress and shows maladaptive behaviors.[1] It can be evident in the presence of various phenomena, such as inappropriate social interaction (e.g., aggression, passivity, or withdrawal). Stress can be created by influences such as work, school, peers or co-workers, family and death. Other influences vary upon age. This means that distress is the opposite of eustress, a positive stress that motivates us. People under constant distress are more likely to become sick, mentally or physically. People often find ways of dealing with distress, in both negative and positive ways. Examples of positive ways are listening to music, calming exercises, sports and similar healthy distractions. Negative ways can include but are not limited to use of drugs including alcohol, and expression of anger, which are likely to lead to complicated social interactions, thus causing increased distress

Pavlov

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russian: Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов; September 26 [O.S. September 14] 1849 - February 27, 1936) was a famous Russian physiologist. From his childhood days Pavlov demonstrated intellectual brilliance along with a superhuman energy which he named "the instinct for research".[1] Inspired when the progressive ideas which D. I. Pisarev, the most eminent of the Russian literary critics of the 1860s and I. M. Sechenov, the father of Russian physiology, were spreading, Pavlov abandoned his religious career and decided to devote his life to science. In 1870 he enrolled in the physics and mathematics faculty at the University of Saint Petersburg to take the course in natural science.[2] Ivan Pavlov devoted his life to the study of physiology and sciences; making several remarkable discoveries and ideas that were passed on from generation to generation.[3] His efforts did pay off in fact, as he won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1904. [1] Contents [hide]

punishment by application

Positive Punishment: This type of punishment is also known as "punishment by application." Positive punishment involves presenting an aversive stimulus after a behavior as occurred. For example, when a student talks out of turn in the middle of class, the teacher might scold the child for interrupting her.

secondary appraisal

estimation of the resources available for coping with the stessor. (social support,money ,time,energy, ability. The secondary appraisal stage deals with coping options in which the individual considers a causal attribution for the event, ways to respond, and future consequences of different plans of action.[9][1] The three components of secondary appraisal are accountability (blame or credit), coping potential (problem-focused or emotion-focused), and future expectation

stressor

stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, an external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism. An event that triggers the stress response may include for example: * environmental stressors (elevated sound levels, over-illumination, overcrowding) * daily stress events (e.g. traffic, lost keys) * life changes (e.g. divorce, bereavement) * workplace stressors (e.g. role strain, lack of control) * physical stressors (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, drugs) Stressors have a chemical reaction inside of the body. A harmful stressor is detected by the brain, and from which a elemental decision patter occurs. Initially, the stressor is detected and then transferred to hypothalamus. Then a flow follows of the following steps: crf (conticotrophin release factor) -> pituitary gland releases "acth" (adrenocorticotropic hormone) ->adrenal cortex secretes various stress hormones (e.g. cortisol) ->stress hormones (30 varieties) travel inblood stream to relevant organs e.g. glands, heart, intestines. ->flight or fight response. Between this flow there is an alternate path that can be taken after hypothalamus leading to sympathetic nervous system. After which, the adrenal mudulla secretes epinephrine.