AP Psychology Unit 3 Notes: Development & Learning-

Module 3.1-
Module 3.2a-
What is developmental psychology?
a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span

What three issues have engaged developmental psychologists?

 Nature & Nurture: How does our genetic inheritance (nature) interact with experiences (nurture) to
influence our development?
 Continuity & Stages: What parts of development are gradual and continuous and what parts change
abruptly in separate stages?
 Stability & Change: Which of our traits persist through life? How do we change as we age?

How do genes form our nature?

 The gene combination created by the merging of our mother's egg with our father's sperm helped form us as
individuals.
 Genes predispose both our shared humanity and our individual differences.

How does our environment shape our nurture?

 But our experiences also form us, in the womb and in the world.
 Even differences rooted in our nature may be strengthened by our nurture.
 We are not formed by either nature or nurture, but by their interrelationships- their interaction.
 Biological, psychological, and social-cultural forces interact.

Does growth happen continuously or in stages?

 Do adults differ from infants as a giant redwood differs from its seedling—a difference created by gradual,
cumulative growth?
 Or do they differ as a butterfly differs from a caterpillar— a difference of distinct stages?

Are both stability and change important?

 Life requires both stability and change.
 Stability provides our identity, enabling us to depend on others and on ourselves.
 Our potential for change gives us our hope for a brighter future, allowing us to adapt and grow with
experience.

What are teratogens?

 ("monster makers") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during
prenatal development and cause harm

Examples of teratogens
 alcohol consumption by the mother
 tobacco uses by the mother
 drug use (cocaine meth, etc.) by the mother
 viruses contracted by the mother
 certain medications taken by the mother

How does alcohol impact the fetus?

 A pregnant woman never smokes or drinks alone. When alcohol enters her bloodstream, and that of her
fetus, it reduces activity in both their central nervous systems.

What are the implications for the fetus when the mother drinks during pregnancy?
 Alcohol use during pregnancy may prime the woman's offspring to like alcohol and put them at risk for heavy
drinking and alcohol use disorder during their teen years.
 In experiments, when pregnant rats drank alcohol, their young offspring later displayed a liking for alcohol's
taste and odor. (Youngentob et al., 2007, 2009)
What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
For 1 in about 700 children, the effects are visible as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), the most serious of all
fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, marked by lifelong physical and mental abnormalities. (May et al., 2014)
What adaptive reflexes is the newborn equipped with?
 When something touches their cheek, babies turn toward that touch, open their mouth, and vigorously root
for a nipple. Finding one, they automatically close on it and begin sucking
 Other adaptive reflexes include the startle reflex (when arms and legs spring out, quickly followed by fist
clenching and loud crying) and the surprisingly strong grasping reflex, both of which may have helped
infants stay close to their caregivers.

What is habituation and how is it used to study infants?

 decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
 As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away
sooner. The novel stimulus gets attention when first presented. With repetition, the response weakens.
 This seeming boredom with familiar stimuli gives us a way to ask infants what they see and remember.

What is maturation?
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience

How does the brain develop during infancy?

 In humans, the brain is immature at birth. As the child matures, the neural networks grow increasingly
complex.

What does the research show about brain development in infancy and childhood?
 This rapid development helps explain why infant brain size increases rapidly in the early days after birth.
(Holland et al., 2014)
 From ages 3 to 6, the most rapid growth was in frontal lobes, which enable rational planning. During those
years, the child brain requires vast amounts of energy (Kuzawa et al., 2014)
 This energy-intensive process caused rapid progress in your ability to control your attention and behavior.
(Garon et al., 2008, Thompson-Schill et al., 2009)

association areas
 The brain's association areas- those linked with thinking, memory, and language were the last cortical areas
to develop and mental abilities surged (Chugani & Phelps, 1986, Thatcher et al., 1987)

How do we form and prune neural connections?

 Fiber pathways supporting agility, language, and self-control proliferate into puberty.
 Under the influence of adrenal hormones, tens of billions of synapses form and organize, while a use-it-or-
lose-it pruning process shuts down unused links. (Paus et al., 1999; Thompson et al., 2000)

What is the sequence of motor development?

 Sit, crawl, walk, run-the sequence of these motor development milestones is the same the world around,
though babies reach them at varying ages.

What does research show about our ability to retain early memories?
 Studies suggest that we consciously recall little from before age 4. Mice and monkeys also forget their early
life, as rapid neuron growth disrupts the circuits that stored old memories. (Akers et al., 2014)
 But as children mature, infantile amnesia wanes, and they become increasingly capable of remembering
experiences, even for a year or more. (Bauer & Larkina, 2014, Morris et al., 2010)
 The brain areas underlying memory, such as the hippocampus and frontal lobes, continue to mature during
and after adolescence. (Luby et al., 2016, Murty et al., 2016)

Do infants have nonverbal memory?

 Researcher Carolyn Rovee-Collier observed nonverbal infant memory in action. Her colicky 2-month-old,
Benjamin, could be calmed by moving a crib mobile.
 Weary of hitting the mobile, she strung a cloth ribbon connecting the mobile to Benjamin's foot. Soon, he
was kicking his foot to move the mobile.

Module 3.2b-
What is adolescence?
 the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
adolescence
 It’s a time when teens crave social acceptance but often feel socially disconnected. Three in four U.S.
friendships started in seventh grade dissolve by the time adolescents complete eighth grade (Hartl et al,
2015)

Looking back on adolescence....

 After age 30, many who grow up in independence-fostering Western cultures look back on their teenage
years as a time they would not want to relive—a time when their peers' social approval was imperative, their
sense of direction in life was in flux, and their feeling of alienation from their parents was deepest (Arnett,
1999; Macfarlane, 1964)

What is puberty?
 the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
 Just as in the earlier life stages, the sequence of physical changes in puberty (for example, breast buds and
visible pubic hair before menarche- the first menstrual period in girls, or spermarche, the first ejaculation in
boys) is far more predictable than their timing
 Some girls start their growth spurt at 9, some boys as late as age 16.

How does early maturation impact boys?

 For boys, early maturation has mixed effects.
 Boys who are stronger and more athletic during their early teen years tend to be more popular, self-assured,
and independent, though also more at risk for alcohol use, delinquency, and premature
 sexual activity, and risk-taking. (Conley & Rudolph, 2009, Copeland et al., 2010; Lynne et al, 2007).

How does early maturation impact girls?

 For girls, early maturation can be a challenge. (Mendle et al., 2007)
 If a young girl's body and hormone-fed feelings are out of sync with her emotional maturity and her friends'
physical development and experiences, she may begin associating with older adolescents, suffer teasing or
sexual harassment, and experience increased rumination with anxiety or depression. (Alloy et al, 2016; Ge
& Natsuaki, 2009; Weingarden & Renshaw, 2012)

How does the brain change during puberty?

 An adolescent's brain is still a work in progress. Until puberty, brain cells increase their connections, like
trees growing more roots and branches. Then, during adolescence, comes a selective pruning of unused
neurons and connections. (Blakemore, 2008)

How do the frontal lobes develop?

 As teens mature, their frontal lobes also continue to develop
 The continuing growth of myelin, the fatty tissue that forms around axons and speeds neurotransmission,
enables better communication with other brain regions.
 These developments bring improved judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning

How do adolescents think?

 During the early teen years, reasoning is often self-focused.
 Adolescents may think their private experiences are unique, something parents just could not understand:
"But, Mom, you don't really know how it feels to be in love".
 Capable of thinking about their own thinking, and about other people's thinking, they also begin imagining
what others are thinking about them.

How does reasoning change in later adolescence?

 When adolescents achieve the intellectual summit that Jean Piaget called the formal operational stage,
they apply their new abstract reasoning tools to the world around them.
 Adolescents may think about what is ideally possible and compare that with the imperfect reality of their
society, their parents, and themselves.
 Older teens may debate human nature, good and evil, truth and justice.

demonstrating reasoning ability

 Although on opposite sides of the immigration policy debate, these teens are all demonstrating their ability to
think logically about abstract topics.
 According to Piaget, they are in the final cognitive stage, formal operations.

What research has been conducted on moral development?

  Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas (for example, the Heinz dilemma which questioned
whether a person should steal medicine to save a loved one's life) and asked children, adolescents, and
adults whether the action was right or wrong.
 His analysis of their answers led him to propose three basic levels of moral thinking: preconventional,
conventional, and post-conventional

KOHLBERG'S STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Level Stages
Level 1: Stage 1: Obedience and punishment
Pre-conventional Actions judged by consequences - avoid punishment
Morality Stage 2: Self-interest
(before age 9) "What's in it for me?" - seek rewards

Level 2: Stage 3: Good interpersonal relationships

Conventional Being "good" to gain approval from others
Morality Stage 4: Law and order
(early adolescence) Following societal rules and maintaining order

Level 3: Stage 5: Social contract

Post-conventional Understanding rules as changeable social agreements
Morality Stage 6: Universal principles
(adolescence and Following universal ethical principles and personal
beyond) conscience

Are there criticisms of Kohlberg?

 Kohlberg's critics have noted that his post-conventional stage is culturally limited, appearing mostly among
people from large societies that prize individualism. (Barrett et al., 2016, Eckensberger, 1994; Miller &
Bersoft, 1995)

Carol Gilligan on Lawrence Kohlberg's theory

 Research by Carol Gilligan and her colleagues suggests that this ladder of moral development describes
Western individualist males more than relationship-oriented females.
 Gilligan challenged Kohlberg's findings which were drawn from data collected by wealthy middle-class males
and did not reflect female moral development.

What is moral intuition?

 Psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes that much of our morality is rooted in moral intuitions-"quick gut
feelings, or affectively laden intuitions.
 According to this intuitionist view, the mind makes moral judgments in much the same way that it makes
aesthetic judgments-quickly and automatically.
 Feelings of disgust or of elation trigger moral reasoning, says Haidt.

Module 3.3a-
What is the difference between sex and gender?
 Sex: the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male and female.
For instance, different genitals, different levels and types of hormones dictate sex.
 Gender: the socially influenced characteristics by which people define boy, girl, man, and woman
For instance, time spent doing housework, the sports played, the toys chosen indicate gender.

How are women and men alike?

 Whether male or female, each of us receives 23 chromosomes from our mother and 23 chromosomes from
our father. Of those 46 chromosomes, 45 are unisex-the same for males and females.
 Our similar biology helped our evolutionary ancestors face similar adaptive challenges.
 Both men and women needed to survive, reproduce, and avoid predators, and so today we are in most ways
alike.

Are we more similar?

 Identify yourself as male or female and you give no clues to your vocabulary, happiness, or ability to see,
learn, and remember.
  Males and females, on average, have comparable creativity and intelligence and feel the same emotions
and longings. (Hyde, 2014)
 Our "opposite" sex is, in reality, our very similar sex.

How is she different from he?

 The average girl enters puberty about a year earlier than the average boy, and a woman's life span is 5
years longer.
 She expresses emotions more freely, smiling and crying more, and, in Facebook updates, more often
expresses “love" and being "sooo excited!!!" (Fischer & LaFrance, 2015; Schwartz et al., 2013)
 She can detect fainter odors, receives offers of help more often, and can become sexually re-aroused
sooner after orgasm.
 She has 2x the risk of developing depression and anxiety and 10x the risk of developing an eating disorder.

How is he different from she?

 The average man is 4 times more likely to die by suicide or to develop an alcohol use disorder.
 His "more likely" list also includes autism spectrum disorder, color-deficient vision, and
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
 As an adult, he is more at risk for antisocial personality disorder.

What is the difference between aggression and relational aggression?

 Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally
 Relational aggression: an act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person's relationship
or social standing

How do girls tend to connect socially?

 Females tend to be more interdependent. In childhood, girls usually play in small groups, often with one
friend.

How do boys tend to connect socially?

 As children, males typically form large play groups that brim with activity and competition, with little intimate
discussion. (Rose & Rudolph, 2006)

How do some women's relationships vary from some men's?

 Bonds and feelings of support are stronger among women than among men. (Rossi & Rossi, 1993)
 Women's ties— as mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and grandmothers-bind families together. As friends,
women talk more often and more openly. (Berndt, 1992; Dindia & Allen, 1992)
 And how do they cope with stress? Compared with men, women are more likely to turn to others for support.
They are said to tend and befriend (Tames et al., 2002; Taylor, 2002)
How do differences in perception impact workplace bias?
 Among politicians who seem power-hungry, women are less successful than men.
 Power behaviors of women are often met with criticism and disdain while the same behaviors in men are
received with enthusiasm and support.

How do differences in salary impact workplace gender bias?

 Women in traditionally male occupations have received less than their male colleagues. (Willett et al., 2015)

How do family-care responsibilities impact workplace gender bias?

 U.S. mothers still do nearly twice as much child care as fathers. In the workplace, women are less often
driven by money and status, compromise more, and more often opt for reduced work hours.

interaction styles
 Men are more likely to offer opinions.
 Women are more likely to express support. (Aries, 1987; Wood, 1987)

How might everyday behavior reflect gender bias in the workplace?

 Everyday behavior: Men are more likely to talk assertively, interrupt, initiate touches, and stare. Women
smile and apologize more than men. (Leaper & Ayres, 2007; Major et al., 1990, Schumann & Ross, 2010)
What is a role?
 a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

What is the difference between gender roles and gender identity?

 Gender roles: a set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for males or for females
  Gender identity: our sense of being male, female, some combination of the two, or neither (gender neutral)

Much of what we believed about gender roles is changing.

 At the beginning of the twentieth century, only one country in the world-New Zealand— granted women the
right to vote. (Briscoe, 1997) By 2015, all countries granted that right.
 A century ago, if a woman worked for pay, she would more likely have been a midwife or a seamstress than
a surgeon or a college professor. Now, more U.S. women than men graduate from college, and nearly half
the workforce is female. (DOL, 2015)

What is social learning theory?

 the theory that we learn social gender behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or
punished

What is gender typing?

 the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

Do parents matter in the development of gender roles?

 Parents do help to transmit their culture's views on gender.
 In one analysis of 43 studies (meta-analysis), parents with traditional gender views were more likely to have
gender-typed children who shared their culture's expectations about how males and females should act.
(Tenenbaum & Leaper, 2002)
 When fathers share equally in housework, their daughters develop higher aspirations for work outside the
home. (Croft et al., 2014)

Is there another option?

 Rather than conform to restrictive gender roles and norms, many prefer to embrace androgyny, a blend of
male and female roles.
 Androgyny has benefits. As adults, androgynous people are more adaptable. They are more flexible in their
actions and in their career choices (Bem, 1993) They tend to be more resilient and self-accepting, and they
experience less depression. (Lam & McBride-Chang, 2007; Mosher & Danoff-Burg, 2008; Ward, 2000).

How do children decipher gender roles without even being taught?

 Once children grasp that two sorts of people exist— and that they are of one of these two sorts-they search
for clues about gender.
 In every culture, people communicate their gender in many ways. Their gender expression drops hints not
only in their language (men are handsome, women are beautiful) but also in their clothing, interests (daddy
golfs, mommy bakes), and possessions.

How does this impact behavior?

 Armed with their newly collected "proof," they then adjust their behaviors to fit their concept of gender.
 These stereotypes are most rigid at about age 5 or 6.
 If a new neighbor moves in and is a girl, a 6-year-old boy may assume he cannot share her interests.
 For young children, gender looms large.

What is transgender?
 an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with
their birth-designated sex
 Even as 5- to 12-year-olds, transgender children typically view themselves in terms of their expressed
gender rather than their birth-designated sex. (Olson et al., 2015)

To whom are transgendered people attracted?

 Note that gender identity is distinct from sexual orientation (the direction of one's sexual attraction).
 Transgender people may be sexually attracted to people of the other gender (heterosexual), the same
gender (homosexual), both genders (bisexual), or to no one at all (asexual).

Module 3.3b-
Module 3.3c-
Module 3.4-
Once conscious, how does the mind grow?
 Developmental psychologist Jean Piaget [pee-ah-ZHAY] spent his life searching for the answer.
 He studied the development of children's cognition-all the mental activities associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and communicating.

What was Piaget's belief about cognitive development?

 Piaget's studies led him to believe that a child's mind develops through a series of stages, in an upward
march from the newborn's simple reflexes to the adult's abstract reasoning power.
 For example, an 8-year-old can comprehend things a toddler cannot, and an adult can understand nuances
and abstract concepts that a child cannot.

How do we make sense of our experiences?

 Piaget's core idea was that our intellectual progression reflects an unceasing struggle to make sense of our
experiences.
 To this end, the maturing brain builds schemas, concepts or mental molds into which we pour our
experiences.

What is a schema?
 A schema (or an idea, belief, definition or model) for "doggy" might include: four legs, furry coat, long tail,
wet tongue, cold nose, friendly, and fun.

How does a child add new items to existing schemas?

 When first seeing a "cat", a child may think of it in relation to their schema of "doggy"...four legs, furry, long
tail, cold nose... and assimilate (or add) this new example into their existing schema.

What if a new example doesn't fit our existing schema?

 If the new example does not quite fit the schema, we receive correction and need to modify our
understanding. This is called accommodation.

How does accommodation increase cognition?

 By accommodating (or changing) the existing schema and adding new characteristics to distinguish
"doggy" from "cat", we begin to increase cognitive understanding of our world.

Schemas develop throughout the lifespan.

 Although Piaget studied the development of schemas and the assimilation and accommodation of them, in
children, this process continues throughout our lives as we bring new information into our experience.
 Let's consider some changes to schemas that we may have accommodated in later life.

How has our schema of "love" changed over time?

 A generation ago, most people had a schema of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
and today...
 In 2001, The Netherlands was the first country to change its marriage laws to accommodate same-sex
marriage. Today, more than 20 other countries have also legalized same-sex marriage.

What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?

 Piaget believed that children construct their understanding of the world while interacting with it.
 In Piaget's view, cognitive development consisted of four major stages-sensorimotor, preoperational,
concrete operational, and formal operational.
(1) What is the sensorimotor stage?
 in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly
in terms of their sensory impressions (what they see, hear, etc. and motor activities (how they move)

What is object permanence?

 Young infants lack object permanence-the awareness that objects continue to exist even when not
perceived.

How did Piaget test object permanence?

 Very young babies seem to live in the present: out of sight is out of mind.
 In one test, Piaget showed an infant an appealing toy and then covered it with his hat.
 Before the age of 6 months, the infant acted as if the toy ceased to exist. By 8 months, infants begin
exhibiting memory for things no longer seen and search for the toy. They acquire object permanence.
 (2) What is the preoperational stage?
 in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use
language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

What is conservation?
 the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as
mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

How did Piaget test for conservation?

 This visually focused preoperational child does not yet understand the principle of conservation. When the
milk is poured into a tall, narrow glass, it suddenly seems like "more" than when it was in the shorter, wider
glass. In another year or so, she will understand that the amount stays the same.

What is pretend play?

 the acting out of stories which involve multiple perspectives, the playful manipulation of ideas and emotions,
and the use of symbols

What is egocentrism?
 in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view

What is theory of mind?

 people's ideas about their own and others' mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and
the behaviors these might predict

(3) What is the concrete operational stage?

 In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which
children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about events.

(4) What is the formal operational stage?

 In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which
people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Who was Lev Vygotsky?

 Vygotsky, pictured here with his daughter, was a Russian developmental psychologist. He studied how a
child's mind feeds on the language of social interaction.

How did Piaget's view of cognitive development differ from that of Vygotsky?
 As Piaget was forming his theory of cognitive development, Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky was also
studying how children think and learn. Where Piaget emphasized how the child's mind grows through
interaction with the physical environment, Vygotsky emphasized how the child's mind grows through
interaction with the social environment.
 If Piaget's child was a young scientist, Vygotsky's was a young apprentice.

What is scaffolding?
 a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking
 By giving children new words and mentoring them, parents, teachers, and other children provide a
temporary scaffold from which children can step to higher levels of thinking.
 (Renninger & Granott, 2005)

What was Vygotsky's view of child cognitive development?

 Effective mentoring occurs when children are developmentally ready to learn a new skill.
 For Vygotsky, a child's zone of proximal development is the zone between what a child can and can't do —
it's what a child can do with help. Children learn best when their social environment presents them with
something in the sweet spot between too easy and too difficult.

What is autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?

 a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social
interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

What is the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?

 Once believed to affect 1 in 2500 ASD now gets diagnosed in 1 in 68 American children by age 8.
  But the reported rates vary by place, with New Jersey having four times the reported prevalence of
Alabama, while Britain's children have a 1 in 100 rate, and South Korea's 1 in 38 (CDC, 2014; Kim et al.,
2011. NAS, 2011)

Module 3.5-
Module 3.6a-
How do parent-infant bonds form?
 From birth, most babies are social creatures, developing an intense attachment to their caregivers. Infants
come to prefer familiar faces and voices, then coo and gurgle when given a parent's attention.

What is attachment?
 an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to their caregiver
and showing distress on separation
 This striking parent-infant attachment bond is a powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their
caregivers.

What is stranger anxiety?

 the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

What is the critical period for development of attachment?

 Another key to attachment is familiarity.
 In many animals, attachments based on familiarity form during a critical period- an optimal period when
certain events must take place to facilitate proper development. (Bornstein, 1989)

the critical period

 For goslings, ducklings, or chicks, the critical period falls in the hours shortly after hatching, when the first
moving object they see is normally their mother. From then on, the young fowl follow her, and her alone.

Do humans imprint?
 Children-unlike ducklings do not imprint. However, they do become attached, during a less precisely
defined sensitive period, to what they've known.
 Mere exposure to people and things fosters fondness.
 Children like to reread the same books, rewatch the same movies, reenact family traditions. They prefer to
eat familiar foods, live in the same familiar neighborhood, attend school with the same old friends.

What accounts for children's attachment differences?

 Mary Ainsworth designed the strange situation experiment.
 She observed mother-infant pairs at home during their first six months. Later she observed the 1-year-old
infants in a strange situation (usually a laboratory playroom) with and without their mothers.
What was the strange situation design?
 a procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment, a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while
their caregiver leaves and then returns, and the child's reactions are observed
 Ainsworth found that sensitive, responsive mothers had infants who were securely attached
 Insensitive, unresponsive mothers had infants who were insecurely attached

What is the difference between a secure and insecure attachment?

 secure attachment: demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their
caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver's return
 insecure attachment: demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an
avoidant attachment that resists closeness

What are two types of insecure attachment?

 anxious attachment: People constantly crave acceptance but remain vigilant to signs of possible rejection.
 avoidant attachment: People experience discomfort getting close to others and use avoidant strategies to
maintain distance from others.

How does an insecure attachment affect romantic relationships?

  In romantic relationships, an anxious attachment style creates constant concern over rejection, leading
people to cling to their partners.
 An avoidant attachment style decreases commitment and increases conflict (DeWall et al., 2011; Overall et
al., 2015)

What is temperament?
 a person's innate and inborn characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Can an infant's temperament influence attachment?

 Twin and developmental studies reveal that heredity affects temperament, and temperament affects
attachment style. (Picardi et al., 2011; Raby et al., 2012)
 Shortly after birth, some babies are noticeably difficult— irritable, intense, and unpredictable. Others have an
easy temperament-cheerful, relaxed, and feeding and sleeping on predictable schedules. (Chess & Thomas,
1987)

How does temperament impact parenting?

 This helps explain why parenting correlates with children's behavior; it's partly because children with difficult
temperaments elicit and react more to negative parenting. (Slagt et al., 2016)

What bias has historically existed toward fathering?

 Words have meaning.
 Infants who lack a caring mother are said to suffer "maternal deprivation"; those lacking a father's care
merely experience "father absence.'
 This reflects a wider attitude in which "fathering a child" has meant impregnating, and "mothering" has
meant nurturing.
 Let's not even talk about the dads that "babysit" their children when the mother goes out.

How does a secure attachment lead to a sense of basic trust?

 Developmental psychologist Erik Erikson working with his wife, Joan Erikson believed that securely
attached children approach life with a sense of basic trust—a sense that the world is predictable and
reliable.
 He attributed basic trust not to environment or inborn temperament, but to early parenting. He theorized
that infants blessed with sensitive, loving caregivers form a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear.

What are the long-term impacts of abuse?

 Child abuse can also leave epigenetic marks-chemical tags-that can alter normal gene expression.
 Such findings help explain why young children who have survived severe or prolonged physical abuse,
childhood sexual abuse, bullying, or wartime atrocities are at increased risk for health problems,
psychological disorders, substance abuse, and criminality. (Lereya et al., 2015; Trickett et al., 2011;
Whitelock et al., 2013; Wolke et al., 2013)

Can adversity produce well-adjusted adults?

 Most children growing up under adversity (such as the surviving children of the Holocaust and victims of
childhood sexual abuse) are resilient; they withstand the trauma and become well-adjusted adults.
 (Clancy, 2010; Helmeich, 1992; Masten, 2001)

What is a self-concept?
 Infancy's major social achievement is attachment.
 Childhood's major social achievement is a positive sense of self. By the end of childhood, at about age 12,
most children have developed a self-concept— an understanding and assessment of who they are.

How does self-concept develop?

 In 1877, biologist Charles Darwin offered one idea: self-awareness begins when we recognize ourselves in a
mirror.

What research has been conducted on self-concept?

 To see whether a child recognizes that the girl in the mirror is indeed herself, researchers dabbed color on
her nose.
 At about 6 months, children reach out to touch their mirror image as if it were another child. (Courage &
Howe, 2002; Damon & Hart, 1982, 1988, 1992)
 By 15 to 18 months, they begin to touch their own noses when they see the colored spot in the mirror.
(Butterworth, 1992; Gallup & Suarez, 1986)
Why does self-concept matter?
 Children's views of themselves affect their actions. Children who form a positive self-concept are more
confident, independent, optimistic, assertive, and sociable. (Maccoby, 1980)

How can parents and stepparents encourage a positive self-concept?

 The most heavily researched aspect of parenting has been how, and to what extent, parents seek to control
their children.
 Parenting styles can be described as a combination of two traits: how responsive and how demanding
parents are (Kakinami et al., 2015)

What are four types of parenting styles?

 authoritarian parents impose rules and demand obedience
 permissive parents set few limits, make few demands and use little punishment
 authoritative parents set rules but allow open discussion and exceptions (BEST parenting)
 negligent parents are careless, inattentive and do not seek a close relationship with their children

What outcomes are associated with authoritarian parenting styles?

 Children with less social skill and self-esteem, and a brain that overreacts when they make mistakes.

What outcomes are associated with permissive parenting styles?

 Children who are more aggressive and immature

What outcomes are associated with negligent parenting styles?

 Children with poor academic and social outcomes

What outcomes are associated with authoritative parenting styles?

 Children with the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, self-regulation, and social competences

Module 3.6b-
Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
 Theorist Erik Erikson contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs
resolution.

ERIKSON’S STAGE THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Age Conflict Resolution or Culmination in old age
“Virtue"
Infancy Basic trust vs. mistrust Hope Appreciation of interdependence and relatedness
(0-1 year)

Early Autonomy vs. shame Will Acceptance of the cycle of life, from integration to
childhood disintegration
(1-3 years)
Play age Initiative vs. guilt Purpose Humor; empathy; resilience
(3-6 years)
School age Industry vs. Inferiority Competence Humility; acceptance of the course of one's life and unfulfilled
(6-12 years) hopes
Adolescence Identity vs. Confusion Fidelity Sense of complexity of life; merging of sensory, logical and
(12-19 years) aesthetic perception
Early Intimacy vs. Isolation Love Sense of the complexity of relationships; value of tenderness
adulthood and loving freely
(20-25 years)
Adulthood Generativity vs. Care Caritas, caring for others, and agape, empathy and concern
(26-64 years) stagnation
Old age Integrity vs. Wisdom Existential identity; a sense of integrity strong enough to
(65-death) Despair withstand physical disintegration
What is identity?
 our sense of self; according to Erik Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and
integrating various roles
 Adolescents wonder, "Who am I as an individual? What do I want to do with my life? What values should I
live by? What do I believe in?" Erikson called this quest the adolescent's search for identity.

What is social identity?

 the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group
memberships
 For both adolescents and adults, group identities are often formed by how we differ from those around us.

How do peers influence adolescents?

 Adolescence is typically a time of diminishing parental influence and growing peer influence.

What does the research show regarding parent-teen conflict?

 By adolescence, parent-child arguments occur more often, usually over mundane things— household
chores, bedtime, homework. (Tesser et al., 1989)
 Conflict during the transition to adolescence tends to be greater with first-born than with second-born
children, and greater with mothers than with fathers. (Burk et al., 2009, Shanahan et al., 2007)

What is emerging adulthood?

 a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents
but have not yet achieved full independence as adults

What does it mean to be an emerging adult?

 No longer adolescents, these emerging adults, having not yet assumed full adult responsibilities and
independence, feel "in between."
 After high school, those who enter the job market or go to college may be managing their own time and
priorities.
 Yet they may be doing so from their parents' home, unable to afford their own place and perhaps still
emotionally dependent as well.

Historically, when did adulthood begin?

 In the 1890s, the average interval between a woman's first menstrual period and marriage, which typically
marked a transition to adulthood, was about 7 years.

Today, when does adulthood begin?

 By 2006 in industrialized countries, the gap between the first menstrual period and marriage had widened to
about 14 years. (Finer & Philbin, 2014; Guttmacher Institute, 1994)

Module 3.7a-
Module 3.7b-
So, we can't teach any organism any thing?
 More than the early behaviorists realized, an animal's capacity for conditioning is limited by biological
constraints.
 For example, each species' predispositions prepare it to learn the associations that enhance its survival—a
evolutionary phenomenon called preparedness
 Environments are not the whole story. Biology matters

Biopsychosocial influences on learning

 Our learning results not only from environmental experiences, but also from cognitive and biological
Influences - the biopsychosocial approach.

Who was John Garcia? (1917-2012)

  John Garcia was among those who challenged the prevailing idea that all associations can be learned
equally well.

What experiments were conducted?

 John Garcia and Robert Koelling exposed a group of rats to a particular taste, sight, or sound and later also
to radiation or drugs that led to nausea and vomiting.

What were two findings in Garcia and Koelling's study?

 First, even if sickened as late as several hours after tasting a particular novel flavor, the rats thereafter
avoided that flavor.
 Second, the sickened rats developed conditioned aversions to tastes but not to sights or sounds. This made
adaptive sense.
 For rats, the easiest way to identify tainted food is to taste it; if sickened after sampling a new food, they
thereafter avoid it.
 This response is called taste aversion.

taste aversion application

 In one conditioned taste aversion study, coyotes and wolves were tempted into eating sheep carcasses
laced with a sickening poison. Thereafter, they developed an aversion to sheep meat; two wolves later
penned with a live sheep seemed actually to fear it. (Gustavson et al., 1974, 1976)

Naturally adaptive behaviors are easy to condition.

 Pigeons can easily be conditioned to flap their wings to avoid being shocked, and to peck to obtain food:
fleeing with their wings and eating with their beaks are natural pigeon behaviors. However, pigeons would
have a hard time learning to peck to avoid a shock, or to flap their wings to obtain food. (Foree & LoLordo,
1973)

What is instinctive drift?

 the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns
 Pigs conditioned to pick up large wooden "dollars" and deposit them in a piggy bank began to drift back to
their natural ways.
 They dropped the coin, pushed it with their snouts as pigs are prone to do, picked it up again, and then
repeated the sequence delaying their food Reinforcement.

How do cognitive processes affect classical conditioning?

 In their dismissal of "mentalistic" concepts such as consciousness, Pavlov and Watson underestimated the
importance of the effects of cognitive processes (thoughts, perceptions, expectations).

What did Rescorla and Wagner show?

 Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner (1972) showed that an animal can learn the predictability of an event.
 The more predictable the association, the stronger the conditioned response.
 It's as if the animal learns an expectancy, an awareness of how likely it is that the US will occur.

How do associations influence attitudes?

 When British children viewed novel cartoon characters alongside either ice cream (Yum!) or brussels
sprouts (Yuck!), they came to prefer the ice-cream-associated characters. (Field, 2006)

How are associations limited in their influence on attitudes?

 People receiving therapy for alcohol use disorder may be given alcohol spiked with a nauseating drug.
 Will they then associate alcohol with sickness?
 If classical conditioning were merely a matter of "stamping in" stimulus associations, we might hope so, and
to some extent this does occur.

So, our cognitions matter?

 Knowing that the nausea is induced by the drug, not the alcohol, often weakens the association between
drinking alcohol and feeling sick, reducing the treatment's effectiveness.
 So, even in classical conditioning, it is especially with humans-not simply the CS-US association, but also
the thought that counts.

How do cognitive processes affect operant conditioning?

 In their dismissal of "mentalistic" concepts such as consciousness, Pavlov and Watson underestimated the
importance of the effects of cognitive processes (thoughts, perceptions, expectations).
What is a cognitive map?
 a mental representation of the layout of one's environment.
 For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

What is latent learning?

 learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

What is insight learning?

 (former knowledge to create a new solution)
 a sudden realization of a problem's solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions

What is the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation to learn?

 extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened
punishment
 intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

Are examples of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation?

 extrinsic motivation: Are you feeling pressured to finish your homework before a deadline? Worried about
your grade? Eager for college credit by doing well on the AP® exam? If Yes, then you are extrinsically
motivated.
 intrinsic motivation: Are you also finding the material interesting? If there were no grade at stake, might
you be curious enough to want to learn the material for its own sake? If Yes, intrinsic motivation fuels your
efforts.

How does the cognitive perspective show us the limits of rewards?

 Promising people a reward for a task they already enjoy can backfire. This is called the overjustification
effect.
 Excessive rewards can destroy intrinsic motivation-the desire to perform a behavior effectively and for its
own sake.

In what two ways do people learn to cope with personal problems?

 problem-focused (content issue or solution issue) coping: attempting to alleviate stress directly-by
changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor
 emotion-focused coping: attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to
emotional needs related to our stress reaction

What is personal control?

 our sense of Impacting and directing our environment rather than feeling helpless

What is learned helplessness?

 the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or person acquires when unable to avoid repeated
aversive events

What research has been conducted on learned helplessness?

 In experiments, dogs were strapped in a harness and given repeated shocks, with no opportunity to avoid
them. Later, when placed in another situation where they could escape the punishment by simply leaping a
hurdle, the dogs displayed learned helplessness; they cowered as if without hope. Other dogs that had
been able to escape the first shocks reacted differently. They had learned they were in control and easily
escaped the shocks in the new situation. (Seligman & Maier, 1967)

Why does perceived loss of control predict health problems?

 Losing control provokes an outpouring of stress hormones.
 When rats cannot control shock or when humans or other primates feel unable to control their environment,
stress hormone levels rise, blood pressure increases, and immune responses drop. (Rodin, 1986, Sapolsky,
2005)

Julian Rotter's loci of control

 external locus of control: the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal direction
determine our fate
 internal locus of control: the perception that we direct and create our own fate
What is self-control?
 the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for long-term rewards
 A number of performing artists make their living as very convincing human statues, as does this actress
performing on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland

Why is self-control important?

 Self-control predicts good health, higher income, and better school performance. (Bub et al., 2016; Keller et
al., 2016; Moffitt et al., 2011)
 In studies of American, Asian, and New Zealander children, self-control outdid intelligence test scores in
predicting future academic and life success. (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005, Poulton et al., 2015; Wu et al.,
2016)

How can our self-control be depleted?

 Self-control varies over time. Like a muscle, it tends to weaken after use, recover after rest, and grow
stronger with exercise. In one famous experiment, hungry people who had spent some of their willpower
resisting the temptation to eat chocolate chip cookies then abandoned a tedious task sooner than did others.
(Baume/ster et al., 1998)

Module 3.8a-
Module 3.8b-
Module 3.9-
What is learning?
 the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors
 The emphasis here is on enduring...learning is very different from cramming.
 To truly learn, is to own the knowledge, skill or idea.

What are some ways we learn?

 We learn to expect and prepare for significant events such as food or pain (classical conditioning)
 We learn to repeat acts that bring rewards and avoid acts that bring unwanted results (operant conditioning)
 We learn by observing events and people (observational learning)
 We learn things we have nether experienced or observed (cognitive learning)

What is associative learning?

 learning that certain events occur together
 The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in
operant conditioning).
 The associations may be positive or negative.

How do positive and negative associations factor in learning?

 We tend to connect positive and negative events when they occur in sequence.
 If you hang out with a new group of classmates during lunch and have a great time laughing, the next time
that group asks you to join them for lunch, you will associate them with fun and good times and eagerly
agree to meet up with them
 If you put your hand on a hot stove and the heat burns you and causes you pain, you will now associate that
stove with pain and be more careful the next time.

What are two types of associative learning?

 classical conditioning: In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate
events. Stimuli are things we do not control and that we respond automatically (involuntary responses)
 operant conditioning: In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response (our behavior) and its
consequence. The behavior is voluntary, we operate on the environment to produce a consequence.

How do associations lead to habits?

 Learned associations also feed our habitual behaviors. (Wood et al., 2014)
  The reason so many of us eat popcorn in the movie theater is that we have come to associate the movie
theater with the buttery popcorn. For some, that habit is hard to break.... enter a movie theater and BAM.... I
want popcorn!

How do associations lead to habituation?

 Other animals learn by association. Disturbed by a squirt of water, the sea slug Aplysia protectively
withdraws its gill. If the squirts continue, as happens naturally in choppy water, the withdrawal response
diminishes.
 We say the slug habituates.
 But if the sea slug repeatedly receives an electric shock just after being squirted, its protective response to
the squirt instead grows stronger. The animal has associated the squirt with the impending shock.

What is habituation?
 Habituation is what happens when repeated stimulation produces waning responsiveness.
 In the sea slug's case... he 'got used to' the squirts from the choppy waters...just as you might 'get used to
cold ocean water after you have been in for awhile.

What is the difference between habituation and sensory adaptation?

 habituation: Habituation is a type of learning or relatively permanent change in behavior that involves a
reduced response as a result of repeated but not constant exposure.
 sensory adaptation: Sensory adaption is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when the brain stops
recognizing a constant and unchanging stimulus.

What is a stimulus?
 any event or situation that evokes a response
 So... for the sea slug... the stimulus was the squirt from the choppy ocean waters or the electric shock from
the researcher.
 For the popcorn eater... the stimulus was the movie theater environment.

What is a response?
 the behavior that follows the stimulus
 For the sea slug...the involuntary behavior (classical conditioning) was the shirking.
 For the popcorn eater...the voluntary behavior was the purchasing and eating of popcorn.

How is classical conditioning defined?

 Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning that involves learned involuntary responses.
 We associate stimuli that we do not control, and we respond automatically (exhibiting respondent
behavior).
 Involuntary responses include salivation, blinking, sweating, and cringing or the automatic bodily reactions to
strong emotions such as fear.

Who was Ivan Pavlov? Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

 Pavlov's work laid the foundation for many of John B. Watson's ideas.
 Both believed the basic laws of learning were the same for all animals—
 whether sea slugs or dogs or humans,

What did Ivan Pavlov contribute to the field of psychology?

 Pavlov spent two decades studying dogs' digestive system and earned the Nobel Prize.
 His experiments on learning produced the phenomenon we call classical conditioning.

Pavlov's initial work: Pavlov attached a tube in the dog's cheek to collect saliva, which was measured in a cylinder
outside the chamber.

What was Pavlov's accidental discovery?

 Without fail, putting food in a dog's mouth caused the animal to salivate.
 But... and this is cool... the dog began salivating not only to the taste of the food, but also to the mere sight
of the food, or the food dish, or the person delivering the food, or even at the sound of that person's
approaching footsteps.
 Pavlov realized this behavior pointed to a simple but fundamental form of learning.
How are the unconditioned stimulus (US) and unconditioned response (UR) related?
 Food in the mouth automatically, unconditionally, triggers a dog's salivary reflex. No training is required for
this automatic involuntary response.
 Pavlov called this reflex an unconditioned response (UR).
 He called the food an unconditioned stimulus (US)

What is the neutral stimulus (NS)?

 The tone or bell when activated produces no response.
 Pavlov called the bell/tuning fork/buzzer the neutral stimulus (NS).

What happens in a conditioning trial?

 Pavlov conducted multiple trials pairing the neutral stimulus (NS) of the tone with the US of the food.
 The unconditioned stimulus (US) of the food, though is what continues to produce the unconditioned
response (UR) of the drool/salivation.

What are the conditioned response (CR) and conditioned stimulus (CS)?
 Salivation in response to a tone, however, is learned. It is conditional upon the dog's associating the tone
with the food. This response is the conditioned response (CR).
 The neutral stimulus (NS) that now triggers salivation is the conditioned stimulus (CS)

What is acquisition?
 ..in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus
so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned involuntary response
 ...in operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response or the decreasing of a punished
response

How does classical conditioning support reproduction?

 Just before presenting an approachable female quail, researchers turned on a red light. Over time, the red
light signaled the male quail to become excited.
 Conditioning helps an animal survive and reproduce by responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid
dangers, locate mates, and produce offspring. (Hollis, 1997)

What is higher-order (2nd order) conditioning?

 a procedure in classical conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is
paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
 For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the
tone and begin responding to the light alone.
 (Also called second-order conditioning.)

What if the US is no longer presented?

 Pavlov wondered if the tone sounded again and again, but no food appeared, would the tone still trigger
salivation?

What is generalization?
 the tendency, once a response has been conditioned for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit
similar responses
 So... if Pavlov's dog learned to salivate to a tone, and the researcher then rang a bell, or played a note on a
flute, it may be that the dog drools to those stimuli as well.
 We would say the dog had generalized his response to the stimulus.

What is discrimination?
  the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an
unconditioned stimulus
 So if Pavlov only presented the food (US) after the bell (CS) but not the tone, tuning fork, or buzzer, the dog
would learn to discriminate between the sounds and only drool (CR) to the bell.

How did Watson apply Pavlov's principles to learned fears?

 Pavlov's work also provided a basis for Watson's Idea that human emotions and behaviors, though
biologically influenced, are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses.
 Watson applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of "Little Albert" to demonstrate how specific
fears might be conditioned

What did Watson and Rayner do?

 John B. Watson and his graduate assistant Rosalie Rayner conditioned "Little Albert” to fear a white rat after
repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented

What is operant conditioning?

 a type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to
recur if followed by a punisher

A quick comparison refresher...

 classical conditioning: Organisms form associations between stimuli (a CS and the US it signals).
Classical conditioning also involves respondent behavior-automatic responses to a stimulus
 operant conditioning: Organisms associate their own actions with consequences. Behavior that operates
on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli is called operant behavior

Who was B.F. Skinner? (1904-1990)

 Skinner was behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure. His work elaborated on what
psychologist Edward L. Thorndike called the law of effect.

What did Thorndike do?

 Thorndike used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out of a puzzle box through a series of
maneuvers.

What is the law of effect?

 Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that
behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

What did Skinner design?

 For his pioneering studies on operant conditioning, Skinner designed an operant chamber, popularly known
as a Skinner box.

What is an operant chamber?

 in operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an
animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer, attached devices record the animal's rate of bar
pressing or key pecking

What does the Skinner box allow researchers to investigate?

 The Skinner box creates a stage on which rats and other animals act out Skinner's concept of
reinforcement any event that strengthens (increases the frequency of) a preceding response.
 What is reinforcing depends on the animal and the conditions. For people, it may be praise, attention, or a
paycheck. For hungry and thirsty rats, food and water work well.
Are all reinforcers created equal?
 No. What is reinforcing (a heat lamp) to one animal (a cold meerkat) may not be to another (an overheated
child).

What makes a reinforcer a reinforcer?

 It is important to note that a reinforcer is defined by its impact on behavior.
 A reinforcer increases the likelihood that the behavior will increase
 Ice cream may sound like it is a reinforcer for all, but what if the subject is lactose intolerant?

How is behavior shaped through operant conditioning?

  Shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcement guides behavior toward closer and
closer approximations of the desired behavior.
 This is also called reward by successive approximations.

How would Skinner shape a rat's behavior to press a bar to get food?
 First, researchers watch how the animal naturally behaves, to build on its existing behaviors.
 The rat would be given a bit of food (reinforcement) each time it approaches the bar
 Once the rat is approaching regularly, food would only be given when it moves close to the bar, then closer
still.
 Finally, experimenters would require the rat to actually touch the bar to get food

What is a discriminative stimulus?

 a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not
associated with reinforcement)
 So, Skinner may train a pigeon to peck at a green circle (the discriminative stimulus), but not a red square.

What is positive reinforcement?

 increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers
 A positive reinforcement is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

What is negative reinforcement?

 increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing aversive stimuli
 A negative reinforcement is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response.

What are examples of positive and negative reinforcement?

 positive reinforcement: studying hard (behavior) to receive an A (reinforcement) from the teacher; arriving
at work on time (behavior) to receive praise and a pay raise (reinforcement) from your boss
 negative reinforcement: taking an aspirin (behavior) to reduce a painful headache (removal of aversive
stimulus); hitting the snooze button (behavior) to shut off an annoying alarm (removal of aversive stimulus)

What are primary and conditioned (secondary) reinforcers?

 primary reinforcers: innately reinforcing stimuli such as those that satisfy a biological need
examples: food, pain relief
 conditioned (secondary) reinforcers: stimuli that gain their reinforcing power through their learned
association with a primary reinforcer
examples: money, good grades, a pleasant tone of voice

How does the immediacy of the reinforcement impact behavior?

 Some animals will need immediate (within 30 seconds for instance) reinforcement in order to tie the
reinforcement to the behavior.
 Human animals respond to delayed reinforcement...even learn to delay gratification as a point of maturity

What are reinforcement schedules?

 Reinforcement schedules are patterns that define how often a desired response will be reinforced.
Two types of reinforcement schedules are:
1. Continuous reinforcement schedule: reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
2. Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule: reinforcing a response only part of the time

How does continuous reinforcement impact learning?

 With continuous reinforcement, learning occurs rapidly, so its the best choice for learning a behavior.
 Extinction also occurs rapidly. When continuous reinforcement stops, the behavior soon stops (is
extinguished).
 If a normally dependable candy machine fails to deliver a chocolate bar twice in a row, we stop putting
money into it (although a week later we may exhibit spontaneous recovery by trying again).

How does partial (intermittent) reinforcement impact learning?

 Real life rarely provides continuous reinforcement. Salespeople do not make a sale with every pitch. But
they persist because their efforts are occasionally rewarded.
 This persistence is typical with partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules, in which responses are
sometimes reinforced, sometimes not.
 Learning is slower to appear, but resistance to extinction is greater than with continuous reinforcement.
What are the four types of partial reinforcement?
1. Fixed ratio (frequency) schedules: reinforcement occurs after a set number of responses
2. Fixed interval (period of time) schedules: reinforcement occurs after a set length of time
3. Variable ratio (frequency) schedules: reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable number of responses
4. Variable interval (period of time) schedules: reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable length of time

What are examples of the four types of partial reinforcement?

 Fixed ratio schedules: one free coffee after every 10 purchased
 Fixed interval schedules: mail arriving at 2pm every day
 Variable ratio schedules: payoff on slot machine after a varying number of plays
 Variable interval schedules: checking our phone for a text from our friend

What is punishment and how is it different from negative reinforcement?

 Punishment is an event that tends to decrease the behavior it follows. Behavior that is punished is less
likely to occur again. Punishment adds an aversive stimulus or removes a pleasant stimulus.
 Negative reinforcement increases the likelihood that the behavior will occur again. Negative
reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus.
 Punishment tells you what not to do. reinforcement tells you what to do

So we can't teach any organism any thing?

 More than the early behaviorists realized, an animal's capacity for conditioning is limited by biological
constraints.
 For example, each species' predispositions prepare it to learn the associations that enhance its survival—a
evolutionary phenomenon called preparedness
 Environments are not the whole story. Biology matters
Biopsychosocial influences on learning
 Our learning results not only from environmental experiences, but also from cognitive and biological
Influences - the biopsychosocial approach.

Who was John Garcia? (1917-2012)

 John Garcia was among those who challenged the prevailing idea that all associations can be learned
equally well.

What experiments were conducted?

 John Garcia and Robert Koelling exposed a group of rats to a particular taste, sight, or sound and later also
to radiation or drugs that led to nausea and vomiting.

What were two findings in Garcia and Koelling's study?

 First, even if sickened as late as several hours after tasting a particular novel flavor, the rats thereafter
avoided that flavor. Second, the sickened rats developed conditioned aversions to tastes but not to sights or
sounds. This made adaptive sense. For rats, the easiest way to identify tainted food is to taste it; if sickened
after sampling a new food, they thereafter avoid it. This response is called taste aversion.

taste aversion application

 In one conditioned taste aversion study, coyotes and wolves were tempted into eating sheep carcasses
laced with a sickening poison. Thereafter, they developed an aversion to sheep meat; two wolves later
penned with a live sheep seemed actually to fear it. (Gustavson et al., 1974, 1976)

Naturally adaptive behaviors are easy to condition.

 Pigeons can easily be conditioned to flap their wings to avoid being shocked, and to peck to obtain food:
fleeing with their wings and eating with their beaks are natural pigeon behaviors.
 However, pigeons would have a hard time learning to peck to avoid a shock, or to flap their wings to obtain
food. (Foree & LoLordo, 1973)

Observational Learning-
What is observational learning?
 Higher animals, especially humans, learn without direct experience, by watching and imitating others.
 We learn our native languages and various other specific behaviors by observing and imitating others, a
process called modeling.
 For instance, a child who sees his sister burn her fingers on a hot stove learns not to touch it.

Who is Albert Bandura?

 Albert Bandura, shown here receiving a 2016 U.S. National Medal of Science from President Obama, is the
pioneering researcher of observational learning.

What is the take away?

 By watching models, we experience vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment, and we learn to
anticipate a behavior's consequences in situations like those we are observing. (Vicarious: learning from
others or through others)
 We are especially likely to learn from people we perceive as similar to ourselves, as successful, or as
admirable.

So we learn by observation, but how?

 Mirror neurons are frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or
observe another's actions.
 The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy.

How is imitation adaptive?

 In one 27-year analysis of 73,790 humpback whale observations, a single whale in 1980 whacked the water
to drive prey fish into a clump. In the years since, this "lobtail” technique spread among other whales (Allen
et al, 2015)
 Researchers trained groups of vervet monkeys to prefer either blue or pink corn by soaking one color in a
disgusting-tasting solution. Four to six months later, after a new generation of monkeys was born, the adults
stuck with whatever color they had learned to prefer-and, on observing them, so did all but one of 27 infant
monkeys. (van de Waal, et. al., 2013)
Humans are natural imitators
 By 8 to 16 months, infants imitate various. novel gestures (Jones, 2007)
 By 12 months they look where an adult is looking. (Meltzoff et al., 2009)
 And by 14 months, children imitate acts modeled on TV. (Meltzoff, 1988, Meltzoff & Moore, 1989, 1997)

What is prosocial modeling and what is its impact?

 Prosocial modeling is positive, constructive, helpful behavior.
 People who exemplify nonviolent, helpful behavior can also prompt similar behavior in others.
 Watching others help pick up spilled books or coins, or viewing positively-themed television programming
can produce positive helping behaviors in others.

Antisocial modeling
 Observational learning may also have antisocial effects. This helps us understand why abusive parents
might have aggressive children.

TV shows, movies, and online videos are sources of observational learning.

 During their first 18 years, most children in developed countries spend more time watching TV than they
spend in school.
 The average teen watches more than 4 hours a day; the average adult, 3 hours. (Robinson & Martin, 2009,
Strasburger et al., 2010)

How violent is television programming?

 Between 1998 and 2006, prime-time violence on TV reportedly increased 75 percent (PTC, 2007).
 An analysis of more than 3000 network and cable programs aired during one closely studied year revealed:
- nearly 6 in 10 featured violence
- 74 percent of the violence went unpunished.

What is depicted in violent programming?

In addition, research showed:
- 58 percent of violent shows did not depict the victims' pain.
- nearly half the incidents involved "justified" violence,
- nearly half involved an attractive perpetrator.

The Five Systems in Ecological Systems Theory

 Microsystem: The most direct, immediate environment, such as family, school, peers, and neighborhood
 Mesosystem: Interactions between components of the microsystem, such as the relationship between a
child's parents and their teacher.
 Exosystem: Settings that affect the individual indirectly, such as a parent's workplace or local government
policies.
 Macrosystem: Overarching cultural context, including societal values, laws, customs, and economic
systems.
 Chronosystem: The dimension of time, including life transitions, historical events, and environmental
changes over a lifespan.
What did the research show?
Rats in the impoverished environment, lacking company and playthings, saw impoverished brain growth as
evidenced by brain weight/and growth of synapses.
What were the results?
The rats living in the enriched environment, which simulated a natural environment,
usually developed a heavier and thicker brain cortex.
What does the data indicate?
After 60 days in the enriched environment, the rats' brain weights increased 7 to 10% and the number of synapses
mushroomed by about 20%. (Kolb & Whishaw, 1998)
The enriched environment literally increased brain power.
How does experience change the brain?
Due to the brain's amazing plasticity, neural tissue changes and reorganizes in response to new experiences.
New neurons are also born. If a monkey pushes a lever with the same finger many times a day, brain tissue
controlling that finger will change to reflect the experience
How does practice increase neural development?
String musicians who started playing before age 12 have larger and more complex neural circuits controlling the note-
making left-hand fingers than do string musicians whose training started later.
(Elbert et al., 1995)
What are the applications of this research finding?
Such results have motivated improvements in environments for laboratory, farm, and zoo animals-and for children in
institutions
Can touch and stimulation increase cognitive development?
Stimulation by touch or massage also benefits infant rats and premature babies.
(Field et al., 2007, Sarro et al., 2014)
"Handled" infants of both species develop faster neurologically and gain weight more rapidly.
Preemies who have had skin-to-skin contact with their mothers sleep better, experience less stress, and show better
cognitive development 10 years later.
(Feldman et al, 2014)
Cultural differences in parenting expectations.
Asian-Americans and European-Americans often differ in their parenting expectations.
An Asian-American mother may push her children to do well, but usually not in a way that strains their relationship.
(Fu & Markus, 2014)
How do childhood peers (nurture)
impact our behaviors?
Preschoolers who disdain a certain food often will eat that food if put at a table with a group of children who like it.
Children who hear English spoken with one accent at home and another in the neighborhood and at school will likely
adopt the accent of their peers, not their parents.
Teens who start smoking typically have friends who model smoking, suggest its pleasures, and offer cigarettes.
(Rose et al., 1999, Rose et al., 2003)
peer power
As we develop, we play, date, and partner with peers.
No wonder children and youths are so sensitive and responsive to peer influences.
How can parents influence the peer relationships?
The power to select a child's neighborhood and schools gives some parents the ability to influence the culture that
shapes the child's peer group.
Because neighborhood influences matter, parents may want to become involved in intervention programs that aim at
a whole school or neighborhood.