Behavioral Learning

🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥

Comparative psychology is the study of the behavior of animals and how it compares to human behavior and encompasses topics such as (Shiraev, 2016) :

🦉 Learning   

🦉Motivation 

🦉Cognition  

🦉Social Behavior                 

🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉

🟦Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer - major influences on comparative psychology

🟦 Darwin argued that natural selection is the driving force of evolution and that this process has shaped the behavior of all living things, including humans (Shiraev, 2016). 

🟦Spencer theorized parsimony which states that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥

• Comparative psychologists used the principle of parsimony to guide their research. They believed that if they could find a simple explanation for a behavior in animals, it was likely that the same explanation would apply to humans.
• Comparative psychologists studied animal behavior in a variety of ways, including observing animals in their natural habitats, conducting experiments in laboratories, and analyzing animal brains. They also compared the behavior of different species of animals to look for similarities and differences (Shiraev, 2016).
• Comparative psychologists believe that studying animals can help us understand human behavior. They argued that many basic mechanisms of learning, such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning, are the same in animals and humans. They also believed that studying animal social behavior can help us understand human social behavior.

🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥🟥

Anthropomorphism 

🦉Humans project their own thoughts and feelings onto animals

• Early comparative psychologists were limited by the knowledge and technology of their time. They did not have the same tools and techniques that we have today to study animal behavior objectively. As a result, they were more likely to rely on their own personal observations and beliefs, which often led to anthropomorphism.
• George Romanes published Animal Intelligence - He argued that sophisticated emotional dilemmas regulate animal behavior, and animals can display fortitude and patience (Shiraev, 2016).

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

• Supporters of anthropomorphism believe that instincts are a convenient concept to explain behavior and individual traits.
• They argued that instincts are inherent patterns or complex behaviors that are not learned.
• Humans belong to social groups in which they acquire social instincts as automatic responses.

For example, the French psychologist Gustave Le Bon believed that aggressiveness as an individual trait initially emerges in a large crowd.

He argued that a nonviolent person can act aggressively in a crowd because of the power of the crowd to arouse emotions and behaviors (Shiraev, 2016). 

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

Another French psychologist, Gabriel Tarde, focused on the mechanism of imitation. He argued that the entire learning process is imitation. We build our individual psychological qualities when we copy others. The English scholar William McDougall argued that human behavior could be traced to initial animal instincts. He identified 18 instincts, including parenting, self-display, and hoarding.

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

Comparative psychologists studied how animals and humans learn.
They believed that all animals learn the same way, according to universal principles. They studied habit formation, which is how new behaviors become automatic. They thought that favorable conditions make a behavior more likely, and unfavorable conditions make it less likely. For example, a dog may learn to bark when its trainer says "Speak!" because it is rewarded with a treat. Similarly, a person may learn to be honest because honesty is a habit that is developed in situations where honesty is required.

🟦Edward Thorndike's puzzle box experiments (Shiraev, 2016) :

• Thorndike introduced a new method for studying habit formation.
• He placed animals in a puzzle box and observed their behavior. 
• He measured the number of trials and time it took the animals to escape.
• He found that the animals learned to escape more quickly with each trial.

He called this the learning curve.

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

🟦Thorndike's laws of learning:

Thorndike proposed several laws of learning (Shiraev, 2016) :

• The law of exercise states that the more one repeats a movement, the better it is retained.
• The law of effect states that of several responses made to the same situation, those accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction are likely to be learned. 
• Thorndike believed that the law of effect also explains how some people acquire harmful habits.

References

Shiraev, E. (2016). Personality Theories: A Global View. SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506300795

 

Conditioned Reflexes

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

• Ivan Pavlov was one of the world's most influential scientists and the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize (Shiraev, 2016). Pavlov used dogs in his experiments but he loved studying human behavior. He viewed his studies as an objective study of reflexes. He set out to explain the role that reflexes play in someone's personality.
• Two categories of reflexes
• Inborn or unconditioned reflexes are associated with a signal's direct influence.
• Conditioned reflexes - are acquired under certain conditions.
• Two conditions must be present to form a conditioned reflex (Shiraev, 2016):
1. a specific situation
2. An underlying unconditioned reflex
• Pavlov believed that the dynamics of reflexes can be explained by the opposing forces of excitement and inhibition. Excitement is a state of increased activity in the brain, while inhibition is a state of decreased activity. These two forces can override each other, and the balance between them determines how a person will behave in a given situation.
• Some people may lose self-control and act erratically due to excessive excitement, while others may freeze due to excessive inhibition whenever they encounter a difficult or dangerous situation. When someone acts rationally they are able to maintain a balanced level of excitement and inhibition(Shiraev, 2016). 
• Induction is when one type of behavior can also inhibit other behaviors such as anticipating a future event vs. the suffering of waiting in line.
• Self-control refers to the ability to inhibit immediate impulses in order to gratify them later and is considered an important personality feature.

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

Pavlov believed that individual personality types are determined by the dynamics of the nervous system, which he characterized by three functions: strength, balance, and agility (Shiraev, 2016):

🟦 Strength - the ability of the nervous system to maintain a state of excitement without becoming inhibited

🟦Balance - The ability to maintain a balance between excitement and inhibition.

🟦Agility - The speed with which the nervous system can change from a state of excitement into a state of inhibition aka adaptability.

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

• 
  Pavlov believed that people with different personality types have different combinations of these three functions. For example, people with strong, balanced, and agile nervous systems are likely to be confident, outgoing, and adaptable. People with weak, unbalanced, and agile nervous systems are likely to be anxious, impulsive, and easily stressed.

• Pavlov's theory of personality has been influential in psychology, but it has also been criticized for being too simplistic. Some psychologists believe that personality is more complex than a simple combination of three functions. However, Pavlov's theory remains an important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between the nervous system and personality.

🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦

References

Shiraev, E. (2016). Personality Theories: A Global View. SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506300795

  Reflexology

• Vladimir Bekhterev was a Russian physiologist and doctor who used the term personality in his research (Shiraev, 2016). Vladimir believed that reflexology was one of the ways researchers could study people from a multidisciplinary perspective (Shiraev, 2016).
• Bekhterev defined emotions as nervous energy that accumulates in the cerebral cortex and he defined thinking as a process of that energy affecting action after a delay(Shiraev, 2016). 

🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠

🧠Stored energy - energy that is accumulated in the brain as a result of past experiences.

🧠This energy can be in the form of neural connections, synapses, or other changes in the brain.

🧠Modified fashion - The stored energy is not simply a copy of the past experience, but the brain modifies it in some way, such as by being associated with other memories or emotions.

🧠Stimulus - an event or experience that triggers the release of the stored energy which can be internal, such as a thought, or external such as a sight or sound.

🧠Put into action - the stored energy is used to generate a response either physical such as a movement or mental such as a thought or feeling

🧠The reflexological theory of consciousness - is the view that consciousness is a type of reflex or automatic response to a stimulus. Bekhterev believed that consciousness is not a separate entity, but rather a product of the brain's activity

• Social reflexes are the reflexes that are influenced by social conditions, for example, a person may develop a reflex of fear or aggression in response to being bullied. Examples of social conditions that can trigger social reflexes are injustice or abuse. When someone experiences injustice or abuse they may develop reflexes to help them cope such as stubbornness.

🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠

1. Bekhterev believed that personality is the product of the brain's activity and that it is made up of a complex network of reflexes that are not only simple responses but they are also influenced by past experiences and the individual's environment.
2. Everyone has unique characteristics meaning that each person's personality is unique and shaped by their individual experiences, genetics, and environment.
3. Bekhterev believed that physical health, psychological soundness, and moral values of a person were closely connected.

References

Shiraev, E. (2016). Personality Theories: A Global View. SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506300795