Basic Psychology
Dr Gary RobinsonClinical Psychologist and Group Analyst
Specialist Psychotherapy Service - TEWV NHS Trust Senior Academic Tutor – Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Newcastle
University
Basic Psychology Learning Theory
o Habituationo Classical conditioningo Operant conditioningo Cognitive modelso Observational learning
Basic Psychology Memory
Personalityo Traits/type approacho Personal construct theoryo Psychoanalytic theoryo Humanistic approach
Basic Psychology Emotion
o James-Lange Theoryo Cannon-Bard Theoryo Schachter-Singer “Two-Factor” Theoryo Lazarus Cognitive Appraisal
Learning Theory
“Learning theories are an exam favourite. Easy marks can be gained here by revising some common themes, as outlined below”
(Jaward, 2013; page 30)
Learning Theory The association of events which allows for
an understanding of what is likely to follow in any given situation, has obvious survival value.
Habituation Habituation is the simplest form of all
learning.
The decline in the tendency to respond to stimuli that have become familiar die to repeated exposure.
A sudden noise usually startles us . But over the time the startle will be diminished.
Classical Conditioning Pavlov
Unconditional reflexes – inborn and innate (e.g. food in the mouth unconditionally elicits salivation).
Conditioned Reflexes – are acquired.
Classical Conditioning Before Training
o US (food in mouth) UR (salivation)o CS (e.g. Tone) No relevant response
Trainingo CS (tone) + US (food in mouth)
After Training (that is, conditioning)o CS (tone) CR (salivation)
Classical Conditioning To guarantee the salivatory response, the
experimenter must present the food (conditioned stimulus) within 0.5 seconds of the tuning fork (conditioned stimulus) being struck.
The closer together intone the two stimuli are paired the more likely it is that the subject is able to make an association between the two and produce the desired response.
Major Phenomena of Classical Conditioning
Acquisition – when the subject is successfully able to make associations between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli they are said to have achieved acquisition.
Extinction – Pavlov showed that a conditioned reaction can be undone and weakened, ie the food is no longer presented with the bell.
Major Phenomena of Classical Conditioning
Spontaneous recovery – this refers top the process whereby presentation of the conditioned stimulus after extinction will suddenly elicit a previous learned response, ie salivation.
Major Phenomena of Classical Conditioning
Second order conditioning – once the CS-US relation is solidly established, the CS can serve to condition yet further stimuli.
Generalisation – animals do respond to stimuli other than the original CS, as long as they are sufficiently similar.
In the context of MRCPsych, a frequently used example is that of phobias.
Operant or Instrumental Conditioning
Skinner
Operants – behaviours that operate on the environment to bring about some change that leads to reward.
Law of effect (Thorndike) – the tendency to omit these operants is strengthened or weakened by its consequences (positive and negative reinforcement).
Instrumental Learning E.L. Thorndike (1898)
o Investigating animal intelligenceo Puzzle Box
Instrumental Learning Thorndike found cat’s able to escape in less
time as trials increased
The Law of Effect‘Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by a state of satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur.’ (Thorndike, 1911)
Operant Conditioning B.F.Skinner (1938)
Operant: A behaviour that operates on the
environment to being about some change that leads to a reward
Differs from Classical Conditioning -what is more important is what happens after the behaviour rather than before.
Operant or Instrumental Conditioning
Reinforcement – defined as a consequence which results in the subject increasing their behaviour.
In positive reinforcement the response produces an appetitive stimulus (a stimulus for which the animal so to speak “has an appetite”). A rat pressing a lever to get food.
In negative reinforcement the response eliminates or prevents an aversive stimulus – a rat pressing a lever to avoid a shock.
Secondary Reinforcement
Primary reinforcers are unconditioned and natural reinforcers (appear to equate to basic needs for survival and reproduction)o Food, shelter, water, sex
Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers acquire their reinforcing properties through association with primary reinforcers (learnt through classical conditioning) o Money, clothes, cars.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement – 1:1 contiguity of behaviour and reinforcement, results in very quick learning but also rapid extinction.
Intermittent reinforcement - Ratio scheduleso Fixed ratio (FR2, FR20) – learning is
slower but more robusto Variable ratio (VR) – VR 50, learning is
slowest but with the slowest extinction rate (e.g. Slot machines in a casino)
Schedules of Reinforcement
Interval Schedules
o Fixed interval schedule (FI) – animal is reinforced for the first response performed after a certain interval has passed following the last reinforcement. FI 2, after reinforcement response is low but speeds up as the end of the interval approaches.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Interval Schedules
o Variable interval schedule (VI) – interval varies irregularly around some average period, say 4 minutes (VI 4)
o VI have been shown to produce more regular and more frequent responding than FI
Major Phenomena of Operant Conditioning
Chaining – a complex behaviour may be broken into a sequence of steps, with each step being learned separately – the entire chain of individual steps is then learned by bringing the steps together (either forward or backwards.
Shaping – similar to chaining but used when the desired behaviour is rare or absent and therefore unlikely to occur spontaneously.
Major Phenomena of Operant Conditioning
Cueing – a cue represents the object or stimulus that elicits the conditioned behaviour in operant conditioning.
In the case of treatment of phobias the same cue (ie the phobias object may be used to illicit an incompatible behaviour, such as relaxation).
Aversive Conditioning Punishment
Positive punishment - here a response (or undesired behaviour) is followed by an aversive stimulus, which will then tend to suppress the response on subsequent occasions.
Negative punishment – remove a desired stimulus after an undesired behaviour.
Aversive Conditioning Escape – the response stops some
aversive event that has already begun – a rat learns to press a lever to get rid of an electric shock.
Avoidance – the subject can forestall the aversive event altogether – a dog learns to jump over a hurdle in a shuttle box when it hears a tone that signals impending shock.
Avoidance Learning in Human Life
An enormous amount of ordinary human activity involves avoidance.
Most of this is perfectively useful and adaptive.
But some avoidance learning is essentially maladaptive.
Avoidance Learning in Human Life Behavioural techniques – exposure and
response prevention. Counter-conditioning; reciprocal inhibition –
weakens the bond between stimuli and anxiety response – systematic desensitisation (Wolpe) – produce a hierarchy of fears and to pair them with positive responses.
Flooding – prolonged exposure to feared stimulus allowing fear to extinguish, use in the treatment of phobias.
Avoidance Learning in Human Life
Implosion – similar to flooding but rather than having the phobia present (in vitro) it is imagined (in vivo).
Learned Helplessness Seligman (1975)
Conducted an experiment on dogs and found that if dogs are placed in a situation in which they cannot avoid receiving electric shocks, they fail to learn to escape when placed in a situation in which the electric shocks CAN be avoided.
Learned Helplessness According to Seligman’s learned
helplessness theory, depression occurs when a person learns that their attempts to escape negative situations make no difference.
As a consequence they become passive and will endure aversive stimuli or environments even when escape is possible. Seligman based his theory on research using dogs.
Cognitive Models Cognitive theorists, such as Tolman,
proposed that what really matters when animals and humans learn is not the change in behaviour as such, but the acquisition of new knowledge or cognitions.
Examples include explicit transmission of facts through teaching, and problem solving or insight learning.
Observational Learning Social learning theorists – Bandura and
Mischel. Emphasise the role of situational factors in
determining behaviour and learning. The child observes another person who
serves as a model and then proceeds to imitate what the model does, thus learning how to do something he didn't know before.
Modelling – Bobo doll study. Optimal conditions for learning involve
active participation in modelled behaviour rather than passive observation.
Memory 3 processes involved in the formations and
subsequent access of memories.
o Encoding – sensory input which leads to formation of the initial memory trace.
o Storage – retention of the memory.
o Retrieval – ability to access memory from storage.
Types of Memory• Sensory memory – visual memory lasts
for 0.5 seconds, auditory memory lasts for 2 seconds.
• Short-term memory – without the use of aides-memories lasts 15-30 seconds. Capacity of 7 +/- 2 distinct items. Can be increased by chunking.
• Long-term memory has unlimited capacity.
Types of Long-Term Memory
Declarative (explicit) memory.
o Semantic memory - refers to general knowledge memory.
o Episodic memory – memories related to the self.
• Flashbulb memory – where individuals are able to specifically recall what they were doing at times of significant events.
Types of Long-Term Memory
Procedural (non-declarative) memory.
o Memory for knowing how to perform a particular skill.
Forgetting Several theories exist about how we forget
previously learned information.
Interference with any of the 3 processes involved in memory formation can result in forgetting.
Encoding, storage, retrieval.
Forgetting Decay (disuse) theory• Suggests without continued use or rehearsal,
memories fade over time.
• Displacement theory• Old material is replaced by new material. New
material displaces previously learnt items.
• Failure of Retrieval – difficult to recall items due to lack of cues.
Forgetting• Interference theory
o Proactive interference – describes difficulty in learning new information due to the presence of older material.
o Retroactive interference – describes difficulty in recalling old material due to learning of new material.
Memory Disorders Anterograde Amnesia
o Difficulty in forming new memories.
o Hence information cannot be moved from short-term to long-term memory.
o Damage to hippocampus typically presents with this.
Memory Disorders Retrograde Amnesia
o Difficulty in recalling older memoires.
o Hence information cannot be moved from long-term to short-term memory.
o Head trauma typically presents with this pattern of amnesia with failure to recall memories prior to the injury.
Memory Disorders Korsakoff’s syndrome
o Severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia.
o Working memory and implicit (procedural) memory spared.
o Associated with chronic alcohol abuse.
Memory Disorders Dissociative fugue
o Associated period of wandering.
o Sudden loss of episodic memory and personal identity.
o Transient with recovery of memory.
Personality Nomothetic (or nomological) theory deals
with abstract generalisations and universal concepts.
Tries to find patterns of behaviour across individuals that allow the personalities of all individuals to be classified according to a single system.
Trait and type theories.
Type Approach Oldest form of personality theory.
Hippocrates's 4 fundamental temperaments – sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic.
Type Approach Oldest form of personality theory.
Hippocrates's 4 fundamental temperaments – o sanguineo choleric, o melancholy o phlegmatic
Type Approach Type A personality – highly competitive
and hard-driving, always in a hurry, and are irritable, impatient and hostile.
Type B personality – are less hurried and competitive and more easy going and more friendly than Type A.
Limitations – very small individual variation.
Trait Approach The Big Five
o Agreeableness, o Conscientiousness, o Neuroticism, o Extraversion, o Openness (Emotional Stability).
ACNE-O
Trait Approach Eysenck – The Big Three
o Neuroticism-stability. o Extroversion-introversion. o Psychoticism.
Argue that there are personality traits that are stable and enduring proprieties of the individual.
Trait Approach Certain traits characterise a person’s
behaviour in a variety of situations.
So knowledge of an individual’s personality traits will permit us to predict what they are likely to do, even in situations in which we have never observed them.
Personality tests were devised in an attempt to supply the information that would make prediction possible.
Structured Personality Tests
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).
California Psychological Inventory (CPI).
Trait Approach Critics argued that there isn't really a set of
stable personality traits.
Mischel – people behave much less consistently than a trait theory would predict.
Human behaviour is largely determined by the characteristics of the situation itself rather than by the characteristics of the person.
Personal Construct Theory
Trait and type approaches rejected as they don’t allow an individual to assess their personality on their own terms but impose an external frame of reference.
Repertory grid – how people construct the world.
George Kelly
Psychoanalytic Approaches
Freud.
Personality is seen as a developmental process driven by underlying motivational factors.
Behaviour, thought and emotion is caused mostly by unconscious drives and motivations.
Psychoanalytic Approaches
Personality consists of 3 interacting components
o The Id – represents the primitive personality from which other aspects of personality develop and constitutes the basic biological drives, such as eating and sexual behaviour.
o The Ego represents the aspects of the personality which oversees the others and judges which actions should be performed and which should not.
o The Superego – is the moral aspect of the personality which determines whether an action is right or wrong.
Psychoanalytic Approaches
They develop through 5 stages of psychosexual development.o Oral, for approx first 18 months of life, where
activities concerning the mouth, lips etc provide satisfaction and interest.
o Anal, from approx 18 to 36 months, at the stage when toilet training occurs and control over this activity offers an expression of independence.
o Phallic, from approx 3 to 6 years where the main source of satisfaction arises from the genitals.
Psychoanalytic Approaches
o Latency, following the phallic stage and up to puberty, where sexual feelings are minimal and boys and girls tend to socialise and play separately.
o Genital, from puberty onwards, when once again the genitals are the main source of satisfaction, with the emphasis now on pleasure with another rather than alone.
Humanistic Approaches
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
What is most important about people is how they achieve their own self hood and actualise their human potential.
Maslow – self actualisation and hierarchy of needs.
Humanistic Approaches
Psychoanalysts look at people as if they are emotional cripples.
Behaviourists regard them as if they are blind and unthinking robots.
Trait theorists see people as material to file in sterile pigeon holes.
Humanistic Approaches
The self and personality is essentially based on growth.
Giving people the appropriate conditions and they grow as to realise their potential, which is for good rather than evil.
Emotion Perceiving one’s own inner states.
How do we interpret our internal states?
How do we decide whether the knot in our stomach is fear (say, of an impending examination), or is impatient anticipation (say, of a lovers’ meeting).
Theories of Emotions James-Lange Theory(1895)
Cannon-Bard Theory(1929)
Schachter-Singer “Two-Factor”Theory(1962)
Lazarus Cognitive Appraisal
James-Lange Theory Common-sense says, we lose our fortune,
are sorry and weep; we meet a bear, are frightened and run; we are insulted by a rival, are angry and strike. The hypothesis here.... Is that we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble.... Without the bodily states following on the perception, the latter would be purely cognitive in form, pale, colourless, destitute of emotional warmth. We might then see the bear, and judge it best to run, receive the insult and deem it right to strike, but we would not actually feel afraid or angry. (James, 1890)
James-Lange Theory Physiological changes occur first in response to
a stimulus. This response feeds back to the cortex and the individual is able to perceive emotion.
Emotion is construed as resulting directly from behavioural or physiological changes that occur in response to external events, which are perceived by the subject so that the emotion is the subjective feeling of that change.
James-Lange Theory• I see a man outside my window. • I begin to perspire. • I am afraid.
But our sympathetic reactions to arousing stimuli are pretty much the same, while our emotional experiences vary widely.
Cannon-Bard Theory In response to a stimulus, the cortex (via the
thalamus) enables the interpretation of the emotion.
Simultaneously, the hypothalamus leads to physiological changes.
• I see a man outside my window. • I am afraid. • I begin to perspire.
Schachter and Singer Labelling Theory
In response to a stimulus, bodily arousal and a physiological response occurs.
The individual will then interpret the emotion and label it as positive or negative depending on situational cues.
Schachter and Singer Two-Factor Theory
• I see a man outside my window. • I begin to perspire. • I ask myself “Why do I feel as I do?”.• I am afraid.
Lazarus Cognitive Appraisal
This proposes that emotions are secondary to how we ‘appraise’ or think about a situation (eg CBT).
Emotion It is doubtful that one arousal process
underlies all emotions.
But do suggest that there are a number of basic and primary emotions.
Happiness, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust, and fear.
