Glencoe review page: http://glencoe.mheducation.com/sites/0078745179/student_view0/unit6/chapter15/index.html
Click on the following link for review: http://quizlet.com/20867873/d117-understanding-psychology-chapter-15-flash-cards/ Glencoe review page: http://glencoe.mheducation.com/sites/0078745179/student_view0/unit6/chapter15/index.html National Geographic: The Science of Stress: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyBsy5SQxqU
Below are a set of links with helpful information on how to handle the stress of college. Stress management tips for college students: timely.md/blog/stress-management-tips-for-college-students/#5-find-connections How to handle stress as a student (video): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk2-dKH2Ta4 Procrastination – 7 Steps to Cure (video):www.youtube.com/watch?v=irp5ghCVNAM Self-Discipline | Why It’s Important & How to Master Self-Control (video): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACYHERGmais Crash Course "How to College": www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNxrUcgYGmPneX1PTStLDQx Stress and College Students: College life can be very stressful. Sometimes parents, faculty and others tend to idealize their college experience and remember it as that idyllic time when they had few worries or responsibilities. To students currently attending college, however, the process is often stressful and frustrating. The competition for grades, the need to perform, relationships, career choice, and many other aspects of the college environment cause stress. Before condemning stress outright, we need to understand that stress is only harmful when it is excessive. Much of the stress that we all experience is helpful and stimulating. The challenges of life tend to be stressful and an attempt to avoid stress completely would lead to a rather boring existence. The problem comes when you experience too much stress. Although some stress reactions are part of deeper and more serious emotional problems, many are not, and can be handled with relatively simple counseling and stress-management techniques. You can use the following guidelines to help manage your stress:
Physical Symptoms
Some people are in a constant state of trying to catch up. They find themselves rushing and hurrying from one activity to another, always racing with the clock and never getting on top of things. Part of this problem, for many students, is not being well organized. Effective time management can help. Gain Perspective by Discussing ProblemsIt is easy to get caught up in a problem or a narrow view of something you are doing, and to lose perspective and feel that a failure or roadblock is a catastrophe. Discussing your problems with a trusted, empathic friend can allow you to gain new perspective and can allow you to move out of what might seem like an isolated and negative internal world. The act of verbalizing your concerns and putting them together will often help give you a sense of control. Specific Relaxation TechniquesRelaxation techniques are extremely valuable tools in stress management. Most of the techniques like meditation, self-hypnosis, and deep muscle relaxation work in a similar fashion. They make it possible for you to spend a short period of time in a state of profound relaxation. In this state both the body and the mind are at rest and the outside world is screened out for a period of time. The practice of one of these techniques on a regular basis can provide a wonderfully calming and relaxing feeling that seems to have a lasting effect for many people. Your energy level and ability to cope with the external world are replenished. Practitioners and researchers have reported many positive life effects from the regular practice of one of these techniques. You may want to take a course or read about one of these techniques. The Counseling Center, as well as various other campus agencies, offer stress management groups. These techniques easy to learn, but can be difficult to fit into your schedule. If you don't have an opportunity to get instruction, just practice sitting quietly for 15 minutes, with no interruptions. Let yourself relax by focusing on something peaceful - a beautiful scene at the beach or in the mountains, for example. Sometimes it is your negative thoughts or worries that create tension. You can practice "thought stopping techniques" and learn how to use positive self-talk to cope with stress. Even simple interruption can help. Stop and take a purposeful 10-minute break. Go for a walk, breathe deeply, call a friend, put on some favorite music. Keep your sense of humor! Remember, you can talk with a counselor to learn more about how to develop these stress-reducing skills. Clarify Your Values and Develop a Sense of Life MeaningStress is often caused by general unhappiness and a sense of aimlessness or lack of purpose. People sometimes wind up making choices and living life styles that really don't fit them. A student may be studying accounting when he or she really wants to be an artist, or he or she may have a wide circle of friends, but not really have the kind of intimate relationships that feel fulfilling. Clarifying your values and deciding what you really want out of your life, can help you feel better about yourself and have that sense of satisfaction and centeredness that helps you deal with the stresses of life. This process is, of course, not easy. Most of us are constantly growing and developing our sense of self and our ideas about what we want and how we want to live. A sense of spirituality can help with this. You might find this with an organized religion or it might be a more personal, individual process. It may involve a sense of oneness with nature, or it may be related to the deep satisfaction gained from volunteer work that really helps someone. Although each of us must develop our own sense of well being and spirituality, it does help to talk about these issues with others, as a way of clarifying and challenging our own ideas and beliefs. Stress at work: Coping with stress is easier when you identify your stress triggers, manage your time well, and take steps to curb job burnout. Nowhere is stress more likely than in the workplace. Twenty-five percent of people say that their job is the primary stressor in their lives. Job stress can affect your professional and personal relationships, your livelihood, and your health. The good news is that you're not powerless. You can learn better ways of coping with stress. The effects of stress In small doses, stress is a good thing. It can energize and motivate you to deal with challenges. But prolonged or excessive stress — the kind that overwhelms your ability to cope — can take a severe psychological and physical toll. High stress levels have been linked to depression, anxiety, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems, impaired immune response and cancer. Your genes, personality and life experiences all influence the way you respond to and cope with stress. Situations and events that are distressing for most people might not bother you in the least. Or, you may be particularly sensitive to even minor stressors. The first step in coping with stress is identifying your stress triggers. Some causes of stress are obvious — the threat of losing your job, for instance. But small, daily hassles and demands such as a long commute or difficult co-workers also contribute to your stress level. Over time, small, persistent stressors can wreak more havoc than sudden, devastating events do. Tackle your stress triggers To identify the factors causing you stress, try keeping a stress inventory: For one week write down the situations, events and people who cause you to have a negative physical, mental or emotional response. Give a brief description of the situation. Where were you? Who was involved? Also, describe your reaction. Did you feel frustrated, angry or nervous? After a week, sit down and look at your stress inventory. Choose one situation to work on using problem-solving techniques. That means identifying and exploring the problem, looking for ways to resolve it, and selecting and implementing a solution. Suppose, for instance, that you're behind at work because you leave early to pick up your son from school. You might check with other parents to see if your son can ride with them. Or, you might come in early, work through your lunch hour or take work home to catch up. The best way of coping with stress is to try to find a way to change the circumstances that are causing it. Work overload — feeling you have too much to do — is a common cause of job stress. You may not be able to affect the amount of work you have, but you can use time management to help you be more efficient and feel less under the gun. Try these tips to improve your time management skills and lower your stress level.
Can Stress Kill You?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzrjEP5MOT4&safe=active&IP=10.17.230.63&CAT=RRATED&USER=IPGROUP&CE=0 Apart from personality traits, people also tend to develop habitual modes and methods of managing stress and coping with upsetting emotions. By and large, these habitual methods do help people to manage and defuse stressful situations they find themselves in, but they are not all equally efficient at this task. Some work better than others. While some really do succeed in helping people to manage upsetting emotion, the lesser quality methods generally end up causing more problems than they solve. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a relationship between people's emotional maturity and the sort of coping methods they prefer. Less emotionally mature people tend to prefer rather primitive and often inefficient coping methods , while more mature folks lean towards more sophisticated and more useful methods. The less mature methods also tend to have in common that their use is not premeditated or conscious in nature, but rather fairly reactive, not well thought out, and unconscious. As coping methods increase in maturity and sophistication, they become correspondingly more deliberate and conscious in nature, and also tend to be used more proactively, rather than simply reactively. The study of coping methods has a long history. The topic was originally described by psychodynamic psychotherapists (including Dr. Freud) who called them defense mechanisms. The defense mechanism literature was largely focused on mental illness and the ways that various primitive mechanisms served largely to maintain serious illness rather than help reduce it. Later, more cognitively oriented researchers began a separate study of coping that focused more on mental health, and ways that mature coping methods could be taught to enhance health. Though some authors suggest that the term defense mechanisms should be reserved for describing primitive, immature coping strategies, and the term "coping methods" for more mature, useful coping efforts, it doesn't really matter what label is used to describe the different coping methods from our perspective; they are all just people's attempts at coping. The most primitive of the defense mechanisms are considered to be primitive because they fundamentally rely on blatant misrepresentation or outright ignoring of reality in order to function. These mechanisms flourish in situations (and minds) where emotion trumps reason and impulsivity rules the day. Children use them naturally and normally, but then again, children are by definition emotionally immature and not held to a higher standard as are adults. When adults use these methods on a regular basis, it is an indication that their emotional development is at some level delayed.
Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize stressful events. Two general coping strategies have been distinguished: problem-solving strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances, whereas emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events. Research indicates that people use both types of strategies to combat most stressful events (Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). The predominance of one type of strategy over another is determined, in part, by personal style (e.g., some people cope more actively than others) and also by the type of stressful event; for example, people typically employ problem-focused coping to deal with potential controllable problems such as work-related problems and family-related problems, whereas stressors perceived as less controllable, such as certain kinds of physical health problems, prompt more emotion-focused coping. An additional distinction that is often made in the coping literature is between active and avoidant coping strategies. Active coping strategies are either behavioral or psychological responses designed to change the nature of the stressor itself or how one thinks about it, whereas avoidant coping strategies lead people into activities (such as alcohol use) or mental states (such as withdrawal) that keep them from directly addressing stressful events. Generally speaking, active coping strategies, whether behavioral or emotional, are thought to be better ways to deal with stressful events, and avoidant coping strategies appear to be a psychological risk factor or marker for adverse responses to stressful life events (Holahan & Moos, 1987). How to make stress your friend | Kelly McGonigal: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU
The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically. The fight-or-flight response was first described in the 1920s by American physiologist Walter Cannon. Cannon realized that a chain of rapidly occurring reactions inside the body help mobilize the body's resources to deal with threatening circumstances. In response to acute stress, the body's sympathetic nervous system is activated due to the sudden release of hormones. The sympathetic nervous systems stimulates the adrenal glands triggering the release of catecholamines, which include adrenaline and noradrenaline. This results in an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate. After the threat is gone, it takes between 20 to 60 minutes for the body to return to its pre-arousal levels. The fight-or-flight response is also known as the acute stress response. Essentially, the response prepares the body to either fight or flee the threat. It is also important to note that the response can be triggered due to both real and imaginary threats. The stress response is one of the major topics studied in the rapidly-growing field of health General Adaptation Syndrome DefinitionGeneral adaptation syndrome, or GAS, is a term used to describe the body's short-term and long-term reactions to stress. Stressors in humans include such physical stressors as starvation, being hit by a car, or suffering through severe weather. Additionally, humans can suffer such emotional or mental stressors as the loss of a loved one, the inability to solve a problem, or even having a difficult day at work. DescriptionOriginally described by Hans Selye (1907–1982), an Austrian-born physician who emigrated to Canada in 1939, the general adaptation syndrome represents a three-stage reaction to stress. Selye explained his choice of terminology as follows: "I call this syndrome general because it is produced only by agents which have a general effect upon large portions of the body. I call it adaptive because it stimulates defense…. I call it asyndrome because its individual manifestations are coordinated and even partly dependent upon each other." Selye thought that the general adaptation syndrome involved two major systems of the body, the nervous system and the endocrine (or hormonal) system. He then went on to outline what he considered as three distinctive stages in the syndrome's evolution. He called these stages the alarm reaction (AR), the stage of resistance (SR), and the stage of exhaustion (SE). Stage 1: alarm reaction (ar)The first stage of the general adaptation stage, the alarm reaction, is the immediate reaction to a stressor. In the initial phase of stress, humans exhibit a "fight or flight" response, which prepares the body for physical activity. However, this initial response can also decrease the effectiveness of the immune system, making persons more susceptible to illness during this phase. Stage 2: stage of resistance (sr)Stage 2 might also be named the stage of adaptation, instead of the stage of resistance. During this phase, if the stress continues, the body adapts to the stressors it is exposed to. Changes at many levels take place in order to reduce the effect of the stressor. For example, if the stressor is starvation (possibly due to anorexia), the person might experienced a reduced desire for physical activity to conserve energy, and the absorption of nutrients from food might be maximized. Stage 3: stage of exhaustion (se)At this stage, the stress has continued for some time. The body's resistance to the stress may gradually be reduced, or may collapse quickly. Generally, this means the immune system, and the body's ability to resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated. Patients who experience long-term stress may succumb to heart attacks or severe infection due to their reduced immunity. For example, a person with a stressful job may experience long-term stress that might lead to high blood pressure and an eventual heart attack. Stress, a useful reaction?The reader should note that Dr. Selye did not regard stress as a purely negative phenomenon; in fact, he frequently pointed out that stress is not only an inevitable part of life but results from intense joy or pleasure as well as fear or anxiety. "Stress is not even necessarily bad for you; it is also the spice of life, for any emotion, any activity, causes stress." Some later researchers have coined the term "eustress" or pleasant stress, to reflect the fact that such positive experiences as a job promotion, completing a degree or training program, marriage, travel, and many others are also stressful. Selye also pointed out that human perception of and response to stress is highly individualized; a job or sport that one person finds anxiety-provoking or exhausting might be quite appealing and enjoyable to someone else. Looking at one's responses to specific stressors can contribute to better understanding of one's particular physical, emotional, and mental resources and limits. Causes and symptomsStress is one cause of general adaptation syndrome. The results of unrelieved stress can manifest as fatigue, irritability, difficulty concentrating, and difficulty sleeping. Persons may also experience other symptoms that are signs of stress. Persons experiencing unusual symptoms, such as hair loss, without another medical explanation might consider stress as the cause. The general adaptation syndrome is also influenced by such universal human variables as overall health and nutritional status, sex, age, ethnic or racial background, level of education, socioeconomic status (SES), genetic makeup, etc. Some of these variables are biologically based and difficult or impossible to change. For example, recent research indicates that men and women respond somewhat differently to stress, with women being more likely to use what is called the "tend and befriend" response rather than the classical "fight or flight" pattern. These researchers note that most of the early studies of the effects of stress on the body were conducted with only male subjects. Selye's observation that people vary in their perceptions of stressors was reflected in his belief that the stressors themselves are less dangerous to health than people's maladaptive responses to them. He categorized certain diseases, ranging from cardiovascular disorders to inflammatory diseases and mental disorders as "diseases of adaptation," regarding them as "largely due to errors in our adaptaive response to stress" rather than the direct result of such outside factors as germs, toxic substances, etc. DiagnosisGAS by itself is not an official diagnostic category but rather a descriptive term. A person who consults a doctor for a stress-related physical illness may be scheduled for blood or urine tests to measure the level of cortisol or other stress-related hormones in their body, or imaging studies to evaluate possible abnormalities in their endocrine glands if the doctor thinks that these tests may help to establish or confirm a diagnosis. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) recognizes stress as a factor in anxiety disorders, particularlypost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and acute stress disorder (ASD). These two disorders are defined as symptomatic reactions to extreme traumatic stressors (war, natural or transportation disasters, criminal assault, abuse, hostage situations, etc.) and differ chiefly in the time frame in which the symptoms develop. The APA also has a diagnostic category of adjustment disorders, which are characterized either by excessive reactions to stressors within the normal range of experience (e.g. academic examinations, relationship breakups, being fired from a job) or by significant impairment in the person's occupational or social functioning. TreatmentTreatment of stress-related illnesses typically involves one or more stress reduction strategies. Stress reduction strategies generally fall into one of three categories: avoiding stressors; changing one's reaction to the stressor(s); or relieving stress after the reaction to the stressor(s). Many mainstream as well as complementary or alternative (CAM) strategies for stress reduction, such as exercising, listening to music, aromatherapy, and massage relieve stress after it occurs. Many psychotherapeutic approaches attempt to modify the patient's reactions to stressors. These approaches often include an analysis of the patient's individual patterns of response to stress; for example, one commonly used set of categories describes people as "speed freaks," "worry warts," "cliff walkers," "loners," "basket cases," and "drifters." Each pattern has a recommended set of skills that the patient is encouraged to work on; for example, worry warts are advised to reframe their anxieties and then identify their core values and goals in order to take concrete action about their worries. In general, persons wishing to improve their management of stress should begin by consulting a medical professional with whom they feel comfortable to discuss which option, or combination of options, they can use. Selye himself recommended an approach to stress that he described as "living wisely in accordance with natural laws." In his now-classic book The Stress of Life (1956), he discussed the following as important dimensions of living wisely:
PERSONALITY TEST ARE YOU TYPE A OR B (click to take): http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/TypeAB.html According to Richard Lazarus, stress is a two-way process; it involves the production of stressors by the environment, and the response of an individual subjected to these stressors. His conception regarding stress led to the theory of cognitive appraisal. What is Cognitive Appraisal?Lazarus stated that cognitive appraisal occurs when a person considers two major factors that majorly contribute in his response to stress. These two factors include:
See also: Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion Primary AppraisalIn the stage of primary appraisal, an individual tends to ask questions like, “What does this stressor and/ or situation mean?”, and, “How can it influence me?” According to psychologists, the three typical answers to these questions are:
After answering these two questions, the second part of primary cognitive appraisal is to classify whether the stressor or the situation is a threat, a challenge or a harm-loss. When you see the stressor as a threat, you view it as something that will cause future harm, such as failure in exams or getting fired from job. When you look at it as a challenge, you develop a positive stress response because you expect the stressor to lead you to a higher class ranking, or a better employment. On the other hand, seeing the stressor as a “harm-loss” means that the damage has already been experiences, such as when a person underwent a recent leg amputation, or encountered a car accident. Secondary AppraisalUnlike in other theories where the stages usually come one after another, the secondary appraisal actually happens simultaneously with the primary appraisal. In fact, there are times that secondary appraisal becomes the cause of a primary appraisal. Secondary appraisals involve those feelings related to dealing with the stressor or the stress it produces. Uttering statements like, “I can do it if I do my best”, “I will try whether my chances of success are high or not”, and “If this way fails, I can always try another method” indicates positive secondary appraisal. In contrast to these, statements like, “I can’t do it; I know I will fail”, “I will not do it because no one believes I can” and, “I won’t try because my chances are low” indicate negative secondary appraisal. Approach-approach conflict is one of the three major types of conflict described by psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1931. It happens when a person has to choose between two desirable outcomes, such as a choice between finishing college and a full-time job offer. This conflict is often the easier to resolve than the two other conflicts, which areavoidance-avoidance conflict and approach-avoidance conflict. Avoidance-avoidance conflict is one of the three major types of conflict described bypsychologist Kurt Lewin in 1931. The other two are approach-approach conflict andapproach-avoidance conflict. This conflict involves choosing between undesirable alternatives or outcomes in which a person tends to avoid. For instance, a person who dislikes his job but fears on quitting and unemployment. Approach-avoidance conflict is one of the three major types of conflict described by psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1931. It is when an individual is indecisive and ambivalent in pursuing a desirable goal that has an undesirable outcome. For instance, a person wants to do something but fears the consequence it entails. This conflict is often the more difficult to resolve. Review for test by clicking on the link: https://quizlet.com/5905836/understanding-psychology-chapter-9-vocabularies-flash-cards/ Practice Test click on the link: _ http://glencoe.mheducation.com/sites/0078745179/student_view0/unit4/chapter9/self-check_quizzes.html Power Point: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=glencoe+understanding+psychology+chapter+9+powerpoint How to Train a Brain: Crash Course Psychology #11:www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG2SwE_6uVM The Bobo Beatdown: Crash Course Psychology #12:www.youtube.com/watch?v=128Ts5r9NRE
In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) states behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during the famous bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961). Individuals that are observed are called models. In society children are surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group and teachers at school. Theses models provide examples of masculine and feminine behavior to observe and imitate. They pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. At a later time they may imitate (i.e. copy) the behavior they have observed. They may do this regardless of whether the behavior is ‘gender appropriate’ or not but there are a number of processes that make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for its sex. First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself. Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people the same sex as it is. Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it imitates with either reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates a model’s behavior and the consequences are rewarding, the child is likely to continue performing the behavior. If parent sees a little girl consoling her teddy bear and says “what a kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and makes it more likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been reinforced (i.e. strengthened). Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If a child wants approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy about being approved of is an internal reinforcement. A child will behave in a way which it believes will earn approval because it desires approval. Positive (or negative) reinforcement will have little impact if the reinforcement offered externally does not match with an individual's needs. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, but the important factor is that it will usually lead to a change in a person's behavior. Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when deciding whether or not to copy someone’s actions. This is known as vicarious reinforcement. This relates to attachment to specific models that possess qualities seen as rewarding. Children will have a number of models with whom they identify. These may be people in their immediate world, such as parents or elder siblings, or could be fantasy characters or people in the media. The motivation to identify with a particular model is that they have a quality which the individual would like to possess. Identification occurs with another person (the model) and involves taking on (or adopting) observed behaviors, values, beliefs and attitudes of the person with whom you are identifying. The term identification as used by Social Learning Theory is similar to the Freudian term related to the Oedipus complex. For example, they both involve internalizing or adopting another person’s behavior. However, during the Oedipus complex the child can only identify with the same sex parent, whereas with Social Identity Theory the person (child or adult) can potentially identify with any other person. Identification is different to imitation as it may involve a number of behaviors being adopted whereas imitation usually involves copying a single behavior. - See more at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html#sthash.jmTWjywn.dpuf What Is Operant Conditioning? Operant conditioning (sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. Operant conditioning was coined by behaviorist B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it referred to as Skinnerian conditioning. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we should look only at the external, observable causes of human behavior. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953). In other words, Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit each and every day. Examples of Operant ConditioningWe can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions. In these examples, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in behavior, but operant conditioning can also be used to decrease a behavior. The removal of an undesirable outcome or the use of punishment can be used to decrease or prevent undesirable behaviors. For example, a child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class. This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors. Components of Operant ConditioningSome key concepts in operant conditioning: Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behavior it follows. There are two kinds of reinforcers:
Punishment, on the other hand, is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. There are two kinds of punishment:
video on the difference between punishment and negatice reinforcers (click on link) http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=268271 Video between Classical and Operant Conditioning! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LEcM0E0io Reinforcement or Punishment video:www.teachertube.com/video/positive-and-negative-reinforcement-268271 Behaviorism is a school of thought in psychology based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment. Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment shapes behavior and that taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings and emotions into consideration is useless in explaining behavior. One of the best-known aspects of behavioral learning theory is classical conditioning. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone could produce the salivation response. In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning works, it is important to be familiar with the basic principles of the process. The Unconditioned StimulusThe unconditioned stimulus is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus. The Unconditioned ResponseThe unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. In our example, the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the unconditioned response. The Conditioned StimulusThe conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. In our earlier example, suppose that when you smelled your favorite food, you also heard the sound of a whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times with the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the conditioned response. In this case, the sound of the whistle is the conditioned stimulus. The Conditioned ResponseThe conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. In our example, the conditioned response would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle. Classical Conditioning in the Real World In reality, people do not respond exactly like Pavlov's dogs. There are, however, numerous real-world applications for classical conditioning. For example, many dog trainers use classical conditioning techniques to help people train their pets. These techniques are also useful in the treatment of phobias or anxiety problems. Teachers are able to apply classical conditioning in the class by creating a positive classroom environment to help students overcome anxiety or fear. Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front of a group, with pleasant surroundings helps the student learn new associations. Instead of feeling anxious and tense in these situations, the child will learn to stay relaxed and calm. Video explaining Classical Conditioning (click the link to watch): www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI Classical Conditioning song: www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lWxsfKErM |
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