PSYC2050 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Operant Conditioning, Learned Helplessness, Organism
Document Summary
Phobia curing: exposure training, flooding, put person with fear of spiders in environment with lots of spiders where there is no escape, modelling of situation appropriate behaviour. Learned helplessness: seligman (1967, effect of unavoidable shock, yoked control experiment - what happens to one subject is linked to what happens to another subject, escapable shock - can perform behaviour to escape the shock, no shock. Inescapable shock - no escape from the shock. Combatting learned helplessness: place subject in a situation where it cannot fail, so it learns it has some control. Initial experience of control often immunises against learned helplessness. In humans, our attributions can harm or protect us. Internal or external: because of me or not because of me, stable or unstable, trait that i have or one off incident, global or specific, all contexts or just this context. Behavioural therapies: use conditioning principles, aim to modify situation appropriate behaviours.
