Psychology 2040A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Little Albert Experiment, Tabula Rasa, Social Learning Theory

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2040A/B
• Professor: Ian Mac Donald

Document Summary

A set of concepts and propositions that describe, organize, and explain a set of observations. *criticism: no real evidence of early conflicts affecting adult personality. More emphasis on social and cultural influences on development. Remains more popular than freud"s theory: learning theory. Only overt behaviours should be measured and analyzed. Strong emphasis on environmental influences (tabula rasa) Development is continuous and based on learning. Focus on outcome of behaviour for predicting future occurrences of that behaviour (reinforcers and punishers) *plus: knowledge about basic learning from well controlled test, practical applications. *criticisms: oversimplified, ignores genetic contributions to behaviour, ignores changes in cognitive abilities. Cognitive developmental theory: jean piaget, schemes become more complex with development. An organized pattern of thought or action a child uses to make sense of experience. Assimilation: using an existing scheme to interpret a novel experience. Accommodation: modifying an existing scheme to incorporate new experiences. *plus: focus on how children think, educational applications, strong influence on other theories.