UNIT 1

Meaning of Psychology
 Origin of the word Psychology
• The word psychology comes from the word
psyche, which means mind and the word
logos, which means the study of.
• psyche + logos = psychology
• mind + the study of = the study of mind
• And it is represented by the following symbol
which read as “psy.”
 Modern Definition
• Today, as a modern discipline, psychology is
defined as:
• The scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.“
Behavior- includes all of a person’s overt actions
and reactions, which can be observed by
others such as eating, talking, smiling, and
working.
Mental processes- refer to all the covert
activities that other people cannot directly
observe. Activities such as thinking, dreaming,
feeling, and remembering are examples of
mental processes.
 Today …
• Scientific
- Uses systematic methods to observe, describe, explain and
control behavior.
- An empirical science that conduct scientific investigation
(e.g., observation and experimentation).
 Today…
• Two purposes of studying animals behavior.
a. it is ethically forbidden to conduct some experiments on
human beings, so animals are subject to experiment.
b. Conclusions obtained from experiments on animal
behavior are usually applicable to human behavior.
 Goals of Psychology
1. Description
- Naming and classifying. Making a detailed record of behavioral observations.
- Giving clear picture about the phenomena. Or tell about what something is like.
- To describe, a psychologist would ask ‘what is happening?’, ‘when it happens?’ and ‘to whom it
happens?’
2. Explanation
- The second goal is to find out ‘why is it happening?’ In other words, the psychologist is looking
for an explanation for the observed behavior or mental processes.
- Telling about why certain behavioral phenomenon is occurred.
3. Prediction
- The ability to for cast behavior accurately.
- Telling what something would be like in the future.
4. Control
- Manipulation or managing of a situation based on description, explanation, & prediction.
- It involves answering the questions “how”, “when” and “where” to intervene.
-This goal is to change an undesirable behavior to a desirable one.
To illustrate all the 4 goals, consider the following
example.
A group of psychologists observe a number of students in
order to describe how large their vocabulary typically
is at a certain age. Then, they would attempt to
explain how students expand the vocabulary and why
some students have limited number of vocabulary.
Psychologists would predict that students with limited
number of vocabulary will probably continue to do
poorly in academic. Finally, the psychologists would
propose certain language learning strategies that can
be used to increase the size of vocabulary of the
students.
 Major Subfields of Psychology
• Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary psychology considers how
behavior is influenced by our genetic inheritance from our
ancestors.
• Experimental psychology Experimental psychology studies the
processes of sensing, perceiving, learning, and thinking about the
world.
• Forensic psychology Forensic psychology focuses on legal issues,
such as determining the accuracy of witness memories.
• Health psychology Health psychology explores the relationship
between psychological factors and physical ailments or disease.
• Industrial/organizational Psychology Industrial/organizational
psychology is concerned with the psychology of the workplace.
• Personality psychology Personality psychology focuses on the
consistency in people’s behavior over time and the traits that
differentiate one person from another.
• Program evaluation Program evaluation focuses on assessing
large-scale programs, such as the Head Start preschool program,
to determine whether they are effective in meeting their goals.
• Psychology of women Psychology of women focuses on issues
such as discrimination against women and the causes of violence
against women.
• School psychology School psychology is devoted to counseling
children in elementary and secondary schools who have academic
or emotional problems.
• Social psychology Social psychology is the study of how people’s
thoughts, feelings, and actions are affected by others.
• Sport psychology Sport psychology applies psychology to athletic
activity and exercise.
 UNIT 2

Human Development
 BASIC CONCEPTS, PRINCIPLES AND
THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT
Meaning of Terms
Growth
• is defined as indicative of increase in body dimensions-height
and weight.
• is generally restricted to quantitative changes. i.e., increase in
size & structure
• is the result of metabolic processes in which proteins are
broken down and used to make new cells.
• Is internal,
• Structural,
• Physiological,
 Maturation

• It is the unfolding of characteristics potentially

present in the individual that come from the
individual’s genetic endowment.
• In other words, maturation represents the
readiness or ripening of a certain growing
body to start its functions. E.g. the ripening of
sex organs for reproduction.
• It is the same way for children of all cultures.
 Learning

• It is a relatively permanent change in behavior caused by

interaction with the environment.
• Learning implies making practice and experimentation or
performing activities using the maturing body. When the
practices, experimentations or performances are repeated time
and over again, they lead to changes. When a number of these
specific changes are integrated, they lead to development.
• Through learning, individuals acquire competence in using their
hereditary resources. They must, however, have opportunities to
learn. But if deprived of opportunities for practice and
experimentation or systematic training, individuals will not
develop their hereditary potential.
 Development

• It is the orderly set of changes that occur over time as

individual moves from conception to death.
• It is a lifelong process.
• It is the emerging and expanding of capacities of the
individual to provide greater facility in functioning such
as development of motor ability from uncertain step to
proficiency in games.
• It is best understood as the result of the interaction of
maturation and learning.
 
 Activity

What do you think is then the relationship of growth, maturation, learning and development?
• There is evidence that growth leads to
maturation and maturation set influences to
what a person can learn and learning in turn
leads to development.
• From this point of view, development is
therefore a broad concept that encompasses
growth, maturation and learning.
 Aspects of Development

• Development is an overall change in behavior

resulting from the interaction of different
changes rather than just one kind of change;
on the other hand, it is manifested through
different kinds of changes rather than through
one type of change.
 Activity
What then those different aspects of
developmental changes?
• To simplify the matter let us focus on the three
arbitrarily separated aspects of development: the
physical, including changes in sensory capacities, body
changes and motor skills; the cognitive including
learning, language, memory and thought; and the
psychosocial, including emotions, personality and
relationship with other people.
• The division of human development in to three
domains makes it easier to study, but we must
remember that very few factors belong exclusively to
one aspect or another.
• Development is not piecemeal but holistic. Each aspect
of development is related to all three aspects.
Questions and Controversies about Human Nature

• From the above discussion you may have noted that

development in general is guided by innate biological
forces ( for that matter growth and maturation) as
well as by the particular experiences a person has
( for that matter environment).
• The relative importance of these factors is a topic of
debate, called the nature-nurture controversy.
• Whether development is continuous and smooth, or
discontinuous and stage like, is also controversial.
 The Issue of Nature and Nurture
• Once again you may have noted from the above discussion that
development is the result of the interaction of nature (heredity)
and nurture (environment).
• Development occurs when the developing person interacts more
and more with the environment using his/her changing body.
• We may use the analogy of a growing plant to elaborate this point.
• A plant grows from the seed that is planted on a plot of land. The
growing plant represents development; the seed represents
heredity whereas the plot of land represents the environment.
 
 Activity

• Define the terms heredity and environment,

and, with the help of examples explain how
each contributes to human development.
• There is no doubt that development is the
result of heredity (nature) and environment
(nurture). However, as its most extreme, the
nature- nurture debate asked which of the
two, heredity or environment, was responsible
for development.
• The debate used to take two extreme
positions- one group favoring environment
and another group favoring heredity.
 Activity

• Which view do you personally support?

Why?
• The present day psychologists do not think the
question regarding the relative importance of
factors is useful, for one could not exist
without the other.
• Both heredity and environment are absolutely
necessary for the person to exist; therefore,
both must exert an influence on the person.
 Activity

• Do you think nature and nurture are equally

important in all aspects of development?
• We do not assume that each of the two factors of
development plays an equal role in all aspects of
development.
• In phylogenetic behaviors- behaviors common to the
race- such as creeping, crawling, sitting and walking
can best be explained by the process of maturation
that is guided by our genetic blueprint- heredity.
• By contrast, in ontogenetic behavior- behavior
specific to the individual- such as swimming, ball
throwing, or writing are best explained by examining
the influence of the environment the individual
encountered.
The Issue of Continuity and Discontinuity

• How would you describe human growth?

Would you say we gradually grow older and
more mature, the way a seedling becomes a
tree? Or do you think we undergo steadily
changes, like a caterpillar becoming a
butterfly? Give your reasons please.
• These questions reflect the issue of continuity
and discontinuity.
• Developmental psychologists have debated on the question
of continuity and discontinuity.
• Those who support continuity believe there is a continual
progression from the beginning of life to the end.
Accomplishments that seem abrupt, such as a body’s first
step can be viewed as the final event in weeks of practice
and growth.
• In the same way learning to talk or read, or the entering of
adolescence or adulthood, can be seen as a gradual process
rather than an abrupt change.
• Psychologists, who argue in favor of discontinuity of
development, think that growth occurs in identifiable stages,
with distinct abilities and problems typical of each stage.
• This debate is ongoing and some of the
developmental psychologists will argue for a
stage like discontinuity, while others will argue
that development is best seen in terms of
continuity.
• The present day psychologists recognize the
merit of both sides of these controversies.
• The fact is that we can find both continuity
and discontinuity in development.
Principles of Human Development
1. Development is the Product of Interaction
• Development is a process resulted from a constant
interchange of energy within an individual and his/her
environment.
• Heredity forces are inherent in the genetic
contribution of the individual and environmental
forces influence the development of an organism.
• Thus, the development of an individual is the result of
the constant interaction of the individual with his/her
environment.
 2. Development Follows an Orderly Sequence

• Development follows an orderly sequence in all

individuals and
• It shows high degree of similarity in the order in
which various development appear.
• Major Directional Trends in Development
a) Cephalocaudal- Development starts from head
and proceeds towards heel.
Eg. A fetus’ head is well-developed before his/her
legs assume their final form.
b) Proximodistal- Development starts from the
centre line of the body to the outer parts, more
distant from it.
E.g. An infant uses the shoulders and elbows to
reach for an object before he/she uses the wrists
and fingers. 
c) Locomotion- Locomotion develops in a
sequence in all infants of different culture of the
world.
• The sequence is creeping, crawling and walking.
• Every infant passes through these stages.
3. Development is a Continuous Process

• Development is a continuous process which;

• Begins from the time of conception in the womb
of the mother and continues until death.
4. Bilateral to unilateral Trend
• The infant up to the age of 2 years uses both
the hands with equal ease.
• Hand preference starts after the age of two and
a half year.
 5. Different Aspects of Development are
Interrelated
• Different aspects of development are
interrelated.
• A child’s early social behavior is interrelated
with his/her physical development.
• If the child is physically handicapped then
his/her social behavior will be retarded.
• The motor development of walking has
positive effect on intellectual development.
6. Development is Individualized Process

• All individuals develop in their own way.

• Each child has his/her own rate of;
• Physical, mental, emotional and social development.
7. Development is Cumulative
• The child’s first word, first step are the result of
cumulative progress for the child has continuously
been preparing for these functions.
• Each change is the culmination of his/her prior
growth and experience.
 8. Development Proceeds from the General to the Specific

• In all types of developments, the principle of

mass-differentiation and integration are
found.
• Out of mass and undifferentiated, behavior
emerges more differentiated, refined and
goal-directed.
• For example, language development of the
child begins from the birth cry, as mass
response. Out of this mass response,
differentiation starts and gradually the child
requires vocabulary of many words and
consequently the skill of communication
develops.
9. Rate of Development Differs in Male and
Female Child
• There is a difference in the growth rate of boys
and girls.
• Girls mature earlier in comparison to boys.
• Girls are taller and heavier than boys during
pre-adolescence but by the end of
adolescence boys surpass them.
 Theories of Development
Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Cognitive development refers to the development of

the intellectual or mental abilities and capabilities
which help an individual to adjust his/her behavior to
the ever challenging environmental conditions, or
• To enable him/her to accomplish a task that needs
complex cognitive abilities
– For Piaget intelligence is adaptive. i.e., usable in
different conditions.
– Adaptation takes place through two related
processes: assimilation and accommodation.
 – Assimilation is the process by which an individual
fits new information into his/her present way of
understanding, as when he/she act on a new object
in a way that is similar to previous action on other
object.
• Example: A young kid may identify all flying vehicles
as “aeroplane”
• Accommodation is the process by which cognitive
structures are altered to fit new experiences.
• Example: The kid has to be informed that not all flying
vehicles are aeroplanes. In this case accommodation
would involve the modification of aeroplane scheme.
 Basic Assumption of Piaget’s Theory

• Changes occur in stages: Sensory motor Stage,

Preoperational Stage Concrete Operational
Stage,& Formal Operational Stage.
• Every individual passes the same stages in the
same movement(stages are invariant)
• All individuals in all parts of the world follow the
same movement(stages are universal)
• The highest level of cognitive development is
attained in adolescence.
 1. Sensory motor Stage (Birth-2 years)

• It is the first stage of cognitive development

• The child discovers the world using the senses and motor
activities.
• The child experiences everything directly through his/her senses
and through feedback from motor activities.
• In the world of the child, an object exists when it is physically
present.
• The child develops object permanence (the understanding that
objects and people do not disappear merely because they are out
of sight) when he/she is between six and eight months of old. The
child leaves the sensory motor stage when object permanence
becomes fully developed.
Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)
• During this stage, the use of symbolic thought expands
rapidly especially the use of language.
• Children’s rapidly increasing vocabularies enable them to
represent and think about people, objects, events, and
feelings.
• They gain the ability to represent mentally objects that are
not present. They also begin to draw people, animals, and
objects.
• In the beginning, their drawings are fanciful. However,
toward the end of the stage, their drawings become more
realistic, neat, and precise.
• Apart from the great expansion in the use of
symbolic thought, preoperational children also
gain other cognitive advances. For example, at
this stage, children begin to realize that every
event has a cause.
• In addition, they are able to group objects,
people, and events into meaningful categories
such as big or small and boy or girl.
• Furthermore, they can count and deal with
quantities. As they grow older, they become
more able to imagine how others might feel.
 • Even though preoperational children make
progressive progress in this stage, they have some
definite limitations.
Egocentrism-Children of this stage experience
egocentrism or the tendency to see the world of others
from their own viewpoints. They assume that everyone
else share their feelings, reactions, and perspetives.
-Example: A boy assumes that all people enjoy watching
football as he does.
Animism-This is the tendency to attribute life to objects
that are not alive.- Example: A child says, “My teddy bear
wants a cup of milk too”
 Lack of conservation- Conservation is the principle
that some characteristics of an object stay the same
even though the object changes in appearance.
- Example: A preoperational child cannot understand
that the amount of liquid stays the same regardless
of the container’s shape (Refer table 1).
• Irreversibility refers to the failure to understand
that certain processes can be undone or reversed.
Example: A young child might recognize that 3 + 2 =
5, but not understand that the reverse 5 – 2 = 3, is
true.
Table 1: shows some types of conservation
which explains the principle that some
characteristics of an object stay the same even
though the object changes in appearance.
Some Types of Conservation…
Type of Before transformation After transformation
conservation
Shape

Preoperational child’s response

The sausage shape has more
amount of clay.
The balls have the same amount of
clay.

Length

Preoperational child’s response

Both straws have the The one on top (or bottom) is longer.
same length.
 Before transformation After transformation

Liquid

Preoperational child’s response

The containers have the same amount of The tall container has more
liquid amount of liquid.

Number

Preoperational child’s response

Both rows have the same The longer row has more
number of candies. number of candies.
Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)

• During the concrete operational stage, children

develop the ability to think in a more logical
manner.
• They are less egocentric than before and can
take multiple aspects of a situation into
account.
• At this stage, children can do mentally what
they previously could do only physically and
they can reverse concrete operations.
 Cont…
• Although the concrete operational thinkers
make important advances in logical
capabilities, their thinking is still limited to real
situations in here and now.
• Put in another way, they have difficulty in
understanding abstract ideas.
 Formal operational stage (12 years to
adulthood)
• This stage begins when children develop the capacity
of thinking that is abstract, systematic, and
hypothetical.
• These capabilities allow students to make abstract
reasoning, sophisticated moral judgments, and plan
more realistically for the future.
• They can understand historical time, learn algebra and
calculus, imagine possibilities, form and test
hypotheses (hypothetical-deductive reasoning in
Piaget’s term) and can use deductive reasoning.
 Freud’s Views and Stages of Psychosexual Development

• The psychosexual theory of human development has been

founded by Sigmund Freud.
• Freud has theorized that powerful unconscious biological
derives, mostly sexual and aggression motivate human
behavior and that these natural urges put people into
conflict with the constraints of society, producing anxiety.
• Hence, Freud’s psychosexual theory is dynamic and is
based on the assumption that personality development is
determined by conflicts and events that are largely
unconscious in nature and which can be understood by its
in-depth study.
• According to Freud, a child passes through five
major stages of psychosexual development.
• The first three stages: oral, anal and phallic
involve physical satisfaction and are centered
on the erogenous zones (sexually sensitive
areas).
• Each of these stages is characterized by the
focusing of sexual interest and pleasure in a
particular part of the body.
• They take place during the first six years of life.
 1. The Oral Stage (birth to approximately 1
year)
• The focus of pleasure is mouth.
• The child’s love object is his/her mother’s breast which s/he sucks to satisfy
his/her hunger.
• The treatment of the mother determines later personality.
• Success at this stage means the infant develops in to an adult with normal,
flexible and desirable personality characteristics.
• Failure at this stage leads to oral fixation because of over gratification and
under gratification.
Over gratification later personality
( overindulgence at this stage--------- optimism, admiration, gullibility
Under gratification later personality
(deprivation at this stage--------- pessimism, dependency, suspiciousness,
envy (verbal biting, hostile)
2.The Anal Stage (approximately 1 to 3
years)
• The focus of pleasure shifts from mouth to the anus.
• The child gains the greatest satisfaction from exercising
control over the anus during elimination (removal) and
retention (withholding).
  later personality
Over gratification-- dirtiness, messiness, over generosity
Under gratification-- meticulousness, orderliness,
stinginess
 3. Phallic Stage (approximately 3-6 years)

• The focus of pleasure shifts from anus to the immature sexual organs.
Oedipus complex- the boy is sexually attracted to his mother and gets
rid to his father.
Castration anxiety- the boy fears his father by assuming that if the
father knows his son’s feeling he may remove the source of the
problem (the son’s penis).
Elektra complex- the girl is sexually attracted to her father and gets rid
to her mother.
Penis envy- the girl become hostile towards her mother because the
girl says my mother cheated my penis.
- Repression of feelings towards opposite sex and identification of the
same sex avoids these anxieties.
 4. Latency Stage (approximately 6 to 11 years)
 

• It is the stage in which the sexual drive becomes dormant

(inactive, sleep) until the onset of puberty.
• The child engages himself in learning skills and in the
development of values.

5. Genital Stage (12+)

• The focus of pleasure shifts to the member of opposite sex.
• The young person seeks sexual stimulation and sexual
satisfaction.
 Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial
Development
• In Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, Erikson
highlighted the importance of relationship with others in the
formation of one’s own identity. Erikson believed that
personality develops through eight stages or critical periods of
life.
• He also contended that at each stage of life, an individual is
confronted by a crisis. Erikson assume the personality develops
in accordance to one’s ability to interact with the environment
and to resolve the crises experienced. The manner in which the
crises are resolved will have a lasting effect on the person’s
view of him or herself and the surrounding world.
Stage 1: Trust versus Mistrust (birth-1 year)

• The first psychological challenge faced by a child

involves developing a sense of trust in others. For
the infant, this sense of trust develops if s/he is
predictably cared for when s/he cries and is warmly
treated by her/his primary caregivers. If an infant,
instead, is cared for in unpredictable ways such as
not being fed, diapered, or comforted when
necessary, Erikson believed this infant would
develop basic mistrust of others, which would lead
to fear and suspicion.
 Stage 2 : Autonomy versus Shame and
Doubt (Ages One to Three)
• At ages two and above, children want to do things
on their own or act autonomously. Yet this need to
become autonomous must be balanced by the
reality of safety issues.
• For instance, while Erikson thought it was healthy to
allow the two-year-olds to explore the streets alone,
this exploration must be done in a constraint way
such that the child is not hit by a car. Therefore,
Erikson called for a delicate interplay between
freedom and restraint.
Stage 3 : Initiative versus Guilt (Ages Four to
Five)
• Erikson contends that children when face with new challenges,
will want to explore and investigate. He termed this the
development of a sense of initiative, whereby children begin to
ask many questions about the world.
• The ever-present questions of “why” and “what” seem to engulf
a child at this stage as do the inquisitive behaviors that often
accompany taking initiative.
• For instance, children may ask question about and want to help
with work in the kitchen. In situations in which a child is
discouraged from taking the initiative, Erikson believed that the
child would develop a sense of guilt regarding her natural
tendency to explore and investigate.
Stage 4 : Industry versus Inferiority (Age Six
to Eleven)
• The major psychological task in the fourth stage is
the development of competence or industry. The
term industry means in this stage children not only
continues their interest in trying new things, but they
will try to succeed in learning and gain recognition
for producing things or good result.
• In this stage of development, which last throughout
the elementary school years, children are faced with
the challenges of producing good academic work
related to reading, writing, and mathematical skills.
• Children also face the challenges to be competence in
hobby, playing sports, maintaining a positive
relationship with teachers, and developing friendship.
Recent research has shown that social skills training as
well as attention to social problem solving can be
helpful in terms of developing social competence in
forming friendships and developing social skills.
• Children who leave the elementary years without this
sense of industry, may feel they are failure at
everything. So it is the responsibility of parents and
teachers to help them to become academically and
socially competence.
 Stage 5 : Identity versus Role Confusion
(Ages Twelve to Eighteen)
• Erikson’s fifth stage of psychosocial development is
for the secondary and post-secondary school
students. The major psychological task is to gain self
identity.
• In this stage, adolescents struggle to resolve the
questions of “Who am I?” and “Who will I become”.
That is why they move increasingly from their
parents to peers as a point of reference, they need
to understand how they are both alike and at the
same time uniquely different from everyone else.
• Personal fable is the self-generated, often
romanticized story of one’s personal destiny. The
adolescent may develop an image of him-or-herself
that protends a destiny, a life story as a great hero,
or the great reformer of the world’s evils.
• The potential danger of this notion is that the
adolescents think he is invincible and that despite
the recognition that bad things happen to others,
they will not happen to him. This notion which is not
true and the adolescents will suffer the same
consequences if they involve in risk taking behavior.
• Imagery audience is part of adolescent
egocentrism, implies that the adolescent
assumes that others are focused upon and
concerned about the same issues which he
personally feels so important such as the ways
of dressing.
• The adolescents also strive to find their own
personalities. They need a figure or model to
identify with. That’s why the adolescents often
imitate the attitudes and actions of others
they admire.
• Adolescents also face the issues of sexual identity
that is the adolescent searches for comfortable
expressions of sexuality through friendship and
dating.
• This in fact is the most difficult time in everyone’s life.
Teachers and parents have to be patience with the
adolescents and guide them to cope effectively with
the crises they are facing.
• Parents and teachers should give the adolescent
opportunity to explore different jobs such as working
temporarily in fast food restaurant, become the chef
of a restaurant, work in a bank, work in a factory etc.
 Stage 6 : Intimacy versus Isolation (Ages
Eighteen to Thirty-five)
• The major psychosocial crisis in Erikson’s six stage is the
development of a true and intimate heterosexual relationship.
Erikson contends that in this stage individuals should be able
to care for others without losing their self-identity.
• Erikson believes individual who never know this intimacy will
develop a sense of isolation and tend to avoid relationships
with others and make commitments.
• This six stages crises faced mostly by college and university
students. One of the ways for the adolescents to face this crisis
is to be active in sports, clubs and participate in community
social works.
 Stage 7 : Generativity versus Stagnation
(Thirty-five to Sixty-five)
• The major concern of the people at this age is on
the caring and well-being of the next generation
rather than being overly self-concerned.
• Most parents focused their energy and time on
bringing up their children to be successful
academically, socially and emotionally.
• Erikson argued that if a sense of generativity is
not present, the individual would experience
stagnation and become overly self-preoccupied.
 Stage 8 : Integrity versus Despair (Over
Sixty-five)
• In this last stage, individuals who have
managed to adapt to the triumphs and
tragedies of life are able to review their lives
with a sense of satisfaction and acceptance
which Erikson thought to be a prerequisite to
achieving a sense of integrity at the end’s of
one’s life. Others who have failed will be
absorbed with despairing over missed
opportunities, age and failure.
UNIT 3

BASIC CONCEPTS
AND THEORIES OF
LEARNING
•Meaning and
Concepts of Learning
 Meaning and Concepts of Learning
 
According to Lahey;
“…to qualify as learning, change in behavior must be brought about by the
interaction of a person with his or her environment. Thus, learning can be
defined as any relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge, and
thinking skills, which comes about through experiences.” (Lahey, 2004).
The above definition of learning has three important elements.
1. Learning is a change in behavior for better or worse.
2. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience. The
changes due to growth, maturation, or injury are not to be considered as
learning.
3. Before a change can be regarded as learning, it must be relatively
permanent. Therefore, changes due to maturation, fatigue, adaptation or
sensitivity of the organism are not considered as learning.
THEORIES OF LEARNING
A. Behavioral views of learning
I. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning / Respondent/
Conditioning or type 1 Learning/
• The theory of classical conditioning represents a process in
which a natural stimulus paring with a neutral stimulus, the
neutral stimulus acquires all the characteristics of a natural
stimulus. It is also called substitution learning because it
involves substituting a neutral stimulus in place of natural
stimulus.
• Stimulus anything in the environment that one can
respond to.
• Responses
10/29/2022
 any behavior or action towards a stimulus.77
 Before conditioning
• Bell (Neutral stimulus) or CS No salivation.
• Food (natural stimulus) or UCS salivation (UCR).
During conditioning
• Bell (CS) + food (UCS) salivation (UCR).
After conditioning
• Bell (CS) salivation (CR).

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 E.g. we can take white rat (CS), Loud noise (UCS)
and fear of the child.
- White rat leads to No response.
- Loud sound elicit UCR (fear)
-White rat + loud noise with several pairings fear
White rat (CS) elicit fear (CR)

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 Components of Classical Conditioning
1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - is the natural stimulus
that triggers a response automatically and reflexively.
V It is unlearned, internal and consistently elicits a
response.
2. Unconditioned response (UCR) - the automatic response
to unlearned stimulus (UCS) reflexively but not learned
and it works naturally.
3. Conditional stimulus (CS) - Originally neutral stimulus
that through association (learning), gains the power of
eliciting a response.
4.  Conditioned response (CR) - is the response to the CS.
- It is process of developing a learned response and it is
similar to UCR.
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To make conditioning effective;
- The time laps between the presentations of the
two stimuli (CS&UCS) should be small ranging
from half to a few seconds.
- The CS should present before the presentation
of the UCS (sometimes simultaneously).

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 Principles of classical conditioning
. Acquisition: process of developing learned response.
. Extinction: is the diminishing of learned response, when
the UCS does not follow a CS.
. Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of the CR
after a rest period suddenly stimulated by the CS.
 Generalization and Discrimination
Despite differences in color and shape, to most of
us a rose is a rose is a rose. The pleasure we
experience at the beauty, smell, and grace of the
flower is similar for different types of roses.
Pavlov noticed a similar phenomenon. His dogs
often salivated not only at the ringing of the bell
that was used during their original conditioning but
at the sound of a buzzer as well.

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• Such behavior is the result of stimulus generalization.
Stimulus generalization occurs when a conditioned
response follows a stimulus that is similar to the original
conditioned stimulus. The greater the similarity between
two stimuli, the greater the likelihood of stimulus
generalization. Little Albert, who, as we mentioned
earlier, was conditioned to be fearful of white rats, grew
afraid of other furry white things as well.
• However, according to the principle of stimulus
generalization, it is unlikely that he would have been
afraid of a black dog, because its color would have
differentiated it sufficiently from the original fear-
evoking stimulus.

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• The conditioned response elicited by the new stimulus is
usually not as intense as the original conditioned
response, although the more similar the new stimulus is
to the old one, the more similar the new response will
be.
• On the other hand, stimulus discrimination occurs if two
stimuli are sufficiently distinct from one another that one
evokes a conditioned response but the other does not.
Stimulus discrimination provides the ability to
differentiate between stimuli.
• For example, our ability to discriminate between the
behavior of a growling dog and that of one whose tail is
wagging can lead to adaptive behavior—avoiding the
growling dog and petting the friendly one.
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• Operant conditioning is learning in which a voluntary
response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its
favorable or unfavorable consequences. When we say that
a response has been strengthened or weakened, we mean
that it has been made more or less likely to recur regularly.
• Unlike classical conditioning, in which the original behaviors
are the natural, biological responses to the presence of a
stimulus such as food, water, or pain, operant conditioning
applies to voluntary responses, which an organism
performs deliberately to produce a desirable outcome.
• The term operant emphasizes this point: The organism
operates on its environment to produce a desirable result.
Operant conditioning is at work when we learn that toiling
industriously can bring about a raise or that studying hard
results
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Reinforcement: the central concept of operant conditioning
• Reinforcement is the process by which a stimulus increases
the probability that a preceding behavior will be repeated.
• A reinforcer is any stimulus that increases the probability
that a preceding behavior will occur again.
• Hence, food is a reinforcer because it increases the
probability that the behavior will take place.
• What kind of stimuli can act as reinforcers? Bonuses, toys,
and good grades can serve as reinforcers—if they
strengthen the probability of the response that occurred
before their introduction.

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Positive Reinforcers, Negative Reinforcers, and Punishment
• In many respects, reinforcers can be thought of in terms of
rewards; both a reinforcer and a reward increase the
probability that a preceding response will occur again.
• But the term reward is limited to positive occurrences, and
this is where it differs from a reinforcer—for it turns out
that reinforcers can be positive or negative.
• A positive reinforcer is a stimulus added to the
environment that brings about an increase in a preceding
response. If food, water, money, or praise is provided after
a response, it is more likely that that response will occur
again in the future.
• The paychecks that workers get at the end of the week, for
example, increase the likelihood that they will return to
88
their jobs the following week.
• In contrast, a negative reinforcer refers to an unpleasant
stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in the
probability that a preceding response will be repeated in
the future.
• For example, if you have an itchy rash (an unpleasant
stimulus) that is relieved when you apply a certain brand of
ointment, you are more likely to use that ointment the
next time you have an itchy rash. Using the ointment, then,
is negatively reinforcing, because it removes the
unpleasant itch. Similarly, if your iPod volume is so loud
that it hurts your ears when you first turn it on, you are
likely to reduce the volume level. Lowering the volume is
negatively reinforcing, and you are more apt to repeat the
action in the future when you first turn it on.
89
• Negative reinforcement, then, teaches the individual that
taking an action removes a negative condition that exists in
the environment.
• Like positive reinforcers, negative reinforcers increase the
likelihood that preceding behaviors will be repeated.
• Note that negative reinforcement is not the same as
punishment.
• Punishment refers to a stimulus that decreases the
probability that a prior behavior will occur again.
• There are two types of punishment: positive punishment
and negative punishment, just as there are positive
reinforcement and negative reinforcement. (In both cases,
“positive” means adding something, and “negative” means
removing something.)
90
• Positive punishment weakens a response through the
application of an unpleasant stimulus. For instance,
spanking a child for misbehaving or spending ten years in
jail for committing a crime is positive punishment.
• In contrast, negative punishment consists of the removal of
something pleasant. For instance, when a teenager is told
she is “grounded” and will no longer be able to use the
family car because of her poor grades, or when an
employee is informed that he has been demoted with a cut
in pay because of a poor job evaluation, negative
punishment is being administered.
• Both positive and negative punishment result in a decrease
in the likelihood that a prior behavior will be repeated.

91
 Schedules of reinforcement: timing life’s rewards
• The world would be a different place if poker players never
played cards again after the first losing hand, fishermen
returned to shore as soon as they missed a catch, or
telemarketers never made another phone call after their
first hang-up. The fact that such unreinforced behaviors
continue, often with great frequency and persistence,
illustrates that reinforcement need not be received
continually for behavior to be learned and maintained.
• In fact, behavior that is reinforced only occasionally can
ultimately be learned better than can behavior that is
always reinforced.

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• When we refer to the frequency and timing of
reinforcement that follows desired behavior, we are
talking about schedules of reinforcement.
• Behavior that is reinforced every time it occurs is said to
be on a continuous reinforcement schedule;
• If it is reinforced some but not all of the time, it is on a
partial (or intermittent) reinforcement schedule.
• Although learning occurs more rapidly under a
continuous reinforcement schedule, behavior lasts longer
after reinforcement stops when it is learned under a
partial reinforcement schedule

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• Although many different partial reinforcement schedules
have been examined, they can most readily be put into
two categories:
• Schedules that consider the number of responses made
before reinforcement is given, called fixed-ratio and
variable-ratio schedules, and those that consider the
amount of time that elapses before reinforcement is
provided, called fixed-interval and variable-interval
schedules.

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 Fixed- and Variable-Ratio Schedules
• In a fixed-ratio schedule, reinforcement is given only
after a specific number of responses. For instance, a rat
might receive a food pellet every tenth time it pressed a
lever; here, the ratio would be 1:10. Similarly, garment
workers are generally paid on fixed-ratio schedules: They
receive a specific number of dollars for every blouse they
sew. Because a greater rate of production means more
reinforcement, people on fixed-ratio schedules are apt to
work as quickly as possible.

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• In a variable-ratio schedule, reinforcement occurs after a
varying number of responses rather than after a fixed
number. Although the specific number of responses
necessary to receive reinforcement varies, the number of
responses usually hovers around a specific average.
Gambling and begging are the two examples of variable
ratio schedule, which lead to a high rate of response and
resistance to extinction.

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 Fixed- and Variable-Interval Schedules: The Passage of Time
• In contrast to fixed- and variable-ratio schedules, in which the crucial factor is the
number of responses, fixed-interval and variable-interval schedules focus on the
amount of time that has elapsed since a person or animal was rewarded.
One example of a fixed interval schedule is a weekly paycheck. For people who
receive regular, weekly paychecks, it typically makes relatively little difference
exactly how much they produce in a given week. Because a fixed-interval
schedule provides reinforcement for a response only if a fixed time period has
elapsed, overall rates of response are relatively low. This is especially true in the
period just after reinforcement, when the time before another reinforcement is
relatively great. Students’ study habits often exemplify this reality. If the periods
between exams are relatively long (meaning that the opportunity for
reinforcement for good performance is given fairly infrequently), students often
study minimally or not at all until the day of the exam draws near. Just before the
exam, however, students begin to cram for it, signaling a rapid increase in the rate
of their studying response. As you might expect, immediately after the exam there
is a rapid decline in the rate of responding, with few people opening a book the
day after a test.

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• One way to decrease the delay in responding that occurs just after
reinforcement, and to maintain the desired behavior more consistently
throughout an interval, is to use a variable-interval schedule. In a
variable-interval schedule, the time between reinforcements varies
around some average rather than being fixed. For example, a professor
who gives surprise quizzes that vary from one every three days to one
every three weeks, averaging one every two weeks, is using a variable-
interval schedule.
 Compared to the study habits we observed with a fixed-interval
schedule, students’ study habits under such a variable-interval schedule
would most likely be very different. Students would be apt to study more
regularly because they would never know when the next surprise quiz
was coming. Variable-interval schedules, in general, are more likely to
produce relatively steady rates of responding than are fixed-interval
schedules, with responses that take longer to extinguish after
reinforcement ends.

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B. Cognitive Theories of Learning
Some psychologists view learning in terms of the
thought processes, or cognitions, that underlie it
—an approach known as cognitive learning
theory.
Although psychologists working from the cognitive
learning perspective do not deny the importance
of classical and operant conditioning, they have
developed approaches that focus on the unseen
mental processes that occur during learning,
rather than concentrating solely on external
stimuli, responses, and reinforcements.
 1. Latent Learning (Edward Tolman)
• Evidence for the importance of cognitive
processes comes from a series of animal
experiments that revealed a type of cognitive
learning called latent learning.
• In latent learning, a new behavior is learned
but not demonstrated until some incentive is
provided for displaying it.
• In short, latent learning occurs without
reinforcement.
• In the studies demonstrating latent learning,
psychologists examined the behavior of rats in a
maze
In one experiment, a group of rats was allowed
to wander around the maze once a day for 17
days without ever receiving a reward.
Understandably, those rats made many errors
and spent a relatively long time reaching the end
of the maze. A second group, however, was
always given food at the end of the maze. Not
surprisingly, those rats learned to run quickly and
directly to the food box, making few errors.
A third group of rats started out in the same situation as the
unrewarded rats, but only for the first 10 days. On the 11th day, a
critical experimental manipulation was introduced: From that point
on, the rats in this group were given food for completing the maze.
The results of this manipulation were dramatic. The previously
unrewarded rats, which had earlier seemed to wander about
aimlessly, showed such reductions in running time and declines in
error rates that their performance almost immediately matched
that of the group that had received rewards from the start.
• To cognitive theorists, it seemed clear that the unrewarded rats
had learned the layout of the maze early in their explorations;
they just never displayed their latent learning until the
reinforcement was offered. Instead, those rats seemed to develop
a cognitive map of the maze—a mental representation of spatial
locations and directions.
• People, too, develop cognitive maps of their
surroundings. For example, latent learning
may permit you to know the location of a
kitchenware store at a local mall you’ve
frequently visited, even though you’ve never
entered the store and don’t even like to cook.
2. Insight Learning – (Wolfgang Kohler)

• Insight Learning – learning to solve a problem by

understanding various parts of the problem
• Wolfgang Kohler studied insight learning in
chimpanzees
– Kohler placed chimpanzees in certain situations and
watched them solve the problems
• Ex. Hanging a banana out of the chimpanzee’s reach
– Solution: Monkeys stacked boxes on top of one another to get
to the banana
– Kohler believed that the monkeys could not have come to the
solution without a cognitive understanding of how to solve
the problem.
Insight Learning
3. Observational Learning: Learning Through
Imitation
• Let’s return for a moment to the case of a
person learning to drive. How can we account
for instances in which an individual with no
direct experience in carrying out a particular
behavior learns the behavior and then
performs it? To answer this question,
psychologists have focused on another aspect
of cognitive learning: observational learning.
• According to psychologist Albert Bandura and colleagues, a
major part of human learning consists of observational
learning, which is learning by watching the behavior of
another person, or model. Because of its reliance on
observation of others—a social phenomenon—the perspective
taken by Bandura is often referred to as a social cognitive
approach to learning.
Bandura dramatically demonstrated the ability of models to
stimulate learning in a classic experiment. In the study, young
children saw a film of an adult wildly hitting a five-foot-tall
inflatable punching toy called a Bobo doll. Later the children
were given the opportunity to play with the Bobo doll
themselves, and, sure enough, most displayed the same kind
of behavior, in some cases mimicking the aggressive behavior
almost identically.
• Not only negative behaviors are acquired through
observational learning. In one experiment, for example,
children who were afraid of dogs were exposed to a model
— dubbed the Fearless Peer—playing with a dog. After
exposure, observers were considerably more likely to
approach a strange dog than were children who had not
viewed the Fearless Peer.
• Observational learning is particularly important in
acquiring skills in which the operant conditioning
technique of shaping is inappropriate. Piloting an airplane
and performing brain surgery, for example, are behaviors
that could hardly be learned by using trial-and-error
methods without grave cost—literally—to those involved
in the learning process.
• Observational learning may have a genetic basis. For example, we
find observational learning at work with mother animals teaching
their young such activities as hunting.
• Not all behavior that we witness is learned or carried out, of
course. One crucial factor that determines whether we later
imitate a model is whether the model is rewarded for his or her
behavior. If we observe a friend being rewarded for putting more
time into his studies by receiving higher grades, we are more likely
to imitate his behavior than we would if his behavior resulted only
in being stressed and tired. Models who are rewarded for
behaving in a particular way are more apt to be mimicked than are
models who receive punishment. Observing the punishment of a
model, however, does not necessarily stop observers from
learning the behavior. Observers can still describe the model’s
behavior—they are just less apt to perform it