the map of science how discovering...

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Discovering Psychology: e Science of Mind reflects psychology’s rightful place as a hub science. In each chapter, Psychology as a Hub Science broadens the discussion of a topic to include ways in which psychology is engaged in cooperative science with other disciplines—helping undergraduates to see how their study of introductory psychology will help them no matter their major. Psychology Is A Hub Science e Map of Science How research revealed psychology’s central place in the academic landscape How Discovering Psychology illuminates psycholoy’s multidisciplinary nature Cacioppo, J. (2007). Psychology is a hub science. APS Observer. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2203 Scientific research during the past century has continued to accelerate in terms of quantity and impact. Kevin W. Boyack and his colleagues set out to answer such questions as “Are the sciences still organized around a central discipline or two?” ey quantified the patterns of scientific influence within and across the sciences based on citation data from more than one million journal articles appearing in 7,121 natural and social sciences journals published in 2000. Eight different approaches to quantifying citation patterns were used to ensure structural accuracy. Visualization techniques were used to generate a two-dimensional spatial map of the sciences based on each metric. e validity of these eight maps was compared using two different accuracy measures. e results, shown on the right with enhanced design, provide a visual depiction of where each scientific discipline is, what is around it, what its relationships are to its neighboring disciplines, and how strong its impact is on the neighboring disciplines. Contemporary sciences no longer originate from a single source. Instead, seven hub sciences can be identified, and psychology emerged as one of them. e more insular the field, the closer a field will lie to the outside of the map. ose with many interdisciplinary linkages are more likely to lie toward the middle of the map. It is interesting to note that psychiatry, law, political science, and economics all lie along the outside, whereas psychology is closer to the middle, reflecting its interdisciplinary nature. “[Researchers] quantified the patterns of scientific influence within and across the sciences based on citation data from more than one million journal articles appearing in 7,121 natural and social sciences journals. . . . Seven hub sciences can be identified, and psychology emerged as one of them.” Psychology Is A Hub Science In the learning chapter, Psychology as a Hub Science describes how Pavlov’s work on classical conditioning has had an impact on medical science. WHAT IS CLASSICAL CONDITIONING? 23 cal facilities in the Soviet Union, where he was exposed to methods for reducing pain during childbirth using Pavlov- ian concepts. In most cases, pain is an important signal for injury, and as such, most of us respond to pain with fear and anxiety. Counterconditioning can be used to help mothers respond to painful contractions, not with fear and anxiety, which heighten the sense of pain, but with a sense of calm produced by pro- gressive muscle relaxation. Although Lamaze’s claims for pain- free childbirth have not been confirmed (the vast majority of women request anesthetics during childbirth whether trained or not), women who receive training prior to giving birth report somewhat lower pain scores, making training a useful addition to other medi- cal techniques (Melzack, Taenzer, Feld- man, & Kinch, 1981). b Prepared childbirth is an example of counterconditioning, in which women are trained to respond to contractions with relaxation rather than with fear and anxiety. © BSIP/Photo Researchers, Inc. Not For Sale © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution all Chapter 8  |  THE ADAPTIVE MIND: LEARNING 22 Psychology as a Hub Science Classical Conditioning Informs Medicine hile reading about Pavlov’s experiments with salivat- ing dogs, it might be dif- ficult to grasp the full significance of Pavlov’s results, but there were some very good reasons why his labora- tory continued to receive consider- able resources during difficult times of war and revolution (Gantt, 1928). Pavlov himself grasped many of the possible applications of his work. Pavlov was the first to describe conditioned placebo effects. A pla- cebo is a sham treatment, like a sugar pill, and a placebo effect occurs when administering a placebo actually seems to produce an improvement in health. After receiving the opiate painkiller morphine in a particular laboratory, Pavlov’s dogs began to show effects of the drug whenever they returned to the room. Simply entering the room (a placebo condi- tion) was enough to reduce pain. This response should look familiar to you by now. The laboratory had taken on the ability to signal (conditioned stimulus—CS) the eventual admin- istration of the drug (unconditioned stimulus—UCS) and the pain relief produced by the drug (unconditioned response—UCR). Exactly why placebos work remains the subject of debate (Eccles, 2002). In human patients, the cog- nitive expectation that taking a medicine will make you feel better probably plays a strong role. However, classical conditioning has its part to play as well. If a patient with a bad cold is mistakenly prescribed an anti- biotic, which is not effective against the viruses responsible for the cold, eventually the patient will recover. On subsequent occasions, taking an antibiotic might actually make the patient feel better right away, due to expectations of improvement and the development of the antibiotic as a conditioned stimulus for improved health. This “trap” might account for the deliberate use of placebos by physicians, the demand for ineffec- tive treatments by patients, and the trends to overprescribe certain medi- cations (Dixon & Sweeney, 2000). W SOCIAL SCIENCES PSYCHOLOGY MATHEMATICS PHYSICS EARTH SCIENCES CHEMISTRY MEDICINE PSYCHOLOGY FPO © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. No distribution allowed without express authoriz

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Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind reflects psychology’s rightful place as a hub science. In each chapter, Psychology as a Hub Science broadens the discussion of a topic to include ways in which psychology is engaged in cooperative science with other disciplines—helping undergraduates to see how their study of introductory psychology will help them no matter their major.

Psychology Is A Hub Science

The Map of Science How research revealed psychology’s central place in the academic landscape

How Discovering Psychology illuminates psycholoy’s multidisciplinary nature

Cacioppo, J. (2007). Psychology is a hub science. APS Observer. Retrieved from http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2203

Scientific research during the past century has continued to accelerate in terms of quantity and impact. Kevin W. Boyack and his colleagues set out to answer such questions as “Are the sciences still organized around a central discipline or two?” They quantified the patterns of scientific influence within and across the sciences based on citation data from more than one million journal articles appearing in 7,121 natural and social sciences journals published in 2000.

Eight different approaches to quantifying citation patterns were used to ensure structural accuracy. Visualization techniques were used to generate a two-dimensional spatial map of the sciences based on each metric. The validity of these eight maps was compared using two different accuracy measures. The results, shown on the right with enhanced design, provide a visual depiction of where each scientific discipline is, what is around it, what its relationships are to its neighboring disciplines, and how strong its impact is on the neighboring disciplines.

Contemporary sciences no longer originate from a single source. Instead, seven hub sciences can be identified, and psychology emerged as one of them. The more insular the field, the closer a field will lie to the outside of the map. Those with many interdisciplinary linkages are more likely to lie toward the middle of the map. It is interesting to note that psychiatry, law, political science, and economics all lie along the outside, whereas psychology is closer to the middle, reflecting its interdisciplinary nature.

“[Researchers] quantified the patterns

of scientific influence within and across

the sciences based on citation data

from more than one million journal

articles appearing in 7,121 natural and

social sciences journals. . . . Seven

hub sciences can be identified, and

psychology emerged as one of them.”

Psychology Is A Hub Science

In the learning chapter, Psychology as a Hub Science describes how Pavlov’s work on classical conditioning has had an impact on medical science.

wHAt is ClAssiCAl ConDitioning? 23

Creativity  and  Schizophrenia Due to latent inhibition, most of us form associations with unfamiliar stimuli faster than we do with familiar stimuli. This quality helps us focus our energy toward dealing effectively with nov-elty and change in our environments.

Less latent inhibition is seen in very creative people and in people diagnosed with schizophrenia than is seen in the general public (Baruch, Hemsley, & Gray, 1988a, 1988b; Lubow, Ingberg-Sachs, Salstein-Orda, & Gewirtz, 1992). This difference means that creative people and people with schizophrenia form new associations with familiar stimuli faster than most people do. They make connections under circumstances in which most of us would not. Reduced latent inhibition might account for the creative person’s ability to see familiar things in new ways, which is a positive out-come, but it also might lead to the tendency of people with schizophrenia to make odd, inappropriate connections among ideas. In our chapter on psychological disorders, we will refer to this tendency as a “loosening of associations.” For example, a person with schizophrenia might suggest that a painting has a headache. Needless to say, this is not the type of association between stimuli that most people would make.

Pavlov’s research also forms the basis for natural childbirth techniques. In 1951, a French physician named Fer-nand Lamaze was invited to tour medi-cal facilities in the Soviet Union, where he was exposed to methods for reducing pain during childbirth using Pavlov-ian concepts. In most cases, pain is an important signal for injury, and as such, most of us respond to pain with fear and anxiety. Counterconditioning can be used to help mothers respond to painful contractions, not with fear and anxiety, which heighten the sense of pain, but with a sense of calm produced by pro-gressive muscle relaxation.

Although Lamaze’s claims for pain-free childbirth have not been confirmed (the vast majority of women request anesthetics during childbirth whether trained or not), women who receive training prior to giving birth report somewhat lower pain scores, making training a useful addition to other medi-cal techniques (Melzack, Taenzer, Feld-man, & Kinch, 1981). b

Prepared childbirth is an example of counterconditioning, in which women are trained to respond to contractions with relaxation rather than with fear and anxiety.

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Chapter  8  |  tHe ADAptive minD: leARning22

Prejudice, which is discussed further in our chapter on social psychol-ogy, is a negative attitude about a group of people. Like other attitudes, prejudice is influenced by classical conditioning, although it has many other roots as well. In particular, latent inhibition can contribute to the development of negative attitudes (Cacioppo, Marshall-Goodell, Tassinary, & Petty, 1992). Consider the following. Because of latent inhibition, if a child has grown up with little exposure to people outside his or her own race, people of the child’s own race are more familiar, and learning to asso-ciate their race with other attributes should be slow. In contrast, the child will have had much less pre-exposure to people of other races. Latent inhi-bition effects would predict that children exposed to news reports about crime would form stronger associations between people of unfamiliar races and crime than between people of their own race and crime.

Psychology as a Hub ScienceClassical Conditioning Informs Medicine

hile reading about Pavlov’s experiments with salivat-

ing dogs, it might be dif-ficult to grasp the full significance of Pavlov’s results, but there were some very good reasons why his labora-tory continued to receive consider-able resources during difficult times of war and revolution (Gantt, 1928). Pavlov himself grasped many of the possible applications of his work.

Pavlov was the first to describe conditioned placebo effects. A pla-cebo is a sham treatment, like a sugar pill, and a placebo effect occurs when administering a placebo actually seems to produce an improvement in health. After receiving the opiate painkiller morphine in a particular laboratory, Pavlov’s dogs began to show effects of the drug whenever they returned to the room. Simply entering the room (a placebo condi-tion) was enough to reduce pain. This response should look familiar to you by now. The laboratory had taken on the ability to signal (conditioned stimulus—CS) the eventual admin-istration of the drug (unconditioned stimulus—UCS) and the pain relief produced by the drug (unconditioned response—UCR).

Exactly why placebos work remains the subject of debate (Eccles,

2002). In human patients, the cog-nitive expectation that taking a medicine will make you feel better probably plays a strong role. However, classical conditioning has its part to play as well. If a patient with a bad cold is mistakenly prescribed an anti-biotic, which is not effective against the viruses responsible for the cold, eventually the patient will recover. On subsequent occasions, taking an antibiotic might actually make the patient feel better right away, due to expectations of improvement and the development of the antibiotic as a conditioned stimulus for improved health. This “trap” might account for the deliberate use of placebos by physicians, the demand for ineffec-tive treatments by patients, and the trends to overprescribe certain medi-cations (Dixon & Sweeney, 2000).

W

SOCIALSCIENCES

PSYCHOLOGY MATHEMATICS

PHYSICS

EARTHSCIENCES

CHEMISTRYMEDICINE

PSYCHOLOGY

FPO

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Psychology Is Integrated Psychology Is IntegratedPsychology Is Integrated

Discovering Psychology presents psychology as a unified science that seeks a complete understanding of the human mind, rather than as a loosely organized set of autonomous subspecialties. From unique prologues to closing Chapter Reflections, the book paints a picture that helps students understand and appreciate the many connections among traditional areas of psychology—and how they fit into a broader view.

Seamless integration of seven unifying perspectives

Chapter prologues show big picture (zoom in) and micro (zoom out) views of the chapter topic, providing a window into how the integration of psychology as a science provides a larger perspective for the psychologist.

In the learning chapter, students explore what goes on in their minds when they learn to do something new, zooming in to see structural changes in neurons, then zooming back out again to see how being in a group affects how they learn. They get a glimpse of the many levels at which learning occurs—from simple classical conditioning in the sea slug to learning the complex social norms, laws, and mores of a new culture.

How Discovering Psychology presents a cohesive, integrative view of psychology

The Adaptive Mind

Learning

1  Compare and contrast reflexes, instincts, and learned behaviors in terms of complexity, flexibility, and the effects of experience.

2  Analyze the components of a classical conditioning experiment, identifying the unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response.

3  Evaluate whether a classical conditioning scenario has the features needed to produce acquisition of a conditioned response, extinction, spontaneous recovery, conditioned inhibition, generalization versus discrimination, and/or latent inhibition.

4  Differentiate operant conditioning from classical conditioning and implement operant conditioning principles in real-life learning scenarios (e.g., training a pet or child).

5  Compare and contrast positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment in terms of learning process and effects on behavior.

6  Analyze the ways in which animals’ evolved instincts appeared to constrain learning in some studies of classical and operant conditioning (e.g., Garcia & Koelling, 1966; Breland & Breland, 1961).

7  Analyze the classic “Bobo Doll” study and other examples of observational learning, identifying the cognitive processes necessary to produce learning and differentiating

observational learning from operant conditioning.

8  Apply learning principles and terminology to analyzing problems with interpersonal relationships, phobias, addiction, and other behaviors.

Learning Objectives

57

8

Although you may not have had an opportunity to learn to surf, we’re assuming that in your role as a student you are very familiar with the process of learning. Knowing how to learn, however, is differ-ent than understanding how and why learning occurs. What is going on in the minds of these people as they

learn to do something new? A behavior like learning to surf is very complicated,

so scientists interested in learning have often begun their examinations using animals that are much simpler than

humans as they learn to do much more simple behaviors than

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Learning something new produces structural changes in neurons.

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Chapter  8  |  tHe ADAptive minD: leARning22

Prejudice, which is discussed further in our chapter on social psychol-ogy, is a negative attitude about a group of people. Like other attitudes, prejudice is influenced by classical conditioning, although it has many other roots as well. In particular, latent inhibition can contribute to the development of negative attitudes (Cacioppo, Marshall-Goodell, Tassinary, & Petty, 1992). Consider the following. Because of latent inhibition, if a child has grown up with little exposure to people outside his or her own race, people of the child’s own race are more familiar, and learning to asso-ciate their race with other attributes should be slow. In contrast, the child will have had much less pre-exposure to people of other races. Latent inhi-bition effects would predict that children exposed to news reports about crime would form stronger associations between people of unfamiliar races and crime than between people of their own race and crime.

Psychology as a Hub ScienceClassical Conditioning Informs Medicine

hile reading about Pavlov’s experiments with salivat-

ing dogs, it might be dif-ficult to grasp the full significance of Pavlov’s results, but there were some very good reasons why his labora-tory continued to receive consider-able resources during difficult times of war and revolution (Gantt, 1928). Pavlov himself grasped many of the possible applications of his work.

Pavlov was the first to describe conditioned placebo effects. A pla-cebo is a sham treatment, like a sugar pill, and a placebo effect occurs when administering a placebo actually seems to produce an improvement in health. After receiving the opiate painkiller morphine in a particular laboratory, Pavlov’s dogs began to show effects of the drug whenever they returned to the room. Simply entering the room (a placebo condi-tion) was enough to reduce pain. This response should look familiar to you by now. The laboratory had taken on the ability to signal (conditioned stimulus—CS) the eventual admin-istration of the drug (unconditioned stimulus—UCS) and the pain relief produced by the drug (unconditioned response—UCR).

Exactly why placebos work remains the subject of debate (Eccles,

2002). In human patients, the cog-nitive expectation that taking a medicine will make you feel better probably plays a strong role. However, classical conditioning has its part to play as well. If a patient with a bad cold is mistakenly prescribed an anti-biotic, which is not effective against the viruses responsible for the cold, eventually the patient will recover. On subsequent occasions, taking an antibiotic might actually make the patient feel better right away, due to expectations of improvement and the development of the antibiotic as a conditioned stimulus for improved health. This “trap” might account for the deliberate use of placebos by physicians, the demand for ineffec-tive treatments by patients, and the trends to overprescribe certain medi-cations (Dixon & Sweeney, 2000).

W

SOCIALSCIENCES

PSYCHOLOGY MATHEMATICS

PHYSICS

EARTHSCIENCES

CHEMISTRYMEDICINE

PSYCHOLOGY

FPO

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wHAt is ClAssiCAl ConDitioning? 23

Creativity  and  Schizophrenia Due to latent inhibition, most of us form associations with unfamiliar stimuli faster than we do with familiar stimuli. This quality helps us focus our energy toward dealing effectively with nov-elty and change in our environments.

Less latent inhibition is seen in very creative people and in people diagnosed with schizophrenia than is seen in the general public (Baruch, Hemsley, & Gray, 1988a, 1988b; Lubow, Ingberg-Sachs, Salstein-Orda, & Gewirtz, 1992). This difference means that creative people and people with schizophrenia form new associations with familiar stimuli faster than most people do. They make connections under circumstances in which most of us would not. Reduced latent inhibition might account for the creative person’s ability to see familiar things in new ways, which is a positive out-come, but it also might lead to the tendency of people with schizophrenia to make odd, inappropriate connections among ideas. In our chapter on psychological disorders, we will refer to this tendency as a “loosening of associations.” For example, a person with schizophrenia might suggest that a painting has a headache. Needless to say, this is not the type of association between stimuli that most people would make.

Pavlov’s research also forms the basis for natural childbirth techniques. In 1951, a French physician named Fer-nand Lamaze was invited to tour medi-cal facilities in the Soviet Union, where he was exposed to methods for reducing pain during childbirth using Pavlov-ian concepts. In most cases, pain is an important signal for injury, and as such, most of us respond to pain with fear and anxiety. Counterconditioning can be used to help mothers respond to painful contractions, not with fear and anxiety, which heighten the sense of pain, but with a sense of calm produced by pro-gressive muscle relaxation.

Although Lamaze’s claims for pain-free childbirth have not been confirmed (the vast majority of women request anesthetics during childbirth whether trained or not), women who receive training prior to giving birth report somewhat lower pain scores, making training a useful addition to other medi-cal techniques (Melzack, Taenzer, Feld-man, & Kinch, 1981). b

Prepared childbirth is an example of counterconditioning, in which women are trained to respond to contractions with relaxation rather than with fear and anxiety.

© B

SIP/

Phot

o Re

sear

cher

s, In

c.

85504_ch08_rev01_lores.indd 23 10/19/11 2:39 PM

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Chapter  8  |  tHe ADAptive minD: leARning50

very little time and energy to thank people for the nice things they do for us, and this simple courtesy can increase the frequency of positive interac-tions in the future.

When the inevitable undesirable behaviors occur, many people turn to punishment. Skinner believed that part of the love affair we have with pun-ishment is due to the reinforcing properties of punishment to the punisher. Skinner (1971) stated, “We ‘instinctively’ attack anyone whose behavior displeases us—perhaps not in physical assault, but with criticism, disap-proval, blame, or ridicule” (p. 190). Punishing a partner for bad behavior might make you feel better, but at a significant cost. These behaviors are not exactly endearing, and frequent use of them is likely to end relationships.

If punishment is out, what then do we recommend you do when you experience negative behavior from a partner? If possible, try to ignore neg-ative behaviors, putting them on extinction. Unfortunately, some people would rather have negative attention from you than no attention at all and will prefer punishment from you to being ignored. This is particularly likely to be the case if you have forgotten to reinforce positive behaviors. If you combine positive reinforcement of good behavior and extinction of nega-tive behavior, you should notice quite an improvement. Obviously, some behaviors like aggression cannot be ignored and require either a complete end to the relationship or professional counseling.

Thoughtfully observing the way you treat other people and their reac-tions to your behavior, using the learning principles described in this chap-ter, should provide you with the understanding you need to improve your relationships.

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Chapter Reflections

8

52 Chapter  8  |  tHe ADAptive minD: leARning

This chapter explored the mind’s ability to adapt to its environ-ment as a result of its experience with that environment. This ability to adapt spans the range of animal life from the simple sea slug we examined in the introduction to this chapter to the remarkable ability of the human mind to tackle the most complex academic subject matter. In some cases, we use the same processes to learn as the sea slug (you hopefully by now recognize that the learning described at the beginning of the chapter was an example of classical conditioning). Also like the sea slug, our ability to learn varies with our social circumstances. We learn differently in isolation than we do in groups, or differently when interacting with another person face-to-face than when watching that person on a television screen. In other instances, our learning is quite different from that of the sea slug. We

often use learning processes like imitation that are not commonly found in other animals.

The different types of adaptation described in this chapter began with the relatively unconscious, non-

associative processes such as habituation, sensiti-zation, and classical conditioning and proceeded

to the more conscious control of behavior through operant conditioning and the use of observation to adapt. In each case, these adaptations have served us well by promoting

our chances for survival. Because learning is all about changes in behavior, understanding these processes provides us with powerful tools for

further adapting our behavior to meet our needs.

Some types of learning, such as nonassociative learning and classical conditioning, characterize most living things, from the simple sea slug to human beings. Other types of learning, such as operant conditioning and observational learning, are more restricted to species with more complex nervous systems.

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The authors present each chapter’s topic by drawing on perspectives from, and connections with, biology, evolution, cognition, development, social psychology, personality/individual differences, and clinical psychology.

Chapter  8  |  tHe ADAptive minD: leARning22

Prejudice, which is discussed further in our chapter on social psychol-ogy, is a negative attitude about a group of people. Like other attitudes, prejudice is influenced by classical conditioning, although it has many other roots as well. In particular, latent inhibition can contribute to the development of negative attitudes (Cacioppo, Marshall-Goodell, Tassinary, & Petty, 1992). Consider the following. Because of latent inhibition, if a child has grown up with little exposure to people outside his or her own race, people of the child’s own race are more familiar, and learning to asso-ciate their race with other attributes should be slow. In contrast, the child will have had much less pre-exposure to people of other races. Latent inhi-bition effects would predict that children exposed to news reports about crime would form stronger associations between people of unfamiliar races and crime than between people of their own race and crime.

Psychology as a Hub ScienceClassical Conditioning Informs Medicine

hile reading about Pavlov’s experiments with salivat-

ing dogs, it might be dif-ficult to grasp the full significance of Pavlov’s results, but there were some very good reasons why his labora-tory continued to receive consider-able resources during difficult times of war and revolution (Gantt, 1928). Pavlov himself grasped many of the possible applications of his work.

Pavlov was the first to describe conditioned placebo effects. A pla-cebo is a sham treatment, like a sugar pill, and a placebo effect occurs when administering a placebo actually seems to produce an improvement in health. After receiving the opiate painkiller morphine in a particular laboratory, Pavlov’s dogs began to show effects of the drug whenever they returned to the room. Simply entering the room (a placebo condi-tion) was enough to reduce pain. This response should look familiar to you by now. The laboratory had taken on the ability to signal (conditioned stimulus—CS) the eventual admin-istration of the drug (unconditioned stimulus—UCS) and the pain relief produced by the drug (unconditioned response—UCR).

Exactly why placebos work remains the subject of debate (Eccles,

2002). In human patients, the cog-nitive expectation that taking a medicine will make you feel better probably plays a strong role. However, classical conditioning has its part to play as well. If a patient with a bad cold is mistakenly prescribed an anti-biotic, which is not effective against the viruses responsible for the cold, eventually the patient will recover. On subsequent occasions, taking an antibiotic might actually make the patient feel better right away, due to expectations of improvement and the development of the antibiotic as a conditioned stimulus for improved health. This “trap” might account for the deliberate use of placebos by physicians, the demand for ineffec-tive treatments by patients, and the trends to overprescribe certain medi-cations (Dixon & Sweeney, 2000).

W

SOCIALSCIENCES

PSYCHOLOGY MATHEMATICS

PHYSICS

EARTHSCIENCES

CHEMISTRYMEDICINE

PSYCHOLOGY

FPO

85504_ch08_rev01_lores.indd 22 10/19/11 2:39 PM

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In the learning chapter, students discover that although prejudice toward a group of people requires learning, prejudiced behavior often occurs without much conscious awareness, as described in the chapter on social psychology.

Later, the authors describe how reduced latent inhibition might lead to the tendency of people with schizophrenia to form inappropriate associations with familiar stimuli, as described in the chapter on disorders.

In the section on imitation in observational learning, the authors discuss how childrens’ imitation of adults may serve to achieve empathy as an adaptive advantage to learning, as described in the chapter on motivation and emotion.

wHAt is ClAssiCAl ConDitioning? 23

Creativity  and  Schizophrenia Due to latent inhibition, most of us form associations with unfamiliar stimuli faster than we do with familiar stimuli. This quality helps us focus our energy toward dealing effectively with nov-elty and change in our environments.

Less latent inhibition is seen in very creative people and in people diagnosed with schizophrenia than is seen in the general public (Baruch, Hemsley, & Gray, 1988a, 1988b; Lubow, Ingberg-Sachs, Salstein-Orda, & Gewirtz, 1992). This difference means that creative people and people with schizophrenia form new associations with familiar stimuli faster than most people do. They make connections under circumstances in which most of us would not. Reduced latent inhibition might account for the creative person’s ability to see familiar things in new ways, which is a positive out-come, but it also might lead to the tendency of people with schizophrenia to make odd, inappropriate connections among ideas. In our chapter on psychological disorders, we will refer to this tendency as a “loosening of associations.” For example, a person with schizophrenia might suggest that a painting has a headache. Needless to say, this is not the type of association between stimuli that most people would make.

Pavlov’s research also forms the basis for natural childbirth techniques. In 1951, a French physician named Fer-nand Lamaze was invited to tour medi-cal facilities in the Soviet Union, where he was exposed to methods for reducing pain during childbirth using Pavlov-ian concepts. In most cases, pain is an important signal for injury, and as such, most of us respond to pain with fear and anxiety. Counterconditioning can be used to help mothers respond to painful contractions, not with fear and anxiety, which heighten the sense of pain, but with a sense of calm produced by pro-gressive muscle relaxation.

Although Lamaze’s claims for pain-free childbirth have not been confirmed (the vast majority of women request anesthetics during childbirth whether trained or not), women who receive training prior to giving birth report somewhat lower pain scores, making training a useful addition to other medi-cal techniques (Melzack, Taenzer, Feld-man, & Kinch, 1981). b

Prepared childbirth is an example of counterconditioning, in which women are trained to respond to contractions with relaxation rather than with fear and anxiety.

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inteRpeRsonAl RelAtionsHips fRom tHe leARning peRspeCtive 49

group of people living together. Culture, in contrast, consists of all the socially transmitted information used by the group of people, including ideas, concepts, and skills. Observational learning in particular provides a powerful tool for transmitting this information over time.

Richard Dawkins (1976) envisioned a way to break culture down into observable parts. He referred to the basic unit of cultural transmission as a meme. Memes, he said, are transmitted by observational learning from one person to another and can take the form of ideas, symbols, or practices. Melodies, religious beliefs, catch-phrases, and the technology for build-ing arches are examples of memes. Dawkins viewed memes as the cultural equivalents of genes—they replicate from one person to the next, and they respond to selection pressure. Memes that provide an advantage, such as knowledge of the use of fire, are likely to continue. Those that do not confer much advantage, such as some fads, are likely to die out quickly. Still oth-ers, such as pagers, are abandoned when more effective replacements (cell phones) emerge.

Among the most social of memes are the Internet memes, which are “inside jokes” passed along to others using technologies such as social net-working sites and e-mail. Special websites that chronicle Internet memes allow viewers to provide updates of their favorite memes, which, of course, contributes to their popularity. In 2008, teachers grading student essays from the Advanced Placement English literature exam were puzzled by insertions of the defiant phrase “This is Sparta!” (from the movie 300) in many of the essays. In each case, the students had written the phrase, then carefully crossed it out with a single line (students are instructed that AP readers will ignore anything that is crossed out). The source of the prank was a 30,000-member-strong group on Facebook dedicated to inserting a bit of humor into the dreaded testing situation. As Dawkins would predict, the Sparta meme self-replicated. To urge the 1,100 weary teachers to finish their essays on the last day of readings, the AP Chief Reader pumped his fist and shouted “This is Sparta!”

Interpersonal Relationships From the Learning PerspectiveKnowledge of the way we learn can actually improve your social life and possibly even your love life. Operant conditioning can help you decrease unwanted behaviors and increase desired behaviors toward you by people with whom you interact. Your behavior influences the way others behave toward you. If you are regularly finding that you are treated poorly in rela-tionships, understanding the learning perspective provides powerful tools for change.

In this chapter, we have recommended an emphasis on regularly notic-ing and rewarding desired behaviors. It is easy to fall into the trap of feeling entitled to good behavior from the people who are close to us, which can lead to these behaviors being taken for granted and ignored. Without posi-tive reinforcement, these good behaviors might be extinguished. It takes

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Interpersonal Relationships from a [Chapter Topic] Perspective illustrates how the many perspectives of psychology contribute to the understanding of a single human behavior—building and maintaining significant social relationships. In the learning chapter, the authors discuss how knowledge of the way we learn can improve one’s social life, and possibly one’s love life.

Chapter Reflections summarize and reinforce how the various perspectives from psychology contribute to the view of the chapter topic. Together, the chapter prologue and this feature serve as bookends for the chapter.

Application of psychology’s multiple perspectives to a topic that hits home—social relationships... and epilogues to bring the integrative approach full circle

wHAt is obseRvAtionAl leARning? 99

Models that get our attention are more likely to elicit imitation. A person must retain a memory of what the model did. We must be able to reproduce the behavior. Many of us enjoy watching elite athletes perform, but no mat-ter how long and often we watch Maria Sharapova or Lebron James, few of us have the talent to duplicate their movements. If you happen to play tennis or basketball, however, you can learn to improve your game if you carefully observe these superstars. Finally, a person must have a motivation for imitating the behavior. Either past or anticipated reinforcement will encourage us to model another person’s behavior. In vicarious reinforce-ment, witnessing somebody else getting reinforced for a behavior raises the likelihood that we will imitate the behavior. At the same time, witnessing the other person getting punished for the behavior should reduce the likeli-hood that you will copy it.

Imitation Imitation is not limited to the copying of aggres-sion. It occurs frequently in the animal world,

which suggests that this behavior provides some adaptive advantages. When rats have observed another rat bar-pressing for food, it takes them less time to learn to bar-press themselves (Del Russo, 1971). Laboratory-raised monkeys quickly learn to fear snakes when exposed to a wild mon-key who reacts to snakes with fear (Mineka & Cook, 1988). Imitation of gestures occurs in a number of species in addition to our own, including chimpanzees (Custance, Whiten, & Bard, 1995), dolphins (Harley, Xitco, Roitblat, & Herman, 1998), octopuses (Fiorito & Scotto, 1992), and parrots (Moore, 1992).

As we mentioned in our chapter on motivation and emotion, imitation of facial expressions might serve as a building block on the road to achiev-ing empathy (Iacoboni & Dapretto, 2006; Iacoboni & Mazziotta, 2007). Individuals with autism do not participate in the back-and-forth imitation of gestures and facial expressions typically found in infants (Dapretto et al., 2006). Later in life, these individuals usually experience severe deficits in empathy and social skills (Williams, 2008).

Mirror Neurons Imitation in monkeys and humans involves special neurons known as mirror neurons, which we dis-

cussed in our chapter on biological psychology. Mirror neurons in mon-keys show similar patterns of activity when the individual performs an action or watches another individual perform the same action (Rizzolatti, Fadiga, Gallese, & Fogassi, 1996; Ruby & Decety, 2001). Identification of mirror neurons in humans has been complicated by ethical concerns about the methods used. In monkeys, mirror neurons were observed through surgically implanted electrodes, as we described in our Connect-ing to Research feature in the chapter on biological psychology. Obviously, this type of invasive procedure would be difficult to do in humans. How-ever, recent recordings taken while patients were undergoing surgical treatment for seizures provided researchers with an opportunity to inves-tigate the existence of mirror neurons in humans. This investigation led to the conclusion that mirror neurons do, in fact, exist in humans as well as in monkeys (Keysers & Gazzola, 2010).

Imitation forms the basis of much observational learning. A remaining question is whether imitation involves mirror neurons that activate whether you perform a behavior or see another perform the same behavior.

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Models that get our attention are more likely to elicit imitation. A person must retain a memory of what the model did. We must be able to reproduce the behavior. Many of us enjoy watching elite athletes perform, but no mat-ter how long and often we watch Maria Sharapova or Lebron James, few of us have the talent to duplicate their movements. If you happen to play tennis or basketball, however, you can learn to improve your game if you carefully observe these superstars. Finally, a person must have a motivation for imitating the behavior. Either past or anticipated reinforcement will encourage us to model another person’s behavior. In vicarious reinforce-ment, witnessing somebody else getting reinforced for a behavior raises the likelihood that we will imitate the behavior. At the same time, witnessing the other person getting punished for the behavior should reduce the likeli-hood that you will copy it.

Imitation Imitation is not limited to the copying of aggres-sion. It occurs frequently in the animal world,

which suggests that this behavior provides some adaptive advantages. When rats have observed another rat bar-pressing for food, it takes them less time to learn to bar-press themselves (Del Russo, 1971). Laboratory-raised monkeys quickly learn to fear snakes when exposed to a wild mon-key who reacts to snakes with fear (Mineka & Cook, 1988). Imitation of gestures occurs in a number of species in addition to our own, including chimpanzees (Custance, Whiten, & Bard, 1995), dolphins (Harley, Xitco, Roitblat, & Herman, 1998), octopuses (Fiorito & Scotto, 1992), and parrots (Moore, 1992).

As we mentioned in our chapter on motivation and emotion, imitation of facial expressions might serve as a building block on the road to achiev-ing empathy (Iacoboni & Dapretto, 2006; Iacoboni & Mazziotta, 2007). Individuals with autism do not participate in the back-and-forth imitation of gestures and facial expressions typically found in infants (Dapretto et al., 2006). Later in life, these individuals usually experience severe deficits in empathy and social skills (Williams, 2008).

Mirror Neurons Imitation in monkeys and humans involves special neurons known as mirror neurons, which we dis-

cussed in our chapter on biological psychology. Mirror neurons in mon-keys show similar patterns of activity when the individual performs an action or watches another individual perform the same action (Rizzolatti, Fadiga, Gallese, & Fogassi, 1996; Ruby & Decety, 2001). Identification of mirror neurons in humans has been complicated by ethical concerns about the methods used. In monkeys, mirror neurons were observed through surgically implanted electrodes, as we described in our Connect-ing to Research feature in the chapter on biological psychology. Obviously, this type of invasive procedure would be difficult to do in humans. How-ever, recent recordings taken while patients were undergoing surgical treatment for seizures provided researchers with an opportunity to inves-tigate the existence of mirror neurons in humans. This investigation led to the conclusion that mirror neurons do, in fact, exist in humans as well as in monkeys (Keysers & Gazzola, 2010).

Imitation forms the basis of much observational learning. A remaining question is whether imitation involves mirror neurons that activate whether you perform a behavior or see another perform the same behavior.

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