individual differences

Question 1

what are individual differences

Answer 1

• how people differ because of different environmental influences and experiences

Question 2

why do people differ according to learning theories

Answer 2

environmental influences - patterns of reward
different behavior being observed - leading to different patterns of behavior

Question 3

how does classical conditioning explain individual differences

Answer 3

• experiences lead to different associations between a neutral stimulus and a unconditioned stimulus leading to the unconditioned response which changes after learning so the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response becomes the conditioned response

Question 4

how does operant conditioning explain individual difference s

Answer 4

• predicts that patterns of reward shape differences

Question 5

how does social learning theory explain individual differences

Answer 5

• individuals are exposed to different role models modelling different behaviors
• different experiences or each individual explains individual differences in behavior

Question 6

how must a role model act

Answer 6

powerful and relevant in the eyes of the observer

Question 7

how can a role model act relevant to somebody ?

Answer 7

high status
if they share similar characteristics to the observer

Question 8

how to people learn stereotypical gender roles

Answer 8

• gender role and identity is a set of behaviours that are learned from the environment
• giving individual differences because people have different learning experiences

Question 9

why is someone more likely to copy a role model who is the same gender as them

Answer 9

• they are more similar to them
• they will be reinforced/punished by the behaviour they imitate and its likely the child will be reinforced for acting the gender appropriate way, and punished for gender inappropriate behaviour
• they will have observed consequences of other people’s behaviour and will be motivated to avoid/copy it depending on whether it was reinforced or punished

Question 10

what study did Fagot carry out ?

Answer 10

• she observed children around 2yrs old playing at home with their parents
• she recorded the reinforcements and punishments the parents provided

Question 11

what did Fagot discover

Answer 11

• boys and girls were reinforced/punished for different behaviours

Question 12

what did Fagot see boys being reinforced/ punished for ?

Answer 12

playing with gender appropriate toys, e.g bricks and punished for playing with dolls

Question 13

what did Fagot observe girls being reinforced/punished for ?

Answer 13

• reinforced for staying close to the parent
• punished for rough and tumble play

Question 14

what can Fagot conclude

Answer 14

boys and girls are reinforced for gender appropriate behaviour and punished for gender inappropriate behaviour
- supports idea that individual differences arise from how gender role behaviour is learnt from the childs environment

Question 15

give example of classical conditioning which supports that we learn differently, not always at the same speed

Answer 15

Pavlov found that not all dogs responded to stimuli he presented the same way
Classical conditioning is sensitive to individual differences as some animals (and people) may only need ‘one trial’ learning but others need pairing of UCS with NS several times before learning occurs

Question 16

give evidence of how operant conditioning supports if we respond to reinforcements and punishments in the same way ?

Answer 16

Vaughan et al - trained calves to urinate in specific locations following a system of reward, caused some calves to make this link more quickly than others

Question 17

which individual differences does operant conditioning suggest could affect our learning speed ?

Answer 17

age
ability
temperament
motivation

Question 18

how does the social learning theory explain why some children are more likely to imitate behaviour than others ?

Answer 18

• Bandura acknowledged that children would have different temperaments, and prior experiences which were extraneous variables that weren’t controlled
• self esteem and self efficacy plays a role in modelling

Question 19

self efficacy

Answer 19

how an individual feels about their capability to succeed at a task. According to SLT an individual will only copy a behaviour if they believe they are capable of doing so

• why some are more likely to imitate than others

Question 20

developmental psychology

Answer 20

study of how behaviour changes as a person grows up
generally focuses on children’s development

Question 21

how does operant conditioning suggest we learn language

Answer 21

from our environment and consequences of our actions

Question 22

how can a child learn language through positive reinforcement

Answer 22

• reward infant vocalisations e.g babbling
• this increases frequency of vocalisation
• reinforcement when babies start to associate words with meanings

Question 23

give an example of how a baby is reinforced to help them associate words with meanings

Answer 23

if they babble milk and a mother gives them milk as reward, makes them more likely to make the link

Question 24

after initial vocalisation reinforcements, how do parents get babies to continue to develop their language using operant conditioning

Answer 24

• parents pay less attention to vocalising
• motivates baby to vary babbling
• if they produce more recognisable speech sounds, parents respond excitedly = rewarding child
• once this becomes normalised, parents ignore again until the shaping process results in sentences, being able to speak

Question 25

why do people disagree with skinner, and suggest that operant conditioning and reinforcement alone won't teach a child how to speak ?

Answer 25

- learning cannot account for the rapid rate at which children acquire language, as shaping takes time and language development is very quick - there is an infinite number of sentences in a language which can't all be learnt by imitation - ignores biology

Question 26

what study did Brown and Hanlon conduct which disagrees with operant conditioning being the reason for language development

Answer 26

- shows parents rarely reinforce grammar but focus on accuracy of statements instead - making it less likely that shaping enables children to learn grammar - children also make errors which can't result from imitation

Question 27

how are girls treated differently to boys

Answer 27

- they are given more maternal toys, e.g dolls, prams - boys are given more masculine toys, e.g weapons, army figures - girls are given more pink, frilly clothes with bows - boys tend to have more simple clothes in darker colours

Question 28

reinforcer

Answer 28

a stimulus that increases the likelihood of a specific response occurring

Question 29

behaviour shaping

Answer 29

where complex behaviour is learnt through rewarding the behaviour in stages until the complex behaviour is learnt

Question 30

how does reinforcement explain how gender behaviour is learnt

Answer 30

- when playing with toys a girl reaches for a barbie doll and the parents smile and clap at her motivating her to play with the doll again

Question 31

how can a gender appropriate behaviour be learnt by behaviour shaping

Answer 31

parents telling their son off for reaching for his sisters toys, until he doesn't anymore and then praising him when he plays with weapon toys - when they take him to the shops they praise him for choosing a more masculine toy and buy it for him

Question 32

how do children learn gender behaviour through modelling

Answer 32

- children imitate role models who are more similar to them so if a boy sees their male role model playing rugby, they may imitate that behaviour and become interested in that sport too which are seen as 'more male'

Question 33

what evidence supports modelling in gender development

Answer 33

bobo doll experiment - children were more likely to imitate their same sex role model

Question 34

what did Sears et al discover about gender development

Answer 34

- parents allowed their sons to be more aggressive than their daughters - some mothers thought being a boy meant being aggressive - parents thought they respond the same to boys and girls but tend to intervene more when girls are aggressive

Question 35

give a weakness of gender development explanations

Answer 35

lots of the studies were conducted in the US in the 1970s, which may not reflect gender socialisation in other times/places

Question 36

what did Dweck et al find to support gender development explanations

Answer 36

teachers reinforced boys for getting things right but girls for working neatly

Question 37

what did David Reimer suggest, which disagrees with explaining gender development

Answer 37

- our gender behaviour is innate and even the strongest models and reinforcers could not make someone act in a way they are not predisposed to act

Question 38

what happened to David Reimer

Answer 38

- born as a a male - suffered damage to his penis due to failed circumcision - was brought up as a girl and never told he was biologically female - in his upbringing Reimer was more drawn to 'boy things' and felt out of place being a girl - suffered from depression - when he discovered he was born male, he immediately transitioned back