6
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of Trump's 'thumb-and-index-pinch' when he speaks?
Short answer
The 'OK pinch' (Fig. 1) expresses precision and control. It stresses particular phrases and shows commitment to his words.
Background
In an interview with Psychology professor Geoffrey ...
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5
votes
Accepted
I am looking for the name of a phenomenon where people blindly follow others when they sense a threat
Herd mentality (aka mob mentality) involves people following others without (deliberate) thinking - ie, impulsively or blindly:
... describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt
...
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5
votes
Accepted
What's a simple definition for reactive attachment disorder?
The beginnings of theories based on attachment regarding long and short term interpersonal relationships is Attachment Theory which was started by John Bowlby. Attachment Theory is primarily applied ...
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4
votes
Accepted
What do chimpanzees do with fire in the wild, and can they be trained to manipulate burning objects?
Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames was observing savanna chimpanzees in Senegal and found that chimps there have mastered the first step in controlling fire.
However there is ...
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4
votes
Why has behaviourism fallen out of favour?
There is a lot of research here so there is a lot to cover. Please bear with me.
There are what is known as 3 forces of psychology
Behavioural Theory (First Force) – (Short & Thomas, 2014, ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to effect both positive and negative reinforcement through the same action?
Yes.
In fact, the modern view of positive and negative reinforcement is that they are essentially synonyms. They are different ways of looking at the same thing, like describing a glass of water ...
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4
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What is the medical term for semi-mindless activities to help reduce anxiety? ... such as gardening, mowing, cleaning... perhaps driving
I have not been able to find any term, medical or non-medical, which includes the word asynchronous, but to add to the answer by @user20460 there is the non-medical term hobbies.
Taking part in ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Are behaviourist practices and/or principles still valid and useful?
Turf war mixed with artificial distinctions. Behaviorism can hardly be considered outdated when the most popular therapies are behavioral: CBT, DBT, ACT. Even modern implementations of mindfulness are ...
- 158
4
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What does this sentence of Richard Herrnstein regarding learned helplessness theory mean?
"learning that responding is ineffective" is alluding to a cognitive process, separate from the behavioral process. Put simply, a thought process.
While, "animals learn responses" ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Does the "learned" in "learned helplessness" refer specifically to behaviorism's conditioning?
Wikipedia explains that there's not one theory of learned helplessness but several, some more encompassing than others with respect to what is learned:
Research has found that a human's reaction to ...
3
votes
Accepted
What is the medical term for semi-mindless activities to help reduce anxiety? ... such as gardening, mowing, cleaning... perhaps driving
I have read it mentioned as grounding- techniques or activities. Activities that pull you into the present, and, if possible, fulfill you by giving you the impression towards achieving a goal.
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3
votes
Accepted
Is there any significance to the way Trump spreads his hand from each other?
Short answer
The open palms are usually seen as a gesture of openness.
Background
I have answered a related question, and I will use the same source as I used there, namely an interesting interview ...
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3
votes
In a class room setting, why do people look at you when you are asking a question?
Well, your ears are shaped in a way that is optimized for sound sources in front of you, so it could be that. But my non-expert bet is that probably they're using gaze to signal that they're paying ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Effectiveness of aversion therapy for procrastination
From a 2014 review article on procrastination that doesn't mention aversive therapy at all, but has this to say about treatment(s) of procrastination in general:
Even though procrastination can ...
3
votes
Accepted
What does this sentence of Richard Herrnstein regarding learned helplessness theory mean?
When we say that Alice "learned that X", X is generally an assertion, and we are saying that Alice now has some kind of representation of the assertion in her head, and knows it to be true.
...
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3
votes
Question about stimulus-response assocation theories
Your second guess is correct.
In the stimulus–response model, the "stimulus" typically refers to external stimuli. Internal states such as hunger are not part of the model.
As such, Jensen (...
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2
votes
Cognitivism over Behaviorism
let's have a look at the social cognitive theory by Bandura:
It says, that behavior can be acquired by simply watching other people act on something. Maybe you have already heard of the famous bobo-...
- 443
2
votes
Accepted
Can you get addicted from using topical or local anaesthetics to ease pain?
Short answer
Basing an answer strictly on the DSM-V criteria, local anesthetics may, purely hypothetically, be associated with a mild form of addiction. But realistically, I think it is unlikely that ...
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2
votes
Accepted
What happened to self-administered aversion therapy (with a rubber band in particular)?
Out of the basically four possible ways to change behaviors, your rubber band lies at one extreme, being an example of positive punishment, which works by presenting an aversive stimulus after an ...
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2
votes
Accepted
Comparison of Aversion Therapy to other interventions for nail-biting
One of the techniques used for nail-biting is the (training) habit-reversal: Developed by Nathan H. Azrin and R. Gregory Nunn (1987) focused on the treatment of nervous habits (although in general, ...
- 1,069
2
votes
Accepted
Punishment v.s Negative Reinforcement
Operant Conditioning
The general topic you are referring to is called operant conditioning.
Positive/negative refers to whether you are adding something or taking it away.
Reinforcement/punishment ...
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2
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What is the medical term for semi-mindless activities to help reduce anxiety? ... such as gardening, mowing, cleaning... perhaps driving
What you are describing sounds a lot like aspects of Occupational Therapy (sometimes called Ergotherapy). Occupational therapy can include prescribed activity such as knitting (to meaningfully occupy ...
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2
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In a class room setting, why do people look at you when you are asking a question?
Gaze goes a bit beyond merely focusing on the source of sounds. I think it's fair to say that not everyone is going to do this all the time. Context and the person(s) involved matter:
Decades of ...
2
votes
Is there a name for this feeling?
The emotions may include: duplicitousness, slipperiness, artfulness, craftiness, deviousness, wiliness, cunningness, deceitfulness, slyness, sneakiness, crookedness, vanity, haughtiness, ...
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1
vote
What is the meaning of behaviorally oriented outside-in nature of therapy?
The concept of "outside-in" within the context of the article involves looking at how your environment is affecting your mental health. In other words, how the world around you (people you ...
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1
vote
Accepted
Are reaction time and memory physiological measure or behavioral observation?
It may help considering whether the phenomenon is under some control by the participant. Pupil dilation is a physiological measure, but the speed at which I hit a key (reaction time) is a behavioral ...
- 1,478
1
vote
Need to define observation/phenomenon in order to study it, same replies to same political topics, different individuals
I doubt there's anything deeper than a meme or stereotyping at play here. See https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hungry-kim-jong-un
On December 23rd, the "Kim Jong-Un is Hungry"[4] single topic blog ...
1
vote
Can you get addicted from using topical or local anaesthetics to ease pain?
I've been wondering if there was such a thing as developing some kind of physical or psychological dependence on things that relieve pain.
Yes. However:
You need to be careful about your use of the ...
- 1,247
1
vote
Accepted
Is Behaviorism a type of Functionalism?
If take a look at the Wikipedia article @Fizz provided in the comments, it does say that Functionalism is different to Behaviourism
because it is only concerned with the effective functions of the ...
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