General Psychology

Chapter one .

Essence of Psychology

2016 E.C
 CONTENTS OF THIS MODULE
 At the end of this chapter,
you will be able to: • Identify subfields of
• Define psychology psychology
• Show historical roots of • major research methods in
psychology as a science psychology
• Point out the goals of • Explore the major steps of
psychology scientific research in
• Identify early schools and psychology
modern perspectives of
psychology
• differences among
perspectives of
psychology
 1.1. Definition of Psychology and Related Concepts

 The word "psychology" is derived from two Greek words

'psyche' and ‗logos‟. Psyche refers to mind, soul or sprit
while logos means study, knowledge or discourse.
Therefore, by combining the two Greek words the term
"psychology" epistemologically refers to the study of the
mind, soul, or sprit and it is often represented by the
Greek letter ᴪ (psi) which is read as ("sy"). Psychologists
define psychology differently based on their intentions,
research findings, and background experiences.

• Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and

the underlying mental .
 Cont.…
• Science: psychology uses scientific methods to study behavior
and mental processes in both humans and animals. This means
psychologists do not study behavior with commonsense rather
they follow scientific procedures and use empirical data to study
behavior and mental processes.
• Behavior: refers to all of our outward or overt actions and
reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, movement, etc.
There is also covert behavior which is hidden, non-observable
and generally considered as a mental process
• Mental processes: refer to all the internal, covert activities of our
minds, such as thinking, feeling, remembering.
 1.2 Goals of Psychology
* As a science, psychology has four goals; description, explanation,
prediction, and control.
* Description: Description involves observing the behavior and noticing
everything about it. It is a search for answers for questions like What is
happening?‘ Where does it happen?‘ To whom does it happen?‘ And ‗under
what circumstances does it seem to happen?
* For example , a young freshman girl is not turning to her homework, her results
are slipping badly, and she seems to have a very negative attitude toward the
psychology course.
* Explanation: Why is it happening? Explanation is about trying to find reasons
for the observed behavior. This helps in the process of forming theories of
behavior (A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts). For
example ,the teacher would most likely ask her parents about her home
 Cont………………………...

Prediction: prediction is about determining what will happen in the future. In

the above example, the case of the freshman girl, the psychologist or

counselor would predict (based on previous research into similar situations) .

 Control: How can it be changed? Control or modify or change the

behavior from undesirable one (such as failing in school) to a desirable

one (such as academic success).

 1.3. Historical Background and Major Perspectives in Psychology
 Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the sciences,
only about 125 years old. It began as a science of its own in 1879 in
Leipzig, Germany, with the establishment of a psychology laboratory
in the University of Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt developed
the technique of objective introspection to scientifically examine
mental experiences.
 With such newer orientation to the study of human subjective
experiences that were previously under the field of philosophy alone,
psychology then begun as an independent field of study and with
Wundt as its founder or "father of modern psychology.
 There are five such early schools of psychology.
Structuralism-
structuralism views psychology as a study of structure of mind. It is an expansion of

Wundt‘s ideas by his student named Edward Titchener (1867-1927). Titchener is the

founder of structuralism. The goal of structuralists was to find out the units or

elements, which make up the mind such as; sensations, images, and feelings. The best-

known method used by them was introspection “looking inward into our

consciousness”.

Functionalism- functionalism views psychology as a study of function of the mind.

The founder of this school of thought is William James (1848-1910), who was the first

American psychologist and the author of the first psychology textbook. Unlike Wundt

and Titchener, James focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real

world; how people work, play, and adapt to their surroundings, a viewpoint he called
 Gestalt psychology

 Gestalt psychology views psychology as a study of the whole mind. Max Wertheimer and

his colleagues founded this school of thought in Germany in the 20th century. Gestalt

psychologists argued that the mind is not made up of combinations of elements. The

German word "gestalt" refers to form, whole, configuration or pattern. According to

them, the mind should be thought of as a result of the whole pattern of sensory activity and

the relationships and organizations within their pattern. In brief, the gestalt psychologists

acknowledge consciousness. They held that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Means mind is greater than its parts (images, sensations, and feelings).

Generally what is common to all the three schools of though is the fact that they all try to

examine the human mind; which is an internal, no-visible, and hidden experience of

human beings. Although it could be useful to understand this experience, it was believed that

this subjective, private experience can‘t be observable, measurable, and hence can‘t be
Behaviorism:
behaviorists view psychology as a study of observable and measurable
behaviors. John B. Watson is the founder of behaviorism. Other
proponents include E. Thorndike and F. Skinner. For Watson, psychology
was the study of observable and measurable behavior and nothing more
about hidden mental processes.
As to Watson, behaviorism had three other important characteristics in
addition to its focus on behavior; conditioned response as the elements
or building blocks of behavior, learned rather than unlearned behaviors,
and focus on animal behavior. He believed that all behaviors are learned.
All the four schools of thought discussed so far were focusing on human
mind and behavior as conscious experiences.
Psychoanalysis:
psychology studies about the components of the unconscious part of the human
mind. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is the founder of this school of thought . He
became convinced that some of the physical illnesses of his patients didn‘t have
medical or bodily causes; but non-physical or emotional causes. He called these
kinds of illnesses as hysteria‘ or conversion reaction to indicate the conversion of
emotional problems into bodily problems.

He also underscored that conflicts and emotional traumas that had occurred in early
childhood can be too threatening to be remembered consciously and therefore they
become hidden or unconscious and then will remain to affect later behavior.

The unconscious which is the subject matter of psychoanalysis contains hidden

wishes, passions, guilty secrets, unspeakable yearnings, and conflict between desire
and duty. We are not aware of our unconscious needs and thoughts and they make
themselves known in dreams, slip of the tongue, apparent accidents and even jokes.
He used clinical case studies (hypnosis and Dream analysis) as a method.
1.3.2. Modern schools of psychology
The views that predominate today are psychodynamic, behavioral,
humanistic, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural perspectives.
Psychodynamic perspective:
 This perspective emphasizes the unconscious dynamics within the
individual such as inner forces, conflicts or instinctual energy.
 The influence of unconscious mental behavior on everyday behavior
 The role of childhood experiences in shaping adult personality
 The role of intrapersonal conflict in determining human behavior
 Psychodynamic perspective tries to dig below the surface of a
person's behavior to get into unconscious motives.

Behavioral Perspective: It is concerned with how the environment affects the

person‘s actions. Behaviorists focus on environmental conditions (e.g. rewards, and
punishments) that maintain or discourage specific behaviors. The behavioral
perspective is sometimes called the "black box" approach in psychology because it
treats the mind as less useful in understanding human behavior and focus on what goes
in to and out of the box, but not on the processes that take place inside.
 Humanistic Perspective
 According to this perspective, human behavior is not determined
either by unconscious dynamics or the environment. Rather it
emphasizes the uniqueness of human beings and focuses on human
values and subjective experiences.
 The goal of humanistic psychology was helping people to express
themselves creatively and achieve their full potential or self-
actualization (developing the human potential to its fullest).
Cognitive Perspective-
it emphasizes what goes on in people's heads; how people reasonable,
remember, understand language, solve problems, explain experiences
and form beliefs. This perspective is concerned about the mental
processes. The most important contribution of this perspective has
been to show how people's thoughts and explanations affect their
Biological Perspective- it focuses on studying how bodily events or functioning of the
body affects behavior, feelings, and thoughts. It holds that the brain and the various brain
chemicals affect psychological processes such as learning, performance, perception of
reality, the experience of emotions, etc. This perspective underscores that biology and
behavior interact in a complex way; biology affecting behavior and behavior in turn
affecting biology.

Socio-cultural Perspective- It focuses on the social and cultural factors that

affects human behavior. As a fish cannot leave without water, human behavior
cannot be understood without sociocultural context (the social and cultural
environment) that people "Swim" in every day. For instance, social psychologists
examine how group membership affects attitudes and behaviors, why authority and
other people (like spouse, lovers, friends, bosses, parents, and strangers) affect each
of us. Cultural psychologists also examine how cultural rules and values (both
explicit and unspoken) affect people's development, behavior, and feelings. This
perspective holds that humans are both the products and the producers of culture,
 1.4. Branches/Sub Fields of Psychology
 Developmental psychology – It studies the physical, cognitive and
psychological changes across the life span.
 Personality Psychology – it focuses on the relatively enduring
traits and characteristics of individuals. Personality psychologists
study topics such as self-concept, aggression, moral development.
 Social Psychology –deals with people‘s social interactions,
relationships, social perception, and attitudes.
 Cross-cultural Psychology - examines the role of culture in
understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.
 Industrial psychology – applies psychological principles in
industries and organizations to increase the productivity of that
organization .
 Forensic psychology - applies psychological principles to improve
the legal system (police, testimony, etc..).
• Educational Psychology - concerned with the application of
psychological principles and theories in improving the
educational process including curriculum, teaching, and
administration of academic programs .
• Health Psychology - applies psychological principles to the
prevention and treatment of physical illness and diseases.
• Clinical Psychology:-is a field that applies psychological
principles to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of
psychological disorders.
• Counseling Psychology: - is a field having the same concern
as clinical psychology but helps individuals with less severe
problems than those treated by clinical psychologists.
 1.5. Research Methods in Psychology
A. Definition of terms

 Scientific method - a process of testing ideas through

systematic observations, experimentations, and statistical
analysis.
 Theory - is an integrated set of principles about observed
facts that is intended to describe and explain some aspects
of experience.
 Hypotheses - is a tentative proposition about the
relationship between two or more variables or phenomena.
E.g. Males have high self - confidence in making decisions
than females.
 B. Major types of research methods

There are three major types of research methods: descriptive,

correlational and experimental research methods.
 Descriptive research - in this type of research, the
researcher simply records what she/he has systematically
observed. Descriptive research methods include naturalistic
observation, case studies, and surveys.
• Naturalistic observation: is a descriptive research method in
which subjects are observed in their natural environment to
get a real (not artificial) picture of how behavior occurs.
Limitations of naturalistic observation are observer effect
(animals or people who know they are being watched may
behave artificially) and observer bias (the researcher may
not observe systematically or he/she may observe behaviors
Cont………

Case study: is a descriptive technique in which an individual is studied

in great detail. Its advantage is that it provides tremendous amount of
data about a single case or individual. The disadvantage of case study is
that the researchers can‘t apply the results to other similar people, which
means what researchers find in one case can‘t necessarily apply or
generalize to others .

Survey: is a descriptive research method used to collect data from a

very large group of people. It is useful to get information on private
(covert) behaviors and it addresses hundreds of people with the same
questions at the same time. Its disadvantage is that it needs a careful
selection of a representative sample of the actual population .
 Correlational research
It is a research method that measures the relationship between two
or more variables.
Though correlation tells researchers if there is a relationship
between variables, how strong the relationship is, and in what
direction the relationship goes, it doesn‘t prove causation (which
means it doesn‘t show the cause and effect relationship). for
example, that if there is a relationship between smoking and lung
cancer, this doesn‘t mean that smoking causes lung cancer.
 Experimental research .

 It is a research method that allows researchers to study the

cause and effect relationship between variables.
Experiments involve at least one independent variable and
one dependent variable.
 The independent variable is the manipulated, influential,
experimental factor. The dependent variable is the factor
(behavior) that is measured in an experiment. It can
change as the independent variable is manipulated.
 Experiments also involve randomly assigned experimental
groups and control groups. An experimental group is a
group whose experience is manipulated.
 C. Steps of scientific research
Step one - Defining the Problem - noticing something attention catch
the surrounding for which one would like to have an explanation
example , notice that children seem to get a little more aggressive wit
other after watching practically horror videos .
Step two - Formulating the Hypothesis - after having an observat
surroundings (perceiving the problem), you might form an educated
about the explanation for your observations, putting it into the form
statement that can be tested in some way. Example , you might formu
hypothesis “children who watch horror video will become more aggr
than those who watch videos”.
Step three - Testing the Hypothesis - at this step, the researcher em
appropriate research methods and collects ample data (information) to
or reject the proposed statement. For instance, in the above example, th
will be gathered from children who watch horror videos and from thos
do not watch this videos and make comparisons between the behaviors
two groups to determine whether watching horror video makes children
aggressive.
Step four - Drawing Conclusions - this is the step
in which the researcher attempts to make
generalizations or draw implications from tested
relationship .
 Step five - Reporting Results - at this point, the
researcher would want to write up exactly what
she/he did, why she/he did, and what she/he found.
So that, others can learn from what she/he has
already accomplished, or failed to accomplish. This
allows others to predict and modify behavior based
on the findings .
 CHAPTER TWO
SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
 2.1.The meanings of sensation and perception

Sensation is the process whereby stimulation of receptor cells in the

eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and surface of the skin sends nerve
impulses to the brain. It is closely tied to what is happening in the
sensory systems themselves. It is the process of gathering data
through our sense organs from the environment. E.g coffee.
 Color, brightness, the pitch of tone or a bitter taste are examples
of sensations. The starting point of sensations is a stimulus .
 Sensation is therefore the process that detects the stimulus from
one‘s body or from the environment. E.g pain of our body.
What is perception ?
Perception is the process that organizes sensations into meaningful
patterns. It is the process whereby the brain interprets sensations, giving
them order and meaning .
perceptual processes are constantly at work to modify sensory input into
 2.2.The sensory laws: Sensory thresholds and sensory adaption
We make sensation in a million but we can't perceptual all of them.
Be/c our perceptual capacity is limited. There are certain sensory
laws that explain how sensation works. Sensory threshold and
sensory adaptation are the two general laws of sensation.
Sensory threshold is the minimum point of intensity a sound can be
detected. Detecting very low amounts of things by our sense organs .
There are two laws of sensory threshold:
 The law of absolute threshold and
 The law of difference threshold .
The absolute threshold as the minimum level of stimulation that can
be detected 50 percent of the time when a stimulus is presented over
and over again. Eg. Cup of coffee add a sugar to detect and test six
students.
 Cont.…….
The absolute threshold is also affected by factors :
- the intensity of the stimulus e.g. size, color, test, brightness
- the physical and psychological state of the individual.
- E.g. psychological factors -readiness of the person to report the
presence of a particular stimulus to detect the change .
Illustration ;- imagine that you are waking to detect down a street at
night your predisposition a sound depends in part ,on your estimate the
probability of being mugged ,so you would more likely to perceive the
sounds of footsteps on a neighborhood you believe to be dangerous than
in a neighbor –hood you believe to be safe.
 The difference threshold/the just noticeable difference/

 it is detect changes in the intensity of a stimulus.

 it is the minimum change in stimulation that can be detected 50
percent of the time by a given person. Eg two cup of coffee.
 for example, you would have to increase the intensity of the sound
from your tape recorder a certain amount before you could detect a
change in its volume.
 The amount of change in intensity of stimulation needed to produce a
just noticeable differentiate a constant fraction of the original
stimulus. This became known as Weber‘s law.
 For example, just noticeable difference = +/- on the original
stimulus is called Weber‘s law. E.g. net Wight of ton.
 Sensory Adaptation
 if a stimulus remains constant in intensity, you will gradually stop
noticing it.
 this tendency of our sensory receptors to have decreasing
responsiveness to unchanging stimulus is called sensory adaptation.
E.g the wall watch sounds.
 Sensory adaptation lets you detect potentially important change in
your environment while ignoring unchanging aspects of it.
 This is adaptive, because to ignore such stimuli might be harmful or
even fatal .
 2.3.Perception
 perception is a meaning making process
The major characteristics of the perceptual process:
 selectivity of perception
 form perception
 depth perception
 perceptual constancy
 perceptual illusion.
 selectivity of perception: Attention
your sense organ is bombarded by many stimuli. Yet you
perceive a few of them.
In fact you may be attending to one of such incoming in put
ignoring the other noises. Such selective perception is called
attention.
 Attention is therefore the term given to the perceptual
process that selects certain inputs for inclusion in your
conscious experience, or awareness, at any given time,
ignoring others.
 Stimuli that you perceive clearly are the focus of your
experience and other stimuli that you perceive dimly or
vaguely are in the margin of your attention.
 Cont.……..
E.g in foot ball game the players with ball will be the focus of our
attention while other players ,coldness, noise and bad smell of smoking
are marginalized.
Perception is selecting ,ordering and meaning making information .
Factors to selectivity of perception:
Factors external to the perceiver
Factors internal to the perceiver
External factors /stimulus related factors/Bottom up processing/:
refer to factors that are generally found in the objects or stimuli to be
perceived. Stimulus related factors. E.g.
 repetition – eg .governments vs novelty/new vision/,and
 Contrast in size eg. /bell boards/ , books ,home objects ,
 Contrast in Intensity/ in smelling, sound and brightness/.
 movement/motion/ ; eg in meeting area, weeding area children's in
religion area
 Perceiver/ Internal /psychological / factors .
There are two important psychological factors: Set or expectancy
and motives or needs.
mental Set/mental readiness/ refers to the idea that you may be ready
and Primed for certain kinds of sensory input . We make our interests ,for
example if we want to see we saw our interest and others. Eg. mothers to
child ,Students, alarm to traveling. False alarm/signal detection/
 Set, or expectancy, therefore, varies from person to person.
Eg . The wife may more likely to hear the baby crying than the husband
calls.
Motives or needs; There are differences between you and your friend in what
you select to perceive as a result of differences in your motives and needs .
 People who are hungry, thirst, or sexually aroused are likely to pay
attention to events in the environment, which will satisfy these needs.
E.g students interest to know from teachers.
 Experience
Focus on an individuals experience. Eg the women have a thyroid . One
day she have a talk show , most participants have no experience on the
case . But one of those have specialized on the thyroid .
Politicians ,teachers ,doctors
 form perception
 Visual sensations, provide the raw materials that are to be
organized into meaningful patterns, shapes, forms, and
concepts or ideas or form perception.
 The meaningful shapes or patterns or ideas that are
made perhaps out of meaningless and discrete or
pieces and bites of sensations refer to form
perception.
Figure-Ground Perception
• It is the perception of objects and forms of everyday
experience as standing out from a background.
Eg . Pictures (figure) hang on a wall (ground), words (figure)
are seen on a page (ground).
 here pictures and words are perceived as the figure ; while
 Cont.………
 The ability to distinguish an object from its general
background is basic to all form perception.
 gestalt psychologists stress that form perception in an
active, rather than a passive, process like selectivity of
perception.
 Hence, there can be a shift in you perception of figure and
ground such that the figure may become the ground and
vice versa.
 Factors that determine your attention equally determine
what should become the figure and what should become the
ground.
 figures can be ground or ground can be figure.
 Cont.……..
Figure-ground perception.
 Contours in Form Perception
You are able to separate forms from the general ground only
because you can perceive contours.
 contours give shape to the objects in our visual world because they
mark one object off from another or they mark an object off from the
general ground.
 When contours are disrupted visually, as in camouflage, objects are
difficult to distinguish from the background.
Organization in form Perception
When several objects are present in the visual field, we tend to perceive
them as organized into patterns or groupings.
Gestalt psychologists emphasized ,organized perceptual experience has
properties, which cannot be predicated from a simple analysis of the
components.
 laws of perceptual organization
 Laws of simplicity : eg rhombus
 Laws of proximity ; The laws of proximity says that items which are
close together in space or time tend to be perceived as belonging
together or forming an organized group.
 Laws of similarity; elements that appear similar will be
perceived as part of the same form . Similar things are adjusted based
on their similarity. Eg
 Law of continuity; understanding things are continued to the first
potential/background/. Eg students .
 Closure :- naturally , observing things are fullness. For example
name, the word psychology- sychology tamiru –tamru .
 Depth perception
 If we live in a two-dimensional world, form perception would be
sufficient. But because we live in a three-dimensional world, we have
evolved depth perception-the ability to judge the distance of objects.
Given that images on the retina are two dimensional, how can we
perceive depth?
 Depth perception depends on the use binocular cues and monocular
signs there are two kinds of binocular cues: retinal disparity and
convergence .
 Retinal disparity is, the degree of difference between the image of an
object that are focused on the two retinas. The closer the object, the
greater is the retinal disparity.
 The second binocular cue to depth is convergence, the degree to which
the two eyes turn inward to focus on an object. Tension feeling

 For example, drinking alcohol impairs depth perception by disrupting

the normal convergence of the eyes and using a computer terminal for
Monocular Cues : guessing distances in one eye.
This means that even people who have lost sight in one eye may still
have good depth perception. One monocular is accommodation, which
is the change in the shape of the lens that lets you focus the image of an
object on the retina.
motion parallax. the tendency to perceive ourselves as passing
objects faster when they are closer to us than when they are farther
away. Eg. When we travelling in car transport .
 Cont.….
 an object that overlaps another object will appear closer, a cue called
interposition/occlusion/.

Eg .yours child age and graduation photo .

Painters are use this method.
 Monocular Cues relative size and familiar size.
Comparing the relative size of objects also provides a cue to
their distance. If two people are about the same height and one
casts a smaller image on your retina.

 familiar size is usual face ,height of individuals.

 Monocular Cues: linear perspective
The pictorial cue, linear perspective, may even have practical
application. During world War II, naval aviation cadets flying at night
sometimes crashed into airplanes ahead of them, apparently because of
failure to judge the distance of those plans. Taking advantage of linear
perspective solved this problem.
 The final monocular cue, the texture gradient
 affects depth perception because the nearer an object, the
more details we can make out, and the farther an object, the
fewer details we can make out.
 Elevation
An object‘s elevation provides another cue to its distance.
Objects that are higher in your visual field seem to be farther
away. If you paint a picture, you create depth by placing more
distant objects higher on the Canvas. For example.
 Monocular cue :Shading patterns
Shading patterns : provide cues to distance because
areas that are in shadow tend to recede, while areas
that are in light tend to stand out.
 Monocular cue: Aerial perspective
Aerial perspective depends on the clarity of objects.
Closer objects seem clearer than more distant ones. A
distant mountain will look hazier than a near one.
Perceptual Constancies
The image of a given object focused on your retina may vary
in size, shape, and brightness but not vary.
 Size Constancies: makes you interpret a change in
its retinal size as a change in its distance rather than
a change in its size.
 Shape constancy
Shape constancy : assures that an object of known
shape will appear to maintain its normal shape
regardless of the angle from which you view it. Hand
watch, laptop ,photo.
Brightness constancy
Though the amount of light reflected from a given object can vary, we
perceive the object as having a constant brightness, this is called
brightness constancy.
Position constancy :
 Perceptual Illusion
What is the d/ce between illusion and hallucination ?
Hallucination is believe that things are present but
not live.
Illusion is things are present and understanding
disorder. E.g Buildings .

Hallucination
 Visual illusions
Visual illusions provide clues to the processes involved in
normal visual perception. For example, the moon illusion
illustrated in Figure in which the moon appears larger when it
is at the horizon than when it is overhead. This is an illusion
because the moon is the same distance from us at the horizon
as when it is overhead .
 Extra sensory perception
some people appear to have an ability to know other
people, objects, and events without any sensory
contact an experience called extra sensory
perception (ESP) or paranormal ability.
Eg . Telepathy/mind reading/ , pre-
cognition ,clairvoyance /ultra sound/ ,MRI,X-RAY
 Chapter Three
Learning and theories of learning
Contents of This Chapter
 Definition and concepts of learning
 Characteristics of learning
 Principles of learning
 Factors affecting learning.

THEORIES OF LEARNING
 Behavioral theories of learning
 Social learning theory
 Cognitive learning theory
 Definition and concepts of learning
What is and is not learning?
 It is a change in behavior due to experience, practice
e.g. driving bicycle
 This change in behavior is relatively permanent.
 It does not include change due to illness ,fatigue and use
of intoxication
 Learning is not directly observable but manifests in the
activities of the individuals
 Learning is not because of biological factors like
hormonal change that bring permanent changes in
behavior. E.g. voice change ,pregnancy .
Characteristics of learning .…
 Learning is continuous modification of behavior
throughout life.
 It involves the whole person ,socially, emotionally
and intellectually.
 Learning is responsive to incentive.
 Learning is an active process
 It is purposeful
 It depends on maturation ,motivation and
practice .
 Learning is multifaceted, which means through
watching ,reading ,listening and touching .
 Principles how learning occurs effectively ?
* Individuals learn best when they are physically, mentally
and emotionally ready to learn.
* Learning is strengthened when accomplished by a
pleasant or satisfying feeling and it is weakened when
associated with an unpleasant feeling.
* Things learned first create a strong impression in the
mind that is difficult to erase .
* Things most recently learned are best remembered .
* The principles of intensities implies that a student will
learn more from real things than from substitute .
* Individuals must have some abilities and skills that may
help them to learn.
Factors Influencing Learning
Some of the factors that affects learning are
the following.
 Motivation
 Maturation
 Health condition of the learner
 Psychological –well being of learner
 Good working condition
 Good learning condition
 Background experience
 Length of the working time /period
 Massed and distributed learning


Theories Of Learning And Their Application

In this section we will learn about theories of learning and with their possible implications an application .

Behavioral theories of learning

Classical conditioning theory
Operant /instrumental conditioning
Under behavioral theory believes that ,learning occurs as a result of stimulus –response associations .
Emphasize observable behaviors.

Classical Conditioning theory

Classical Conditioning Theory
 BASICS OF CLASSICAL CONDITION

Neutral stimulus ; A stimulus that ,before conditioning

does not naturally bring about the response of interest .
Unconditional stimulus ;(UCS) A stimulus that naturally
brings about a particular response with out having been
learned.
Unconditional response ;(UCR) A response that is natural
and needs no training .(e.g salivation at the smell of food ).
Conditioned stimulus;- a neutral stimulus that has been
paired with an un conditioned stimulus to bring about a
response formerly caused only by the unconditioned
stimulus .
Conditioned response; a response that after
conditioning ,follows a previously neutral stimulus (e.g
salivation at the bell of ring ).
 Before conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) cause unconditioned response(UCR)
meat
Neutral stimulus (bell) elicit No salivation

During conditioning
Unconditioning stimulus + neutral stimulus Elicit unconditioned
response
meat + Bell
(UCS+ (NS) (UCR)
After conditioning
Conditioned stimulus (bell) elicit conditioned response
(CS) (CR)
 BASICS OF CLASSICAL CONDITION

Neutral stimulus ; A stimulus that ,before conditioning

does not naturally bring about the response of interest .
Unconditional stimulus ;(UCS) A stimulus that naturally
brings about a particular response with out having been
learned.
Unconditional response ;(UCR) A response that is natural
and needs no training .(e.g salivation at the smell of food ).
Conditioned stimulus;- a neutral stimulus that has been
paired with an un conditioned stimulus to bring about a
response formerly caused only by the unconditioned
stimulus .
Conditioned response; a response that after
conditioning ,follows a previously neutral stimulus (e.g
 Principles of Classical Condition
A. Stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination
Stimulus generalization is a process in which, after a
stimulus has been conditioned to produce a particular
response, stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus begin
to produce the same responses. Eg. For example, a dog
conditioned to salivate to a dinner bell (CS) might also
salivate to a door bell, a telephone bell.
Stimulus discrimination is the process of distinguishing two
similar stimuli; the ability to differentiate between stimuli.
Example, the dog salivates only in response to the dinner bell
instead of the doorbell or the telephone bell.
 B. Extinction and spontaneous recovery
 if a CS is repeatedly presented without presenting the UCS
(meat), the CR will diminish and eventually stop occurring.
This process is called extinction.
 A dog that has learned to salivate to a dinner bell (CS) will
eventually stop doing so unless presentations of the dinner
bell are periodically followed by presentations of the UCS
(meat).
 Spontaneous recovery is the reemergence of an
extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest and
with no further conditioning .
 For example, suppose you produce extinction of the CR of
salivation by no longer presenting the dog with meat after
ringing the dinner bell.
 3.3.1.2. Operant/Instrumental conditioning
B.F . Skinner conducted an experiment on a rat or mice
where it learned self operation.
Operant conditioning is learning in which a voluntary
response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its
favorable or unfavorable consequences.
An emphasis on environmental consequences is at the heart
of Operant Conditioning (also called Instrumental
Conditioning).
In Skinner‘s analysis, a response (―operant‖) can lead to
three types of consequences: such as :-
a) A neutral consequence b) A reinforcement or c)
punishment
Cont.
A neutral Consequence : that does not alter the response .
A reinforcement that strengthens the response or makes it more likely to recur.
c) Punishment- is a consequence that weakens the response or makes it less
likely to recur.
In general ,consequence is creating behavior .

Group discussion
 Brief the difference between positive and negative reinforcement with example for each.

 Discuses the separation between positive and negative punishment with example for

each.

 Discuses the reason why we need to apply +ve reinforcement and –ve reinforcement and

+ve punishment and –ve punishment.

 Brief how punishment can be effective.

 The science of Addition and subtraction with reinforcement and punishment .
Reinforcement ,whether positive or negative ,is used to strengthen
a desired behavior.
Punishment ,whether positive or negative ,is used to weaken or
eradicated undesirable behavior.
Positive reinforcement is the process whereby presentation of a
stimulus makes behavior more likely to occur again .it can be
addition of pleasant thing on the person under behavioral
modification. Eg. medallion to students, salary ,level of position.
Negative reinforcement is the process whereby termination of an
aversive stimulus makes behavior more likely to occur. It is the
removal of unpleasant thing away from person under behavioral
modification.
+ve punishment is the addition of aversive (painful) things on the
body of the person under behavioral modification . Eg. Punish
children .
 Cont.…
-ve punishment is remove/ protecting / an individuals
interest.
Examples
 Taking away a ball from a group of children playing football
on main road side.
 Pinching a child for breaking a water glass.
 Presenting 1000 birr for a student who scored an A+ in
psychology course.
 Salary reduction from a misbehaving worker.
 Throwing a criminal into a prison
 Simon got a bicycle from dad after standing first in his 9th
grade class
 Cont..
A reinforcer is any event that increases the probability that the
behavior that precedes it will be repeated. There are two types.
Primary reinforcers: Food, water, light, stroking of the skin,
and a comfortable air temperature are naturally reinforcing
because they satisfy biological needs.
Secondary Reinforcers: Behaviors can be controlled by
secondary reinforcers. Money, praise, applause, good grades,
awards, and gold stars are common secondary reinforcers.
Schedules of reinforcement
Two general types of schedules of reinforcement.
1. continuous reinforcement :- after every desired behavior/response/.
Eg. The child start to walk, Students in class room .
2. Intermit(partial) schedule only some response, not all of them.
Limited in time or amount.
 There are four types of intermittent schedules
Intermittent (partial) schedule conducted on two major basses .
• on ratio basis (number of response)
• on interval basis(length of time taken for the behavior)
Also takes considers whether the reinforcement is provided based on
fixed (constant) or variable (changeable or unpredictable) manner.
Hence, There are four types of intermittent schedules

1.Fixed ratio ,2. variable ratio ,3. fixed interval.4 variable interval.
• 1.Fixed ratio :
• Fixed-ratio schedules: is occurs after a fixed number of responses.
They produce high rate of responding. Employers often use fixed ratio
schedules to increase productivity. An interesting feature of a fixed
ratio schedule is that performance sometimes drops off just after
reinforcement.
 Cont..
Variable-Ratio Schedule: A variable ratio schedule of reinforcement occurs
after some average number of responses, but the number varies from
reinforcement to reinforcement. A variable ratio schedule of produces extremely
high steady rates of responding. The responses are more resistant to extinction
than when a fixed ratio schedule is used.
Fixed Interval Schedule: A fixed interval schedule of reinforcement occurs
only if a fixed amount of time has passed since the previous reinforcer.

Variable Interval Schedule: A variable interval schedule of reinforcement

occurs only if a variable amount of time has passed since the previous reinforcer.
A basic principle of operant conditioning is that if you want a response to persist
after it has been learned, you should reinforce it intermittently, not continuously.
Punishment- is a stimulus that weakens the response or makes it less likely to
recur. Punishers can be any aversive (unpleasant) stimuli that weaken responses
or make them unlikely to recur. Like reinforcers, punishers can also be
primary or secondary.
 Cont.
 Pain and extreme heat or cold are inherently punishing and are
therefore known as primary punishers.
 Criticism, demerits, catcalls, scolding, fines, and bad grades are
common secondary punishers.
/ The Pros and Cons of Punishment / advantages and disadvantages of
punishment
Immediacy, consistency and intensity matter are important for
effectiveness of punishment.
• Immediacy/timing/ – When punishment follows immediately after the
behavior to be punished.
• Consistency- when punishment is inconsistent the behavior being punished
is intermittently reinforced and therefore becomes resistant to extinction.
• Intensity- In general terms severe punishments are more effective than
mild ones.
However, there are studies that indicate that even less intense punishments are
effective provided that they are applied immediately and consistently.
 Shaping
 Shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which
successive approximations of a desired response are
reinforced.
 In shaping you start by reinforcing a tendency in the right
direction. Then you gradually require responses that are
more and more similar to the final desired response .
 The responses that you reinforce on the way to the final
one are called successive approximations.

Application of the theory of operant conditioning –

reading assignment .
 3.3.2. Social Learning Theory (observational learning) theory
According to psychologist Albert Bandura, a major part of
human learning consists of observational learning, which is
learning by watching the behavior of another person, or
model.
There are two main modes of observational learning :
Vicarious learning and learning by imitation .
Vicarious learning : the observer will react to the way the
model is treated and imitate the models behavior .Thus,
consequences of the model's behavior affect the observers
behavior vicarious (indirect).
Imitation: is a kind of observational learning in which the
observer imitate the behaviors of the model even though the
model receives no reward or punishment while the observer
watching.
 Cont.
Bandura mentions four conditions that are necessary
before an individual can successfully model the
behavior of someone.
1. Attention: the person must first pay attention to the
model. Paying attention and perceiving the most
critical features of another persons behavior .
2. Retention:/recording in our memory/ the observer
must be able to remember the behavior that has been
observed. This process depends on the observers
ability to code or structure the information in an easily
remembered form or to mentally or physically
rehearse the models action
 Cont.
3. Motor reproduction:/exercising the action/ the third
condition is the ability to replicate the behavior that the model
has just demonstrated. This means that the observer has to be
able to replicate the action, which could be a problem with a
learner who is not ready developmentally to replicate the action.
4. Motivation: the final necessary ingredient for modeling to
occur is motivation; learners must want to demonstrate what
they have learned. In general observers will perform the act
only if they have some motivation or reason to do so. The
presence of reinforcement or punishment ,either to the model or
directly to the observer ,becomes most important in this process.
Educational Implications of Social Learning Theory –
reading assignment
three forms of reinforcement that can encourage observational
learning /for motivation ,MR. ,RET and Attention/
the observer may reproduce the behaviors of the model and
receive direct reinforcement. Individuals watches a model
perform ,imitate the behavior and is reinforced by the model.
Second, self-reinforcement, or controlling your reinforces /
individual strives to meet personal standards and does not
depend on or care about the reaction of others.
vicarious reinforcement ; observer anticipates receiving a
reward for behaving in a given way because someone else has
been so rewarded.
 Factors affecting learning through modeling
Behaviors of the model man. When the model is
popular ,famous he /she became influence on
others. E.g. teachers on students, foot ball players.
Mekodoniya.
Learners behavior ; which means learners self –
esteem, self respect . They need applied all actions
of the model. Eg . Wearing, talking ,walking
The similarity between learners and model. E.g
similar in age ,religion ,race /ethnicity /
 3.3.3. Cognitive Learning Theory
 Cognitive theorists emphasize the importance acquisition of
knowledge and internal mental processes on learning .
 They believe that learners thinking,
belief ,motivation ,attitude and values are influential in
learning process. Learning is concerned with what learners
know and how they come to acquire it.
 a cognitive theorists sees people as active learners who
initiate experience and seek out information to solve
problems .
 According to them the occurrence of learning is determined
by how information is received ,organized ,stored and
retrieved by the mind of the individuals .
Forms of cognitive learning theory
Latent Learning
Insight Learning
 !!

July, 2023