A-AS Level (CIE) Psychology: Specimen Questions with Answers 275 - 276 of 299

Explanation

Differentiating Diffusion of responsibility from Pluralistic ignorance are as follows

• Diffusion of responsibility suggesting that the greater the number of witnesses to an emergency the less likely victims are to receive help. This is because each bystander assumes that someone else assume responsibility for helping

• Pluralistic ignorance can prevent any one person in a group of strangers from acting, as each of them waits for cues from the others to decide on appropriate action

Explanation

Shaping can be defined as follows

• Shaping is defined as the differential reinforcement of successive approximations of a target behavior until the person exhibits the target behavior

• Differential reinforcement involves the basic principle of reinforcement and extinction

• Differential reinforcement occurs when one particular behavior is reinforced and all the other behaviors are not reinforced

• As a result, the behavior that is reinforced increases and the behavior that are not reinforced decrease through extinction

Guidelines for shaping

• Define the target behavior

• Determine whether shaping is the most appropriate procedure

• Identify the starting behavior

• Choose the shaping steps

• Choose the Reinforcer

• Differentially reinforce successive approximations

• Move through the shaping steps at proper pace