Individual Behaviour
What you must understand
This domain examines why individuals act as they do and how behaviour is measured, explained and modified. You must understand the behaviourist tradition - classical conditioning (Pavlov: neutral stimulus, unconditioned and conditioned responses, extinction, spontaneous recovery) and operant conditioning (Skinner: reinforcement, punishment, schedules of reinforcement, shaping). Contrast this with social cognitive theory (Bandura: observational learning, vicarious reinforcement, self-efficacy) and with biological and cognitive explanations of behaviour. You should know the biopsychosocial model and be able to apply it to a behaviour such as sleep, aggression or health behaviour. Understand motivation (intrinsic versus extrinsic), stress and coping (Lazarus's appraisal model, problem-focused versus emotion-focused coping), and the principles of behaviour modification. Know how observational and self-report methods are used and their limitations.
Traps in questions
A frequent error is calling negative reinforcement a punishment: negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus to increase a behaviour, whereas punishment decreases it. Positive and negative refer to adding or removing a stimulus, not to good or bad. Students also conflate classical and operant conditioning - the first is about stimulus association and involuntary responses, the second about consequences shaping voluntary behaviour. Do not describe Bandura's findings as showing that media violence causes aggression; the studies showed observational learning of specific acts under particular conditions. When evaluating self-report, name social desirability and recall bias.
Rule of thumb
For any behaviour, run the ABC check: Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence. Then ask which level of the biopsychosocial model each element belongs to.
Worked example: A student studies hard to avoid parental criticism. The criticism is removed after studying, so studying increases - this is negative reinforcement, not punishment.