Find over 25,000 psychological definitions


vicarious reinforcement

the process whereby a person becomes more likely to engage in a particular behavior (response) by observing another individual being reinforced for that behavior. An important concept in social learning theory, vicarious reinforcement often leads to imitation: for example, a student who hears the teacher praise a classmate for neat penmanship on an assignment and who then carefully handwrites his or her own assignment is considered to have received vicarious reinforcement. See also observational learning.

Browse dictionary by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Psychology term of the day

March 29th 2024

oral personality

oral personality

in classical psychoanalytic theory, a pattern of personality traits derived from fixation at the oral stage of psychosexual development. If the individual has experienced sufficient sucking satisfaction and adequate attention from the mother during the oral-sucking phase, he or she is posited to develop an oral-receptive personality marked by friendliness, optimism, generosity, and tolerance of dependency on others, allowing the individual to move on to late stages of psychosexual development. If the individual does not get enough satisfaction during the sucking and biting phases (see oral-biting phase), he or she is posited to develop an oral-aggressive personality marked by tendencies to be hostile, critical, envious, and exploitative. Also called oral character. [identified by German psychoanalyst Karl Abraham (1877–1925)]