Final answer:
The teacher is using 'mentalism' by attributing the student's behavior of running away to an internal state of anxiety. Mentalism encompasses internal states as explanations for behavior, which are contrasted with observable behaviors like those modified through classical or cognitive learning demonstrated in experiments such as Little Albert or maze learning in rats.
Step-by-step explanation:
The teacher's explanation that the student runs away because she gets anxious when seeing new people is an example of mentalism. Mentalism refers to an approach within behavioral science that focuses on internal states, such as thoughts, feelings, and motives, as explanations for behavior, which are not directly observable. In the provided scenarios, various types of learning and conditioning are touched upon. From cognitive learning, as seen in the rats learning to navigate a maze, to classical conditioning demonstrated in the Little Albert experiment, where emotional responses are conditioned through association, these examples all delve into the multifaceted nature of behavior and learning.
When considering anxiety in response to unfamiliar people, as described by Piaget, it's a form of behavior resulting from the inability to assimilate the unfamiliar person into an existing schema, often observed in children as stranger anxiety. This anxiety can lead to behaviors such as elopement or escape, much like the student mentioned at the beginning, or various coping styles as suggested by Horney, like moving away from people. These coping styles are developed to manage unconscious anxiety stemming from unmet needs during childhood. Such insights into behavior and the mind's workings are central to understanding the dynamics of learning and the development of phobias and attachment styles.