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Operant Conditioning Paper

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Operant conditioning, which some may also refer to as “instrumental conditioning”; is a theory that emphasizes on how learning is a result of rewards and punishments as consequences for certain behavior. Operant conditioning shines a light on the relationship between an individual’s behavior and its consequences. The famous behaviorist, B.F Skinner (1904 –1990), was the first to emerge with the operant conditioning theory, which is why some people still refer to it as “Skinnerian conditioning”. This paper will help shine a light on operant conditioning, explaining it elaborately, and exploring it a bit further with the hopeful results of gaining a better understanding of this timeless theory. Unlike what some people may believe, Skinner was …show more content…

On the other hand, negative reinforcement is the removal of a negative, intervening variable between emitted behavior and a response which makes the future likelihood of that response increase (Hergenhahn &Olson, 2009). To further elaborate, giving food to an animal after a certain behavior is probably going to result in the repetition of that specific behavior in order to receive the positive reinforcement (food); that said, the removal of an already existing positive reinforcement, such as regularly scheduled food, light, etc., will probably end up in demolishing the undesired behavior. In order to determine which, form of reinforcement is the most effective; one has to have a good understanding of both methods, along with their consequences. Negative reinforcement emphasizes on the elimination of an aversion in order to be affective, which would mean that the form of punishment (negative reinforcement) is crucial to be used in order to construct a situation where the negative reinforce is able to be moved. That said, punishment doesn’t happen without certain possible consequences; lack of motivation, emotional distress, aggression, etc. are all possible downfalls to this method. So …show more content…

In my personal opinion, I do not believe that punishment ends with good results, even though it might work with others, it never worked with me. Punishments such as spanking, only end up with the child being scared and filled with fear; instead of what was intended, which is to shape their behavior; however, I do believe that negative reinforcement works like magic. In conclusion; B.F Skinner introduced the world to what was then a whole new theory and method of shaping one’s personality. The theory of operant conditioning, just like any other theory, is naturally faced with those who disagree with it; some may think that all a person needs to shape their behavior is their intentions and thoughts. That said, there is no doubt that Skinner’s contributions to the field of Psychology have been immense, and that until this very day, they are used in our everyday

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In chapter 7, I found the concept of punishment to be most intriguing. Punishment is a part of operant conditioning which was theorized by B.F. Skinner. Punishment is often confused with negative reinforcement. However, the main difference between the two is: while the goal of reinforcement is to increase the likelihood of a behavior, the primary goal of punishment is to reduce the chances of the behavior it follows. In 1938, Skinner concluded that punishment produces only temporary suppression of behavior but later research found that effects may be permanent.

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Skinner devised the theory of operant conditioning. Operant Conditioning is defined as an important form of learning “in which a learner’s behavior becomes either more or less predictable depending on the consequences it produces” (Singleman & Rider, 2018, p. 42). To better explain, this theory plays out when a learner behaves in a certain way and associates that behavior with either the positive or negative consequences that follow. The idea is that humans tend to continue behaviors that have positive consequences and extinguish those that have negative consequences. Regina George shows exactly how this theory plays out by using positive and negative reinforcement within her friend group to condition them in behaving how she wants them

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"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men." George Patton his whole life aspired to be a soldier. Born on November 11, 1885 in San Gabriel California, you would never have expected him to become anything special, but he did. George Smith Patton Jr became one of the first tank commanders during world war 1 and then latter he was promoted to a general during world war 2 commanding troops in North Africa, Sicily, France and Germany. Many people might not think that being a soldier and general in two of the bloodiest wars in history would make you a American hero but if George Patton was not there to serve our country as an amazing general and tactician our life's could have been drastically different and a lot more life's

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Through The Psychologist Eye In Lauren Slater’s book, “Opening Skinner’s Box,” we discover in the first three chapters the mysteries behind a few psychological experiments and the discoveries that three profound psychologists have made. Each chapter is about a different psychologist, the first is B.F. Skinner; a behaviorist who designed a process of learning in which behavior is controlled, he called this operant conditioning. Lauren Slater wanted people to know about his experiment, she read his books, talked to friends and family members to unearth the features behind this man. She found that he was a loving father, who could train animals to do unordinary things, like play the piano for an example, through the processes of operant conditioning,

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Skinners experiment was based on operant conditioning, using the concept of discrimination learning, he carried out experiments on animals with the idea that their behaviour is predetermined by their environment and using a well controlled environment would allow him to in turn control their behaviours using a range of triggers. Using reinforcement and expectancy, the animal associates acting out certain behaviours with rewards. (Toates, F., 2010, pp. 165-167) After performing a number of experiments on rats using mazes, he subsequently designed the Skinner box.

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Nevertheless, Skinner points out that children learn nothing from the punishment. Instead, they may start to work out how to avoid it (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Another concept is classical conditioning (classical behaviorism) that emphasizes on the relation between stimuli and response. This concept embodies in a famous experiment, in which the food is presented to the dog when the bell rings, and the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus for the dog (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Likewise, if children receive toys in the condition that they behave well, then they will probably repeat this behavior to get the toys.

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A positive punishment would be the coach making me do shuttle runs to improve my stamina when trying to take the ball from an opponent after I had lost it or when the player has lost the ball I can assist in getting the ball back with stamina. The negative punishment would be would be if we as a team lose a match the coach makes us run endless laps and it would effectively stop us from losing any more matches. To summarize reinforcement elicits a positive response and a punishment elicits a negative

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In this case, reinforcement is referring to having an increase in behavior and regarding to punishment its defined to decrease a behavior. The reinforcement and punishment can consist of being positive and or negative. In operant conditioning, the most effective method to utilize is positive reinforcement, which is beneficial for the change of one’s behavior. Positive Reinforcement

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Link to reality: Both Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning and Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning can be used every day in an ECCE setting. Today many school systems and childhood authorities follow Skinner’s and Pavlov’s theory by using the approach of positive reinforcement. This encourages good behaviour in the child making the behaviour more likely to be repeated again as they are rewarded and praised for their efforts in reading, writing and general learning. It is important that children’s efforts in a learning setting are rewarded as this will encourage the child to perform to the best of their ability.

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Then, it was B.F. Skinner who made the concept became popular and well-known throughout the world and even pinned the name of operant conditioning to this concept That is why, he is called the Father of Operant Conditioning and his famous experiment, the Skinner Box. Operant conditioning determinants’ are reinforce, nature response and time interval between response and reinforcement. On the other hand, classical conditioning is a learning way that connects between two stimuli which produce natural response. It measures one stimulus that

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1. B.F. Skinner: Behaviour modification Positive and negative reinforcements or rewards and punishments are used to modify or shape learner’s behaviour. B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of "operating" on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around its world, doing what it does. During this "operating," the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer.

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