Operant Conditioning Papers

Operant conditioning is an important process that affects the way humans behave. Operant conditioning is one of those things that happens, but you just don’t know the name of it. According to Myers and DeWall, “In operant conditioning, organisms associate their own actions with consequences. Actions followed by reinforcers increase; those followed by punishments often decrease”(p.290). Which means that operant conditioning is the relationship between your behavior, and the consequences that come from it. The process of operant behavior happens throughout our whole lifetime. This process is extremely important when disciplining our children because to shape a child into behaving good we have to show them the consequences of good behavior. “In

A child starts to learn from the moment they are born. Our brains never stop processing the events happening around us. Since children are constantly processing everything going on around them, parents have to be careful what they do and say around and to their children. Parents have to chose how to behave in front of their kids because whatever they do affects them. Physical punishment is a positive punishment in the operant conditioning process. Physical punishment is ineffective in the operant conditioning process because your child will learn the act of hitting when he or she doesn’t get their way. “First, physical punishment generly, and spanking specifically, are ineffective at improving children’s behavior and, in fact, lead to a worsening of it over time”(Gershoff, Lee & Durrant, 2017, p.1). For example, if they are acting out because they don’t want to take a shower, so you spank them. In that moment they learn, when I say no they hit me. They will reciprocate the same action towards you. If they ask to go to McDonald’s and you say no, they will want to hit and probably hit you because you said no. Any parent will be mad when their child hits them, but the actions children do are learned from people at home, usually their parents. So the person to blame in these types of situations are the parents. Physical punishment has a negative impact on children's lives. “Setting a good example for problem solving helps children develop problem solving skills” (Ballantine, 2001). Parents are the primary examples that children have. If parents set a bad example for the child, then the possibility of the child behaving this way is high. “Corporal punishment may succeed in temporarily controlling a child's behaviors. The trouble is, the children may suffer from low self-esteem and depression, become overly aggressive, and exhibit antisocial behavior later as a result”(Mitchell,