In this paper I will look at the behaviorists Pavlov and Skinner, and explore their theories in behaviorism and conditioning. I will discuss the contrasting theories of classical and operant conditioning, their similarities and differences in principals. In looking at these two strategies I have attempted to apply these historical concepts or theories to the current educational setting specifically to the severely autistic preschool population.
Classical conditioning was a theory developed by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Pavlov came from a small village in Russian named Ryazan. In his early education he studied theology, after discovering Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species his focused changed. Pavlov devoted his time and effort to the study
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He became the chairman of the Department of Psychology at Indiana University before joining the Psychology department at Harvard in 1948. He is known for developing the theory of behaviorism and his many writings on the subject. His research into the learning process lead to the development of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is when an individual makes an association between a specific behavior and a specific consequence. This process uses positive and negative reinforcement through behavior modification. Skinner had the view that even though there are many things going through our minds it is more productive for us to study a person's observable behavior. He believed that classical conditioning was much to simple of an approach. Skinner thought that we could understand behavior by studying the root causes of actions and their consequences. The idea is that a behavior that is followed up by unwanted consequences is not likely to be repeated. The opposite of that is that behavior that is reinforced is likely to be repeated. Reinforcement was a new concept that Skinner brought onto the scene. Operant conditioning may be used to control behavior using negative and positive …show more content…
A neutral operant is a response from the environment that does not increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. A reinforcer is a response (positive or negative) from an environment that will increase the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. A punisher is a response from the environment that would decrease the odds of a behavior being repeated. An example that comes to mind immediately is ditching high school. When I left school and had a good time, I was accepted by a group of friends that I was looking for acceptance from so my environment reinforced me, and I did in fact repeat the behavior. However when I was caught and I faced a punisher in my environment I did not repeat the behavior again. That is a very basic