Assignment: Operant conditioning Paper – genius homework essays

Assignment: Operant conditioning Paper

Assignment: Operant conditioning Paper

Operant conditioning is predicated on emitted behavior or operant behavior, whereas, behavior that is elicited by a known stimulus is referred to as respondent behavior (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2005). The basic idea behind operant conditioning is that when naturally occurring behavior is emitted reinforcement can increase the future occurrence of that behavior. Also through the use of cutting stimuli, discriminate Operants can be created that then become secondary reinforcers. With continued pairings of reinforcement, a discriminated operant can become a generalized reinforce. Conversely, if reinforcement is withheld, then extinction occurs. Extinction is the cessation of the reinforcement of an operant that leads to before-conditioning response levels for the operant in question. Furthermore, operant conditioning can be broken up into three basic components or processes: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment. Positive reinforcement is best explained as the addition reinforce that increases the likelihood of a response. Negative reinforcement is the withholding of reinforces that leads to the future likelihood of a certain response. Punishment is either the withholding of something positive or the addition of something negative that leads to the future deprivation of a response.

Raising children is a tough responsibility. A parent’s main goal is to keep their children healthy, safe and by making sure that their children will be productive members of a society. Every parent has their own way of accomplishing this goal, which for me, I myself attempt to reach this goal by using different methods of operant conditioning. I personally tried all of the operant conditioning methods mainly because I was trying to find the most successful method for behavior modification with my own son.

Positive reinforcement was one of the methods that I used when my son was younger. When my son stood up for the first time and tried to walk, we clapped and smiled and cheered him on each time he tried to take a step. It was easy to see at that age how the positive reinforcement method of operant conditioning is very successful in behavior modification.

On the other hand is the punishment method. I seem to utilize this more and more as my son gets older. I get varied results from this method, but it seems to be the most popular method used by my peers in modifying behavior in this age group. Every Friday we get to go to Grandma’s house for the weekend ever since my son was born. If my son gets in trouble at school that week, he does not get to go to grandma’s house that weekend. We remove the privilege. This method is not as successful for me as others and I think it is because it is not continuous reinforcement.

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We all want our children to behave perfectly or at least on an acceptable level. Each parent has his or her own way of trying to accomplish this goal. The majority of the time they attempt to reach their goal is by using different methods of operant conditioning based on their own style. Every child and parent are different and what works to modify a child’s behavior in one family may not work in another. I think we all would like to say that we only use positive reinforcement, it works all the time and our child’s life is all sunshine and flowers. Most of us have had to use the less pleasant methods, from taking away things using negative punishment to possible spanking using positive punishment. The most important ingredient is that you have your child’s best interest at heart, if you do, then you will continue to try methods to change their behavior and make them well-adjusted kids and someday adults.

Edward Thorndike (1874-1949), an early twentieth-century psychologist, was the first to formulate what he referred to as the Law of Effect. The Law of Effect, simply stated, proposed that any behavior that resulted in pleasant consequences would tend to be repeated, while any behavior that resulted in unpleasant consequences would not. Thorndike later discovered what he termed Spread of Effect. Not only would any behavior that resulted in pleasant consequences be repeated, but also any responses surrounding the reinforced one (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2005, 69).

Building on the earlier work of Thorndike, B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) began to elaborate and extend Thorndike’s ideas on learned behavior. Skinner differentiated between what he termed respondent (or reflexive) behavior and learned (or operant) behavior. Operant behavior could be characterized by “the observable effects it has on the environment. Operant conditioning, therefore, is learning in which the probability of a response is changed by a chance in its environment (Psychology Matters, n.d.).”

Building on Thorndike’s early learning theories, B.F. Skinner investigated and expanded on the concept of operant learning and operant behavior. Operant conditioning is a form of learning whereby non-reflexive behavior is learned through a pairing of stimulus-response associations. Through a series of both positive and negative reinforcement and punishment, an individual learns to associate a specific response to an environmental cue. Reinforcement schedules, which determine the frequency of reinforcement, are key to either reinforcing or extinguishing a behavior.

 

Reference:

Hergenhahn, B. R., & Olson, M. H. (2005). An Introduction to the Theories of Learning (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson /Prentice Hall.

 

Psychology Matters (n.d.). Retrieved February 24, 2016, from http://www.psychologymatters.org/glossary.html

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