Operant Conditioning

908 words - 4 pages

A man named Edward Thorndike spent many years observing and studying animals and their behavior. In one experiment he used something he called puzzle-boxes, and would continuously view cats trying and successfully escaping the boxes (Wikipedia.com, 2006). He observed that at first the cats took a while to escape, but as the number of attempts increased the frequency of a successful escapes were greater (Wikipedia.com, 2006). From this he put together the law of effect, theorizing that the consequence of the behavior will determine whether the same behavior is strengthened or weakened (Wood, Wood, Boyd, 2006).B. F. Skinner was the one who took and built upon Thorndike?s theories and for ...view middle of the document...

? Operant is simply a voluntary behavior. We as humans have very complex brains which allows us to learn and understand brand new things, ideas, concepts, etc. on a daily basis. Young children are constantly learning and they learn by doing and waiting for the response. If the response is pleasing to them there is a good chance they will do it again, and if the response is bad then the will think twice before doing it. Even adults use this when come across something that is unfamiliar. Although with adults it seems like there is a better chance the action or behavior will not happen again if the response is unpleasant, possibly because they also have other similar experiences to relate it to.We as humans are also creatures of habit. We do things over and over in our lives, like going to the same restaurant, because we are pleased with the outcome of past visits. We feel comfortable that the outcome will be the same. Humans like feeling comfortable and that seems to be why we develop habits, basically through operant conditioning. Operant conditioning can also help to develop bad habits and behaviors though. An example of this would be a child crying and throwing a fit about getting a toy every time at the store and since the parent gives in every once in awhile to shut the kid up. The parent in this situation is positively reinforcing the bad behavior of the child.I think operant conditioning does play a role in everyone?s response and behavior, although I don?t think it is the only conc...

KEEP READING

Psychology Behaviourist Approach - A-level - Informational

911 words - 4 pages ... inherited factors. This amounts essentially to a focus on learning. We learn new behaviour through classical or operant conditioning (collectively known as 'learning theory').Therefore, when born our mind is 'tabula rasa' (a blank slate). Classical conditioning Classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behaviour via the process of association. In simple terms two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person ...

Basic Concepts Of Sensation And Perception - Psychology - Homework Assignment

483 words - 2 pages ... . Associative learning: Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning). A stimulus is an event or situation that evokes a response. Cognitive learning: The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language. Classical conditioning: Type of learning in which one learns ...

Intro To Psychology Essay Topic - Intro To Psyc - Essay

502 words - 3 pages ... example of Classical Conditioning can also relate closely to Operant Conditioning. Operant Conditioning is when you have a type of behavior or constantly do something and because of this action it has a consequence that has a a affect on your old habit. For instant my behavior was playing on the basement stairs even though my dad told me to stop. My consequence from my actions lead him to scare me by telling me that the boogie man was going to eat me while playfully pushing me down the stairs. This consequence lead me to be scared of the stairs and I stopped playing on them. This is considered the change in my behavior. ...

Talks A Little About The Assignment - Strayer - Essay

855 words - 4 pages ... improve? When you start aging your vocabulary is not going to be the same when you were younger sometimes at that age you will need some help remembering how to spell ce3rtain words or etc. it does take older people a long time to remember things. At that age you just got to keep practicing and practicing your vocabulary after a while it will get better over time. Section 3. In chapter 6, we learn about operant conditioning. Describe operant ...

Habituation Effects On Studying - Cognitive Psychology - Research

588 words - 3 pages ... Anisha Sandhu Question: How may habituation, classical and operant conditioning adversely affect the development of good study habits? Propose a set of ideas that may make studying more effective, showing clearly the theoretical basis for expecting each idea to become effective. Habituation itself is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated viewings/presentations. E.G. at first, a new ringtone will grab your attention however overtime ...

Outline And Evaluate The Behavioural Approach To Treating Phobias - A Level Psychology - Essay

530 words - 3 pages Free ... Arusha Ezaz Rahman Emily Browne 6 March 2018 Outline and evaluate the behavioural approach to treating phobia A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something, which according to the behavioural approach, can be caused by the social learning theory, classical conditioning or even operant conditioning. Phobias cause significant problems in a persons life and it may hamper their ability to cope with the demands of everyday ...

Psychotherapy Used In 'A Clockwork Orange' - VCU PSYC 101 - Essay

713 words - 3 pages ... Diego Mcfail 4/8/19 Psychotherapy essay PSYC 101 Doctor Jeff Green Psychotherapy in A Clockwork Orange I analyzed the movie, A Clockwork Orange, to show an example of psychotherapy in film. The movie follows Alex DeLarge. A young man who is frequently participating in devious crimes such as rape and violence. The movie specifically focuses on behavior therapy which is the application of classical and operant conditioning to fix a behavior ...

Models Of Behavior And Principles Of Learning

1839 words - 8 pages ... lecturer delivers self-made notes to the students; thus, it is very accurate to measure the grade differences with the minimum error.2. Discuss how classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning could all play a role in the acquisition of hostility or prejudicial attitudes. Provide examples.As for classical conditioning, it consists of unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned ...

B.F. Skinner

1906 words - 8 pages ... the existing equipment; they have come to be known as Skinner boxes. He came up with the term operant behavior when he noticed that the rats would press the bar based on the following stimulus, and not the preceding stimulus like Watson thought. Skinner then came up with operant conditioning, which states that behavior can be controlled by manipulating punishments and rewards in the environment. (Pervin, Cervone, and John, 2005) He innovated his ...

Introduction To The Science Of Psychology - Introduction To Psychology - Assignment

645 words - 3 pages Free ... by the expectations of society and inner desires (sexual and aggressive impulses). · Behavioral: mainly developed by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). He made a really famous experiment with a dog, which salivated in response to a stimulus or events in the environment; this was known as classical conditioning. Later on, B. F skinner studied the relationship between behaviors and their consequences, this is called operant conditioning, where a certain ...

Psychological Theory- Behaviourism

2015 words - 9 pages ... facial expressions, a shaky voice, hand tremors or muscle spasms and jumpiness are common behavioural responses to stress. (Grivas 2004, p.152)Behaviour ModificationBehaviour modification involves the systematic application of learning principles to 'modify', or change, a person's 'behaviour', especially problem behaviour. Various therapies that are based on operant (and classical) conditioning principles are usually grouped under the label of ...

Why Apes Have The Ability To Communicate - Linguistics - Essay

1079 words - 5 pages ... express meaning, thoughts and ideas. It was stated that there was nothing that Nim could be taught that could not equally well be taught to a pigeon using operant conditioning. Rowe and Levine (2016, p.18) “Terrace added more criticism on ape-language that is being studied, that Nim’s utterance did not increase over time. Terrace added more criticisms on the ape-language studies that: 1. Nim’s utterance did not increase in length over time. 2 ...

History And Methods AP Psychology - Essay - Essay

1452 words - 6 pages ... processes in behavior, rather than the content of behavior, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts Eclecticism – the process of making your own system by borrowing from two or more other systems. Neurobiological approach (medical)- viewing behavior as the result of nervous system functions and biology Behavioral approach –view behavior as the product of learning and associations B. F. Skinner- behaviorist, operant conditioning Humanistic ...

Origins Of Psychology And Research Methods Worksheet

1550 words - 7 pages ... behaviorist, B.F Skinner, believed in the concept of "operant conditioning", which demonstrated the effect of punishment and reinforcement on behavior. For instance, He claimed that if a behavior is reinforced, it increases the chances of that behavior to be repeated. Similarly, if a behavior is followed with punishment, the chances of that behavior to repeat itself diminish.Humanist: The two major figures of the humanistic perspective are Carl ...

Infancy Development, A Timeline Of What's To Come - Georgian Court, PS221 - Research Paper

2270 words - 10 pages ... out that this child is bottle-fed with formula, and at 6 months old was introduced to solids by means of baby-led weaning. Baby-led weaning is a form of feeding that bypasses purees and the child just starts to eat what any adult would eat. Infants learn through classical and operant conditioning, as well as observation. Many parents classically condition their children to stop crying at the sight of a breast or a bottle. Parents also often do ...

Operant Conditioning

More like Assignment On Operant Conditioning