Preview

Appying Operant Conditioning to Ones Life Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
702 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Appying Operant Conditioning to Ones Life Essay Example
johnny Cash
Professor Nuts
Psychology 140
26 October 2012
Applying Operant Conditioning To Ones life

Operant Conditioning can easily be applied to our everyday lives. “It is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.” (Myers 236) When we observe our environment and the people with-in it, we will be able to understand and comprehend actions duly. We are also able to discern the consequences of our actions.
An everyday situation which operant conditioning can be used in is parenting. When parenting, one looks for many outlets to help them raise and discipline their child. Therefore, implementing operant conditioning cannot only be helpful but rewarding. The many factors of operant conditioning such as positive and negative reinforcement can be useful.
First, positive reinforcement can be useful. “Positive reinforcement is adding a desirable stimulus.” (Myers 238) Therefore, one should provide the child with a positive stimulus. For example, every time the child shows a positive behavior you can reward them with a cookie. You can also acknowledge them for doing something good by giving them high five.
Second, negative reinforcement is very effective. Negative reinforcement is removing an aversive stimulus. (Myers 238) This helps strengthen the behavior because a negative condition is stopped. Sometimes, this can be ineffective. Implementing this may be hurtful when disciplining a child. An example is, if the child is whining and crying a lot, the parent might give them candy to stop this. Therefore, the child is not learning from their mistakes because they are being rewarded for it.
Also, positive punishment is very helpful when parenting. “Positive punishment is administering an aversive stimulus.” (Myers 242) So, using this is very effective. When the child does something they shouldn’t do, this can be implemented. For example, receiving a time out from privileges. By doing

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    OTL 502

    • 1904 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The philosophy of operant conditioning has been demonstrated in many experiments using different types of species such as animals and humans. Operant conditioning refers to the process of reinforcing a response that is made in the company of a stimulus. In today’s life we are pulled and pushed by many events in our environment. We sometimes just don’t act to a stimulus, we also conduct ourselves in ways that seem designed to create or get certain environmental changes or stimuli. Most of the days in our lives seem to demonstrate this type of behavior. However this article was restricted to work with animals.…

    • 1904 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Children’s Authority believes that promoting positive behaviour is more productive in behaviour management than the use of physical or verbal punishment for challenging behaviours. The use of praise, positive feedback to children, incentive and reward schemes are all integral to promoting positive behaviour. Praise and positive feedback could be given in many ways. These may include the following: o A quiet word or encouraging smile.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When supporting positive behaviour there is lots of different approaches, most practitioners find they need to draw on several of these reinforcing positive behaviour; this approach is well known and focuses on praising children and young people when they have shown positive behaviour so they will be more likely to repeat this behaviour. modelling; this approach is extremely important as children and young people learn some of their behaviour from others so it is important to role model good behaviour which includes being polite, being patience and showing consideration for others.…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    An example of operant conditioning is negative reinforcement, such as, a teacher excuses a student from the final test if they have perfect attendance. The teacher is taking away something unpleasant to increase behavior. Another example of operant conditioning is positive reinforcement where you have a job and receive a paycheck for the work you did. Finally, when these learning theories are applied, we see how behaviors change with positive and negative…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Operant conditioning is a type of learning in psychology, where behavior is controlled by negative or positive punishment. Main concepts in operant conditioning are: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Operant conditioning, also known as instrumental conditioning, is a form of learning that utilizes a specific stimulus to result a voluntary response from the subject. 278 The only difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning is the type of response. Both forms of conditioning has a stimulus that produces a response, however, unlike operant conditioning, classical conditioning produces an involuntary response to an unconditioned stimulus 281.Within operant conditioning, there is reinforcement. To put it in simple terms reinforcement is a reward 281. The reinforcement is there to increase the chances for an specific action to be repeated each time the certain stimulus is provided. However, reinforcement can also be utilized…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although by using positive reinforcement in rewarding children could be beneficial to the child’s growth, It also should be avoided in the long-term due to the negative consequences. When children are trying to learn something new, could be difficult to remember at first, or it could be that they are just not interested enough to want to learn. If children knew that in doing something their parents asked would get them candy they would try to complete the task in order for them to receive more rewards. When teaching most children how to read, for the first time, they seem to have a lack of interest, but when offering a piece of candy might motivate the child to want to read. “Do not use rewards unless you have to, use rewards for specific…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Spanking Research Paper

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Some also try rewarding their kids for good behavior. “When a child is verbally corrected, apart from the use of any other form of punishment, the result is almost always a disaster. The child quickly learns that you are all talk and no action. A child then learns that the tongue lashing is that, just a voice. Therefore they learn how to tune you out.” (usingspakingdiscipline.com). Rewarding children for good behavior teaches them that they should only be good to get something out of it. They need to learn that they can do good deeds for the purpose of being a good person, not to get a reward. Children may also learn to behave badly to get a reward. Grounding your kids usually never work. Most parents ground their kids and forget that they have an electronic world inside their bedrooms. Sure they’d love to sit in their room all week and play their video games and play on the computer. Grounding will not work unless parents take away all…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Operant conditioning, although similar to classical conditioning, has many different aspects. Operant conditioning is another behavioral training technique that was coined by B.F Skinner. Operant conditioning basically states that behavior is influenced by the consequences that follow. Seems simple, right? That’s because it is. Operant conditioning applies to many aspects of our everyday life even without our knowledge. For instance, we’re in class and a teacher asks a question. You answer it and happen to get it right. The teacher then gives you 5 points extra credit as a reward. That’s going to make you want to answer more questions correctly, right? That’s exactly what operant conditioning is based upon. This helps us better understand human behavior because it tells us…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    An example of operant conditioning is when my puppy met the other dog that is outside. At first, the puppy was not scared but as soon as the dog barked at him, he ran in fear and is afraid to get around the other dog because he is so much bigger than him. Knowing…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the likelihood of a specific behavior increases or decreases through positive or negative reinforcement or punishment each time the behavior occurs (Palmer, 2004). Reinforcement empowers the response or behavior, and increases the chances of it repeating. Punishment reduces the response or behavior, and decreases the chances of it repeating. In operant conditioning this behavior is active and voluntary (Carpenter & Huffman, 2010).…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. Avoidance: With avoidance the risk of the negative reinforcement is taken away making it more likely a behavior will take place. An example of avoidance would be when a parent asks a child to wash the dishes and she does it to prevent being grounded.…

    • 845 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Operant Conditioning is a process of behavior modification in which the likelihood of a specific behavior increased or decreased through positive or negative reinforcement each time the behavior is exhibited, so that the subject comes to associate the pleasure or displeasure of the reinforcement. An early theory of operant conditioning was proposed my Edward Thornlike, he used instrumental learning because the response is instrumental when receiving the reward, another name is S-R learning (Stimulus S, has been paired with response R). A device called an operant box also called a Skinner Box was designed by B.F Skinner.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ho Operant Parenting

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    When you were a child and did well on a chore, did your parent(s) ever reward that behavior with a treat? If you ever disobeyed your teacher’s instructions, did the teacher reprimand you? Most likely, you answered yes to both of these examples; each of which is an example of operant conditioning. This form of conditioning is a method I did not realize was a form of learning; I mistook it for a form of reinforcement. Nonetheless, operant conditioning most accurately represents my parenting methods. Which, when I compare this conditioning method to other parents, I see them demonstrating this type of conditioning as their form of parenting as well. It leads a person to wonder if these individuals, like myself, are mistaking their parenting styles as positive or negative reinforcement when it is, in fact, operant…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many theories as to how to reinforce or change behavior. This paper will compare two of the theories, and will discuss which one is better. According to Skinner, one way of reinforcing behavior is through operant conditioning. In this type of reinforcement, a positive or negative stimulus is introduced in the environment to a given response to reinforce the action. For example, if a child cleans his room, he is given his allowance; otherwise the parents confiscate his allowance. There are four factors that will affect operant conditioning – satiation, immediacy, consistency and size. (Coon, Talbot, & Vanchella, 2010, pp. 226)…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays