Operant Conditioning

In 1937 B.F. Skinner created the term operant conditioning in perspective to the impulse of bodily processes (behavior), to distinguish his interest in behavior opposed to Ivan Pavlov theory.  Skinner defined operant behavior as “behavior controlled by its consequences” (Staddon & Cerutti, 2003).  In a more simplistic approach operant conditioning also known as instrumental conditioning is a form of learning that happens when rewards and punishments are the end result of certain behaviors.  “Through operant conditioning an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for the behavior’ (Psychology, 2013). 

B.F. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning was established in response to Edward Thorndike’s studying learning by using animals in a puzzle box to develop his theory that is known as the “Law of Effect”.  B.F. Skinner believed that in order to understand an individual’s behavior one must first discover what created the behavior and what were the consequences.

Behavior and consequences are the highlights of operant conditioning; “with operant conditioning, the organism must respond in such a way as to produce the reinforcing stimulus” (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2013 p.75).  The main beliefs of operant conditioning relate to different situations.  In order to change an individual’s behavior, one simply has to figure out what could be used to reinforce an individual whom behavior they wish to change, wait until they display that behavior, and then use the reinforcement on the individual.  This method has to be repeated several times for an individual to understand whether or not they should be performing such behaviors.

Reinforcement is the main objective in operant conditioning because it can either increase or decrease the behavior in question.  Positive reinforcement is rewards given when an individual displays a particular behavior.  An example of a positive reinforcement is when children do well on their assignments in school and the teacher praise them with stickers on their papers and encouraging words.  This type of positive reinforcement encourages children to continue to do well on their assignments which results in them focusing more on their school work and studying.  A negative reinforcement is a punishment given when the behavior displayed is considered to be unacceptable. An example of a negative reinforcement is detention for children who did not complete their homework or classwork assignments.  Detention could be at recess or lunch time where the children would not be able to interact with their peers or it could be afterschool resulting in the caregivers having to pick them up because they miss the school bus or for kids that walk home with their friends they have to walk home by themselves getting home later than normal and missing interaction with their peers.  This negative reinforcement might encourage children to complete the necessary assignments so they do not miss out on the interaction they have with their peers. 

Positive and negative reinforcement can be equally effective depending on the individual.  There are some people who live their lives seeking approval from everyone so they are always performing behaviors that they expect to result in some type of reward.  Negative reinforcement work well during the early childhood and adolescence stages when caregivers are teaching children right from wrong.  When a child performs an unacceptable behavior they are punished and they learn not do whatever it was that resulted in them being punished.  The difference between right and wrong behaviors are established early on in life, so once adulthood is reached negative reinforcement may be the only effective reinforcement to deter individual’s from performing certain behaviors.

Operant conditioning is a method I use in my household with my children, especially with my son whom plays football.  My teenage son really enjoys football so much that he neglects his household chores as well as his schoolwork.  During the summer in order for him to participate in football he had to complete all of his household chores each day before 5:00pm or he could not attend practice.  Now that school is back in session, the coaches require him to maintain passing grades to participate.  This has been effective with him because he really enjoys football, so he makes sure that his chores are done as well as his school assignments.

In order for me to make sure that my son does what he is supposed to do for him to participate in football I posted a chore schedule on the refrigerator as well as a homework schedule.  Each day that the said task is completed he receives a star and is allowed to go to football practice and at the end of the month he receives a certain amount of allowance depending on the amount of stars he received.  This system seems to be working very well because he enjoys football and money but there are some days when he does not feel like doing anything and on those days I do not allow him to attend practice and he does not receive stars which reduces the amount of money he will receive at the end of the month.

In conclusion, the theory of operant conditioning was developed to modify an individual’s behavior through positive and negative reinforcements in their environment.  I believe that positive and negative reinforcements are equally effective during early childhood and adolescence stages because that is a critical time of learning what behaviors are right or wrong.  As an individual moves into adulthood they have already experienced those stages where they learned from right from wrong so negative reinforcements may be more effective in teaching them that certain behaviors are unacceptable.

  

References

Irons, J., & Buskist, W. (2008). Operant conditioning. 21st century psychology: A reference handbook, I-329-I-340. doi:10.4135/9781412956321.n36

Olson, M. H., & Hergenhahn, B. R. (2013). An introduction to theories of learning (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Psychology. (2013). Introduction to operant conditioning. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm

Staddon, J., & Cerutti, D. (2003). Operant Conditioning. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(115),