Strengths And Weaknesses Of Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning Theory by B.F. Skinner is a psychological manipulation using rewards and punishments to enforce positive behavior. It uses an individual person’s response to events or stimulus. When a particular Stimulus-Response pattern is rewarded, the individual is conditioned to respond. The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning is related to previous forms of behaviorism. The Operant Conditioning theory comprises of neutral operants, positive/negative reinforcers, and positive/negative punishers. Through these factors, we get the desired behavior of our subject because they do not want to be punished for under performing so they do what they’re told to or do more of what they were assigned to to receive positive stimulus

Classical conditioning is often associated with physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with the salivating dog (Hutchinson, 2015). This experiment focused on conditioning the dog to associate food with the bell while salivating, and eventually salivates when the bell is rung even without the presence of food. Operant conditioning theory is changed behavior as the result of a reinforcement (Hutchinson, 2015). In our society, we associate positive reinforcements with compliments, smiles, high-fives in order to encourage a behavior more. Negative reinforcement involves jail, detention, and grounding, and this is to stop a behavior from continuing. A cognitive social learning theory states that behavior can be learned through observations, beliefs, expectations, and imitation of others (Hutchinson, 2015). A major difference between cognitive social learning theory and the others, is a lack of manipulation to encourage the individual to follow through with a behavior. Rather, cognitive social learning theories suggest that a change in thinking can ultimately result in a change in behavior (Hutchinson, 2015).

Classical and operant conditioning are two important concepts central to behavioral psychology. While both result in learning, the processes are quite different. In order to understand how each of these behavior modification techniques can be used, it is also essential to understand how classical conditioning and operant conditioning differ from one another. Both classical and operant learning are psychological processes that lead to learning. Here learning refers to the process by which changes in behavior, including actions, emotions, thoughts, and the responses of muscles and glands,

B.F. Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning has at its foundation a desire to demonstrate a “cause and

The token economy is used as a positive reinforcer for the changing of behavior from being negative to positive. If the students exhibit negative classroom behavior, they do not receive a token. In some cases, the reward system can be used in such a way that if a student displays inappropriate behavior, his token(s) can be taken away. In this type of reward system, if a student earns a certain amount of tokens, they can receive a greater reward for the amount of tokens that they have received. This is an effective incentive to encourage the students to act appropriately in the classroom. Examples of inappropriate behavior are as follows: being disruptive, disrespectful of others, talking without raising their hands, getting out of their seats without permission, speaking out of turn, and not paying attention in

Skinner believed that behaviour is shaped and maintained by a reinforcing stimulus and that schedules of reinforcement are important factors in the learning process. There are many situations in the classroom where a behaviourist approach is likely to work well. For example, when I teach, I have started to pick out students who are making the right choices throughout the lesson. I call attention to the student who is doing the right thing and use verbal praise, which is quite an effective way to let other students realise what the expected learning behaviour is. The Year 6 students in the class are aware of the school’s reward system; ten credits lead to one merit, which is recorded in their merit book. They are also aware that bad behaviour in the class or on the playground will be followed by negative consequences. To warn against unwanted behaviour, I have seen teachers use negative reinforcers such as verbal warnings, timeouts and losing privileges.

And through this new friendship they might pick up new things or different ways to commit a crime, which is also known as the social learning theory. “Social learning theory is designed to explain how people learn criminal behavior using the psychological principles of operant conditioning” (Walsh, 2015, p. 130). As stated above, the new attachment that a criminal has with his new friends, who are also criminals, will learn new things from these friends. For instance, a burglar that has been sent to prison and after being released he joins a street gang. Upon entering the street gang, the burglar might learn different offenses and how to avoid to get caught by the police. If the criminals do not get caught by the police, then they are going to have better and strong connections with the street gang members (Anderson, 2016).

Operant conditioning focuses on a system of reinforcement and punishers where actions will have a consequence (Skinner, 2016). In operant conditioning, behaviour that is reinforced will be strengthened while behaviour that is not reinforced will weaken with time (Skinner, 2016). There are three types of operants. The neutral operants that will neither increase nor decrease the chances of repeating a behaviour (Skinner, 2016). The reinforcers will increase the chances of repeating a behaviour (Skinner, 2016). The punishers will decrease the chances of repeating a behaviour (Skinner, 2016). Positive reinforcement strengthens a behaviour as an individual gains rewards through it (Skinner, 2016). Negative reinforcement strengthens the behaviour by removing an unpleasant consequence

A token economy is an intensive, in-class positive reinforcement program for building up and maintaining appropriate classroom performance and behavior. A token program may be needed when other positive reinforcement programs, such as selective use of teacher attention or a home-based reinforcement program. In many different education settings a material reward program can be conveniently managed through a token reinforcement program. Token programs involve the distribution of physical tokens (for example, poker chips, stickers, stars, smiley faces, etc.) or points following appropriate behavior. The tokens or points can be accumulated throughout the day and exchanged for designated rewards at a specified time. A predetermined goal is

Learning theories are the structural foundation used to label how information is processed, stored and encoded during learning. Retention of knowledge is subjective and influenced by outside factors such as, an individual’s cognitive ability to process or retain information. Other influences are environmental, emotional or preexisting experiences or associations (Andreassi, 2000). To gain a better understanding of behaviorism in correlation to learning theories it is crucial to understand and grasp the meaning of associative learning. This process involves the association between two stimuli or a behavior and a learned stimulus. Associative learning is divided in to two central techniques, classical conditioning and operant condition. Classical and operant conditioning are basic methods of learning and conditioning is used to adapt a behavior or association through a stimuli or consequence (Ciccarelli, 2012). While classical conditioning and operant conditioning are key elements in associative learning, they have significant differences. A clear contrast between the two theories is whether the behavior or response produced is considered to be voluntary or involuntary.

Operant conditioning is a type of learning which occurs through either receiving reinforcement or punishment for a behavior. This type of learning creates an association between a behavior and consequence for that behavior. The four types of operant conditioning are positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, and negative punishment. If operant conditioning was used properly it could be used to solve a variety of social and resource dilemmas; especially in the case of the cattle ranchers and overgrazing.

One of the simplest and most commonly-used methods of conceptualizing learning is that of reinforcement theory (Noe 2010: 142). Every time a parent promises a child a toy for being good during a grocery store trip or threatens a teen with being grounded for bad grades, he or she is using reinforcement theory. Reinforcement theory is based upon the assumption that people want to experience as much pleasure as possible and avoid pain. Thus, businesses offer workers bonuses for good work, and issue reprimands (such as docking pay or denying a promotion) for poor behavior.

Instrumental conditioning, otherwise known as operant conditioning is a theory that B.F Skinner came up with and is defined as a learning process by which the consequence of an operant response affects the likelihood of the response recurring in the future. Basically, operant conditioning is a stimulus response prototype that when reinforced, conditions individuals' or organisms' response to a desired behavior (Huitt, W., & Hummel, J., 1997) Our behaviors are shaped to be desirable or undesirable through reinforcements, punishment and extermination. Overall, operant conditioning is seen to be voluntary reaction that precedes the stimulus and the reinforcement. Classical conditioning is one of the techniques used in behavioral training. The process of classical conditioning works with the introduction of neutral stimuli before the original stimulus and the same reaction is elicited from the organism even without the presence of the original stimulus. The Pavlov dog salivated with every sight of food as the original stimulus for the salivation. When a neutral stimulus was introduced like a bell that was rang each time before it was fed, the dog started salivating at the ringing of the bell even before the food was availed.

Operant conditioning, also referred to as instrumental conditioning, is a way for modifying behavior (an operant) which in turn utilizes contingencies among a new discriminative stimulus, a great operant result, plus a reinforce to vary your probability of any result taking place all over again in this situation. By means of operant conditioning, a connection is manufactured involving the behavior and an effect with the behavior. Behaviorist B. Y. Skinner, which explains why you may sometimes listen to this often-called Skinnerian conditioning, coined operant conditioning. Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953). The components of operant conditioning are reinforcement and punishment.

Learning is a very important part of Psychology and it has been defined as ‘any relatively permanent change in behaviour, or behaviour potential, produced by experience’ (Baron, p.169). Learning is a key process in human behaviour; it can play an important role in most of the activities we do. Even though the effects of learning are extremely diverse, most psychologists believe that learning occurs in several basic forms: conditioning – classical and operant and observational learning. Myers defined conditioning as ‘the process of learning associations’.