Behaviorism And The Operant Conditioning Theory Essay

Operant and Classical Conditioning are very similar, yet very different. You must be careful when observing both the stimulus and the stimuli that go hand in hand, when discussing the two. One way to tell you know the difference of understanding the two is being aware that in classical conditioning, expectations are built about stimulus events in the environment, but their behavior does not influence the stimuli that occur.

While many people may believe that learning is just a natural response that all animals are capable of, there is actually a more complex explanation on how we learn the things we do in order to survive in the world. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are both basic forms of learning, they have the word conditioning in common. Conditioning is the acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well-defined stimuli.

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

In Behaviorism, learning is a change in observable behavior. The environment causes behavior and there is a one-way correlation between the interactions among behavior, environment, and personal factors (Walsh, 2016). In Cognitivism, learning is related with distinct changes among states of knowledge rather than with changes in the odds of response. It focuses more on the notion of the learning process and the information is accepted, organized, saved, and restored by the brain. In the Social

For many of years, psychologists and theorists have studied and tracked what influences a human 's growth, learning, and overall development. Although there are many different views of why people may develop the way they do, there is no true "correct" answer. According to learning theorist, B.F Skinner, he believed that all human behavior was determined by environmental influences. This is what as known as behaviorism. "Skinner referred to his own philosophy as 'radical behaviorism ' and suggested that the concept of free will was simply an illusion. All human action, he instead believed, was the direct result of conditioning" (Cherry, 2005). Throughout this paper my focus will be on learning theories- specifically the concept of behaviorism.

Behaviourist theory of learning can believe that learning occurs when the environmental stimuli produce a relatively permanent and observable change in a learner’s response (Barblett, 2015). For example when someone is taught a new behaviour it is changed by the environmental stimuli, which occurs a response. In behaviourism instructors or educators drive a specific behavioural outcome from learners through a set of learning objectives. In the 20th century B.F Skinner (1938) did major work on behaviour and its consequences. Skinner’s work was on behaviourism, namely operant conditioning; it means changing behaviour by the use of reinforcement, which is given by a desired response. Behaviourist strongly believe behaviour is learnt either by

Operant conditioning refers to the method of learning to occur through rewards and punishment for behavior (Staddon & Cerutti 2002). In the operant condition, an association occurs between the behavior and the consequences of the behavior. Behaviorist B.F Skinner coined operant conditioning, and that is why some refer to it as Skinnerian conditioning. Skinner started studying operant conditioning in the late 1920s when he was a graduate student at Harvard University. As a behaviorist B.F Skinner believes that it was obligatory to look at the internal thoughts and motivation so as to explain behavior (Staddon & Cerutti 2002). As an alternative, he did suggest that we should look only at the external and observable causes of human behavior. The characteristics of operant conditioning are that an organism may emit a particular response instead of just eliciting the response because of the external stimulus. Skinner did use the term operant in referring to any active behavior that operates on the environment so as to generate consequences (Doyle-Portillo & Pastorino 2013).

B. F. Skinner believed that a human being’s behavior is influenced and determined by external factors. He believed that free will and an individual’s freedom of choice was non-existent. I believe that Mr. Skinners ideas of operant conditioning for society is not a good idea.

The situation that I wish to change is my brother chooses to play video games from as soon as he gets home to when he goes to bed and staying up late to do so. This causes him to fall behind on assignments as well as not get enough sleep to where it is difficult for him to get up in the morning. As well as missing classes when he oversleeps. This behavior has been going on for a couple years and has gotten worse within the past couple months. The operant behavior in this situation would be playing video games all night.

Because behaviorism and social cognitive theory both examine changes in behavior. Social cognitive theory has its historical roots in behaviorism, but, as the name implies, it has evolved over the years into a more cognitive perspective (Kim & Baylor, 2006). Even today, many authors continue to include aspects of social cognitive theory in books focusing on behavioral principles (Baldwin & Baldwin, 2001). In addition, behaviorism and social cognitive theory are similar in three ways: They focus on experience as an important cause of learning (and an important principle of cognitive theory is that learning and development depend on learners’ experience). They include the concepts of reinforcement and punishment in their explanations of learning. They target feedback as an important aspect of the learning process. Three important differences exist between the two, however. First, they define learning differently, and second, social cognitive theory emphasizes the role of cognitive processes beliefs, perceptions, and expectations in learning. Third, social cognitive theory suggests that the environment, personal factors, and behavior are interdependent, a concept called reciprocal causation.

     The wide study of human beings has led psychologists to the development of many theories explaining the elements that cause a persons behavior and attitude. In this paper I would like to reflect upon some of the theories we studied such as: the cultivation theory, social learning theory, the attribution theory, and the cognitive dissonance theory, and relate them to my life and surrounding environment.

picked up the wallet and ran away, then Kevin is likely to see this as

Example of Operant conditioning, is when you decided to snooze the alarm in the morning after partying all night long. Finally you decide to get up to go to work you are running 15 min late. And decide to step on gas pedal. You are now driving 50 mph on a 35 mph road. You think you are fine and won 't get caught because everyone else is driving fast also. All of sudden a cop is hidden in between the trees and bushes. You try to brake, in order to slow down a bit, but it 's too late…. The cop has turn on the lights and tail-gating you already. You pull over and you try to convince him that you had a “tough night”… even though it 's a lie, and to let you off with a warning. The cop tells you he doesn 't care and you should know better. Therefore he gives you a speeding ticket of about two hundred dollars and a court date if you decide to fight it. In order to go to court you will have to miss work, which means you won 't get paid. Then you have to pay for all the additional court fees if you want to go to clear your record; your insurance will go up, have to pay for driving school and miss more work also. You will have to go through all this trouble, time and money. Just for being too lazy and “tired” to get up on time.

When taking psychology classes I have always enjoyed learning about behaviorism because it seems so cut and dry; if someone wanted to get a clear understanding or their fellow man, all they would have to do is sit back and observe. With behaviorism there is no Id, Ego or Superego to take into account, just raw behavior. While this approach seems simple enough, I feel that it can only offer an incomplete window into seeing how people function and react with various things on a day to day basis.

A significant piece of several psychological theories in the late nineteenth century was introspection, which is “the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes” (Press, 2013). In retort to this theory behaviorism came about. Behaviorism is predominantly concerned with observable and measurable aspects of human behavior. In other words behaviorism does not look at the biological aspects but it suggests that all behaviors are learned habits and changes in response to the environment. It endeavors to explain how these particular habits are formed. Behaviorism claimed that the causes of behavior was not necessarily found in the complexities of the mind but could be observed in one’s immediate environment, from stimuli that produced, reinforced, and punished certain responses also known later on as conditioning. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the scientist began to discover the actual systems to learning, thereby laying a foundation for behaviorism. A theorist by the name of Ivan Pavlov was a major contribution to the discovering of significant behavioral theories.