Comparing Operant Conditioning And Reinforcement In Post-Primary School

In chapter six in the General Psychology course, we learned about “Learning”. We learned the types of conditions that help people learn. One of the conditions is “Operant Conditioning” where learning is controlled by the organism’s behavior. During the lecture one thing that stood out to me was that in the operant condition, there is a term called positive punishment which is used to decrease bad behavior. It is used usually by parents to discipline their children when they misbehave in order to break that bad habit.

B.F. Skinners theory of operant conditioning is probably the most commonly used theory in practice in early years settings. Skinner suggested that people draw conclusions based on the consequences of their behaviour when exploring the environment. He divided the consequences into three areas. The first area being positive reinforcers where people are likely to get something they desire if they repeat a certain behaviour. He suggested that this was the most effective way to encourage new learning. This can be seen in early years settings where by children are rewarded for good behaviour this lots of praise, attention, stickers or treats. This will help children to carry on showing good behaviour until such a time when it is learned. Second is negative reinforcers which are used to stop something from happening but the behaviour is also likely to repeated. Just like when a child is going down a slide but doesn’t like going fast so they use their hands on the sides to slow themselves down. The third is punishers, which is a behaviour that you learn to stop doing e.g. if you receive a shock from an electric fence then you learn to stay away from it.

Operant conditioning is the effects punishment and reinforcement have on behavior; “the law of effect, which states that behaviors associated with good consequences (satisfiers) are more likely to occur again in the future, whereas behaviors associated with bad consequences (annoyers) are less likely to occur again” (Durwin 162). This is a necessary component used by many psychologists and educators to provide the best positive outcome in a child’s behavior. When analyzing the “Billy Scenario,” it is obvious that the teacher, Ms. Allen, tried different techniques of punishment to decrease the students’ misbehavior, but was unsuccessful; leading to an increase in the frequency of response or more disruptive behavior.

This study, conducted as a requirement for an introductory psychology course, was an investigation of how learning principles such as reinforcement and punishment could be applied to improve conditions in everyday life. In particular, I was studying to see if positive reinforcement would help me to increase my daily water intake. Conceptually defined, daily water intake is the act of drinking water by mouth on a day-to-day basis, in order to keep body cells hydrated and functional. The positive reinforcement I used was a treat of bite-sized Hershey bars, a candy of chocolate. I had hypothesized that I would remember to drink water more often during the day if I rewarded myself for remembering during the intervention period.

2. Negative reinforcements – this also makes children repeat behaviour but in different ways e.g.: If a child does well in an exam therefore they don’t have to do their chores.

Skinner’s reinforcement experiments conducted on rats showed the principles of operant conditioning. While working with rats, Skinner would place them in a Skinner box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. After multiple trials, rats learned the connection between the lever and food, and started to spend more time in the box procuring food than performing any other action. He used positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement to produce or inhibit specific target behaviors. Therefore, if a specific behavior is reinforced then the probability of that behavior occurring again is increased. Based on Skinner’s view, this theory can be applied to learning because learning is nothing more than a change in behavior. Operant conditioning encourages positive reinforcement, which can be applied in the classroom environment to get the good behavior you want and need from students. One of the ways of reinforcing a student’s behavior is through praise. Also teachers can build operant conditioning techniques into their lesson plans to teach children possible skills as well as good behaviors. For example: to give a smiley face, or motivational stamps to encourage children to perform correctly and encourage them to repeat such action again.

Following the introduction of the whole school behaviour policy, it was also made compulsory for schools to include a system of rewards and sanctions (Elton, 1989, Steer, 2005; DFE, 2014; Payne, 2015). Within school X it was found that this system was based on the behaviourist principles of Skinners (1974) theory. The use of rewards and sanctions in school X consisted of positively reinforcing desirable behaviours and correcting negative behaviour through sanctions. The behavioural theory underlines that by reinforcing a particular behaviour, children will repeat it as they begin to associate rewards with a particular behaviour (Skinner, 1974; Morgan, 2009; Rogers, 2011a). For example it was observed that when a child was positively praised for helping others, the teacher would reward the child by awarding a dojo. A dojo is used as a form of praise which amounts to a score at the end of the week based on how many dojos a child receives. This will then feed on to the merit card and sticker system enabling children to be rewarded by prizes. Consequently children were able to make associations between the desired behaviour and its outcome. This is therefore identified as a form of extrinsic motivation (Roffey and O’ Reirdan, 2001; Payne, 2015).

Like many children his age, my nephew hates eating his vegetables and he cries whenever he has to eat them. Because of this, his mom takes the veggies away so that he doesn't have to eat them anymore. Due to this, he begins crying whenever vegetables are placed in front of him because he knows that it will make his mom take them away. This example is negative reinforcement because the behavior being altered the vegetables are being subtracted as he starts crying. This leads to him crying each time, so that the vegetables are taken away, being a successful type of operant conditioning.

Children in early years may have trouble accepting to taste new food, through rewards parents can encourage children to try new food. Skinner believed children learnt behaviour through actions and consequences. McLeod (2007) defined Skinners approach to changing behaviour by the use of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement strengthen behaviour by rewarding individuals. Similarly to children’s eating behaviour, children may learn to accept food through rewards from parents to encourage children to try and be healthy. Children can be rewarded through verbal praise, given a present or rewarded with a sugary snack. Wardle and Cooke (2008) conducted a study of children receiving a sticker for eating a piece of red pepper, over the ten days children

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.

I. Attention Getter: There have many opinions on how to discipline a child. One of the biggest disagreement is spanking children with some believing in it and other against it. Bennett (2015) says that even though the percent of people against spank have growth it still estimated that 70 to 90 percent of parents in the U.S. spank their children. II. Thesis: Spanking children as a punishment will not have bad effects on a children development.

When a parent uses physical punishment to discipline his or her children, it can cause the children to become stressed. An excessive amount of stress in the home can cause children to internalize or externalize emotions (Mulvaney, Mebert. 395). A child who internalizes his or her emotions keep everything bottled up until he or she can no longer hold it in, and expresses their emotions in an inappropriate or dangerous way. Children who externalizes their emotions might use words in a harsh manner or they may become physically aggressive. Children who are punished physically are significantly more likely to develop anxiety and depression later on in life

Determining the best way to raise and teach children is a topic that has been discussed and debated for a long time. As psychology has developed, so has our understanding of how organisms learn and how we can apply that to our lives. One method of teaching is operant conditioning, giving either rewards or punishments after a certain behavior to promote or discourage it. This method could be used to teach children; for example, teaching children to say please when asking for items.

According to Murray Wardrop from The Telegraph, he had mentioned that a study found that youngsters who had been smacked up to the age of six did a lot better in school and were more optimistic about their lives than those who had never been hit by their parents. They were also more likely to undertake voluntary work and were keener to attend university, experts discovered (Para. 1-2). This proves how well children overcome the obstacles of life by being more optimistic and buoyant. Using spanking as an appropriate form of discipline helps children gain that sensibility. The goal of any type of punishment is to decrease the behavior that is followed (Cherry, Kendra. Para. 1). According to B.F Skinner, referred to by Kendra Cherry, in the case of positive punishment, it involves presenting an unfavorable outcome or event following an undesirable behavior (Para. 1). In other words, when the subject performs an unwanted action, some type of negative outcome is purposefully applied (Para. 2). This should be common sense as well. If a person acted upon an unfavorable desire, they should expect and prepare for a negative repercussion. Another positive of corporal punishment is the quick execution. Once it is administered, a conversation of loving expectations must ensue. The child needs to know that the punishment is done out of love and not out of anger. Then, there are no lingering

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