When Studying Behavior Analysis In Psychology

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.

Positive reinforcement is rewarding a behavior with a consequence that is pleasant to the recipient in order to encourage the behavior. An example of this in The Breakfast Club

According to Kail and Cavanaugh the theory established by Skinner known as operant conditioning is a “learning paradigm in which the consequences of a behavior determine whether a behavior is repeated in the future” (p. 13). This theory to an extent, parallels the previous theory of operant conditioning but is also important in trying to understand why one makes the decisions they do as well as how often they partake in certain behaviors. Through his theory Skinner displayed that there are two types of consequences, reinforcement and punishment, in which one increases the chances of repeated behavior and the other vice versa. Reinforcement is the component that increases the likeliness of repeated behavior and includes two divisions, negative and positive. Negative reinforcement is that in which a person’s

Positive reinforcement involves strengthening or fostering desired behavior through the addition or increase of a pleasant incentive. Positive reinforcement tends to be a more effective means of behavior modification that the two types of punishment. The addition or increase of incentive when using positive reinforcement is geared towards encouraging the occurrence of the behavior in the future. For instance, positive reinforcement is used by an

Positive reinforcement is a very compelling and efficient tool to help form and change habits. Positive reinforcement works by imparting a motivating item to the individual after the preferred behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen sooner than later. An instance of this tactic would be Jimmy getting $10 for each A he earned on his report card. The definition

The author supports the idea of employing an all-inclusive understanding of human nature. The author seems to be of the mindset that Christianity and the science of psychology can co-exist with one another. The author is focused on providing a Christian viewing platform to the integrative approaches of relating theology and psychology. He also gives examples of how the church at times throughout history has had a contentious view of psychology. This would lead one to come to the conclusion that it would be one or the other, and neither could be blended for the good of a

In conclusion, the road to integrating psychology and Christianity continues to be a long one. As Christians, we know that God is the creator of man and that we are born in His image but have sinfully fallen short, and that Jesus died for our sins so we are able to seek forgiveness. The Bible remains our guide for daily living. Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and our behaviors attempting to explain why we think and behave the ways we do. “Rather, the task at hand is the difficult work of reading the psychological and biblical sources, checking the research and the interpretations, and then asking how together they can help us attain a more complete picture of the human condition.” (Entiwistle, 2010, p.267)

For example a child may throw a tantrum at the supermarket and receive a sweets to calm them, this would be positive reinforcement, and the child would then throw a tantrum again expecting to receive a treat again, this is positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement would be something undesirable being removed as an outcome of behaviour. For example a parent may tell their child that they don’t have to do the dishes as they have eaten all of their dinner, the child would then repeat the action of eating all there dinner as it has a positive outcome

Psychology focuses on the workings of God’s world, meaning that humans can have a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of behavior. Although psychological and theological understandings will not always match up, they can be used together to achieve the ultimate goal of understanding humans and why they do the things they do.

Behavioral psychology, I believe, best describes the way people feel and behave since events in the environment heavily influences human reactions. For example, when one hears an alarm clock go off, one may feel very unhappy or groggy due to associating dreading an event they had to wake up early for. In addition, certain memories or experiences triggers emotions, much like the alarm clock example. Also, if people are not rewarded for their good behavior, they may likely become unmotivated or teach themselves that they are not good enough. On page 20, the behavioral psychology section states, "Using this tool, they could begin to account for behavior as the product of prior experience. This enabled them to explain how certain acts and certain

Negative reinforcement involves removing something in order to increase a response, such as canceling a quiz if students turn in all of their homework for the week. By removing the aversive stimulus (the quiz), the teacher hopes to increase the occurrence of the desired behavior (completing all

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

In the video it demonstrates how BF Skinner trained two pigeons on how to play ping-pong. At first it sounds crazy and my first thought was “how are they going to hold a paddle and play ping-pong?”, but that wasn’t the case. The pigeons peck the ball back and forth with each other, if the pigeon can get the ball to pass the other pigeon then he is rewarded with food. They are shaping the pigeons by rewarding them with food with every successful pass that passes the opponent. Positive reinforcement is the frequency increases because it is followed by the presentation of something that increases the likelihood the behavior will be repeated. Negative reinforcement is the frequency of a behavior increases because it is followed by the removal of

     There are two forms of reinforcement: positive and negative reinforcement. When an event occurs producing a positive effect, it is considered positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of a stimulus increasing the likelihood of a positive effect. An example of this would be to take two aspirins to remove the pain from a headache.

Skinner’s positive reinforcement starts by promoting good behavior in the classroom through the promise of a reward. Skinner created a rewards system that is said to help shape human behavior in a