THE METHODS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant conditioning is a way to change the behavior of another human being. It differs from classical conditioning, in which a person or animal has an automatic, biological response to a stimulus. The most famous example of classical conditioning is found in the experiments of Ivan Pavlov. In Pavlov's experiments, dogs began to salivate at the sound of a bell because they had learned to associate the sound with the arrival of food. Operant conditioning, which was developed by the behaviorists B. F. Skinner and John B. Watson, is not based simply on the association of one thing with another. In operant conditioning, an individual learns to adopt a new behavior in response to the consequences of his or her previous behaviors (Stangor, 2011, p. 203).
There are four types of operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Two of these approaches, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, are used to increase the likelihood of a particular behavior occurring. In positive reinforcement, a pleasurable stimulus is used to encourage a particular behavior. An example of positive reinforcement is giving a student a prize or praise when he gets a good grade on a test (Stangor, 2011, p. 205). As a real life example, one time I observed a teacher helping a young girl learn to play the piano. Instead of focusing on the child's mistakes, the teacher praised the child for the things she was doing right. This resulted in the girl working harder at her practicing. Negative reinforcement involves motivating a behavior by removing an undesirable stimulus. For example, if a person discovers that aspirin removes his headache pain, he will be likely to use aspirin again the next time he has a headache (Stangor, 2011, p. 204). As a real life example, I had a fri
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