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  • Essay / Discussion Paper - 1804

    Operant conditioning is a learning method that uses rewards and punishments for certain behaviors. It was first invented by BF Skinner. It is also known as Skinner Conditioning. This creates an association between a consequence and a behavior. Sometimes this is also called response-stimulus conditioning. Operant conditioning is related to classical conditioning but focuses more on why the behavior occurs and the motivation behind it to complete the task at hand. Skinner conducted an experiment to test his new theory. In his experiment, he put animals in a box. Initially, he asked a rat to pull down a lever that would give him food. This would eventually condition the rat to learn that every time it pulled the lever it would get food. With this, Skinner proposed three types of responses that follow behavior. They are neutral operators, reinforcers and punishers. A neutral operant is a response from the surrounding area that neither favors nor disfavors the likelihood that a certain behavior will be repeated. A reinforcer is a response from a surrounding area that will increase the chance that a certain behavior will occur again. Reinforcers can be positive or negative, depending on the situation. A punishment is a response from the surrounding area that decreases the chance that a certain behavior will be repeated. The experiment showed Skinner that his theory was true and he began to extend it to human behavior. Skinner created this theory because he was a behaviorist and was interested in human behavior and wanted to know more. He wanted to understand why human beings do certain things the way they do. This led him to do his experiment with the rat. The rat experiment can be applied...... middle of paper......a good approach but the attention given to him during the acts did not change his behavior during his nine years in the hospital and very well could have reinforced this behavior. Its growth during the implementation of the incentive system supports this and reinforces the effectiveness of the initial negative punishment. Positively reinforcing his appropriate actions afterwards would not have been possible since receiving attention would not have been separated from his inappropriate behavior. That is, reinforcement could have been blocked because showing concern and attention would have been associated with extreme behavior rather than appropriate behavior. The effectiveness of this treatment is a compelling reason to believe that operant conditioning is a viable option while emphasizing the importance of negative punishment..