Classical and Operant Conditioning - Essay Example

Compare and contrast ical and operant conditioning Compare and contrast ical and operant conditioning People learn in different ways and two of these ways relates to psychology of Classical and Operant conditioning, whereby these techniques are similar in some ways, but differ in some areas (American Psychology Association, 2006). Nevertheless, one of the fundamental differences relates to the behaviors being conditioned, other not conditioned. The other difference relates to the operant conditioning involving voluntary behaviors, but the classical conditioning involves involuntary and reflex actions. Therefore, there is dependency on relationship between stimuli and response by the classical conditioning, and a reliance on incentives or rewards by the operant conditioning. In fact, the paper seeks to identify ideas that can compare and contrast both classical and operant conditioning, and discuss both their strengths and weakness. Operant conditioning is a theory that seeks to explain the way organisms function in the environment, and this relates to the response associated with things offered by the environment (Greengrass, 2004). The study of Operant conditioning concerned a cat that was positioned in a box with a single point of exit, which had to be pushed for it to open, and the cat struggled to get out of the box, since this was a behavior reinforced through a reward, while attempt to escape was initiated by the opening of the door. When the cat had freed itself, it was taken to the box again, and it would naturally remember how to open the door by identifying an area that needed to be pressed. The ease of getting out of the box increased with the number of times it was placed back in the box, hence, it had learnt through the natural consequence and the reinforcement was freedom. People learn through Operant conditioning in every day of their lives, whereby through making a certain mistake and one experiences a consequence, there is a chance of doing the thing differently given the same situation in the future. In this case, one can learn to act differently due to the consequences of the actions; the same action is repeated in the future if the consequence was positive. Therefore, Operant conditioning has a strength related to the positive or negative outcome that lead to change of behavior and sustenance of a certain behavior (Nye, 2000). For instance, a student, who is misbehaving is entitled to a negative reinforcement in order to eliminate the chances of the behavior occurring in the future. In addition, the strength of the Operant conditioning is evident through understanding of the potential of negative reinforcement for changing behaviors. The positive and negative reinforcement assist a child or student to change their behaviors, for instance when they are disruptive or fail to answer a question, punishment is administered in a way that makes them understand their mistakes. The weakness of the Operant conditioning relates to enforcement that people are expected to stick to the experimental observation, though assumptions were applied in situations that involved freedom and dignity. In fact, the theories in Operant conditioning suggest that people are animals or objects to be controlled. Nonetheless, a substantial weakness of the Operant conditioning is failing in some situations, whereby there are behaviors that cannot be stopped punishment or reinforced by rewards. These is a case where a person can be pretending that they have stopped a certain behavior in order to receive a reward, hence the theory does not allow other perspectives. The benefits associated with operant relates to providing a way through which parents, managers and teachers can change the behaviors of children, students and employees respectively, in order to achieve a certain objective. For instance a manager can use Operant conditioning in order to improve the performance of the employees and in-turn a achieve the organizational goals. On the other hand, both parents and teacher apply the approach inn changing the behaviors of the students in order to increase their academic performance. Classical conditioning is considered a significant type of learning, which was discovered unintentionally by Ivan Pavlov, who was a Russian physiologist during a research on digestion. The objectives of his research were to facilitate a reliable understanding on digestive pattern in dogs, and in the course of his experiment, he used meat powder and a dog with inserted tubes for measuring various responses of the body (Pavlov, 1927). He identified that the dog salivated prior to presentation of the meat powder; in fact, salivation commence when it saw the person feed them. This made Pavlov to gain interest in this phenomenon to a point of abandoning his digestion research, and began to pursue the Classical conditioning study. Numerous behaviors are shaped through paring stimuli since certain stimuli such as smell of a fragrance, a song, a particular day of the year has rendered to intense emotions. For example, the stimuli may be paired with the memories of an ex-boy-friend or ex-girlfriend, a love one, the day that a certain incidence occurred. Therefore, the strengths of Classical conditioning technique are manifested through the relationship and the power of connections existing in pairing the things that are considered classically conditioned. The benefits of Classical conditioning relates to having a low task demand, hence requires minimum effort on the part of participant, and it eliminates the deficits of sensorimotor, fatigue and differences in motivation. Moreover, Classical conditioning is also related to a response, which is unambiguous and defined clearly. Classical conditioning has a weakness that concerns being a reductionist, and in this case, behaviors are reduced in to basic associations with the surroundings, and this assumes the cognitive factors that contributed to intentions of these behaviors. A significant development in social learning has occurred through a theory that deals with issues related to these behaviors, since not all forms of behaviors are learnt. For instance, there is an assertion that anger is a trait that is learnt, but the biological approach has a different explanation for the same. The Classical conditioning theory holds that, anger is a behavior that is imitated by people, but the biological approach contends that it is a type of aggression, which results from high levels of testosterone (Rescorla, 1994). In this case, in some circumstances, behaviorism, Classical conditioning has been considered less insignificant, because it do not provide a satisfactory explanation. In addition, the other weakness concerns the difficulty experienced in leaning, since learners cannot comprehend the concept in the approach of Classical conditioning. Classical and Operant conditioning has a difference concerning the nature of the behaviors, in terms of being deliberate or involuntary, and in this case, classical conditioning involves involuntary behaviors and deliberate actions for the operant conditioning. Classical conditioning relies on the relationship between the stimuli and an involuntary behavior, while Operant conditioning relies on identification of the relationship between the voluntary behaviors and penalty of these behaviors. In fact, Operant conditioning has elements of rewards and incentives in order to reinforce the desired behavior, but the classical conditioning does not involve any incentive or reward, instead it involves the pairing a stimuli with a certain behavior. Classical conditioning is a passive form of learning, while Operant conditioning entails expectation for a subject to participate in order to achieve certain objectives through the behaviors, which are either rewarded or punished. Various theories are applied different reasons by people such as teachers, manager, psychologists, trainers, though the ideas are associated with change of behaviors by subjects: employees, students and patients. An Exemplary example is a teacher utilizes an approach such as Operant conditioning in order to improve the performance of the student, whereby the students are given rewards for attaining certain marks in their exam. The rewards are incentives to alter the behaviors of students in a way that results to increased performance. Moreover, a manager in a certain organization can also apply the Classical conditioning in a way that helps to employees reduce the risk of fire in their workplaces, whereby when they hear the sound of an alarm; they evacuate the building immediately (Trapold, Lawton, Dick, & Gross, 1968). In conclusion, the paper has achieved objective set by the thesis statement in the first paragraph, by comparing and contrasting the Conditioning and Operant theory, and discussing their weakness and strengths. Both approaches are explored separately, whereby their strengths and weaknesses are elaborated. The other section seeks to compare and contrast these approaches in order to achieve the objectives of the paper. References American Psychology Association (2006). Behavior Analyses Help People Work Safer. APA Online. Retrieved on 10 October 2012, from Greengrass, M. (2004). 100 Years of B.F. Skinner. Monitor on Psychology, 35 (3), 80 Nye, R. D. (2000). Three Psychologies: Perspectives from Freud, Skinner and Rogers. New York: Wadsworth/Thomson. Pavlov, I.P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes. London: Oxford University Press. Rescorla, R.A. (1994). Control of instrumental performance by Pavlovian and instrumental stimuli. J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behavior. Process 20:44–50 Trapold M.A., Lawton G.W., Dick R.A., & Gross D.M. (1968). Transfer of training from differential classical to differential instrumental conditioning. J. Exp. Psychol. 76:568–573. Read More