Operant and Classical Conditioning - Essay Example

 Operant and classical conditioning Introduction This report engrosses operant and classical conditioning methodologies of manipulating two forms of behavior. The manipulation targets increasing and developing a desirable behavior. It also targets to eliminate and reduce an unwanted behavior. In this case, frequent scratching of the skull is the unwanted behavior. Neat arrangement of my lecture notes is the desired behavior. Operant and classical conditioning strategies are highly instrumental towards attainment of the respective objectives. The use of reinforcements, stimulus attachment, and punishment are key concepts that contributed to the shift of the original behavioral trends (Nicholas, 130). Both the desired and undesired behaviors made a significant shift upon the employment of the conditioning strategies. Frequent scratching of the skull was a target behavior in my personal analysis. This behavior was undesirable in personal and social settings. It would express an elevated level of impaired hygiene. It would also reflect my personality as uncouth to accommodate other people. Frequent scratching of the skull would irritate class associates and other companions in life. All these parties would view it as unhygienic to scratch the skull. The behavior would contaminate the fingers due to the contact with the microorganisms on the surface of the skulls. Greetings through shaking hands would therefore be irritable to class associates and social companions. Consequently, this behavior would appear as a major violation of hygiene to me and other parties. Neat arrangement of academic notes during lectures is also a target behavior in my personal analysis. This is a desirable behavior that I aimed to uphold. This desirable behavior would manifest sparingly in my academic engagements. It was desirable, yet it would not dominantly prevail in all the lectures. Therefore, it would be a behavior that I would yearn to maintain. Neat arrangement and organization of notes would propagate my academic performance. During the events of poor note taking, the academic work was not comprehensive for study. Consequently, studying would entail attainment of minimal concepts due to the impaired congruence in the notes. It has an ultimate ramification of academic failure manifested in low grades. Neat organization of notes would propagate academic performance. This was a desirable behavior I sparingly possessed. In this case, I needed to retain and develop it. As denoted previously, frequent scratching of the skull was a target behavior in my analysis. This was an undesirable behavior that required the use of reinforcements and punishments for its culmination. Reinforcements were instrumental in the culmination of the undesired behavior (Nicholas, 130). They would purely entail ultimate rewards on the tendencies to abandon the frequent scratch in the skull. The schedule and impacts of the reinforcements are evident in the table. In the first four days of the schedule, associations of environmental stimuli and response made a paramount contribution in the culmination of the behavior. The ice-cream served as the conditioned stimulus. It would therefore trigger a conditioned response within me. Scratching the skull was the unconditioned response in this case. Ten check marks of the conditioned response would definitely amount to a positive reinforcement of ice-cream at dinner. Repeated reinforcement of ice-cream led to the culmination of the undesired behavior. This is because of the direct association of failure to scratch the skull with pleasure. In this case, the ice-cream rewards were reinforcements that oversaw culmination of the behavior. During the subsequent days of the analysis, I would refrain from scratching my skull even in the absence of the ice-cream reward. This principle also applied to persistent neatness in note taking. In the first four days of the analysis, ten check points of continuous neat note taking would amount to a reward of the ice-cream. In this case, the desired behavior of neat note taking was the conditioned response. The ice-cream was the conditioned stimuli. Incomprehensive note taking was the unconditioned response. In this scenario, the ice-cream would trigger a conditioned response of neat note taking due to its rewarding effect of pleasure. With time, I was taking neat notes without the presence of the ice-cream reward. Principles of operant conditioning were also instrumental and paramount to the manipulation of my target behaviors (Nicholas, 131). According to the principles of operant conditioning, reinforcements encourage the recurrence of behavior. Punishments suppress the probability of the undesired behaviors. Evidently, reinforcements and punishments are crucial in manipulating behavior. Reinforcement and punishment had a major role in the culmination of frequent scratching of the skull. This was an undesirable behavior. Ice-cream was a paramount reinforcement in the culmination of this behavior. Ten checks of failure to scratch my skull through the day would attract the reinforcement of ice-cream during dinner. The ice-cream reinforcement triggered a permanent tendency to drop the undesired behavior. Punishments also contributed to the culmination of the undesired behavior. Dismal checks below ten in a day would attract a punishment of skiving dessert. Instances of scratching the skull would therefore attract the deprivation of dessert. The reinforcements and punishments therefore contributed to the culmination of the undesirable behavior (Nicholas, 130). Reinforcements and punishments also contributed to the development and persistence of neat note-taking as a desirable behavior. Ten checks of neat notes in a day would amount to a reinforcement of ice-cream. Dismal record of checks in neat notes would attract a punishment of skiving dessert. A total of below than ten checks would amount to the punishment. Reinforcements would encourage behavior while punishments would subsidize the recurrence of the behavior. Changing the target behaviors was highly propagated by the use of reinforcements. The reinforcements would easily manipulate behavior due to their rewarding effects (Nicholas, 131). The punishments also propagated the behavioral change. Their harsh ramifications facilitate the culmination of undesired behaviors. Therefore, the cumulative impacts of the reinforcements and punishments kept me from changing behavior. Their respective effects inculcate permanence of behavior. After the experiences with the reinforcements and punishments, there is a high probability of permanence in the set behavior (Nicholas, 131). There is dismal probability towards resuming the unlearnt behaviors. Operant and classical conditioning were the key methods of behavioral change in this study. Operant conditioning was more useful in understanding my behavior. This is due to its simplicity. Under operant conditioning, the purposes of reinforcement and punishment are clear to comprehend. It does not entail external associations that sophisticate the understanding of behavior. Therefore, operant conditioning was more instrumental in understanding behavior. Operant conditioning was also more instrumental in the process of changing my behavior. It facilitated an unlearning process due to the clear-cut employment of reinforcement and punishment. In this case, the undesirable behavior was unlearnt as the desirable behavior was learnt. The humanistic approaches could also enhance behavioral change. According to Abraham Maslow, human beings have the capacity to actualize (Nicholas, 226). They make adjustments in their behavior to accomplish higher achievements. Therefore, self-efficacy would have been instrumental through the conscious decision to behave in a particular way. Self-efficacy would therefore inculcate a free will to drop the frequent scratch of my skull. It would also amount to a conscious decision to take neat notes in my lectures. Therefore, the humanistic approach would be instrumental in behavioral change. Behavior modification sheet Date Time Interval (9:00-10:00am) Instances observed OR Duration of behavior during self-observation period Situational factors Scratching the skull 4/10/13 (9:00-10:00am) 30 instances Cognitive dissonance 4/11/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) 20 instances Anxiety 4/12/13 (9:00-10:00am) 10 instances Deep thought 4/13/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) 10 instances Deep thought Taking neat notes 4/10/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) 5 instances Emotional stability 4/11/13 (9:00-10:00am) 10 instances Maximum concentration 4/12/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) 10 instances Maximum concentration 4/13/13 (9:00-10:00am) 15 instances Maximum concentration Behavior modification worksheet Date Time interval Successful modification session? (check or no check) Scratching the skull 4/14/13 (9:00-10:00am) No check 4/15/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) No check 4/16/13 (9:00-10:00am) Check 4/17/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) Check Taking neat notes 4/14/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) No check 4/15/13 (9:00-10:00am) Check 4/16/13 (12:00- 1:00pm) Check 4/17/13 (9:00-10:00am) Check Work cited Nicholas, Lionel J. Introduction to Psychology. Cape Town: UCT Press, 2008. Read More