The Concept of Operant Conditioning - Essay Example

?B. F. Skinner’s operant conditioning Introduction B.F. Skinner, American psychologist who was also an and an inventor, is regarded as one of the most eminent psychologist of the 20th century by many of his peers. He reached such preeminence and regarded so because of his crucial contributions to the field of Behavioral therapy through the formulation of the theory or learning concept of operant conditioning. Skinner came up with his theory of operant conditioning inspired by the work of Edward Thorndike, particularly Thorndike’s work regarding the learning behavior of animals with the aid of the puzzle box and resultant theory of 'Law of Effect'. Basing on Thorndike’s work, Skinner did some experiments with animals using a similar box to Thorndike’s puzzle box called Operant Conditioning chamber, which came to be known as Skinner’s box. The results of that study led to the formulation of the theory of operant conditioning, which is also occasionally referred to as the Skinnerian conditioning. Basic concept of operant conditioning The basic concept of this theory is based on the Skinner’s perspective as a behaviorist, which is, the idea of human free will is mainly an illusion with all the human actions being dictated based on the consequences of that same action. On those lines, if the consequences bordered on negativity, then the individual would not repeat that action, thereby forming a specific behavior. While on the other hand, if the consequences were on the positive side, then the individuals would continue to carry out those actions, thereby leading to reinforcement of those actions. Reinforcement in a way refers to the feedback that comes from the environment, which will make a behavior more likely to happen and even strengthen. (Myers, 2011). Even while calling this pattern of action as principle of reinforcement, Skinner as part of theory of operant conditioning basically stressed that internal thought process as well as personal motivations may not determine human actions and the related behavior, instead the external observable causes of human behavior will maximally influence human actions or behaviors. In a way, he made important distinctions between reflexive (or respondent) behavior and instrumental (or operant) behavior, devised methods for analyzing the latter, and discovered its basic principles. Discussion of operant conditioning Behavior therapy is defined as a form of psychotherapy, which focuses on modifying and also gaining positive control over the behaviors bordering on negativity. On those lines, Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning theory contributes a lot to this behavior therapy along with operant conditioning developed by Skinner. As discussed above, Skinner's operant conditioning puts forward the concept that human behavior and their actions can be impacted by rewards as well as punishments. Skinner research with animals using the Skinner’s box, and thereby understanding the animal’s learning ability lead to the postulation of a psychological conditioning theory of operant conditioning and its extension known as Reinforcement. Thus, Skinner also came to the understanding that not only the behavior of the animals but importantly humans can be modified and then reinforced by focusing on the rewards or punishments given to their action. Thus, his research on Behavior therapy bordered on the experimental analysis of behavior with special focus on the effect of reinforcement on behavior. In that direction, he mainly concentrated on the overt as well as external actions as well as behaviors of the humans and not on the human’s stimulus initiated responses to certain situations. In addition, Skinner came up with three types of responses or operants that will follow an action or behavior, and thereby reinforce or avoid those behaviors. The first of the operants is known as the Neutral operants, and it involves “responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated”, thus in a way continuing what is the status quo. (McLeod, 2007). The second set of operants is known Reinforcers, which can be further divided into positive reinforces and negative reinforces. Under the positive reinforcers operant, Skinner focuses on how certain positive responses as well as rewards from the environment will maximally increase the probability of a particular behavior being repeated, and also that action can be reinforced or strengthened. “In situations that reflect positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of something, such as praise or a direct reward.” (Cherry, n. d.). Thus, in a way, it is clear that positive reinforcement will strengthen a particular behavior of the individual and facilitate him/her to repeat it again, as they found good rewards for it. For example, in an organizational environment, if the management team or HR personnel give financial rewards to an employee for completing a particular type of work or for reaching a particular target, it will be more likely that the employee will repeat his/her behavior or continue in the same vein in the future, thereby strengthening the behavior of completing the task or achieving the targets. On the other hand, Negative reinforcers involve the act of removal of adverse events and its related outcomes after response to the behavior bordered on negativity. “In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant.” (Cherry, n. d.). This act of removing or sideling the unpleasant reinforcers would prompt the individuals to avoid those behaviors, and in way strengthen that particular behavior. “Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience.” (McLeod, 2007). This can be illustrated using the example of how individuals will avoid certain actions and form a particular behavior, if they are imposed financial fines. For example, if an individual is fined heavily for a particular traffic violation like overspeeding, he/she will avoid that action and instead will try to form a behavior incorporating good and controlled driving skills. Apart from these two perspectives, there is a third operant as well known as Punishers or punishments. Punishers is the further extension of negative reinforcers because under this operant, if the responses from environment is not only negative but also punishes the individual for his/her behavior, then it totally eliminates the likelihood of that behavior being repeated, thus in a way implying that punishments normally weakens behavior. Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it. Like reinforcement, punishment can work either by directly applying an unpleasant stimulus like a shock after a response or by removing a potentially rewarding stimulus, for instance, deducting someone’s pocket money to punish undesirable behavior. Skinner’s operant conditioning in relation to Watson and Tolman’s perspectives As discussed above, Skinner believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. When the theories or perspectives of Skinner are compared and contrasted with that of other famous Psychologists, John B Watson and Edward Tolman, it gives key perspective about Skinner’s theory of operational conditioning. By the 1920s, when John B. Watson had left academic psychology and other behaviorists were becoming influential by proposing new forms of learning other than classical conditioning, Skinner was regarded as the prominent among them. (McLeod, 2007). In the psychological circles, Skinner's views are considered to be slightly less extreme, when compared with that of Watson because of Skinner’s basic concept that humans will normally respond based on external observable behavior. That is, Watson was of the view that using references to mental states is not the correct process, and so instead of holding private events to study behavior, he opined that psychological aspects needed to be studied by observing the behavior directly. This is in contrast to Skinner’s who used private events like Skinner’s box with animal experiments to study and come up with conclusions about human behavior. In the case of Edward Tolman, although he differed with Skinner in the aspect of stimulus and reinforcement, he had similar views with Skinner about the concept of intervening variable. That is, Tolman accepted Skinner's perspective that things going on inside the mind of living thing can mediate a link between, what is supposed to be carried out and the behavior that needs to be performed or carried out. (McLeod, 2007).Thus, when the perspectives of John B Watson and Edward Tolman are analyzed in relation to Skinner’s perspectives about operant conditioning and the related reinforcements, it provides profound and at the same time interesting thoughts. References Cherry, K. (n. d.). Introduction to Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm McLeod, S. (2007). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from: http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html Myers, D. G. (2011). Psychology. 10th edition. Worth Publishers Kitchener, R F. (2004). Bertrand Russell’s Flirtation with Behaviorism. Behavior and Philosophy. 32, 273-291 Lindsley, O R. (1991). From Technical Jargon to Plain English for Application. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 24 (3), 449-458. Morris, E K and Smith, N G. (2004). On the Origin and Preservation of Cumulative record in its struggle for Life as a Favored Term. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. 82 (3), 357–373 Schimelpfening, N. (2008). Behavior Therapy. Retrieved http://depression.about.com/od/psychotherapy/a/behaviortherapy.htm Skinner, B F. A Brief Survey of Operant Behavior. Retrieved http://www.bfskinner.org/brief_survey.html Boeree, C G. B. F. Skinner. Retrieved http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html Read More