The Learning Theory Approach in Psychology - Essay Example

According to (Hill, 2001) the learning theory approach in psychology was mainly by the behaviorists who were influenced by the philosophy of empiricism- which argues that knowledge comes from the milieu via senses since humans are similar to a ‘tabula rasa’ (p.17). Therefore, humans are capable of learning new behavior. I would like to change my poor eating habits. This problem exists because I do not take the time to eat as I am always busy either working or studying. I want to change this behavior since it is not healthy and to change it will make me stronger, healthier, and more capable of handling my responsibilities.
To change this behavior, I will use positive reinforcement every time I sit to have a meal during the regular mealtimes as buying something nice for myself after a week of successful, healthy eating. Negative reinforcement will be used for skipping meals where I will have to prepare my own meal and eat it. I will set the alarm for mealtimes to help me with stimulus generalization and discrimination.
By following this procedure, extinction will occur for the previous behavior and be replaced by the new behavior.
After a week of following the program, it was successful. However, it was not easy to maintain the program but I now have good eating habits without skipping meals. I managed this because I was resilient in following up with the program through positive and negative reinforcement.