Behavioral Psychology - Essay Example

Behavioral Psychology Behavioral Psychology There are two important concepts central to behavioral psychology; ic and Operant conditioning. These ideas lead to the practice of different changes in behavior like emotions, muscles and glands response, actions and thoughts, both results in learning but the processes are quite different. In classical conditioning, an association between an involuntary response and a stimulus is made while a connection between a voluntary behavior and a consequence occurs in operant conditioning. In addition, the learner is also rewarded with incentives in operant conditioning while classical conditioning does not involve such enticements (Razran, 1961). Nevertheless, classical conditioning is passive on the part of the student while operant conditioning requires an active participation of the learner in performing some action in order to be rewarded or punished. Today, teachers, parents, psychologists, animal trainers and many others utilize classical and operant conditioning for a variety of purposes. Classic conditioning also applies in animal training. A response called the conditioned response is associated with a stimulus that has never associated with the conditioned stimulus in the past. An unconditioned response refers to the original response to the unconditioned stimulus. The most cited example of classical conditioning is experiments with dogs. Dogs’ salivation in response to the unconditioned stimulus of smelling the food was the unconditioned response. The unconditioned response was the ringing of the bell associated with the conditioning stimulus when the bell rang every time the animal received the food (Boakes, 1984). This action repeats severally and with time, the dog learned to respond by salivating after associating the ringing of the bell with food. After the conditioning period had come to an end, the dog would respond by salivating when the bell was rung even in the absence of food. The food was the unconditioned stimulus; thus the conditioned stimulus became the ringing of the bell, and the conditioned response was the dog salivating. Although the unconditioned and conditioned responses are thought to be identical by scientists, it is evident that the salivating in the conditioned and unconditioned dogs had quality differences. Aversion therapy is a form of behavior therapy in which an aversive stimulus, causing a strong feeling of dislike is paired with an undesirable behavior in order to reduce or get rid of that behavior (Skinner, 1953). One of the treatments grounded in learning theory is aversion therapy, with a fundamental principle that under the right circumstances, all behavior can be learned, and undesirable behaviors can be unlearned. The goal of aversion theory is to decrease or eliminate undesirable behaviors. Changing a specific behavior itself is what the treatment focuses on, unlike insight-oriented approaches that produce change by focusing on uncovering unconscious motives. One of the practices that are being treated with aversion is smoking addiction``` Overwhelming a smoker with all negative aspects of smoking is one of the behavioral treatment attempts to make smoking extremely unpleasant to the smoker. The primary objective of this being to comfort feelings that many people get from smoking with a more repulsive consequences of tobacco use. One form of aversion that combines with frequent smoking involves the administration of an electric shock at each step of the smoking process. These include opening the cigarette pack, removing the cigarette from the pack and also moving the cigarette close to the mouth. Another common form of aversion therapy for smoking cessation is rapid smoking. This type involves puffing cigarettes every few seconds for several minutes while concentrating on the unpleasant feelings that emerge from smoking quickly. The smoker continues with the quick puff procedure until they begin to feel nauseated. The use of silver acetate is another method of the therapy which causes cigarettes to smell bad thereby barring the smoker. Nail biting is mostly considered to be a reaction to stress; children and adults use nail biting as a mechanism to relieve pent-up emotions (Skinner, 1953). As a life coach, one of the options I will use to help my client with the habit is to advise her to paint her nails with an intensively bitter-tasting polish. The next time her hand moves to the mouth, she will taste the awful bitterness and move her fingers away. Over time, she will always feel nauseous when she thinks of biting her nails as a result of consistently pairing nail biting with an aversive taste. As a life coach, I will encourage my client to exert self-control to tackle laziness. To increase the amount of self-control one has over workouts, one has to remove as many barriers and excuses as possible, this will make it easier to make the right decision. To help the client avert laziness, I will advise my client to put their gym clothes right over the alarm clock or phone every weekday before going to bed. Doing this will make the client have much easier time convincing him to put on the gym clothes and go for exercise for the six months period. Classic conditioning shapes many of society’s daily tasks. Most of the actions we do numerous times a day are a direct result of classic conditioning (Razran, 1961). This conditioning is voluntarily beneficial since it allows organisms to prepare for both good and bad events by developing expectations. In the event, when an animal first smells a new food, eats it and then gets sick. If the animal learns to associate the smell with the food, then it will quickly learn that the food creates a negative result and therefore not to eat it the next time. It is very useful in reading of children for example if a child does something wrong; then you present a negative stimulus by punishing them in a way. This action will lead to a decreased frequency of the undesired behavior. Positively, when the child does something you want them to do, and you praise them for action, this will lead to increased frequency of the desired behavior. Operant conditioning has a great significance in our daily life. The reinforcement got from behaving in a particular manner significantly affects our daily behavior for example students master course materials in order to attain better grades, acquire employment and for self-satisfaction (Boakes, 1984). People also go to work because of the money and other material and non-material benefits they regularly receive. In addition, company profits and employee productivity can often be increased by application of reinforcement principles in business operations. Positive reinforcement in the form of praise by supervisors can change the behavior of employees to boost their effectiveness in their jobs. For this reason, they can fill orders quickly, make more sales calls and whatever else they do in their job that can be measured and reinforced positively. In recent years, visceral responses to intestinal contractions and dilation of blood vessels have been controlled by applying operant conditioning techniques. This technique has helped in treating people with hypertension. Operant conditioning is also used in some forms of behavior modification to establish socially adaptive behavior (Razran, 1961). Nevertheless, the technique is used to help people change their smoking and drinking habits; this will help a person to achieve greater self-control. Another significance of this technique is that it can shape an appropriate behavior as desired. Human behavior is mostly due to the shaping of attitudes, language and values by others; the shaping method is used in humans and animals too. Among animals, it is used to teach the chicken to play a piano. Thus from this it is clear that both classical and operant techniques have immense possibilities of changing the behavior and quality of our lives. References Boakes, R. A. (1984). From Darwin to behaviorism: Psychology and the minds of animals. Razran, G. (1961). Recent Soviet phyletic comparisons of classical and of operant conditioning: Experimental designs. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology. doi:10.1037/h0043959 Skinner, B. F. (1953). Some contributions of an experimental analysis of behavior to psychology as a whole. American Psychologist. doi:10.1037/h0054118 Read More