PSYC 6717 Operant Conditioning discussion
Discussion: Operant Conditioning
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Throughout your life, you have been conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in certain ways. This is known as operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the type of learning in which the consequences of a behavior influence whether an individual will act in the same way in the future.
Even if there was not a clear behavior plan, the principles of operant conditioning have helped shape your life. In operant conditioning, you learn the relationship between your own behavior and reinforcing or punishing consequences from your environment. You may also learn conditions (antecedents) where consequences are more or less likely to occur.
For this Discussion, you will analyze the fundamental principles of operant conditioning and how it has impacted your life. Additionally, you analyze how behavioral psychological theory (e.g., antecedents, reinforcements, punishment) is applied to condition behavior. As you read this week’s Learning Resources, try to identify times in your life when operant conditioning clearly played a part in your learning.
To Prepare
- Consider how terminology of operant conditioning relates to specific behaviors.
- Think about how your parents reinforced or punished you when you were growing up, and how those acts influenced how you behaved.
- Consider how situations in your life today contribute to your behavior. Are you more or less likely to do something when a certain person is around?
- Review the interactive media in the Learning Resources, “Operant Conditioning Terms.”
By Day 4 of Week 1
Post a description of a scenario that illustrates the application of operant conditioning in your life and explain how behavioral theory (e.g., antecedents, reinforcements, punishment) was applied to condition behavior in the scenario you posted. Explain how the antecedent condition facilitated or inhibited the target behavior discussed.
Read your colleagues’ postings.
Note: For this discussion, you are required to complete your initial post before you will be able to view and respond to your colleagues’ postings. Begin by clicking on the To Participate in this Discussion link, then select Create Thread to complete your initial post. Remember, once you click on Submit, you cannot delete or edit your own posts, and cannot post anonymously. Please check your post carefully before clicking on Submit!
By Day 6 of Week 1
Respond to at least two colleagues’ posts in one of the following ways:
- Expand on each colleague’s explanation of how they applied behavioral theory to their scenario.
- Offer your perspective(s) on whether you agree or disagree with each colleague’s explanation of how the antecedent condition facilitated or inhibited the target behavior discussed.
Be sure to support your posts and responses with specific references to behavior-analytic theory and research. In addition to the Learning Resources, search the Walden Library and/or internet for peer-reviewed articles to support your posts and responses. Use proper APA format and citations, including those in the Learning Resources.
Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Note what you have learned and/or any insights that you have gained because of your colleagues’ comments.
When I was a kid, I loved having my friends over to play hide-and-seek in our unfinished basement that had all kinds of boxes and bins to crouch behind. However, when we were done, we would race upstairs off to our next adventure, forgetting to turn off the lights. My dad (who worked for the electric company) found this careless behavior unacceptable and created an informal intervention plan to reduce the frequency of the problem behavior. One morning after my dad discovered I had left the basement lights on overnight he initiated positive punishment by charging me one dollar to contribute to the electric bill. From that day forward, each time I left the basement lights on after playing, I was charged a dollar. I quickly learned to slow down and turn off the lights before leaving the basement, which has generalized to turning off lights and other electronics across multiple settings and has maintained throughout my adult life.
Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2007) discuss the three-term contingency, antecedent-behavior-consequence, as the basic unit of analysis of operant behavior. In this scenario, the antecedent condition was the excited and careless state elicited by playing with friends. The target behavior was leaving the basement lights on, and the consequence involved positive punishment which added a one dollar fine to decrease the frequency of the target behavior. The antecedent condition, or the excited state elicited by playing with friends, facilitated the the target behavior. The consequence helped me remember to slow down and turn off the lights to avoid the punishment.
Reference:
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.
