Conditioning

Conditioning

Kelly Plank

PS124-04

Kaplan University

In psychology there are many types of methods that are different these methods are used to alter, control or change behavior. When using these methods there isn’t one particular one that is used or agreed on universally instead it depends on the situation and what there is to be gained from each particular method. The methods that I will discuss in this paper are Operant conditioning, positive punishment, negative punishment, positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

With operant conditioning we use this method as a system of reward and punishment in learning and behavior. Operant conditioning was created by B.F. Skinner, a behaviorist that believed a person’s internal thoughts and motivations could be useful when explaining a person’s behavior. Having reinforcement is a main concept with operant conditioning; the two main types of reinforcing methods are positive and negative. With positive reinforcement a behavior is followed by good or favorable events and outcomes. With negative reinforcement the unfavorable event or outcome is removed after behavior. An example of this could be is when an inmate follows the rules and gets a reward for good behavior in the form of praise or extra visitation rights. In this example the only problem may be with inmates that don’t care for the reward and in turn will not even try to behave in a favorable manner.

I mentioned positive and negative reinforcement, these are two methods also used in psychology. An example of a positive reinforcement would be like the inmates and good behavior rewards which add a reinforcing stimulus after the inmates carry out the preferred behavior which in turn will have them want to repeat the good behavior. If the inmate were to carry out good behavior and not receive a reward afterwards they may want to misbehave because of this and this is a downfall of this concept. A negative reinforcement example would be putting on a...