Behaviourism

As per the spec for the unit - you need to be able to explain the theory of operant conditioning as proposed by Burrhus Skinner and give an example of how the theory of operant conditioning can be applied in real life.

OPERANT CONDITIONING is a THEORY which attempts to explain one way in which we LEARN BEHAVIOURS through the mechanisms of REWARD & PUNISHMENT

How do you learn?

Before diving into the materials on this page, have a think about the question 'how do you learn?'. Does anything spring to mind? Reading the intro blurb above, what do you think reward and punishment mean? If you have children or pets, how do you get them to display the behaviours you want? ('sit' with a dog is a good example to think about...)

The theory of operant conditioning as proposed by B.F. Skinner belongs within an approach that we call BEHAVIOURISM.

Behaviourism became one of the most popular approaches within psychology because, unlike earlier ideas like Wilhelm Wundt's introspection or Freud's psychoanalysis, behaviourism focussed only on observable stimuli and behaviour making it more scientific (and therefore reliable) than previous theories.

Check out the timeline → and have a watch of the video below

Although B.F Skinner wasn't the founding father of the BEHAVIOURIST approach (that accolade goes to John Watson), his OPERANT CONDITIONING theory was (and still is) so influential that he's considered one of the KEY contributors to the approach

Have a read of the article linked below - it goes well beyond what we need but have a read through to get familiarised with some of the key terms

SimplyPsychology - Operant Conditioning

The name 'operant conditioning' might take some getting used to, but the idea behind it about how we learn is something we all already know and have experienced - we just need to attach the right labels to the right concepts!

REWARDS - a reward is something which INCREASES a behaviour

PUNISHMENTS - a punishment is something which REDUCES a behaviour

Think about it... when you start training a pet, you give it a treat when it displays the behaviour you want, for example 'sit'. Over time, the dog will learn to associate the behaviour (sitting down) with receiving a reward and so is keen to repeat the behaviour

On the other hand, if you're trying to get your dog to stop jumping on the sofa, you might punish it by shouting at it. Over time, the dog learns that if it jumps on the sofa, it will get shouted at and so reduces the behaviour.

Think about each of the following scenarios and see if you can come up with a suitable reinforcer (reward or punishment) to increase or decrease the behaviour. Don't worry about ethics for now, we're just talking hypothetically...

Trying to get your children to eat their veggies
Stopping your cat peeing on the carpet
Teaching your dog to give paw
Motivate yourself to do homework assignments

Skinner's investigations into learning through the mechanisms of reward and punishment led him to develop what's become known as the 'Skinner box'.

Using the Skinner box, Skinner was able to directly OBSERVE the impact of REWARD and PUNISHMENT on BEHAVIOUR in a HIGHLY CONTROLLED ENVIORNMENT

Skinner's work built on the Thorndike’s (1898) law of effect. Using a puzzle-chamber, Thorndike made the crucial discovery that behaviours which are followed by a positive outcome are likely to be repeated while behaviour followed by a negative outcome are much less likely to be repeated!

Key points

Burrhus Skinner developed the theory of operant conditioning
The theory built on Thorndike's Law of Effect which states that actions followed by pleasant consequences are likely to be repeated and vice versa.
Skinner took a very scientific approach to studying behaviour which helps to add validity to his theories
According to operant conditioning theory, behaviours can be learned and unlearned (reinforced or reduced) through the mechanisms of reward and punishment
Rewards help to reinforce behaviours - such as a dog treat or pocket money for doing chores
Punishments reduce behaviours - for example shouting at your dog or grounding your children when they misbehave

activity

Your task is to write up a summary of the contribution of B.F. Skinner in the development of operant conditioning theory.

You should aim for at least 150 words and include examples of both reward and punishment in action in every day life.

Try to include, in your own words, all of the key points above as well as any terms in bold throughout this page.

That's All folks!

What we've got here is a very basic overview of operant conditioning. Of course, there's much more to learn for those who want to! Below this point you'll find additional information which isn't required but would be useful if you're planning on taking on level 6 psychology (or beyond).

If you're happy with what you know, feel free to continue to the next page where we're taking a look at the relatively modern field of 'Positive Psychology'

Positive Psychology →

Reinforcement vs punishment

positive vs negative

These are fairly tricky to wrap your head around. The key is to remember that positive means adding something and negative means taking something away.

Apart from that, it's a case of reading and re-reading and looking at examples until it makes sense.

From the scenarios in the activity earlier on, you may have realised that there's more than one way to approach each of the problems. This is where the idea of positive and negative reinforcers come in - positive and negative here don't mean 'good' and 'bad' they mean ADDING SOMETHING or TAKING SOMETHING AWAY.

We can have both positive and negative reinforcement. In positive reinforcement we receive something we consider a reward, like a treat! In negative reinforcement we remove something bad, like 'tell me the answer and I'll remove the thumb screws'

Similarly, on the punishment side it can be positive (add a punishment) for example, getting put in prison for assault. On the other hand, negative punishment is where we take away something positive, for example 'if you don't do your homework, I'm cancelling Netflix'.

Examples of Operant Conditioning

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to receive praise or promotions. More examples of operant conditioning in action include:

After performing in a community theater play, you receive applause from the audience. This acts as a positive reinforcer, inspiring you to try out for more performance roles.
You train your dog to fetch by offering him praise and a pat on the head whenever he performs the behavior correctly. This is another positive reinforcer.
A professor tells students that if they have perfect attendance all semester, then they do not have to take the final comprehensive exam. By removing an unpleasant stimulus (the final test), students are negatively reinforced to attend class regularly.
If you fail to hand in a project on time, your boss becomes angry and berates your performance in front of your co-workers. This acts as a positive punisher, making it less likely that you will finish projects late in the future.
A teen girl does not clean up her room as she was asked, so her parents take away her phone for the rest of the day. This is an example of a negative punishment in which a positive stimulus is taken away.

project pigeon

Project Pigeon Wiki

A slightly bizarre but nevertheless true use case for operant conditioning came about during WWII. In a bid to develop more accurate missiles, B.F. Skinner was awarded military funding to see if operant conditioning could be used to train pigeons to guide missiles!

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