Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Behaviorist theory essay
Principles of behaviourist theory
Behaviorist theory essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Behaviorist theory essay
Behavioral theories are outlined into four major categories. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishments, and negative punishments. Positive reinforcement is a term used to describe the increase in an approved behavior by introducing something an individual desires. An example of this would be, offering a child a piece of candy, for demonstrating good behavior at the store. Negative Reinforcement, is when you increase the rate of occurrence of pre-approved behavior, by taking away something troublesome about the experience. For example, if a child cries because they do not like their dinner, and the parents take it away, that is reinforcing the child’s negative behavior. Positive punishment, decreases the rate of occurrence
If a behavior is desirable, consequences called reinforcers are used to encourage the behavior in the future, via the process of reinforcement. Reinforcement can be positive (presenting reinforcing stimulus) or negative (removing a negative stimulus). However, if a behavior is undesired, a negative consequence can be used to discourage the behavior, through the process of either positive or negative punishment. In positive punishment, a negative consequence is presented after the undesired behavior occurs. When negative punishment it used the idea is the same “to discourage future display of undesired behavior,” but instead of presenting a negative stimulus, a desired stimulus is removed following the behavior.
The overall goal of science is to be able to gain an understanding of the phenomena being studied by conducting different scientific investigations that create knowledge that qualifies one or more of the three levels of understanding.
There are many things to learn from this article written by Donald Baer, Montrose Wolf, and Todd Risley. It is a very informing article in which you can learn about the current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. The seven dimensions mentioned are: applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, effective, and generality.
In my Behavioral Analysis class this semester, we were required to read several research articles detailing various studies conducted within the field of behavior analysis. As this is my major field of interest, I thought it both wise and prudent to share two of the more fascinating studies on my website. Behavior analysis is most commonly associated amongst the general public with rats and a laboratory setting. Pavlov’s conditioning and his dog salivating at the sound of a bell or rats being trained to press levers for food reinforcers most frequently come to mind when asked to give an example of behavior analysis’s capabilities. The field, however, is also extremely capable of creating lasting and effective treatments for people with developmental disorders and addiction.
The main subset of Applied Behavior Analysis is “Stimulus, Operant conditioning, positive reinforcement and punishment and consequences” Stimulus is events and the relationship it has on the Individual Behavior. The relationship of stimulus can be revealed through a method behavior analyst call the ABCs analysis. The more formal term for this method is called “Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence” analysis. The stimulus is represented by the antecedent (events prior to the occurred, behavior) and the Consequence. (Events that precedes a behavior). Behavior Analysis believes these are imperative to understanding behavior and the influence of events. Furthermore, the term operant conditioning behavior corresponds to the stimuli of the consequence. Moreover, the Consequence that precedes a behavior can be positive or negative. The significance of these stimuli is the ability to influence and affect the contingency of the individual target behavior.
Positive reinforcement works by presenting something positive to the person after a desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future (McAdams, 2009). An example of this could be when a child helps their mother with the dishes and the mothers rewards the child with ice cream. Negative reinforcement, is when a behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus (McAdams, 2009). An example of this could be when the light goes green at a traffic light, the car in front of a person does not move. The person hates when this happens and from experience knows that honking the car’s horn gets cars that are in front of them to go
It is with great pride and enthusiasm that I write to you today to express my intentions towards my future endeavors once graduating from your humble establishment with a degree in applied behavioral analysis. My intentions are to graduate from Saint Joseph 's University with a degree in applied behavioral analysis, then to proceed onto the next step in my career as a behavior specialist councilor, where I can help families through creating concrete goals and plans and models to measure these goals, as well as to ensure that parents are supplied with the resources required and an efficient team to help them.
In Psychology there are many different learning styles. One of the more famous learning styles is operant conditioning. In operant conditioning there are two major concepts; reinforcement and punishment. By using these two concepts, behaviors can be encouraged or reduce a certain behavior. Next would be the different schedules of reinforcement that effect how often a behavior is likely to continue. Lastly the article goes on to state how behaviors can be shaped using these and other various methods.
The core principles of Applied Behavior Analysis were seen in several of this weeks required readings, appearing in all or multiple sources. Their definitions varied in each reading, all providing more clarification upon the previous. The first term, applied, refers to the "commitment to affecting improvements" in the field. (Cooper 16) Baer, Wolf and Risley said that whether or not something is applied is determined "by the interest which society shows in the problems being studied." (Baer 92) Both sets of authors emphasize that importance of the practitioner taking ownership in dictating how important it is to change the designated behavior. Also, the importance the behavior holds in society, because many of them represent the clients
Out of positive reinforcement and punishment only the reinforcement was successful for my behaviour modification. I believe this was the case for a number of reasons but dominantly because the positive punishment had a lack of severity. The reason I came to this conclusion was because I realized in the case of positive reinforcement if I committed the operant response at least once my entire day of hard work would be ruined. When I made the switch to positive punishment I realized in the eventuality I performed the operant response I could just do the 50 push ups and be done with it. Upon comparison of my success and failure I reflected and realized if the punishment was more severe than 50 push ups I would not do it for actual fear and reluctance of doing the positive punishment. For example if the punishment was a 1000 push ups each repeated operant response I would most likely not bite my nails. I did enjoy the modified behaviour as my nails seemed fuller and less scarred but it was not long of an experiment enough so refraining from biting my nails was still a conscious action and took a lot of effort.
In second grade I was apart of a wild classroom. Their was a lot of chaos from all the young children. My teacher struggled to get everyone on task and to complete our work. After some time my teacher decided to make up a reward system (positive reinforcement). The children in the classroom were able to earn tickets for doing their homework, being respectful, and many other things. We were able to save these tickets and cash them in on fridays for treats, toys, or even sometimes extra recess. The teacher had a separate system for when we misbehaved. There were 3 colors you could earn everyday. If you weren’t on task, out of your seat, or just being disruptive she would change your color from green to yellow. If it happened again you got a red card and lost your tickets you earned for that day. This is a perfect example of positive punishment. It gave each child an opportunity to earn tickets for good behavior, and a warning system with the cards that possibly would lead to losing your earned tickets. Our teacher was using operant conditioning to produce a change in our
Positive punishment again adds to the factor influencing the behavior, but this time it is meant to decrease the number of times the behavior occurs (King, 2016). An example of positive punishment is yelling at a puppy for peeing on the carpet. The positive punishment in this situation is the addition of yelling at the puppy, resulting in a decrease of the puppy’s peeing behavior. Negative punishment is the taking away of a certain aspect from the factor influencing the behavior to decrease how often a behavior occurs (King, 2016). An example of negative punishment would be taking away bathroom privileges from students who use the bathroom as an excuse to wander around the school. This shows a privilege is being taken away (negative punishment) to decrease the behavior of skipping
Positive feedback is all about promoting change in the behavior. I was raised within a household that rely on negative feedback and punishment to promote good behavior. Sometimes I did reward my nephews for positive behaviors but it was not done continuously or in a way that would result in positive behavior change. I come to believe that negative reinforcement was the key to ameliorating bad behaviors until I took notice the positive feedback I was given minimizes the bad attitudes and behaviors of the children. They were getting along well and whenever I praise one the others wanted to get that praise also, I believe that motivate them to behave appropriately. For instance, when one did a good deed I would make all the other clap while saying “well done” or something positive. It was a very long process because children do not change their ways from one day to the next, I couldn’t say I was very patience but see them attempt to better themselves, was what motivate
First of all, I was highly interested in the concept and various factors that together make up positive reinforcement. I had a premise that I could do some experimental work on the three children for whom I baby-sit during the week after school. They leave school full of energy and it is my job to get them to complete a series of tasks before the end of the evening. I imagined that some positive reinforcement might get them on their way to handling their responsibilities in a timelier manner. My first step was to come up with a specific instrumental response that would produce reinforcement. This took no time at all because by far the most painfully difficult thing for me to do is get the children to sit down and do their homework. I then spoke specifically to each child and asked them what they would rather choose as an after school activity. They named video games, television, and going to play with other neighborhood children. I had expected these types of answers from the children and made them into the positive reinforcers that would be contingent on the children’s performance of the instrumental response; namely completing their homework. I explained to the children that if they behaved and finished their homework, then directly following they could spend an hour doing an activity of their choice.
B.F. Skinner is a major contributor to the Behavioral Theory of personality, a theory that states that our learning is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, modeling, and observation. An individual acts in a certain way, a.k.a. gives a response, and then something happens after the response. In order for an action to be repeated in the future, what happens after the response either encourages the response by offering a reward that brings pleasure or allows an escape from a negative situation. The former is known as positive reinforcement, the latter known as negative reinforcement (Sincero, 2012). A teenager who received money for getting an “A” is being positively reinforced, while an individual who skips a class presentation is being negatively reinforced by escaping from the intense fear and anxiety that would have occurred during the presentation.