Operant Conditioning Essay

B.F. Skinner is often associated with behavioral psychology, it is Edward Thorndike who set the stage for field. Thorndike's Law of Effect (1901) that successful behaviors tend to be repeated and unsuccessful ones do not set the stage for modern theorists along with the work of Pavlov (1927). Thus we now know that reinforcement always increases the probability that a behavior will occur or be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Positive reinforcement involves providing a stimulus to increase behavior, most often through of the use of a reward like food or praise, whereas negative reinforcement typically involves the removal of an aversive stimulus, such as a noise or pain, to increase the probability that a behavior will occur or be repeated (Skinner, 1953). Negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment but the two techniques perform completely different functions. Whereas reinforcement, positive or negative, always increases the chance that the behavior preceding it will be repeated, punishment always decreases the probability that the behavior preceding its implementation will occur, not increase as in negative reinforcement (Skinner, 1953). Positive punishment, or punishment by application, involves the application of an aversive stimulus to decrease future behaviors from occurring, whereas negative punishment (punishment by removal) involves the removal of some positive stimulus or event with the intent of decreasing the reoccurrence of future behaviors (Skinner, 1953).

Most of us are not behavioral psychologists yet we apply these techniques quite often in our daily routines, especially when dealing with children. For instance, I recently had the pleasure of having to babysit my little five-year-old nephew, Edward (he hates to be called Ed). Edward is quite a mischievous little son of a gun and does not like to sit still. He is a whirlwind of activity. During our time together I needed Edward to sit still and watch the television for about an hour while I ironed some clothes in the other room. Edward was not thrilled about this, and it was very difficult to keep him sitting still.He was running all over the house, knocking things over, making noise, etc. I had a box of mini ice-cream sandwiches in the freezer, so I devised a plan. I put a clock on the top of the television and told Edward that if he would sit still every 10 minutes I would give him an ice cream sandwich. I told him where the hand on the clock would have to be before he could get the first one and he sat there like a little angel. Once the hand reached its position he yelled to me, I brought him a sandwich and he ate it. I showed him where the hand on the clock had to be for the next one and went back to ironing. This worked well for about 40 minutes, which was all the time I needed. One of the problems with reinforcements like this is that they lose their reinforcing value very quickly (after three or four sandwiches Edward was no longer excited about having the next one) but this positive reinforcement exercise to keep Edward in place served its purpose.

My mother is an expert at the use of negative reinforcement, and she knows very little about the difference between reinforcement and punishment. Every Wednesday is trash day at our home, and most people put their trash out on Tuesday evening. My mother is a stickler for getting things done early; my father, well he is much more laid back. If he were to put the trash by the curb just as the garbage man was pulling up in front of our place at 7:00 AM that is fine with him. Not so with my mother. Every Tuesday afternoon it started: "Are you going to get the trash out by morning dear?" she would ask first. "You remember that time in July of 1999 when you forgot to put the trash out and it stank up the garage all week? Boy I hope we don't.....