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Behavioural psychology developed by skinner
Essays on bf skinner behavioral theory
Behavioural psychology developed by skinner
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The psychologist that I choose to write about is B. F. Skinner. B. F. Skinner full name is Burrhus Frederic Skinner, he was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Pennsylvania and died on August 18, 1990 in Massachusetts.
B. F. Skinner attended Harvard University to study psychology after failing to become a professional writer. While attending Harvard, Skinner was known for being smart, friendly, and helpful to others. Skinner wanted to study more on behavior and became famous for what is known as operant conditioning or Skinner Box.
The Skinner Box was used to conduct experiments using lab rats in attempts to modify behavior using positive and negative reinforcement. Skinner found it more productive to study
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behavioral and mental event. He believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences, Skinner decided to call this approach Operant Conditioning. Operant conditioning changed the way behavior is viewed with using positive and negative reinforcements as defined: Positive Reinforcement is a stimulus that strengthens the responses that precede them.
Negative Reinforcement is a stimulus that helps avoid aversive stimuli or response by strengthening other responses. This type of reinforcement can cause escapism or avoidance learning.
Punishment is a procedure by which the application or removal of Stimulus decreases the strength of a behavior. There are 2 types of Punishment. Positive Punishment is a procedure in which the application aversive Stimulus decreases the strength of preceding behavior. Negative punishment is a procedure in which the removal of Stimulus (reinforcing stimulus) decreases the strength of preceding behavior (negative or undesired behavior). Extinction is defined as behavior being extinguished or stops occurring because the behavior is no longer being reinforced.
The behavior can be reinforced or extinguished by fixing a schedule of interval. There are 2 types of intervals: Continuous Reinforcement Schedule - In which the reward or punishment follows the behavior every time the behavior
occurs. Intermittent Reinforcement Schedules - There are 4 types of intermittent Reinforcement schedules: Fixed Interval - In this type of schedule the reinforcer or punishment is enforced or available after a fixed period of time. The time is fixed, and the number of times behavior occurring during that interval does not lead to immediate reinforcing or punishing. Variable Interval - In this type of schedule the reinforcer or punishment is enforced or available at a varying period of time. The varying time is usually the average of the total time in which reinforcement or punishment is available. Fixed Ratio - In this type of schedule the reinforcer or punishment is enforced or available after a fixed number of times the behavior has occurred. The reinforcer or punishment is dependent on the fixed number of responses or behavior. Thus, the rewarding or punishing will increase or decrease depending upon it. Variable Ratio - In this type of schedule the reinforcer or punishment is enforced or available after a variable number of times the behavior has occurred. The varying number is usually the average of the total number of times the behavior or response must occur.
According to Skinner’s theories, “Reinforcement does not strengthen the response instance that produces the reinforcer.” Rather, reinforcement can increase the likelihood that a comparable response may occur within the future. For one bottom-line, “behavior is not caused by something that has not yet happened.” Similar to operant conditioning, “the emission of a response reflects past conditioning, so the response occurs because similar responses were reinforced earlier, not because it will be reinforced later.” Skinner agreed that the “initial high response rate seen in extinction sessions exemplified this important aspect of operant conditioning” (Iversen, 1992, pp. 1325-1327). Theoretically, Skinner identified two aspects of reinforcement, one is the “pleasing effect of reinforcing stimuli, the other is their strengthening action.” Furthermore, Skinner emphasized that “feeling pleased by an event does not necessarily make a person want to repeat the respons...
Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner was born on March 20, 1904, and raised in the small town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. As a child, Skinner established an interest in building and inventing things. As he attended Hamilton College, B.F. Skinner developed a great passion for writing, attempting to become a writer. He did not succeed so therefore, inspired by the writings of Watson and Pavlov, two years later, Skinner decided to attend Harvard University to study psychology.
Operant conditioning is a kind of conditioning, which examines how often a behavior will or occur depending on the effects of the behavior (King, 2016, pg. ). The words positive and negative are used to apply more significance to the words reinforcement or punishment. Positive is adding to the stimulus, while negative is removing from the stimulus (King, 2016). For instance, with positive reinforcement, there is the addition of a factor to increase the number of times that the behavior occurs (King, 2016). An example of positive reinforcement is when a child is given an allowance for completing their household chores. The positive reinforcement is the allowance which helps to increase the behavior of doing chores at home. In contrast with negative
De Luca, R. V., & Holborn, S. W. (1992). Effects of a variable-ratio Reinforcement Schedule
Alternately, a reinforcement schedule is a pattern of provided reinforcement to an organism following a specified amount of time between receiving reinforcement. For example, a mouse with a fixed ratio schedule will receive a piece of cheese for every time the mouse performs a trick. Similarly, the roommate will be rewarded with a single choice of an unhealthy meal once a week for every successful week he only eats healthy food. The reward for the roommate is the reinforcement; the once a week opportunity to receive the reward is the pattern, as well as the specified amount of time between receiving reinforcement; and lastly the target behavior is the response. However, when comparing and contrasting the roommate and mouse, it is important to understand the roommate’s pattern of reinforcement is considered a fixed interval schedule, and the mouse’s is a fixed ratio schedule. This is because there 's a finite amount of time between when the roommate can receive the reward, whereas the mouse can perform as many responses in order to receive an equal amount of
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B.F. Skinner, was one of the most respected and influential psychologists in the twentieth century. Growing up in a rural area in Pennsylvania with around two thousand people, Skinner, along with his brother Edward, were forced to use their imagination to keep themselves entertained. At a young age, Skinner liked school. Once he graduated, he attended Hamilton College in New York where he received a B.A. in English literature. After receiving his degree he attended Harvard where he would receive his Ph.D. and invent the “Skinner Box”, and begin his experimental science in studying behavior. He called his study, “radical” behaviorism. After college, he would marry, and have two children. In 1990, he met his fate when he was diagnosed, and ultimately died from leukemia.
B. F. Skinner died in 1990. He is stilled looked upon today as one of the most influential behaviorailists. His work is still studied and revered for it's genius. Skinner was an independent thinker who studied everyone, including himself.
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.
Shaping involves reinforcing a target behavior by using operant conditioning to reward a positive behavior and prevent a negative behavior. This method was created by B.F Skinner, in which he reinforced a target behavior in the experimenting of rats to see if they will be able to push a lever. He used the principle of rewarding by giving the rats a piece of food each time they got closer to the lever. Shaping, also called "successive approximation," allows the subject of the experiment to set goals for itself when it has reached that successful approximation. Rewarding has its benefits because it is a sensitive procedure towards an act that helps shape a behavior. Shaping can also be used on humans, in laying emphasis on a positive behavior.
Behavior modification is based on the principles of operant conditioning, which were developed by American behaviorist B.F. Skinner. In his research, he put a rat in a cage later known as the Skinner Box, in which the rat could receive a food pellet by pressing on a bar. The food reward acted as a reinforcement by strengthening the rat's bar-pressing behavior. Skinner studied how the rat's behavior changed in response to differing patterns of reinforcement. By studying the way the rats operated on their environment, Skinner formulated the concept of operant conditioning, through which behavior could be shaped by reinforcement or lack of it. Skinner considered his discovery applicable to a wide range of both human and animal behaviors(“Behavior,” 2001).
Wilhelm Wundt was the first man to be called a psychologist without reference to a stronger interest. He established the first laboratory in the world that was dedicated to experimental psychology. He was considered to be the "Father of Experimental Psychology." He founded the modern science of psychology, and Wilhem Wundt knew just what he was doing.
Burrhus Frederic (B.F.) Skinner, an American behavioral psychologist, is best known for his experiments on changing behavior. With behavioral psychologists Pavlov and Watson as his inspiration, Skinner formulated his theory of operational conditioning. His idea of “shaping” behavior is prevalent in the parenting and teaching techniques of children and students.
Skinner’s theory operant conditioning is a theory that I feel most can say they agree with or they like the way he thinks. Speaking for myself I think his theory of operant conditioning is right on point. Although as I said in my discussion last week a lot of his theories and experiments were done on animals and not a lot done on humans and I think that plays a big part in his theory of why I agree and disagree with it. I only disagree because of the simple fact that humans are completely different from animals, obviously. What I do agree with in his theory are the positive and negative reinforcements, and the positive and negative punishments because although those were tested on animals as well a lot of that can relate to humans and how we act as far as our behavior. In my own opinion of his theory I feel like his operant conditioning would work rather well on children. I know for instance as positive reinforcement for my son I will give him a snack that he loves if he doesn’t act like a wild monkey in the store. Therefore, I see it working better on children rather than adults. In the video I watched from week 5 of operant conditioning in the first video he talks about how the bird received a reward every time the bird pecked or turned but he also says that this worked very well with the bird because every time he pecked and turn he didn’t get a reward each time only
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.
Personal examples of a behaviorist style of instruction are based on the widely renowned theory by B.F. Skinner, which in the classroom can be summarized by reinf...