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Compare and contrast the theories of classical and operant conditioning
The importance of classical and operant conditioning theory
Compare and contrast the theories of classical and operant conditioning
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Behaviourist such as John B. Watson believes that our live style is influenced by our own environment, that what we are, is as a result of what we have learnt from the environment. He presumed that, our learning from the environment is through two main behaviourist processes called classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning includes learning by association supported by the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, who associated the salivating of the dog for food to the ringing of the bell, thereby conditioning the dog in learning new behaviour (natural response and neutral stimuli).
Operant conditioning linked to B F Skinner believes that animals learn from the consequence of their actions, through this conditioning our responses are
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The three stages of Moral development are based on the same basic format of the cognitive theory. They are; Pre-Moral, Heteronomous morality and Autonomous morality. The first stage is the Pre-Moral or Pre-judgemental (0-3years) is roughly concurring with sensorimotor and pro-operational stages of the Piaget’s cognitive theory. In this stage children have poor understanding of the concept of rules and are incapable of working out complicated mental operations and have no idea of morality, internal and external. The second stage is the heteronomous morality or Moral realism (4-10years). Children of this stage have understanding of the concept of rules, but it is seen as external and immutable. Children of this stage obey rules generally because they are there and they also evaluate wrong doing in terms of outcome, not in the intention of the wrongdoer. In relating to the Cognitive theory, this stage agrees with the pre-operational and concrete operational …show more content…
Kohlberg agrees with Piaget’s (1932) theory of moral development in principle. He developed Piaget’s story-telling techniques but in a diverse way. Kohlberg interest is in the reasons children gave to answer when asked questions. E. g, who makes the rules? His samples comprised of 72 Chicago boys aged 10-16yeas, 58 of whom were followed up at 3 yearly intervals for 20 years (Kohlberg,
Skinner argues that ‘learning is accelerated by reinforcement: a stimulus that increases the probability of a response’ called ‘operant conditioning’ and it is not reliant on what triggered the response but...
The first six years of a child’s life is a window of opportunity when a child unquestionably accepts the virtues modeled by his or her parents (“8 Ways to Raise a Moral Child | Ask Dr. Sears”). In their first few years, children believe that their behaviors are right or wrong according to what a parent tells them. By five years old, a child begins to adopt their parent’s values, whether they are noble or not. Merseault’s childhoo...
moral development. In these stages, Kohlberg concentrates on the reasons why people act the way they do; not the way they think about their actions or what action they take, but the reasoning behind their actions.
The moral development of children can depend on many factors. Parenting and upbringing of the child, their environment, social environment, gender, and race are all aspects that can contribute to how a child develops their moral standards and expectations. Many psychologist have tried for several years to develop a theory to how morality is developed. One in particular is Lawrence Kohlberg (1958), his moral development theory is based on the cognitive development of children and it is thought that moral development proceeds and changes as cognitive development occurs (Arnett, 2012). Kohlberg’s moral development theory consist of 3 different levels each containing 2 stages altogether making 6 stages of moral development, as Kohlberg conducted
My observation at the elementary school gave me a better understanding of the behavioral and cognitive characteristics that are typical of middle childhood. I saw how highly they value the stability given by rules, and the ways in which they interact among the social structures. I also noticed the seven year old boy have incredible self-control and the way his friends empathized with him afterwards. Finally, I witnessed the behavioral aspect of Piaget’s concrete operational stage in action.
Ivan Pavlov developed a theory called classical conditioning which proposes that learning process occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus. Classical conditioning involves placing a neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex like associating the food with the bell in Pavlov experiment. In classical conditioning, behavior is learnt by association where a stimulus that was originally neutral can become a trigger for substance use or cravings due to repeated associations between those stimuli and substance use (Pavlov, 1927).
Pavlov’s theory is known has classical conditioning ‘He is remembered for the salivating dogs which illustrates very usefully the central behaviourist idea that behaviour can be predicted, measured and controlled, and that learning a matter of stimulus and response (Wallace 2007:97).’
The strength of classical conditioning is that it can help to explain all aspects of human behavior. Any of behavior can broke down into stimulus-response association, so that according to the classical conditioning, conditioned stimulus will lead conditioned response to occur, then the scientist can observe and determine the behavior (McLeod, 2014). In the case of Pavlovian conditioning, he found that when the conditioned stimulus (bell) was paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) was presented to the dog, it would start to salivate. After a number of repeated this procedures, Pavlov tried to ring his bell by its own...
Lawrence Kohlberg conducted research on the moral development of children. He wanted to understand how they develop a sense of right or wrong and how justice is served. Kohlberg used surveys in which he included moral dilemmas where he asked the subjects to evaluate a moral conflict. Through his studies, Kohlberg observed that moral growth and development precedes through stages such as those of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. He theorized that moral growth begins at the beginning of life and continues until the day one dies. He believed that people proceed through each stage of moral development consecutively without skipping or going back to a previous stage. The stages of thought processing, implying qualitatively different modes of thinking and of problem solving are included in the three levels of pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional development. (2)
What is Skinner’s Operant Conditioning? Skinner was the first to discuss operant conditioning. McLead (2007) explained that an operant condition means that using reinforcements given after a desired response could change behavior. There were three types of responses that can follow the behavior. Neutral operants, reinforces, and punishers were the three types of responses. According to McLead (2007), Skinner invented a box with levers and lights to test his theory. He placed a hungry rat inside where the rat learned to press the levels for different responses. One level would give it a piece of food and the rat would not receive food when the light was off. This box demonstrated the shaping of behaviors through operant conditioning.
The Theory of moral development was founded by the psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. He argued that starting from infancy extending throughout adulthood, we develop a moral compass that guides us through our life. Each moral judgment can be categorized into three levels, pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, and post-conventional morality, with each level encompassing two stages. As we grow older and gain new experiences, we begin to view the world differently and the moral reasoning for our choices evolves.
In my reaction paper I will discuss B.F. Skinners theory operant conditioning and the ways he tested it out on animals, how it relates to humans, and how I can relate operant conditioning to my own personal life.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development: the nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
In addition to identify with their parents, preschool-age children are developing locomotion, language skills, curiosity, imagination, and the ability to set goals. Initiative versus guilt explains that children begin to move around more easily and vigorously and as their genital interest awakens, they adopt an intrusive head-on mode of approaching the world. Although they begin to adopt initiative in their selection and pursuit to set goals. The conflict between initiative and guilt becomes the dominant psychosocial crisis of the play age. The challenge of this stage must engage to their surrounding including people outside the family. On the other part the Failure of this stage experience guilt at failing to meet the expectations of the parent and other. Also according to Jean Piaget’s on Cognitive theory at his Preoperational stage, memory or remembering events/objects start at the same time as language. But during this stage, children have not yet developed logical thinking necessary to do specific operations. Also in his theory include that children use only semiotic thinking (using signs and symbols in language). And this stage begin to understand the relationship between an object and the word that represents it quickly discover the
According to Kohlberg, individuals progress through a series of stages in the evolution of their sense of justice and in the kind of reasoning that they utilize to make moral judgments (Feldman, R., 2013, p. 426). His work modified and expanded from Jean Piaget’s previous work to form a theory of cognitive development that explained how pre-adolescent children develop moral reasoning (Cherry, K., 2014, October 12). Kohlberg’s theory of moral development focuses on children’s ability to distinguish right from wrong based on their perception. His theory claims that individuals progress through the levels morality in a fixed order and