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Strength and weaknesses of the operant conditioning
Strength and weaknesses of the operant conditioning
Strength and weaknesses of the operant conditioning
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Introduction Have you ever been annoyed with the crunching sound of ice by someone who is addicted to chewing ice? However, I did and it’s annoying to hear the sound of someone chewing ice. There are some people that crunch on ice cubes all day long and every day. They even get up in the middle of the night to chew ice. However, I am one of those people that are addicted to chewing ice and I cannot even stop that behavior. I love chewing ice because I like the texture and how if feel in my mouth; I no right that is much wired. In this paper I will be explaining how I started chewing ice and the learning theories that help stop me from chewing ice.
Behavior
The behavior that I am addicted to and want to stop is chewing ice. I started chewing ice when I was six years old and since then I could not stop. I always have ice drinks with me where I go then after I
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Also, it is referred to as response, stimulus conditioning. However, punishment is the moderation of any behavior that adverse stimulus (positive punishment) and a pleasant stimulus (negative punishment). For example, chewing ice and getting that reward that you want is an example of a positive punishment. Also, chewing ice and getting a privilege taken away is for example of a negative punishment. A punishment is determined by the reduction in behavior, if the effected behavior does not decrease, then it does not consider a punishment. The learning theory that will help my situation is the operant conditioning theory; it will help motivate me in my addiction of chewing ice. Also, when I do not chew ice that day, then I will reward myself with something sweet. Whenever I start chewing ice, then I will not be rewarded and this is a negative reinforcement. According to Skinner a behavior that is no longer followed was a reinforcing stimulus runs the risk of
Habits are choices that one continues to do repeatedly without actually thinking about them. Habits start with a decision, but they eventually become automatic. One can probably think about things we do every day that we wish we did less of, perhaps like binging Netflix, constantly checking social media, or snacking when not being hungry. If one can understand how habits are triggered, one can learn how to overcome them. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and “Rat Park” by Lauren Slater will reveal the main strategies to recognize and overcome habits. Angie Bachman, a women who developed a gambling habit due was well aware of her habits, but she continued to drag herself into debt, resulting in losing all that she owned and getting sued by
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
(Biography.com, 2014) Skinner believed that the best way to understand behaviours was through looking at the causes and consequences. He called this approach Operant Conditioning. (McLeod, 2014) Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow responses. The first one being neutral operant 's, whereby the response from the environment will have no affect on the probability of the behaviour being repeated. Second type he says is reinforcer’s, whereby the response from the environment can affect the probability of the behaviour being repeated depending on the reinforcement being a positive or negative one, through this behaviours can be learned or unlearned. Third type Skinner mentioned was responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated, therefore punishment is weakening the
McCrady, B S., Epstein, E., Cook, S, Jensen, N K., Ladd, B O.; (Sep, 2011). Psychology of Addictive Behaviors; Vol 25(3); 521-529. Doi: 10.1037/a0024037
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.
My addiction to nicotine progressed from casual social smoking to consuming two packs a week. Although I’ve only been smoking for about one year, I had to quit before my addiction became much stronger. Like most smokers, I’ve tried to quit cold turkey on many occasions, but the mood and the will power lasts only until my synapses (nerve endings) start screaming, crying, and pleading with my conscious for a cigarette. The intendment of my quest was to discern the influences on my smoking habit and to curb the physical and psychological addiction through the implementation of specific reinforced behaviors. Positive reinforcers make me smoke, and negative reinforcers prevent me from smoking. By identifying positive reinforcements, I learned to quit smoking.
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).
When one is addicted to something, whether it be physical or pshychological, they cannot control how they use it therefore become heavily dependent on the substance to cope with every day life. There is a fine line where a habit may develop into an addiction. The use of substances or the engagement in activities can occur without any significant problems whatsoever, however some may suffer and experience damaging and harmful psychological and/or physical effects when their habbit develops into an addiction. A habit is a choice, where one has a choice and ability to stop. There are no psychological or physical effects here, as the person is still in control of the situati...
B.F Skinner developed operant conditioning."The consequences of behavior determine the probability that the behavior will occur again" (Skinner). It's the theory that behavior is determined by the consequences following afterward, making it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again. For example a young boy hitting a younger sibling repeatedly without consequences , would cause the behavior to become a habit. If the boy faced consequences he would be less likely to repeat the
So, it is clear that addiction is all around us and can attack anyone of us at any given time. Even studies conducted show that people neglect to speak around their dependency for two primary reasons. Foremost, because people do not comprehend, or they bear a total misconception to their addiction, that they do not realize that addictions can be critical to their overall wellness. Moreover, second, many people believe being an addict will never happen to them, but, in reality, most addictions start off as simple little habits. Such as starting with one drink after dinner and before you know it you are drinking several drinks a day. However, one does not opt to be addicted to a substance, because addictions are physical defects in the brain, a disease, and not one’s choice.
The goal of this paper is to assist the reader in understanding the process of this addiction and possible treatment plans.
Addiction is a commonly used word that is used in a negative way. Addiction is defined by WebMD as a disease that affects your brain and behavior. The site WebMD.com provides people with important information about health. We as a class were given this simulation to participate in, which is different than most simulations. While going through this simulation I could understand what people truly go through in their life to obtain their negative habits of drugs. My feelings/thoughts going into this simulation were it was going to be easy to do since it was only adding ice cubes to any drink I had. Another feeling/thought that I had was it is going to be different because I do not have any ice cubes in my cold beverages typically. Throughout the
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.
Through various observations and assumptions, there have been conversations on whether or not overconsumption of food is an addiction. However, many have come to the conclusion that food is an addiction if it is overconsume excessively than it is necessary for an individual’s diet. Nevertheless, food addiction can create health issues that can affect an individual’s body. Even though, many individual may have such knowledge of overconsumption of food; however, many may choose to ignore the consequences that comes with food addiction. Becoming a food addict is harmful and dangerous to an individual’s health.
My parents know that soda makes my stomach much bigger and they motivated me to change this habit. I used to drink a lot soda with chips, french fries, chicken and pizza. Something important that made me find out is, when we people like something, then, continuously start eating the same food for a very long time until we start disliking them. Since, I have drank soda for a long time, now I feel the same taste and the taste became old to me. My parents motivation and own realization made me accomplishing this habit. I believe, Human are creatures of habit. Overtime, We buy the same foods from the same grocery store, prepare the same recipes over and over. But, if we are serious about eating healthier and losing weight, then, it is possible to change those bad eating habits until it is too late. In order to maintain a healthy behavior, first one should start to prepare for it. However, in order to achieve these goals of health and fitness is really about involving in healthy behaviors on a daily routine basis. It does not matter how small the habit is, over time they can have a huge effect on an individual’s health. Therefore, we have to be serious about changing our lifestyle in order to achieve the goal.