Within psychology, there are many major phenomena regarding how we learn. Learning is present in a human being’s day to day life and therefore is central to one's existence. A theory which is seen to involve associative learning is, ‘Operant Conditioning’. This assists a human or animal to make concordance in circumstances that they have control of. Instrumental conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behaviour (Gazzaniga, learning, 2018). In addition, it is the principle where the consequences of an action determines the likelihood that will be performed in the future. The operant conditioning convention was established by B. F. Skinner (SimplyPsych, 2018), however, his theory was conducted from Edward Thorndike’s law of effect (1898). Also known as, ’Thorndike’s puzzle box’. Thorndike began his discovery by putting a cat in a box with food placed outside it. The cat tried several times to get out and eventually stands on a lever, accidentally. This opens the door and lets the cat eat the food. The cat is placed back in the box and quickly learns the consequence of pressing the lever (Gazzaniga, learning, 2018). This is a demonstration of a positive reinforcement. In operant conditioning, consequences always lead to reinforcement or punishment which is what alters human behaviours, based on the response gotten from an action.
A major phenomenon when it comes to psychology are the consequences radiated from reinforcing a behaviour. Reinforcement is a consequence which always emits an increase in response rate. One aspect of reinforcement is positive reinforcement. This major phenomenon in operant condition involves the application of a reinforcing stimulus which ultimately strengthens the probability rate that a behaviour will arise in the future. Positive reinforcement is used in life consistently and this method is carried out frequently to alter human behaviour in such a way that they will repeat their behaviour again, due to the positive reinforcing consequences (Gazzaniga, learning, 2018). Examples of doing this may be a reward or praise. The reward will inflate the chances of an action occurring repeatedly, because the human performing the task, is attaining something out of doing it. For instance, when a child completes their homework on time, they receive a chocolate bar. This alters their behaviour into doing this more often to gain the same, positive, consequence. Furthermore, positive reinforcement is most effective straight after the behaviour conducted, due to the association of that specific action paired with the repercussion. Positive reinforcement is one of the major aspects of instrumental conditioning and is often used to alter human behaviour by associative learning. Moreover, another operant conditioning reinforcement technique is negative reinforcement. This is still increasing behaviour. However, this is in the sense that a behaviour is strengthened by the use of avoiding or removing a negative outcome rather than using reward incentives. Negative reinforcement is very much used in everyday life circumstances to escape unwanted stimuli. An example of this when altering human behaviour is picking up a crying baby. Lifting the baby to escape and avoid the crying sound is negatively reinforcing the child, as it will continuously cry more until they are picked up again. Negative reinforcements can create this cycle because once a person discovers how to escape an unpleasant stimulus, they will pursue the same tactic to avoid it again in the future. Negative reinforcement is a major phenomenon of instrumental conditioning and is often used to fine-tune human behaviour in order to escape aversive stimuli as part of natural human instinct.
Another major phenomenon within psychological studies, in terms of operant conditioning, is punishment. Punishment is a consequence in which a decrease in behaviour is transmitted. This works in the way of presenting a negative consequence after an unsought behaviour is displayed, making the likelihood of the specific behaviour being exhibited again, slim (Gazzaniga, learning, 2018). Positive punishment is used frequently to alter humans actions to deter people from carrying out unwanted behaviour. Within positive punishment, there is an unpleasant consequence applied, for instance, a child may be talking to their friend in class and interrupting a teacher. The teacher could then reprimand this child in front of all the pupils and embarrass them. This is the application of an undesirable consequence to the unwanted behaviour and therefore is less likely for the child to behave in this manner again. Furthermore, instrumental conditioning also withholds the key concept of negative punishment (Psychestudy, 2017). Negative punishment centres around emitting a decrease in unsatisfactory behaviour. Achieving this decline, negative punishment consists of the removal of a positive stimulus. This is often used in life situations to alter behaviour, for example, a child may hit another peer. This represents the unwanted behaviour. Then the negative reinforcement results in being removed and sitting out of their favourite activity. The wall between the child and partaking in the fun activity is the action of hitting their peer and therefore the consequence of this will be associated with the removal of something pleasant. This will create a decrease in the undesired behaviour, meaning negative reinforcement is extremely useful when it comes to altering human behaviour. Like the reinforcement concept, punishment is most effective straight after the bad behaviour is carried out, this is so one can associate clearly the cause of the punishment.
Shaping is another key concept within instrumental conditioning, also conducted by B.F. Skinner (Psychestudy, 2017). Shaping consists of having an ultimate target behaviour but taking gradual steps toward it. It is the practice of rewarding behaviour that becomes closer and closer to the target. Within this operant conditioning phenomenon, differential reinforcement of successive approximations is used. This concept can be carried out to alter and develop human behaviour. An example of this could be when a baby is showing development signs of starting to walk. Firstly, the baby learns to pull itself up from the ground, after this, they learn to stand up and finally, the baby begins walking movements. Each stage of these steps are reinforced so that the child associates these actions with pleasant consequences and therefore, likely to develop more and more.
In conclusion, the concept of operant conditioning seems to be relevant to almost all aspects of life and learning, from childhood to adulthood, and can assist in altering human behaviour in real life scenarios. Using operant conditioning techniques helps people learn and in turn control the way they conduct themselves through punishment and reinforcement phenomena. This can be seen as particularly important in child development, as simple techniques can be implemented to control innate desires and deep pleasures leading to safe passage through adolescence and adulthood.