Mental Health & Society Course - 201203500 - A Beginner's Guide to Classical and Operant Conditioning

This video was produced for a University Assignment. Module Code: 77111 Module Title: Psychology of Internet Behaviour Student Number: 201203500 SCRIPT: What makes some children scared of going to school? And what techniques do our bosses use to encourage better behaviour? Both of these situations can be explained through classical conditioning and operant or Instrumental conditioning which are two main types of learning. In this short video we will look at both of these learning types and identify the differences between one another. As stated by Andover learning is “A long term change in behaviour that is based on experience”. Let’s start by looking at Classical conditioning and how it came about. Originating from work carried out by Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov in 1902, it was found that an object or an event could trigger a certain response. He was able to show this by ringing a bell when a dog was being fed to create the response of salivation. By repeating this process, the dog associated the bell, with the food which made the dog begin to salivate when the bell was being rung as it expected to be presented with the food. In behaviourist terms, the bell which was originally a neutral stimulus, meaning it wouldn't produce a response had now become a conditioned stimulus as it produced a conditioned response in the form of salivation. This then lead to the discovery of Classical Conditioning. Let’s look at this in a modern day situation. If a child goes to school and is bullied, they are more likely to associate school with fear. In this case the school has changed from a neutral stimulus to a conditioned stimulus and the association of the conditioned stimulus to fear generated the conditioned response which would be the child not wanting to go to school. Thus classical conditioning occur. The other learning type we will talk about is operant conditioning. The origin of operant conditioning came about a few years after Pavlov introduced classical conditioning. Many other renowned psychologists carried out further research into Pavlov’s findings and though the likes of John B. Watson agreed with the research, others such as Edward Thorndike and Burrhus Frederick Skinner, more commonly known as B.F. Skinner, challenged the theory. They believed classical conditioning could account for respondent behaviour, however it couldn't account for the majority of learning. Skinner presented his idea of operant conditioning, whereby behaviour that is reinforced, known as the operant response, is more likely to be repeated, whereas behaviour that is not reinforced, i.e. punished, is less likely to be repeated. As stated by cherry, reinforcement is any event that increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour it follows whereas punishment is the presentation of an adverse event that causes a decrease in a particular behaviour. Each concepts can be either positive or negative. A positive reinforcer or punisher aims to add a stimulus after the behaviour such as getting a tip for providing quality service at a restaurant, whereas a negative reinforcer or punisher aims to remove a stimulus. Like not being allowed to play video games because you got in trouble at school. Once again, let’s look at this in a modern day situation. After working hard on a project, you hand it in to your boss to review. A few hours later your boss tells you that the work you did was excellent and truly appreciated the effort. This is an example of positive reinforcement as it adds a stimulus, praise from your boss, to increase the likelihood of you repeating that behaviour, which would be to work hard on another project. Alternatively, you turn up late to work after a late night drinking with your friends. Your boss may tell you off for being late and dock your wage accordingly. In this case the we see negative punishment taking place as the boss removes the desirable stimulus of money away from the subject to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour occurring again, in this case being late for work. To summarise, classical condition is better associated with an involuntary response and a stimulus whereas operant conditioning is more associated with voluntary behaviour and consequences. It is also important to note that in operant condition, the learner receives rewards based on the behaviour taken place, unlike classical conditioning where there are no such enticements.