Operant Conditioning PS124: Introduction to Psychology
Prof: Shannon Weiss
Kevin Evers
01/07/2014
Operant Conditioning Upon completing the chapter 7 reading in the text I was able to gain a better understanding of the following behaviors:
Operant conditioning
Positive punishment
Negative punishment Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement I can define each in my own terms and relate to an instance in my life. Beginning with the behavior of Operant Conditioning this could be defined as the consequences for a specific behavior. Life example would be that I knew if I answered my parents "what" when I was called I would be punished it was yes as you were on your way to where ever they are calling your name from. Thus explaining being able to associate punishment or anger with the word “what”. In OC we are taught something whether it be to respond negatively or positively but we are conditioned in some way to respond to the stimuli. Just as the dogs where taught to respond to the whistle and the food during Pavlov’s test for classical conditioning (Intro. to Psychology, 2013). Positive punishment is basically a consequence for a bad behavior or behavior that needs to be addressed. Example would be not finishing my chores and then not being allowed to go outside until they are done. Negative punishment would be losing telephone privileges for bad grades or being grounded from report card semester to semester until grades improve. Looking at positive reinforcement reminds me of rewarding a client during a session who has made a significant and sincere effort towards progress and the reward could be an extra phone call for being able to honestly identify triggers. Negative punishment for me is actually being confronted by something or someone and responding in a negative fashion due to not knowing how to deal or approach a situation. This actually closely associated with a client I had, specifically male who had trouble with dark haired females. They were a reminder of his mother who turned him on to using so it was very hard for him to be nice, cordial or pleasant to dark haired female clients. We had to teach him that none of them where his mother and to
