The Benefits Of Smoking And Operant Conditioning

My client has suffered the last four years of her life, with a horrible smoking problem. This problem interferes with all that she does. She cannot work, because it causes her to smoke. She’d rather be in her house, watching some TV, where she has the option to smoke at any time. My client has no past of smoking, or any other drug use. She is the only one around with a problem like this. Smoking causes people to not only have bad coughs, but it causes lung cancer, and many other kinds of cancers including throat, mouth, kidney, and bladder. A person who starts smoking often tends to get addicted. My client has a soon-to-be severe case of smoking, if she doesn’t stop soon. With the right treatment, my client could quit smoking within the next …show more content…
Operant conditioning is like when your parents reward you for getting good grades. Maybe they give you a certain amount of money for every A, or they take you out to do something, they are encouraging you. You are getting good grades, because of the reward you are getting. When it comes to smoking, operant conditioning could help a lot. Setting good rewards for yourself, will give your mind something to look forward to. Putting this in terms of smoking. If you had your mind set on quitting your habit of smoking, set some goals. Give yourself a goal for the first few days without smoking, then as the non-smoking days increase, give yourself bigger goals. That will trigger your mind to quit smoking, once you continue receiving goals. If a goal is not reached, give yourself consequences. This will force yourself to learn. Basically, you’re setting rules for yourself. No smoking would be the first rule, and if that rule is broken, you have some consequences. Your body and mind do not like consequences, and so that will cause your mind to develop a routine, helping yourself recieve goals rather than consequences. This is called operant behavior, and personally, in my opinion operant behavior is the best way to learn. Operant conditioning has some negative, and positive reinforcements, kind of like goals and consequences. Negative reinforcement is the remover of an unpleasant reinforcer that also strengthens behavior. For example; If you smoke, you cannot eat your favorite food for a week, and you have to pay the amount it cost to buy a pack of cigarettes to an untouchable safe. You want to avoid losing ten dollars, and you want to be able to eat your favorite food, so you strengthen your behavior by not smoking. Sooner or later, your habit of smoking will wear off. Positive reinforcement is just like a reward. Rewarding yourself, and giving yourself positive reinforcement will