Operant Conditioning Principles

What is learning? Learning is acquiring something new or modifying existing knowledge through study, or experience. But why can learning sometimes be challenging and at other times be easy? To understand these phenomena, psychologists have identified three different principles of learning which are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and cognitive learning. Can behavior principals play a role in clinical hypnosis? In the following paragraph, we will evaluate the principles of classical and operant conditioning, learning and the role of behavior principal in clinical hypnosis.

Classical conditioning was first discovered by Ivan Pavlov while experimenting with a dog. In the experiment, a bell was rung at the same time food was presented …show more content…
A positive outcome will increase chance of the behavior being repeated. This is called as positive reinforcement. For example, if you ask a friend for money and receive it, you are likely to ask again. The removal of an unpleasant outcome that will increase the chance of the repeated behavior is called negative reinforcement, for example putting on your seat belt to avoid the blinking sound in the car. Positive and negative reinforcement share the same purpose that is increasing the probability of the behavior to happen in the future. While in frequency, continues reinforcement plays a role in the operant conditioning aspect. Continuous reinforcement is reinforcing a behavior every single time it occurs. For example every time you eat ice cream it tasted delicious and because is an immediate reward, it is likely you will eat ice cream again. It is useful for strengthening newly learned behaviors. Partial reinforcement is reinforcing the desired behavior only at specific times such as fixed ratio schedule, fixed interval schedule, variable ratios schedule and variable interval schedule to strengthen the behavior. However, the desired outcome or behavior will gradually diminish and extinguish if the response is no immediately or adequately …show more content…
In counter conditioning, the response is weakened by pairing the same stimulus with a new response. For example fear (condition response) with snake (stimulus), is paired with relaxation (new condition respond) with snake. Different counter conditioning exist such as flooding where by the subject is immerse in the unpleasant response until the unpleasant respond fades away. It produces faster results compared to other counter conditioning but it can increase problem behavior if not done right or cause discomfort to subject. Aversion therapy is when the unpleasant experience is paired with current stimulus. System desensitization was developed by Wolpe. Systematic desensitization is done by incorporating the principles of classical conditioning and reciprocal inhibition theory. In reciprocal inhibition theory, if two incompatible responses are put together, the stronger will dominate. It is time consuming and needs constant repetition, a positive response is