Experimental design

Whether an individual is attempting to toilet train a toddler, improve exercise habits, or quit smoking cigarettes, the principles of operant conditioning may provide the key to successful behavior change. According to Skinner (1963), “The term operant was introduced to distinguish between reflexes and responses operating directly on the environment” (505). Some parents may have trouble training their infants to use the toilet; however, by using operant conditioning to change the behavior, they…

In the world of psychology, behaviorism is an idea created by Ivan Pavlov that has been further researched by many different psychologists, still being studied today. Behaviorism, the term coined by John Watson, focuses on observable behavior and conditioning. The two main contenders in this field were Pavlov’s classical conditioning and B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning. These two types of conditioning have each served as important pieces of psychology but while they were published under both…

It is important to note how human behaviours could sometimes cause a paramount domino effect that could either lead to beneficial or harmful results at the end, or even lead to an onset of adverse behaviours. First of all, let us examine and discuss the method and ways in which children learn new behaviours. There’s Watson’s classical conditioning in which living things "learn" by establishing relations between different stimuli and events, Skinner’s operant conditioning emphasizes on using…

Behavior is defined as the way that a person acts. Behavior can be reinforced or reduced. Reinforcement is used to ensure that favorable behaviors are encouraged and unfavorable behaviors are reduced, when done correctly. There are many procedures that can be used to ensure that unfavorable behaviors do not continue. One procedure that is used and is successful would be extinction. Extinction is defined as a process of reinforcing a behavior for a period of time before stopping the reinforcement…

Every journey you take must begin with a single step whether it’s physical, imaginative or an inner journey. A journey is represented on the steps you take towards a physical (set out) goal or something you want to achieve that is only achieved by imagination at this point of time. This is shown in Wind in the Willows as imaginative description is used to create an atmosphere of what the Toad, Rat and Mole are seeing. This technique is used to create an image while the Rat follows another…

Behavioral therapy is an action-based therapy that helps changing a negative or possibly self-damaging behavior into a more positive one through series of treatments. One of the most effective treatment is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a learning process that occurs by consequences of a behavior. The behavior of an organism is strengthened or weakened by the type of consequences it receives: a reward (reinforcement) or a punishment. The consequences lead to the general techniques…

This chapter talks about mental testing in America. James Cattell and Galton believed that intelligence is hereditary. Henry Herbert Goddard shared a similar view to James Cattell and Galton. He conducted a study in the heredity of feeblemindedness and wrote a book called “Kallikak Family.” Ligthner Witmer was an environmentalist and he believed that hereditary was an excuse for an action. One of the research psychiatrists in this area was Alfred Binet. Theodor Simone joined Binet’s team and…

B.F Skinner was born in Pennsylvania during the year of 1904, in a small town called Susquehanna. He was a psychologist,who studied behaviorism, at Harvard University. His father, William Skinner, was a lawyer and his mother, Grace Skinner, was a housewife. When he was a child, he always wanted to be a writer, but later in his life that changed because he decided to go more towards becoming a psychologist. After he earned his doctorate from Harvard in 1931, he began working on psychiatry and the…

B.F. Skinner, an American psychologist, philosopher and poet, was born March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. B.F. Skinner would live 86 years where he would ultimately pass from leukemia on August 18, 1990. B.F. Skinners early life was that of any American families at the time, his father worked and his mother stayed home to look after him and his younger brother. His Younger brother who was two years younger than he, would later die at the age of 16 due to a cerebral hemorrhage CITATION…

B. F. Skinner may be one of the most famous psychologist for his behavioral techniques and inventions. After reading about this “baby box” I will admit that I was intrigued by such a contraption and the ease that comes along with it. The aircrib seems like a simple alternative to make the stressful job of parenting less enduring and more pleasant for both the baby and mother. I would like to further explore the details of infant development and how the aircrib corresponds, the bond between…