Understanding one’s behavior is essential to the maintenance of proper communication channels. In fact, lack thereof compromises the possibilities of understanding the actions of individuals lacking the capacity to express themselves vocally. In many cases, verbal communication does not fulfill all the interaction requirements, therefore, creating the need to appreciate the essential concepts of behavioral psychology. Specifically, the operant and classical conditioning are essential concepts that seek to explain the nature of the behavior of people and animals. A Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov, first proposed classical conditioning and it emphasizes the placement of a neutral action before a reflex. On the other hand, Skinner, an American Psychologist, proposed the operant conditioning concept that is mainly based on the application of punishment after the completion of the behavior (Puschmann, Brechmann & Thiel, 2013). As much as both of these concepts are essential to understanding the learning process, it is worth noting that they differ from one another in a variety of ways. In my life experiences, I have learned to appreciate the contribution of these concepts to understanding my behaviors and those of other individuals.
The most memorable case of classical conditioning in my life occurred in the hospital when I witnessed several children crying before they got vaccinated. At first, I could not comprehend the similarity in the nature of their behaviors. Nonetheless, I came to understand that the children associated the shots given to other kids with pain. As such, they became afraid of their personal encounter with the doctor giving the shots. As a result, they began crying before they received their injection. To enhance one’s understanding of the nature of classical conditioning Ivan Pavlov gave an illustration of a dog that was used to being fed after the sound of a bell. Through constant repetition of a neutral signal, the sound of a bell and presence of food, the dog began salivating upon this sound thereby affirming the development of a reflex after continuous exposure to neutral signals.
A personal experience of operant conditioning occurred in my childhood. While I was in kindergarten, my parents constantly rewarded me for good performance in school. In most instances, I would get moral support and material rewards for outperforming other students. However, there was an immediate withdrawal from the issuance of the presents once I failed to deliver good results. As such, I associated my parents’ action of giving punishment or rewards to enhance my behavior. According to Puschmann, Brechmann and Thiel, (2013), operant conditioning is mainly focused on the alteration of responses towards an individual to influence their behavior. In this case, my parents enforced this operant conditioning to enhance my behavior by acting as the punishers and reinforces. Henton and Iversen (2012) issue an example of a trainer and a young dog to explain this type of conditioning. He mentions that the trainer often rewards the dog by giving it a piece of steak when it effectively executes an instruction. However, he also explains that the trainer punishes the dog by starving it for a while once it does not complete a piece of training effectively. In this case, the action of rewarding the dog is aimed at encouraging a particular behavior while that of starvation castigates a specific action. Therefore, the dog’s behavior is influenced through discriminative stimulus.
In comparison, my example has a wide similarity to the illustration the authors present. Precisely, both cases involve similar actions from the enforcers in terms of rewards and punishment to enhance the development of constructive behavior while castigating the negative ones. As such, they are both successful by utilizing discriminative stimulus (SD) to monitor behavior.
In conclusion, classical and operant conditioning can be used to explain the nature of one’s behavior. These concepts provide a rationale to not only one’s behavior but also alternative methods of communication. Pavlov and Skinner’s concepts of conditioning both explain how people’s behaviors can be explained through evaluation. In spite of these similarities, it is worth noting that there is a wide array of differences in how both concepts explain the nature of behaviors. Nonetheless, both concepts have been influential in explaining the behaviors I have experienced over the course of my life.
References
Henton, W. W., & Iversen, I. H. (2012). Classical conditioning and operant conditioning: A response pattern analysis. Springer Science & Business Media.
Puschmann, S., Brechmann, A., & Thiel, C. M. (2013). Learning‐dependent plasticity in human auditory cortex during appetitive operant conditioning. Human brain mapping, 34(11), 2841-2851.
