Download BF Skinner - candice

BF Skinner
Behavior Modification
BF Skinner
•
Born March 10, 1904 in Pennsylvania
•
Attended Harvard University at age 24
•
First teaching job in 1936
•
1947 Department Chair of the Psychology Department, Indiana University
•
1969 published Contingencies of Reinforcement
•
1971 published Beyond Freedom and Dignity
•
Towards end of his life wrote autobiographical volumes including A Matter of
Consequences
•
Diagnosed with leukemia in 1989
•
Died August 18, 1990
Operant Conditioning
is a method of learning that occurs
through rewards and punishments for
behavior. Through operant conditioning,
an association is made between a
behavior and a consequence for that
behavior.
Components of Operant
Conditioning
• Reinforcements- anything that increases or
strengthens a certain behavior
• 2 Types :
– Positive: this is when a behavior is rewarded or
strengthened by given a reward or praise after
demonstrating the desire behavior so that is will likely
reoccur, the behavior is strengthened by adding
something.
– Negative: this is the removal of something after the
display of the behavior, but still strengthening the
behavior.
Positive Reinforcements
• After making a 100 on a spelling test,
your teacher tells you “Great Job.”
• You are the only one in your class
sitting down quietly, so your teacher
gives you a free ice cream.
Negative Reinforcements
• Before going to the pool for the day,
you put on sunscreen so that you do not
get burnt.
• One Tuesday morning you leave for
work early to avoid being stuck in
traffic and being late to work.
Operant Conditioning Cont.
• Punishment- decreasing the behavior that it proceeds. Taking
something away something good or desirable to decrease the
occurrences of a undesired behavior.
• 2 Types:
– Positive punishment: also known as the punishment by
application, this involves the presentation of an unfavorable
event or outcome in order to weaken the response it
follows.
– Negative punishment: also known as punishment by
removal, occurs when an favorable event or outcome is
removed after a behavior occurs.
Positive Punishments
• Because you're late to work one morning, you drive
over the speed limit through a school zone. As a
result, you get pulled over by a police officer and
receive a ticket.
• A boy brings his cell phone to class and in the
middle of a class lecture his phone rings, as a result
he is scolded by the teacher for not turning his phone
off prior to class.
Negative Punishments
• A teenage boy comes home way past his
curfew, so in return his parents put him on
restriction.
• A boy talks back to his mother about the
amount of time she allotted for his free time,
so the mother takes his free time away.
Operant Conditioning
• Pros:
–
–
–
–
–
Helps discourage unwanted behaviors
Helps with confidence and self assurance
Helps set boundaries within the classroom and home
Promotes safety
Develops social skills
• Cons:
– Some felt that humans could not be compared with
animals therefore the research which was done was
inconclusive because the results would not be the same.
– Some feel that punishments are often misused
Works Cited
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopco
nd.htm
http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_wade_invtopsych_3/9/5090/1303118.
cw/content/index.html
http://www.bfskinner.org/BFSkinner/AboutSkinner.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_8208961_pros-rewarding-goodbehavior.html