Individual Programmatic Assessment Operant Conditioning

Individual Programmatic Assessment: Operant Conditioning
PSY/390
August 3, 2015

Individual Programmatic Assessment: Operant Conditioning Psychologists and scientists have been studying from the very beginning the concept of learning, and the several different ways that humans and animals can retain, access and store information. Many theories are linked with learning; these theories have their disadvantages, advantages and specific characteristics which try to clarify the ways human minds function when attempting to learn. One of these theories was established by behaviorist psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinner after experimenting with pigeons and rats was able to identify a series of important fundamental ides of learning. This theory is called Operant Conditioning, which is also recognized as Instrumental Conditioning or even Skinnerian conditioning.
The theory of operant conditioning Operant conditioning is a learning method that occurs through the presentation of rewards and punishments as ways to produce the wanted behavior. Skinner explained that the fundamental motivations for a determined behavior did not derivate from an internal source, such as thoughts or feelings, but from an external source, like the preceding circumstances or the posterior consequences to the behavior. Skinner once said that “we are what we have been reinforced for being”, and this affirmation is a perfect explanation of his theory, as the American psychologist believed that behaviors are consequences to the response emanated from that behavior in the first place (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009). The theory of operant conditioning has its name because, as Skinner explained, the term “operant” refers to an "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences" (1953).
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