Introduction to Psychology: Classical vs. Operant Conditioning — Academic Writing for Students
Hello friends! In this post, we have discussed briefly about classical vs. operant conditioning. What are they? How are they different? And their uses and benefits.
Introduction
The term psychology itself comes from the amalgamation of two different Greek words: ‘Psyche’ means the soul, and ‘Logos’ means related to science. So psychology refers to the scientific study of human behavior and mental processes in different contexts. Psychology is a very vast subject in itself, having a history of more than 2000 years old. Many ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, and Chinese people used psychology to cure mental and emotional disorders. However, the real inception of psychology happened in 1879, when a German scientist called Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory for psychological research. Wundt’s introduced some new concepts of psychology like structuralism and functionalism. Structuralism refers to the systematic interpretations of human behavior. It is the way, which can help a person to study all the behavior traits within a single systematic approach. Functionalism is another concept of psychology, brought forward by Wund, which is concerned with the reason for a human brain’s behavior and not its biological structure (Anon., 2012).
The most significant contribution to psychology was by Sigmund Freud. Freud coined a new concept in psychology called ‘psychoanalysis.’ He developed some therapeutic techniques for the thorough analysis of the human mind and behavior like free association and transference. Before discovering these new concepts of analyzing human behavior, many mental patients died because mental illness treatment was not based on analysis but physical treatment like medication and electric shocks.
Freud and Wundt changed psychology’s whole concept, which helped other psychologists further study in psychology and other related fields. Later in the year 1920, two new psychologists called J. B. Watson, and Rosalie Rayner studied the theories of Freud and further developed a new concept called ‘behaviorism.’ Watson and Raynor (1920) state that people’s behavior traits come from different environmental and situational circumstances rather than coming from within the human brain. The theories and researches of Watson and Rayner are further discussed in the next sections of this paper. Later, some more theories have been discussed throughout the paper, like principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and applications of these theories to human behavior.
Principles of Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning was first discovered by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov during the year 1927. Pavlov’s work in this concept was so influential that he was also awarded a Nobel prize for his discoveries. Classical Conditioning refers to the learning of some involuntary forms of psychological or emotional responses among some animals and human beings such as increased heartbeat, fear, salivation, sweating, etc. which are sometimes automatic responses to a certain stimulus or are being conditioned responses in some cases. Pavlov has done many experiments on his pet dogs to understand the various concepts of Classical Conditioning. Pavlov surgically implanted a tube called ‘fistula’ inside the dogs’ digestive system to exemplify the effect of Classical Conditioning. Pavlov stated that some natural aspects are found among animals like dogs, which are natural and hard-wired in their brains. He called this response a UR (unconditioned response). Pavlov used a stimulus like food as a US (unconditional stimuli) to let the dog salivate, which is considered as UR (www.pearsoned.ca, 2012). So, in psychological terms:
Pavlov had come over many setbacks during his experiments on the digestive system of dogs. He was trying to understand the time frame of stimulation of secrete digestive juices of dogs after being fed, but the time frame kept changing, and Pavlov was unable to conclude. During the first few attempts, the dog salivated expectedly, but then his salivation intensity changed abruptly and he started salivating as soon as he saw the food. Later, Pavlov changed his experiment’s scenarios and began to sound a tuning fork and record the dog’s response. At first, there were no signs of salivation, and Pavlov called it NR (neutral stimulus). Then after a few days, when Pavlov started to feed the dog after ringing the tuning fork. After several repetitions, the dog started to salivate right after hearing the sound of a tuning fork. In the beginning, the tuning fork was a neutral stimulus (NS) because it was not directly responsible for the dog’s salivation, but then it became a conditioned stimulus (CS) after the dog started salivating. So, the following psychological equation represents this change in behaviour of dogs:
CS (that was NR earlier) → CR, where CR refers to conditional response (salivating of the dog after listening to the tuning fork)
Pavlov discovered that the behavior of dog-related to food and tuning fork could be changed using the CS. He also discovered generalization, which refers to responding to a certain stimulus because of the similarity to the CS. For example, after the dog learned to salivate in response to hearing a certain sound, he would also salivate after hearing similar sounds slightly higher or lower in tone. Pavlov also teaches the dog discrimination, where the dog can respond to one tone, but not to others that are similar by providing food followed by only a distinct tone, and not others. Pavlov’s discoveries have helped psychologists understand the benefits of Classical Conditioning and how to use its techniques to train some normal behavior traits in small children with autism or other psychological disorders (Sammons, 2013).
Findings of Watson and Rayner
Watson and Rayner initially introduced the white rat without the sound of a hammer, so Albert acted normally. Then, they introduced the sound of the hammer right after Albert saw the white rat. This made him quite upset, and after further trials, Albert started crying seeing the white rat, even without the hammering sound. So, Watson and Rayner succeeded in relating the white rat with the hammering sound, which produced Albert’s conditional response. In psychological terms, we can suggest that:
Noise (US) → Anxiety (UR)
Noise (US) + Rat (NS) → Anxiety (UR)
Rat (CS) → Anxiety (CR)
On further investigation, Watson and Rayner discovered that Albert’s response became generalized to conditional response (CR) to some other common household objects like bearded Santa Claus, rabbit, dog, and sealskin coat. Watson and Rayner’s discoveries helped the psychologists of the future understand different types of phobias and their actual reason among children and adults.
F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning became famous among psychologists after Watson and Rayner introduced many phobias concepts in their experiment during the early 1920’s. But, many psychologists criticized the findings of Watson and Rayner since they were done on an 18 months old child. Watson and Rayner’s findings are also not considered 100 percent valid since they were done on an infant child who was not capable enough to show his feelings. One of the great psychologists of that time, B. F. Skinner was not satisfied with Watson and Rayner’s discoveries. Skinner thought that a human mind is made up of very vast neurons, and every person’s behavior may vary. Skinner suggests that only interviewing a person cannot expose his true behavior traits, and some more precise approach is needed to analyze human beings’ behavior. According to Skinner, only the Classical Conditioning approach is not enough to completely explain complex human behavior. He suggests that the best way to understand complex human behavior is to look at the reasons of an action and its consequences. Skinner called this approach Operant Conditioning because this approach was depended upon the intentional actions called operants, which have a precise effect on the surrounding environment (McLeod, 2015).
Skinner has done many experiments on pigeons and rats to bolster his theory of Operant Conditioning. He put rats inside a box, which he called ‘skinner box’, and conducted many experiments to analyze their conditioned environment behavior. Skinner has introduced 3 different types of operants or responses through his experiments as follows:
- Neutral operants: — Neutral operants are similar to NS (Neutral Stimuli) that neither increases nor decreases the probability of repeating certain types of behavior.
- Reinforcers: — Reinforcers are considered as the responses from the environment that increases the repetition of certain types of behavior. Reinforcers can be positive sometimes or negative other times.
- Punishers: — Responses from the environment that decline the likelihood of the repetition of certain types of behaviour. Punishment tends to weaken that type of behavior.
Operant Conditioning had revolutionized the understanding of human behavior. It can identify and define many complex traits of human behavior. Operant Conditioning can also be used to change certain types of human behavior by using operants explained earlier. For example, some children tried smoking at school, and some of their friends promote smoking. So, if the child always hangs out with those children who promote smoking, then he would certainly get a reward in the form of smoking. So, smoking has been positively reinforced inside the brain of that teenage child, and this can motivate him to repeat the behavior i.e., smoking. On the other hand, if that same child gets caught by his parents, he would be punished for smoking. Punishment would stop the child from smoking, and he would tend to smoke less likely.
Practical Applications of Classical and Operant Conditioning
Classical and Operant Conditioning has helped psychologists to make many contingency based management programs to cure cocaine drug addicts. Many classical and operant conditioning theories seemed very helpful to make some programs for drug addicts of cocaine. The reinforcements and punishments of operant conditioning can effectively induce a positive behavior of giving up cocaine consumption among the addicts. There are two types of contingencies called reinforcements and punishments that have been used positively reprogram the behavior of cocaine addicts. The goal of reinforcement is to increase the occurrence of certain positive behavior among addicts. Conversely, punishments have been used to decrease the occurrence of certain negative behavior among the addicts (Kellogg, 2012).
The most widely known reinforcement technique is the VBR (Voucher Based Reinforcement). VBR is a reinforcement technique where the drug addict receives a voucher for every drug-free sample of urine. He or she can use this voucher for a replacement for food items, entertainment, or other goods or services. To further motivate the drug addicts to use the voucher, the voucher’s value is kept low initially and increased as the addict shows more samples of drug-free urine. VBR technique can also be used as a punishment by not providing the voucher when the addict has a positive drug sample of urine. This punishment can induce a positive behavior inside the drug addict of not consuming the cocaine to receive entertainment, favorite food, or other favorable items by replacing vouchers. VBR technique became very effective in the treatment and cure of drug addicts, as compared to other aversive techniques like giving electric shocks to the patients. This is the reason why the significance of classical and operant conditioning cannot be neglected anyhow (Anon., 2012).
Conclusion
The human brain is made up of 100 billion neurons, which are connected in a dense network to save and process large information at a time. Many new types of research are already in progress to understand the complex nature of the human brain and behavior. Psychologists are still baffled about human behavior’s complex nature, and many new discoveries are still prevalent. Human beings are considered the most conscious being in the world, even though many other mammals have brains larger than human beings. All that is required is to hope for the bright future of human beings and their behavior.
So, this was the overview of the detailed post at classical vs. operant conditioning. You can CLICK HERE to read the detailed post and also upload a free PDF of this report.
Works Cited
Anon., 2012. Introduction to Psychology/Introduction. [Online] Available at: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Psychology/Introduction [Accessed 5 March 2016].
Anon., 2012. Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition). [Online] Available at: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-research-based-guide-third-edition/evidence-based-approaches-to-drug-addiction-treatment/behavioral-0 [Accessed 5 March 2016].
Beck, H., 2009. J.B. Watson & Rosalie Rayner‟s Study on Conditioned Emotional Responses. [Online] Available at: http://loh.loswego.k12.or.us/noblem/docs/psy_Little_Albert.pdf [Accessed 5 March 2016].
Kellogg, S.H.e.a., 2012. Contingency Management: Foundations and Principles. [Online] Available at: http://nattc.org/pami/PDF/Contingency_Mgt_F_P.pdf [Accessed 5 March 2016].
McLeod, S.A., 2015. Skinner — Operant Conditioning. [Online] Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html [Accessed 5 March 2016].
Sammons, A., 2013. The Behaviourist Perspective 1: Classical Conditioning. [Online] Available at: http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/resources/perspectives/behaviourist/ANY_behaviourism_watsonpavlov.pdf [Accessed 5 March 2016].
www.pearsoned.ca, 2012. Pavlov’s Dilemma and Discovery: Classical Conditioning. [Online] Available at: http://www.pearsoned.ca/highered/divisions/hss/woolfolk_old/pdfs/p193.pdf [Accessed 5 March 2016].
Originally published at https://academicwritingforstudents.com on November 18, 2020.