Question

Present the theories of classical and operant conditioning in two strong paragraphs. Assume that your reader is new to these theories, and you need to expound on the process and merits of each.

Answer 1

• Classical conditioning is a learning process in which behaviour is learned through association between two stimuli.It involves forming an association between naturally occuring stimulus and environmental stimulus.The responses learned are natural and involuntary and works by pairing two stimuli to produce an new learned response.
• A new behaviour has not been learned and a stimulus produces a natural response which hasnt been taught before,i.e unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response.For example,you suddenly feel scared after hearing a loud noise.
• After repeated pairings between UCS and UCR,the UCS becomes a conditioned stimulus which leads to a learned conditioned response.CR is learned response to previously neutral stimulus.
• Through classical conditioning we learn new behaviours from our environment and helps us to change our behaviours especially negative ones.It helps to treat phobias by changing the environment which triggers the fear response and repeats the cue exposure in positive ways to address the anxiety and over time the stimulus loses the power to cause fear,thereby reducing the phobia.
• Operant conditioning is form of learning which our behaviours are followed by either a reward or punishment to increase or decrease the occurence of desired behaviour.This involves voluntary behaviours.
• Reinforcement means when some reward is given to increase the likelihood of the behaviour to occur again.This is called positive reinforcement,for example giving favourite candy to the child whenever he cleans his room,will increase his behaviour in the future.
• Negative reinforcement means when one tries to avoid a negative stimulus by indulging in the behaviour.For exmaple,to avoid your mother's nagging,you would clean your room,this increases the likelihood to keep indulging this behaviour.
• Punishment means when your favourite thing is taken away from you or something negative added to you from indulging in the behaviour.For example,a child throwing tantrums,his favourite toy would be taken away from him to make him reduce this behaviour.This is called negative punishment.
• Positive punishment means when for instance,a child gets spanked for indisciplined behaviour,to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour to occur again.
• This learning process works well in real life,especially in classroom settings through reinforcing chil's participation by rewards and grade systems.It also helps to train animals efficiently.