Question

You will also discuss how experiments in the history of psychology laid the foundation for modern day APA ethical guidelines.

Write a 2–3-page essay incorporating the following:

Compare and contrast operant and classical conditioning and explain how you could impact behavior with each in your case study example.

Outline the procedure that was utilized in your case study and explain which type of conditioning would be best for your example and why.

Answer 1

In the history, mental disorder or diorders in the cognition and behaviors were explained in a different way than the present scenario. Earlier, psychological disorders or distortions were considered as evil invasion of the body or the punishment by God for evil doing. People believed so, they used many kinds of methods to treat the patients mostly by torturing the body and letting the evil out of the body. It was found that people with disorders were even treated by making holes in the skull which they believe would let the evil out of the body. Mostl of the treatments were done by the priests and it also included giving schocks to the individuals. Later Hippocrates explained the psychological problems as the problems caused by the imbalance of the four humors of the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. He said that these four humors are associated with the four elements: earth, water, fire and air. Accodring to Hippocrates, these influenced the human body and the emotions of individuals and imbalance in them causes the psychological problems. Later, the pendulumm swung back to the superstitions and later after the discovery of the microscopes and autopsies, more information was available. Mental asylums were created were patients were exposed to shock for the treatments. Later, it was changed and more comfortable environments were provided for the patients for the treatment. This was what lead to the development of the APA or the American Psychological Association, which helped individuals with psychological problems to get better treatment and to study them and the disorders more scientifically.

Classical conditioning was introduced by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. The discovery of classical conditioning was an accidental discovery when Pavlov was studying the digestion in dogs. He was collecting the amount of saliva secreated by the dog when the food was provided. Ltaer, he noticed that the dogs started to ssalivate even on the mere sight of the lab assistant who provided the food to the dog and also noted that the dog started to salivate by seeing the assistant even when he is not having food in his hand. This made Pavlov to investigate more on this and he found that the food was associated with the assistant by the dog which made the dog to salivate in the sight of the assistant. And introduced classical conditioning. In classical conditioning a neutral stimulus (assisstant) was associated with the unconditioned stimulus (food) which makes the neutral stimulus condtioned and this can produced an unconditioned response ( salivating by seeing the assisstant). This is how Pavlov explained classical conditioning. An example can be provided: Students usually have lunch breaks at 12.30pm at school. So, when it is contionusly done, by just seeing the time 12.30pm, it can make the students hungry, that is, they are conditioned.

Operant conditioning was introduced by the behaviorist B.F. Skinner. It is explained as learning through consequences of the different behaviors. Different behavior can cause different consequences which can be either positive or negative and according to this it can be reinforced or punished. When the behavior is rewarding to the individual, then it can be reinforced again and produced again. when the behavior produces any harm to the individuals, then it can be punishment and the individuals may not repeated it again. And there are four different terms that Skinner defined and they are positive reinforcemnet, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. Skinner examined a toddler and it was found that the toddler smiled more at his parents when his parents played with him when he smiled at them for the first time.

We can take the case of Sam, a 12 year old boy who lives in urban area. He used to go to the swimming pool over there for swimming and studied to swim from there. He loved swimming and used to go there almost everyday. Later one day, he went to his mothers area which is in a rural area. There he decided to go to the river for swimming along with his cousins. But as the flow of the water was much higher he was not able to swim and started to drown in the water. Somehow, his uncles helped him to come to the river bank. But later, he was not having much courage to go for swimming and he started to produce aquaphobia (fear of water). Here, as the consequences became negative, he started to refuse to show the behavior again. This is operant conditioning and it is found that operant conditioning can sometimes cause phobias.