Question

Lisa is a 4 year-old girl. Her mother, Marie, works two jobs and come home tired most nights. Lisa does not like to go to bed and she cries and throws a tantrum every night at 7:00 pm, bed time. Lately, Marie has grown weary of this bedtime ritual and has started giving in to Lisa, allowing Lisa to stay up late, watching television until Lisa falls asleep.

Explain the Operant conditioning examples that are demonstrated in this scenario. Give 2 examples. Include the Operant conditioning components (UCS, UCR, NS, CS,CR.

Answer 1

Here the girl Lisa who is 4 years old is conditioned to throwing tantrums and crying everyday at 7pm as she doe not like to go to sleep. The stimulus is her mother, and the response to that is crying. Marie had conditiones Lisa to the bedtime ritual. Her get weary of this ritual was the result of her on giving in and letting her daughter stay awake till late night. This has led to a temporary remove of the stimulus which inturn will lead to a tendency of a break in the conditioning which is commonly known as extinction. If ever Marie would want Lisa to go to sleep at 7pm, Lisa was retrieve her conditioning of throwing tantrums again.

According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.

An example of operant conditioning:

For example, if when you were younger you tried smoking at school, and the chief consequence was that you got in with the crowd you always wanted to hang out with, you would have been positively reinforced (i.e., rewarded) and would be likely to repeat the behavior. If, however, the main consequence was that you were caught, caned, suspended from school and your parents became involved you would most certainly have been punished, and you would consequently be much less likely to smoke now.

Another example would be:

Class presentations are one of the mandatory class activities held in most schools. Consider a scenario where a student elaborately explains his presentation. If the student is applauded and complimented, he/she is more likely to be encouraged for similar presentations in the future. On the other hand, if the student is laughed at or criticized, future presentations are likely to be nothing but a formality.Here, the reactions of the class and the teacher are the positive and negative reinforcers. Being cheered is the positive reinforce, while being booed is the negative reinforce.