behavioural debate - use of conditioning Flashcards
3 discussion points ?
1 = conditioning techniques are appropriate at home
2 = appropriate in school
3 = appropriate for vulnerable groups of children
point 1 argument?
- appropriate for us at home
- Supernanny jo frost advocates the use of operant conditioning to shape the behaviour of children. she believes that children should be positively reinforced for appropriate behaviours such as reward charts and inappropriate behaviour should be ignored or punished such as the ‘naughty step’. By refining clam and consistent the child will learn the consequences of their actions and innpropriate behaviour will stop
- parental control over pocket money has long been used to increase positive behaviours. Gil asked parents to encourage chore competition by the payment of pocket money or the postponement of pocket money.
- child therefore leans about the value of money and rewarded financially, they are also learning skills that will be important for their own independence
point 2 argument ?
- appropriate for use in school
- gold stars, merits and even house points are positive reinforces tha aim of which is to reward good behaviour and performance, praise also reinforcing
- McAllister et al looked atrocious inappropriate talking in high school English classes and found that the increased use ‘praise’ and ‘disapproval’ led to a decrease in ‘inappropriate talking’ in a controlled condition there was no decrease
- LeFrancious suggest that classical conditioning can be used to improve student performance teachers should maximise pleasant stimuli an minimise unpleasant stimuli in order to condition students to associate the classroom environment with positive feelings
point 3 argument?
- appropriate use with funeral groups of children
- can be used to help children with psychological and medical conditions such as autism and ADHD
- Robison et al showed how the use of token economies can improve performance in reading and vocab related to tasks of children with hyperactivity issues. in a token economy students are given rewards for desirable behaviours which they then get to collect and exchange for rewards
- Lovaas developed applied behaviour analysis to increase social interactions for children with autism
counter argument of point 1 ?
- home
- morris claims that the ‘naughty step’ can have long term emotional effects on a child as they cannot affectively reflect on their own behaviour. Therefore, may have a negative impact
- Parents may also follow gurus like Jo Frost and parents may struggle to apply the rules in the correct manner.
counter argument point 2?
- lepper et al believed conditioning techniques are harmful to a Childs development the research into the behaviour of nursery children supports this view. Nursery children asked to draw nice pictures and they found that when promised a reward, children spent less Time on the task than those not promised a reward. suggested they are motivated by the reward rather than the motivation to succeed.
- dweck found that children who were praised for doing good work on a maths test did worse later, more difficult test than children who had been told they were lazy.
counter argument of point 3 ?
lovaas’ methods have been criticised for being inappropriate because ABA is demanding and requires approximately 40 hours of therapy per week
- can be costly and unnecessary as other researchers have found an average of 20 hours per week was enough to see a significant improvement in the social behaviour of autistic children
economic implication?
if financial rewards in schools increase grades this could benefit society in the long run, if children leave schools with better grades they should in theory get better jobs increasing the economy
social implication?
conditioning vulnerable children allows the to behave in a more ‘normal manner’ increasing the likelihood of them being accepted in society however should vulnerable children be manipulated this way.
