Operant conditioning Flashcards
What is positive reinforcement?
Giving something good to increase behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
Taking away something bad to increase behaviour
What is positive punishment?
Giving something bad to reduce behaviour
What is negative punishment?
Taking away something good to reduce behaviour
What is shaping?
Rewarding behaviour until it becomes the desired behaviour
Who supports this?
Skinners rats - Rats learnt to push lever for food pellet through reinforcement - credible
OTOH - cannot be generalised to humans
Who conflicts this?
Pavlov - behaviour is learnt through association not reinforcement
Other theories?
SLT - behaviour is learnt by role models supported by Bandura’s bobo doll study
Usefulness?
Useful in explaining how phobias are maintained through reinforcement
Testability?
Deterministic - suggests we have no control over actions due to reinforcement
