“The class of response upon which a reinforcer is contingent is called an operant, to suggest the action on the environment followed by reinforcement. We construct an operant by making a reinforce contingent on a response, but the important fact about the resulting unit is not its topography but its probability of occurrence, observed as rate of emission.” – Skinner, B. F. (1969). Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis, 7.
For my first blog post I decided to write about operant conditioning. Over the course of the first three weeks I enjoyed the topic of operant conditioning the most. Because our book didn’t give too many examples of operant conditioning I decided to look for an article on operant conditioning that I can relate back to what we briefly discussed in class. The Article that I researched is titled “The Modification of Delinquent Behavior through Operant Conditioning”.
In the article we are introduced to a 9 year old boy named Danny who struggles with disruptive antisocial behavior. Danny’s mother put him in an institution because his behavior was out of control to the point where she could no longer care for him. Danny remained in the institution for 4 years. Out of the first 2 years the professionals tried an unsuccessful regressive therapy however; in the last 2 years Danny’s treatment was modified with operant conditioning which proved to be successful. “Operant conditioning focuses on how behavior is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers, such as food or social approval (or withdrawal of negative reinforcers, such as shock or social rejection). (Goldstein, 10). In this paper I will discuss how the use of punishment reinforcers along with positive rewarding reinforcers helped to decrease disruptive antisocial behavior.
Proper punishment reinforcers such as isolation, radio use, and extended isolation time can decrease disruptive antisocial behavior. For example, when Danny started displaying disruptive behavior as consequence he was immediately put into an isolation room. Danny would be told by staff why he was put into the isolation room and that if his disruptive behavior persist it would result in an increase in the amount of time that he would stay there. In order for the isolation to be more effective a radio was placed in the isolation room to create a communication barrier between Danny, the other patients and the staff. Consequently, the punishment reinforcers decreased Danny’s disruptive antisocial behavior. Throughout this experience Danny realized that by displaying acceptable behavior he was then able to be released from the isolation room and back into the cottage along with everyone else.
Operant conditioning/positive reinforcers such as a token system can decrease disruptive antisocial behavior as well. For example, the staff at the institution developed a token system that was used to reward Danny for displaying acceptable behavior. For every hour that Danny was able to stay out of the isolation room he was given tokens that could be used in the future towards rewards such as candy, soda, movies, recreation, etc. With the positive reinforcers Danny now had an incentive to put greater effort into having acceptable behavior. For this reason, the positive reinforcers decreased Danny’s disruptive antisocial behavior.
In Conclusion, as a result of both proper punishment reinforcers along with operant conditioning through positive reinforcers, Danny’s disruptive antisocial behavior decreased a total of 33%. Results show that Danny was able to decrease his disruptive antisocial behavior from a starting point of 40 occurrences within the first month with a regressive treatment to 12 occurrences in his last and final 5th month with operant conditioning treatment. Overall I am a fan of operant conditioning. I feel like operant conditioning is very successful an should be used more in psychological practices by therapist.
Works Cited
Goldstein, Bruce. “Introduction to Cognitive Psychology.” Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Thrid Edition ed. Belmont, CA 94002-3098: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Page 10. Print.
Burchard, J., & Tyler Jr., V. (2002). The Modification of Delinquent Behaviour Through Operant Conditioning. Behaviour Research and Therapy, Volume 2(Issues 2-4 (1964)), Pages 245-250. (2002, May 28). Retrieved September 14, 2014, from PSU Libary Database.
Operant conditioning is an excellent tool that is used quite frequently, even though most people don’t realize that is what they are doing. This is particularly true for parents, this technique is used to cease inappropriate behavior, to encourage good behavior, and even used when attempting toilet training with their children. There are two things that come to mind when I read your post about this child with an anti-social behavior; the first thing that comes to mind is related to research on genetics and behavior, the second thing that comes to mind is insufficient punishment and self-persuasion.
Research on genetics has been done in order to determine the affects ones genes have on their behavior. While it’s true that genes do not cause someone to do anything, our genes do interact with our environment. Studies have shown individuals may be predisposed to certain behaviors, depending on the interaction with the environment and an activation of a certain gene. (Funder, 312) I would be curious to know if this would apply to Daniel’s case or not.
The institution seems to be doing an excellent job at reducing his anti-social behavior, however I would also want to make sure, if I were the institution, that I was creating insufficient punishment that not only creates self-persuasion. When we experience dissonance we will use a form of justification to ease our discomfort. It’s important when teaching children proper behavior, we use mild punishments so when a child asks themselves why they’re not doing something they will justify it by devaluing the forbidden activity; this is known as insufficient punishment (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 150). This is important because tokens will only work for so long, it’s important to create a longer lasting affect. Once insufficient punishment has been established, at least the hope would be, the child begins to devalue poor behavior and persuades themselves they no longer want to behave that way, which would be the self-persuasion (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, 151).
Again, I think the institution is doing an excellent job at reducing this child’s anti-social behavior. Hopefully it continues to be successful for both parties. I just find it interesting there are so many avenues for why this type of behavior occurred and different ways to approach such a behavior to decrease the instances of such disruptive behavior.
References:
Aronson, Elliot, Wilson, TimothyD., Akert, Robert M. Social Psychology 8th edition. Pearson Education, Inc. 2013. Print.
Funder, David C. The Personality Puzzle 6th edition. W.W. Norton & Company. 2013. Print.
Raenisha Williams Blog comment #1
Hey Courtney
Reading your blog post had me really interested in disruptive, antisocial behavior in kids. From experience with my adopted sister having this disorder, I know finding what works best for a child is hard. You stated that, “Operant conditioning/positive reinforcers such as a token system can decrease disruptive, antisocial behavior.” In my opinion, this is a good positive reinforcement, but in the long run what will happen when he gets too old for token economy. Something has to be in place before that happens because in the real world your boss will not give you a treat every time you do something right. Kids with types of disorders needs to have more than one treatment to fall back on.
A child cannot be helped unless he/she has a good support system in my opinion. When reading your blog post I went searching on the topic and stumbled on a website called National Resource Center on ADIHD. Reading the treatments suggested on the website sound like a good idea. They have home interventions, parent training, collaborative problem solving, family therapy, school interventions, school-wide positive behavioral support, tutoring, classroom management, and medication. (2005)
These types of treatment do not single out the child, and what the child has to work on. It’s supposed to help the parent, teachers, the child, and anyone else that wants to help. On the website it states, “Having the counselor or psychologist support the teacher in handling classroom behaviors often results in significant behavioral changes and decreases the incidence of expulsion. Consistent behavior management at home, school and elsewhere needs to be enforced.” (2005) This quotes advocates that with school intervention on top of parents providing structure and reinforcing appropriate behavior decreases behavioral change.
“ADHD and Coexisting Conditions: Disruptive Behavior Disorders (WWK 5B).” ADHD and Coexisting Conditions: Disruptive Behavior Disorders (WWK 5B). 1 Jan. 2005. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. .
This is great Courtney! Operant Conditioning is something that I always liked learning about especially when it came to the different scientists/psychologist that contributed to the theory itself. Positive and negative reinforcers are always a great thing to use especially with parenting when you want to teach your child right from wrong. I know with my 1 year old he sometimes tries to touch things he isn’t supposed to and if telling him no doesn’t work I put him in his bed for a couple minutes and when he comes out he doesn’t touch whatever it was. And with positive reinforcers when it comes to him he is learning his body parts already so when he points to the right body part on either himself or someone else he gets a treat! This is a great article as well with all the information about Danny and how they used reinforcers to help him out. Good luck the rest of the semester!