Question

What role do operant principles play in behavior therapy?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Behaviour therapy is a technique in psychotherapy where the patient’s behaviour is altered through conditioning. This means that a patient might receive positive or negative reinforcement through reward or punishment in order to get them to behave in a certain way.

Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning would involve creating either a positive or negative reinforcement over a period of time. The goal would be to create a trigger in the sub-conscious mind of the individual to adapt to certain behavioural patterns as desired.

Operant Conditioning – While classical conditioning encourages reflexive behaviour, operant conditioning is behaviour that is calibrated by reward or punishment. Basically, this is behaviour that is reinforced by the consequence as opposed to a trigger like in classical conditioning.

There are four principles of Operant Conditioning, they are:

Positive Conditioning – This is when something is added or an element is added to the scene that causes the kind of behaviour that is desired in a person. In behaviour therapy, the patient would either get a reward of some sort for behaving in a way that is desirable.

Negative Conditioning – This is when something is taken away or the patient might have a privilege or reward taken away for a behaviour that is not desired. In behaviour therapy, the patient might have a cookie or something taken away that they like. This would make them think twice about repeating the behaviour that is not desired.

Reinforcement – This is when either reward or punishment is repeated over time and the strength of the altered behaviour increases and becomes more of a habit. In behavioural therapy, the positive or negative conditioning is repeated and eventually, the behaviour might stick.

Punishment – This is when behaviour completely decreases or extinguishes because the patient is not too fond of the punishment they receive for the behaviour that is not desired. In behavioural therapy, the patient may not like a certain punishment and may completely stop the behaviour that is not desired.