Operant conditioning

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SORCK analysys 1969 Kanfer Saslow

S Stimulus :

Historical - something that happened earlier, also events from past (difficult baby) don't directly elicit the behaviour

Contextual - occuring currently (exposure to violent films)

Immediate - something that happened just before the problem behaviour and directly trigger the occurrence

O Organism

These are variables that influence the relationship between the antecedent stimuli and the response; and that are characteristic of the current state of the individual.

Organismic variables may include cognitive functioning, drug use, emotions, and physical health problems.

R Response :

swearing, verbaly obusive

C Consequence:

what belongs here is what happens after the problem behaviour or response.

It is important to think about this question from the perspective of each person involved in the interaction

Immediate consequences : These are the stimuli that occur straight after the problem response and that changes the likelihood of the response occurring in the future.

Delayed : These are stimuli that are caused by the target behaviour in the longer-term. Delayed consequences do however influence contextual variables that may be indirectly related to the recurrence of the behaviour.

K Contingency:

This is basically where we do our thinking in terms of the principles of operant conditioning, about how the behaviour or response and its consequences are related to each other. It’s where we try to understand what function the behaviors are serving.

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OPERANT CONDITIONING

BF Skinner

Skinner believed that it was more productive to study observable behaviour rather than to speculate about internal mental events.

Skinner believed that the best way to understand behaviour was to look at the causes of an action and its consequences.

his work was based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect. Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect – reinforcement.

Behaviour that is reinforced tends to be repeated or strengthened, and behaviour that is not reinforced tends to die out, be extinguished, or, weakened.

Skinner studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he placed in a Skinner Box. The Skinner box had a lever on the side and an electric grid on the floor.

The removal of an unpleasant stimulus can also strengthen behaviour.

Negative reinforcement strengthens behaviour because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience.

The consequence of escaping the electric current ensured that they would repeat the action This is known as escape learning.

In fact, Skinner even taught the rats to avoid the electric current by turning on a light just before the electric current came on. The rats soon learned to press the lever when the light came on because they had learned this would stop the electric current from being activated. This is known as Avoidance Learning.

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Classical conditioning

everything from speech to emotional responses was simply a pattern of stimulus and response.

Because Pavlov’s dogs were trained to salivate to the clicking metronome, the metronome becomes the conditioned stimulus, and the salivating response to the metronome becomes the conditioned response.

Dogs don’t naturally salivate to clicking metronomes.

The white rat had become a conditioned stimulus that elicited the conditioned response of fear and distress in Little Albert.

Watson and Rayner also found that Little Albert developed fear towards stimuli or objects which shared characteristics with the white rat, for example, a rabbit, a dog, and a furcoat.This process is now referred to as stimulus generalisation.

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MODELS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY

If your knowledge of psychological therapy only came from TV or movies, you may think

clinical psychologists sit in an armchair, while their patients make themselves comfortable

on a couch sharing the trauma of their childhood.

This is a very stereotypical picture of Freudian style psychodynamic therapy.

But in fact, there are many different schools or models of psychological therapy.

However, biological, psychodynamic, behavioural, and cognitive behavioural are arguably the

four foundational models of therapy.

On its own, the Biological model is somewhat simplistic, suggesting that emotional distress

is caused by biological or genetic determinants – for instance a deficit in a particular

neurotransmitter such as serotonin or dopamine.

Biological and genetic influences are certainly important in understanding mental health – and

this is particularly true for some mental illnesses.

Typically, clinicians take what is referred to as a ‘biopsychosocial’ approach to

understanding mental illness – looking not only at biological factors, but also psychological

and social factors.

Psychodynamic Therapy has been so incredibly important historically.

Sigmund Freud, who is widely regarded as the founder of clinical psychology even though

he was originally a neurologist, founded Psychodynamic Therapy.

Many of his ideas – for example, his thoughts about the importance of the feelings a client

has towards their therapist and vice versa – have really stood the test of time and

remain core constructs that most mental health clinicians keep in mind when thinking about

clients and their presentations.

Behavioural Therapy, as its name suggests is very focused on what people do, or how

they behave.

Central to Behavioural therapy are the two different types of conditioning: classical

conditioning and operant conditioning.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, builds on Behavioural Therapy with its emphasis on

the role of cognitions or thoughts and their importance in determining the way we feel

and the way we behave.

Behavioural therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy are arguably the two therapies with

the strongest evidence bases.

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BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY:

It’s not all about what she doesn’t want Jamie to do, but redirecting him to things that she wants him to do––positive things that she can then praise him for.

Praises should be really specific, instead of 'good job' tell exatly what behaviour we are praising, so the person can do it more in the future and know exactly what is praised for