Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 10

Psychology - Essay Example In fact, the paper seeks to identify ideas that can compare and contrast both classical and operant conditioning, and discuss both their strengths and weakness. Operant conditioning is a theory that seeks to explain the way organisms function in the environment, and this relates to the response associated with things offered by the environment (Greengrass, 2004). The study of Operant conditioning concerned a cat that was positioned in a box with a single point of exit, which had to be pushed for it to open, and the cat struggled to get out of the box, since this was a behavior reinforced through a reward, while attempt to escape was initiated by the opening of the door. When the cat had freed itself, it was taken to the box again, and it would naturally remember how to open the door by identifying an area that needed to be pressed. The ease of getting out of the box increased with the number of times it was placed back in the box, hence, it had learnt through the natural consequence and the reinforcement was freedom. People learn through Operant conditioning in every day of their lives, whereby through making a certain mistake and one experiences a consequence, there is a chance of doing the thing differently given the same situation in the future. In this case, one can learn to act differently due to the consequences of the actions; the same action is repeated in the future if the consequence was positive. Therefore, Operant conditioning has a strength related to the positive or negative outcome that lead to change of behavior and sustenance of a certain behavior (Nye, 2000). For instance, a student, who is misbehaving is entitled to a negative reinforcement in order to eliminate the chances of the behavior occurring in the future. In addition, the strength of the Operant conditioning is evident through understanding of the potential of