Robert Fettgather holds a BA in psychology from San Jose State University as well as Masters and Doctoral degrees. He works as an associate faculty at Mission College in Santa Clara. Among his interests is the power of attention in human relationships.
Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice. Psychologists have investigated learning from a variety of perspectives. In Pavlov’s pioneering research, you may recall the presentation of meat was repeatedly paired with a metronome making a ticking noise. Eventually, the dogs developed a conditioned response as they salivated when they heard the ticking sound all by itself.
Based on his research, Thorndike devised another important principle of learning- the law of effect. The law states that if a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence it will most likely to be repeated whereas if a response is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it will tend not to be repeated. B.F. Skinner expanded on Thorndike’s ideas on effect and created the term “operant conditioning” which asserts that behavior is a function its consequences. For example, positive reinforcement is a consequence that is pleasurable and strengthens the response which proceeded it.
A final point on behaviorism might be just how terrible many of us are at applying these principles in our own lives! For example, sometimes we fail to voice appreciation for the behaviors we like from loved ones, friends and colleagues-that amounts to an extinction intervention. In other words, we are making those wonderful actions less likely to occur in the future. And in frustration, we have been known to give a lot of attention to behavior we don’t like from these very same folks. That can take the form of exasperation, complaining or a frown. With a child, it can be a scolding that provides attention and thus reinforces an undesired behavior. And of course, sometimes we resort to “scolding” friends and family too! These forms of attention can reinforce the very behavior we would like to diminish.
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