Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 15. Skinner: Behavioral
Analysis(^456) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
The key to this classical conditioning experiment was the pairing of a condi-
tioned stimulus (the white rat) with an unconditioned stimulus (fear of a loud sud-
den sound) until the presence of the conditioned stimulus (the white rat) was suffi-
cient to elicit the unconditioned stimulus (fear).
Operant Conditioning
Although classical conditioning is responsible for some human learning, Skinner be-
lieved that most human behaviors are learned through operant conditioning.The
key to operant conditioning is the immediate reinforcement of a response. The or-
ganism first doessomething and then is reinforced by the environment. Reinforce-
ment, in turn, increases the probability that the same behavior will occur again. This
conditioning is called operant conditioning because the organism operates on the en-
vironment to produce a specific effect. Operant conditioning changes the frequency
of a response or the probability that a response will occur. The reinforcement does
not cause the behavior, but it increases the likelihood that it will be repeated.
Shaping
With most cases of operant conditioning, the desired behavior is too complex to be
emitted without first being shaped by the environment. Shapingis a procedure in
which the experimenter or the environment first rewards gross approximations of the
behavior, then closer approximations, and finally the desired behavior itself. Through
this process of reinforcing successive approximations,the experimenter or the en-
vironment gradually shapes the final complex set of behaviors (Skinner, 1953).
Shaping can be illustrated by the example of training a severely mentally chal-
lenged boy to dress himself. The child’s ultimate behavior is putting on all his own
clothes. If the parent withheld reinforcement until this target behavior occurred, the
child would never successfully complete the chore. To train the boy, the parent must
break down the complex behavior of dressing into simple segments. First, the parent
gives the child a reward, say, candy, whenever the boy approximates the behavior of
positioning his left hand near the inside of the left sleeve of his shirt. Once that be-
havior is sufficiently reinforced, the parent withholds reward until the child places his
hand into the proper sleeve. Then the parent rewards the child only for putting his
left arm entirely through the sleeve. Following this, the same procedures are used
with the right sleeve, the buttons, trousers, socks, and shoes. After the child learns to
dress himself completely, reinforcement need not follow every successful trial. By
this time, in fact, the ability to put on all his clothes will probably become a reward
in itself. Quite apparently, the child can reach the final target behavior only if the par-
ent breaks up the complex behavior into its component parts and then reinforces suc-
cessive approximations to each response.
In this example, as in all instances of operant conditioning, three conditions
are present: the antecedent(A), the behavior(B), and the consequence(C). The an-
tecedent (A) refers to the environment or setting in which the behavior takes place.
In our example, this environment would be the home or any other place the child
might be putting on clothes. The second essential condition in this example is
the boy’s behavior (B) of dressing himself. This response must be within the boy’s
repertoire and must not be interfered with by competing or antagonistic behaviors,
450 Part V Learning Theories