Operant behavior is a response to consequences that affect future behavior. It can be positive or negative reinforcement, or lack of consequence. BF Skinner theorized that organisms are influenced by consequences and that previous consequences affect future behavior.
Operant behavior is a term first used by BF Skinner, one of the best-known psychologists in the behaviorist school. In his many years of work, Skinner theorized that organisms were often influenced in their behavior by consequences and that previous consequences would have an effect on future behavior. The consequences could be natural or contrived, and were often contrived in the types of studies of operant animal behavior practices.
In essence, this type of behavior is the person/organism’s response to consequences and how the behavior is affected by that. The operant itself is a behavior that produces some effect on the general environment. Another definition could be behavior that is not only influenced by the environment, but that causes changes in the environment.
It is perhaps easier to understand this in the context of the examples. There are many types of operants that could encourage behavior based on giving positive reinforcement. For example, rats could be tested for speed when running through a maze. After starting the test, a tasty snack was placed at the end of the maze to determine if the rat would have a shorter running time. If the rat’s running time is increased, this is an example of operant behavior (provided the test can be duplicated multiple times). The mouse’s behavior changes (speed increases) because it is positively reinforced to run through the maze.
Alternatively, a scientist could test the rat’s operant behavior by placing a lever or button in a box that causes pain when pressed. If the rat explores the lever first and experiences this pain, it is likely to leave the lever alone afterwards. This explores the idea of negative reinforcement or a negative operant.
Another example of operant behavior or operants is lack of consequence or extinction conditioning. This is when nothing results from a behavior. People use this form of extinguishing condition regularly with young children. The “cry it out” method induces a response, because parents do not respond to a child’s cries. This gradually reinforces the infant’s understanding that crying does not elicit a parent’s response and is therefore useless.
Some people feel a certain discomfort with behaviorism, and especially with things like the shout method. It is fair to ask what operant behavior on a larger scale means. Does the child eventually cry out for needing therapy because he grew up with a sense of inferiority and irrelevance? This is a good and much debated question.
However, the work of Skinner and others has been successfully applied in psychology, even though there are discussions about behavioral psychology and its methods. The sum total of things that govern complete behavior in a human being can be very different. Clearly, though, Skinner and many other behaviorists have shown that both animals and people often change their behavior based on different operants, and the ways that can be applied to benefit people could be numerous.
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