Dr. Williams, a school psychologist, was working with an extremely socially with

Question

Dr. Williams, a school psychologist, was working with an extremely socially withdrawn respond according to the principle of reinforcement; that is, the student begins to engage more often in behaviors that are greeted by the sound of the clicker. The trainer’s success depends on how well he or she can choose and reinforce successive approximations immediately as they occur. This game is similar to the children’s game of hot and cold, in which the child says “hotter” as you move toward a target location and “colder” as you move away. adolescent, Jenny. Dr. Williams decided to use shaping to help Jenny develop appropriate social skills. He identified the target behavior as making eye contact, smiling, standing up straight, talking at a normal voice volume, and nodding and paraphrasing when the other person said something. Dr. Williams was going to reinforce successive approximations of this target behavior in therapy sessions, in which he played the role of a classmate and engaged in conversations with Jenny. In each session, Dr. Williams and Jenny role- played four or five short conversations. Before each role-plays sessions, Dr. Williams reminded Jenny which behaviors she should work on. As a reinforcer for exhibiting the correct behavior in the role-play sessions, Dr. Williams bought Jenny an ice cream cone in the school cafeteria once a week. What is the problem with this application of shaping?

Explanation / Answer

Reinforcements of a behaviour ensures that it becomes a habit over a period of time. In order to make sure that reinforcement happens effectively, people need to be motivated. There are two things that would ensure that the reinforcement takes place effectively, reward or punishment, as both of them act as motivators.

In this case, the school psychologist uses ice cream as a reward for an expected outcome. The problem with this kind of motivation is that Jenny might not behave in the expected way unless she gets an ice cream or something else. Unless Jenny believes in the learning and outcome of the learning and internalises the motivation, she will behave only when there is a reward. Here, what the psychologist practices is external motivation and it won't last long.

Thank you for your question.

Please rate if you like the answer.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse D
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.