learning we have studied You are in charge of a group of Sth grade children that
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learning we have studied You are in charge of a group of Sth grade children that meets regularly for recreation. Some members of the group have excluded a younger girl and a very shy boy from activities. How would you make use of operant conditioning principles to improve this situation? Include techniques aimed at both the excluded children and the group. Be specific and label all techniques and principles used. 1. You have decided to enter your baby sister in a local baby beauty contest sponsored by the Gerber Baby Food Company. Your baby sister wins the local contest and will now continue to the national contest which will be televised. You have been told that you are to slowly stroll the baby across the stage and then pause at the end, facing the camera, while the announcer says, "Will this be the new Gerber baby?" You decide you want to have your baby sister do something special as the camera comes close and the announcer finishes with, "Gerber Baby". So you decide to apply the principles of classical conditioning that you have learned in your psych class. You remember that blinking is a baby's natural reaction to a puff of air blown in their eyes. Using conditioning techniques, describe the procedure you would use to have your sister blink at the camera just as the announcer says "Will this be the new Gerber baby?" Be specific and label all parts of your procedure. 2.Explanation / Answer
Operant conditioning is proposed by Burrhus Frederic Skinner and developed based on Thorndike's theory-Law of Effect. Operant conditioning deals with modification of 'voluntary behavior' through the use of consequences. Reinforcement and punishment are core tools of operant conditioning, which are either positive (given following a response) or negative (withdrawn following a response). Stimuli present in the form of reinforcement or punishment to control the behavior, so there are 4 types of consequences such as:
1. Positive reinforcement, where response is followed by favorable stimulus that increases the frequency of such response.
2. Negative reinforcement, where response is followed by removal of an unpleasant stimulus. Again, this will increase response frequency.
3. Positive punishment, where response is followed by an unpleasant stimulus. This unpleasant stimulus will decrease occurrence of such response in future.
4. Negative punishment, where response is followed by removal of favorable stimulus. This again will decrease such response in future.
Let us consider case, where one young girl and shy boy are excluded from group of 5 grade students. Here, the group if 5 grade students regularly meet for recreation activities, but one girl and a boy who is shy in nature are excluded at this gathering.
The reasons for this exclusion might be following:
(i) The girl may be youngest in group and deemed to be unsuitable for tough games by other group members. The girl might be scared to mingle and play with other group members.
(ii) Due to shy nature of boy, he might not able to mingle in the group effectively and deemed to be unfriendly by other group members. The boy might get nervous due to shy nature while communicating with others.
Following are techniques that can be applied to improve the condition and help inclusion of girl and boy in group:
(a) Provide positive reinforcement in the form of accolades and warm welcome for shy boy to mingle with other group members. In gathering, the shy boy should be presented with some accolades for his contribution and achievement, so that his behavior modifies and he will try for some more accolades. Same technique can be followed to excluded girl in that group.
(b) Negative reinforcement to the shy boy in the form of taking away fear of failure in tasks will increase boy's fearless participation in the group.
(c) Positive reinforcement for other members of group if they including shy boy and girl to their team. This reinforcement may be in the form of some appreciation to team members, chocolate distribution by boy and girl, etc.
(d) Positive punishment for members of group if they are not including shy boy and girl into their activities. This may include strict warning to members of group and even giving some extra homework as a punishment.
(e) Negative punishment for members of group for exclusion of shy boy and girl. This may include cutting down time for recreational activities, taking back any sports equipments from the team, etc.
These are some techniques tried using operant conditioning to improve the condition of excluded boy and girl in group of fifth graders.
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