Operant Conditioning and B.F. Skinner

 Linked is an article that explains more information on B.F. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning: https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html 

One of my favorite topics in psychology is operant conditioning and how it influences behavior. I thought it would be interesting to post on more in depth than my first post that focused on education and reinforcement in school settings specifically. 

There are two types of conditioning that impact learning and behavior: classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning, discovered by Ivan Pavlov, describes learned associations between two stimuli that are not innately associated with one another. We get hungry when we smell food, which is a natural and unconditioned stimulus. We can learn to associate other stimuli with food, such as when children hear the familiar jingle of the ice cream truck and go running, making the truck's song the conditioned stimulus that is associated with getting ice cream. B.F. Skinner had another theory that is a little different than classical conditioning called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is when a behavior is not simply associated but is done to increase or decrease a behavior, such as through reinforcers and punishments, respectively (Berg, 2025). Reinforcers and punishments make us into the individuals we ultimately become. Moral conditioning happens when our parents punish us for breaking rules in the household. Or we may receive detention for not doing our homework in school, a punishment that decreases this rule breaking. We may receive ice cream as children as a reinforcer for sharing toys with siblings. All of these things teach us to become productive members of society. According to Simply Psychology, Skinner introduced the Law of Effect, that reinforced behaviors increase in frequency, but halting reinforcement leads to extinction of such behaviors (McLeod, para #4 2025). That is why we are conditioned the way we are by the adults in our lives as children, to ensure we adapt prosocial behaviors in order to function as adults ourselves. 

This conditioning ultimately leads us to make the decisions we make as adults. We go to college for a career to aid society because we are taught from a young age that we need to be productive members of society. We know stealing is unethical from our conditioning so we learn to earn what we need in order to survive, in a healthy, prosocial way such as being employed. These prosocial ideals allow us to make decisions about our long term goals and motivate us to work hard like society values. Ultimately, there is a fundamental relationship between learning and motivation. Basic drives like hunger and social interaction cause us to make choices for a positive future career instead of making bad decisions. This is something I think we can all relate to; we make good decisions to help society, and ourselves. 

Do you think the lessons you learned growing up ultimately impacted your decisions and motivation in college? Feel free to let me know if you decide to reply to my post. 

References 

Berg, M. (2025). Rewards. [Google Slides Presentation]. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LuIvBGeeew7LCtLKyj9dQJqXbL9xh4eUi62rkeuEV8M/edit?slide=id.g2abecc5a1_011#slide=id.g2abecc5a1_011 

McLeod, S. (2025, March 17). Operant conditioning: What it is, how it works and examples. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html