B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

Introduction:

        B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning has inspired a new psychological field of behaviorism. Operant conditioning is a theory regarding the behaviors of animals and humans associated with certain stimuli. Were the stimulus positive, the animal would gradually increase the frequency of that behavior. On the contrary, a negative stimulus can cause the animal to reduce the frequency of the behavior or even lead to the extinction of the behavior. In this experiment, an analysis of whether Skinner’s operant conditioning works on human is conducted. It is hypothesized that operant conditioning works on human as well as animals.

Method:

        A seven-year-old participant from Norma Rose Point School was chosen secretly. The participant did not know that he was in the experiment. His parents gave the consent to perform an experiment on the participant, and was willing to support the experiment.

        Prior to the experiment, the participant did not want to do math homework. Everyday, his father forced him to do extra work, but he often complained. The participant exhibited a negative attitude towards math work, often shown by his angry facial expression whenever his father told him to do it. The participant, furthermore, only sat and daydreamed on his desk whenever he studied. These empirical evidence has been told by his parents and his brother beforehand. Meanwhile, the participant’s mother and father was informed of the experiment, but they did not know the purpose of the experiment before and during the course of the experiment.

        The experiment begins by the participant rating, from a score between 0 and 10 inclusive, how much he loves math homework. The score is recorded on a separate sheet of paper (appendix B) From that day on, the participant’s mother would sometimes enter his room whenever he studied math. If the mother saw her son doing math homework, she would give him a chocolate candy. If she saw him playing video games, she would not do anything. The mother should come in an approximate interval of 30 minutes.

        Everyday, the participant’s father and mother would record the level of enthusiasm their son had about math homework on a sheet of paper (appendix A) They would also record the amount of math problems their son did on that day and the amount of chocolates given to the participant on the same piece of paper. After 7 days, the participant was asked to record the level of happiness he had on the same scale from 0 to 10 inclusive. It was included in appendix B.

        Once the experiment was finished, the participant and his parents was fully informed of the experiment. They were told the purpose of the experiment and how their data was collected. They gave the consent to publicize the data taken, and trusted that they remained confidential in the report.

Results:

*This table is the summarized result of appendices A and B

        The results show the participant’s enthusiasm growth from day 1 to day 7. The participant’s mother and father rating both gradually increases throughout the week. From scores of 2 and 3 in the first few days, the number jumps up to 6 in day 7 for both parents. The number of chocolates also increases throughout the week, with only one chocolate on the first day and 4 chocolates on the last day. The number of math problems the participant did also grew double, from 8 to 16. Finally, the participant’s rating of his own level of enthusiasm while doing math also jumps from 3 to 7.