---------------------- www.psychlotron.org.uk ---------------------- Name of resource: analysing behaviour using operant conditioning Submitted by: Aidan Sammons Specification details: AQA-B Other spec: all Details: activity based around analysing real world situations in terms of operant conditioning. The situations are designed to support elaboration through questioning and discussion to draw out some of the complexities of operant conditioning. I use them as follows (there are doubtless other ways): 1. The system is similar to a token economy; however, merits/demerits can only shape behaviour if they have reinforcement/punishment value to those to whom they are applied. Can open this up by asking whether students thing the system will work & if not why not. 2. Obviously the consequence the teacher intends to be a punishment does not function as such and may actually reinforce the targeted behaviour. Here you can make the point that the intention of the person manipulating the contingencies is irrelevant to how they actually operate and that punishment and reinforcement can only be defined in terms of their effects on behaviour. Can also use this to reiterate the idea of punishment value. 3. This one illustrates the process of negative reinforcement. Putting it in these terms seems to make it less likely that the students will make the fatal confusion with punishment. 4. This seems very straightforward but students may be inhibited from reaching the right conclusion because the word 'punishment' is often bound up with notions of authority and intention etc. so it doesn't seem right to them that the boy's behaviour can be punished by other boys his age. This one can be used to detect and correct that misconception. 5. The issue here is that the same behaviour leads to different consequences depending on whether it is produced by a girl or a boy. This can be used as a basis for showing that even when children grow up in the same family their environments may not be the same.