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Operant conditioning, otherwise referred to as instrumental conditioning, is a learning method occurring through a system of rewards and punishments for either favorable or unfavorable behaviors. Through making associations with them, a child learns that there is a connection between a particular action and its implications. Initially proposed and developed by B. F. Skinner, operant conditioning was extensively studied by researchers, and it was found that it was not something to take place in limited experimental settings when training laboratory animals but rather was an occurrence that played a defining role in everyday child learning. Both punishment and reinforcement occur in natural settings all the time, as well as in more structured environments, such as therapy sessions and classrooms.
Therefore, operant conditioning has been broadly used to teach children to follow particular standards of behavior and social interaction. It is essential to examine the influence of operant conditioning on child development as related to parenting because disciplining young individuals and teaching them positive behaviors entails a system of rewards and punishments. Even though there can be a variance in the way that operant conditioning affects different children at set developmental stages, it is possible to hypothesize that it has a positive impact on the success of parenting on a long-term basis.
The emergence of operant conditioning dates back to the mid-1900s when B.F. Skinner experimented with small animals such as rats and pigeons, thus showing that behaviors could be modified with the help of reinforcements. Throughout experiments, Skinner found that free will in humans did not occur randomly or unpredictably. Instead, it was based on a set of reinforcements, with people tending to behave in specific ways as related to acts that offer an opportunity to acquire a reward or avoid punishment (Rumfola, 2017). This system applies to parenting from the very early stages of development, such as setting a regular bedtime or feeding schedule.
The relationship between parenting success and operant conditioning has interested scholars for a reasonably recent time. As parents mold the behavior of children, they do not just teach them how to eat or maintain personal hygiene or become accomplished students; they help to develop a system of values. Operant conditioning has shown that behavioral molding depends on the system of positive and negative outcomes that result from either favorable or unfavorable behaviors (Pierce & Cheney, 2017). An example of operant conditioning at work within the context of parenting was presented by Ferber in his 1985 book Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems. The main idea of the scholar’s work was to help parents train their children to soothe themselves to sleep with the help of operant conditioning. After carrying out a soothing pre-bedtime ritual, such as a lullaby or a warm bath, parents had to put their babies in bed awake, walk out, and close the door. In case children cry, parents were supposed to wait out short periods, enter the room, and soothe their babies without picking them up. Over time, children would start understanding that crying does not reward them and learn how to soothe themselves.
As children begin learning a language, operant conditioning can be used to help parents by enabling learning mechanisms that would improve the capabilities of their children to acquire language. Sturdy and Nicoladis (2017) suggested that through such learning mechanisms as language socialization, imitation, and ontogenetic ritualization, parents have higher chances of successfully teaching language to their children. For example, during imitation, infants are rewarded through social reinforcements, enabling them to understand how and what to say in certain situations (Sturdy & Nicoladis, 2017). While operant conditioning in such instances has been misconceived as the strategy aimed at limiting children to produce the exact sentences that they have already heard, there are findings to suggest that infants are capable of generalizations in their associative learning (Sturdy & Nicoladis, 2017). Besides, children are more likely to mimic individuals who provide regular social feedback to them. Therefore, parents must provide regular social feedback during children’s language acquisition through imitation since it acts as positive reinforcement.
Reinforcements provided to children during learning must be impactful for them to bring results. For instance, according to Pelaez and Monlux (2017), Motherese, which is the form of baby talk in which mothers engage with their kids, is a reliable infant vocalization reinforcer because it is socially associated with the target behaviors expected from children. Besides, the more frequent reinforcements are, the more successful are parents in ensuring that their children become habituated to the desired stimulus. Thus, operant conditioning procedures targeted at teaching infants desired behaviors can facilitate the understanding of diverse phenomena related to young learners, such as their perceptions, early vocalizations, or social referencing (Pelaez & Monlux, 2017). Through manipulating environmental contingencies that take place in the natural environments of their children, parents can enable meaningful changes in behavior among very young infants.
Beyond infancy, operant conditioning can be successfully used in youth as a critical development construct. Recognizing positive behaviors in young individuals is a beneficial response of the social surrounding to favorable acts. The goal of such recognition is to encourage adolescents to continue showing positive behavior and become broadly embedded in the social setting. In such a case, operant conditioning enables positive behavior recognition by suggesting that the favorable effects are to be repeated while unfavorable effects are to be avoided (Law, Siu, & Shek, 2012). As a stimulus that emerges after the act, the recognition of good behaviors strengthens the repeat of similar reactions in the future, transforming it into a kind of positive reinforcement (Law et al., 2012). Within this framework, recognition takes two different forms based on the operant conditioning theory, tangible and intangible. Tangible reinforcements include rewards such as snacks, drinks, small gifts, and any other objects that can be physically given to an individual to reward them for positive behavior (Law et al., 2012). Intangible reinforcements, conversely, are social and are differentiated into stimulation and effective rewards. Stimulation rewards are associated with the presence of adults or peers and positive attention given by them to individuals that exhibit good behaviors (Law et al., 2012). Affective rewards are linked to interpersonal warmth manifested through praise, respect, affection, and sympathy (Law et al., 2012). Notably, there is no specific type of recognition that will work for all positive behaviors, which means that parents or peers usually change their responses to either favorable or unfavorable behaviors.
In the classroom setting, which is characterized by high socialization, operant conditioning has also been applied. According to Altman and Linton (2014), positive reinforcements in the classroom are divided into such categories as peer attention, teacher attention, token reinforcement, and vicarious reinforcement. Immediate feedback has shown to be useful in curtailing negative behaviors, with light punishments or withholding of praise can act as operant conditioning forms. Once students have witnessed a negative reinforcement targeted at one specific individual, they will also want to avoid the punishment and will be less likely to behave in a particular way. Punished students are also less likely to exhibit acts negatively.
On the contrary, operant conditioning can also have adverse effects in the classroom. In particular, operant conditioning depends on extrinsic motivation, which enables less permanent responses compared to intrinsic motivation that comes from the inside of the self. Within a successful classroom, successful conditioning techniques use both intrinsic and extrinsic motivating factors. Therefore, operant conditioning is best used in combination with other strategies to achieve a holistic approach to learning. An implication for future research is concerned with the need to determine the impact of parent-teacher collaboration to develop operant conditioning strategies that would beneficially influence child development.
Apart from the classroom setting, operant conditioning is used in the context of reinforcement contingency learning among ADHD children. Operant conditioning plays a role in behavior therapy strategy that enables the use of reinforcements to teach children with the syndrome socially favored behaviors (de Meyer et al., 2019). According to the findings of de Meyer et al. (2019), in a study with ADHD children, reinforcements could play a beneficial role in the development of persistent positive behavior. Within the behavioral therapy framework, gradual reinforcements showed to “facilitate response acquisition over purely partial reinforcements” (de Meyer et al., 2019, p. 1889). Considering the positive influence of operant conditioning within the context of teaching ADHD children, the implications of using positive and negative reinforcements bear relevance as applied to non-ADHD young learners.
Summary
To summarize research findings on the use of operant conditioning to facilitate positive child development, the method has shown to have a beneficial influence in teaching children favored and socially expected acts. Reinforcements and rewards that come from the social setting of children have proven to be especially important in enabling good behavior. When parents and peers exhibit acceptance or praise for the behaviors exhibited by children, the latter are more likely to adopt them as part of their common conduct in society. The findings suggest that parents play a defining role within operant conditioning strategies since they are the ones who can be direct in their positive and negative responses to certain child behaviors.
The current integration of research on the topic of operant conditioning lacks focus on parental success when using the strategy to teach favorable behaviors and avoid unfavorable ones. Therefore, implications for future studies are vast, both concerning infant and adolescent learning. Also, there is a possibility to study the difference in learning success between children who learned behaviors and language acquisition through operant conditioning and those who were subjected to other strategies. Overall, even though there may be a variance in the way that operant conditioning affects the development of children, the approach has been shown to have a good impact on teaching children favorable behaviors in the long run.
References
Altman, K., & Linton, T. (2014). Operant conditioning in the classroom setting: A review of the research. The Journal of Educational Research, 64(6), 277-286. Web.
De Meyer, H., Beckers, T., Tripp, G., & van der Oord, S. (2019). Reinforcement contingency learning in children with ADHD: Back to the basics of behavior therapy. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47, 1889-1902. Web.
Law, B., Siu, A., & Shek, D. (2012). Recognition for positive behavior as a critical youth development construct: Conceptual bases and implications on youth service development.The Scientific World Journal, 2012, 1-7. Web.
Pelaez, M., & Monlux, K. (2017). Operant conditioning methodologies to investigate infant learning. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 18(1), 1-30. Web.
Pierce, D., & Cheney, C. (2017). Behavior analysis and learning: A behavioral approach (6th ed.). Routledge.
Sturdy, C. B., & Nicoladis, E. (2017). How much of language acquisition does operant conditioning explain? Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1918. Web.
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