B.F Skinner’s theory was based on reinforcement; he believed that some behaviors that are shown can be modified through consequences. Skinner believed that a person’s behavior was adaptive by the environment. Skinner’s theory included operant condition which is the learning the rate of response is influenced by consequences.
Reinforcement can increase the rate of response or punishment can decrease the rate of response. For example a person that bites their nails might enjoy the feeling while they are biting them, it could be used as a relaxation but the consequences of nail biting, is ugly short nails. The way Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning works using positive reinforcement is if there is no nail biting for a week, then a person would be reward with a treat. A negative reinforcement would cover the nails with fake nails so the bad behavior is being prevented from happening. Either way through positive reinforcement or negative the behavior is being modified.
After watching the short video of the Grinch and how he stole Christmas, the Grinch has showing bad behavior by stealing the Christmas presents from the whoo people he thought that this would make them feel sad because they would awake to no presents to give each other. This is an example of the bad behavior being presented and to correct the bad behavior, there was a change in the Grinch’s heart with is represented as the behavior modification. The positive reinforcement was after the Grinch stole the presents he went to listen for the children to be sad and crying about no present when they woke but when he heard the whoo people singing he realized it wasn’t about the presents that made Christmas. The positive behavior is being rewarded because the whoo people have shown it wasn’t about presents at all. The negative reinforcement is when the sled at the top of the mountain started to fall backward the Grinch tried to save it, so that the bad behavior is being prevented. The punishment is the Grinch’s heart starts to grow 3 times bigger when he started to feel bad about stealing the presents from the whoo people and wanted to return them.
