History

• Skinner first developed the idea behind operant conditioning while working on an experiment in which lab rats received a piece of food as a reward each time they pressed a bar inside their cage. Skinner observed that when the rats realized that their behavior was rewarded with food, they pressed the bar more and more frequently. Skinner conducted a number of other related experiments to further test his observations.
  
  

Operant Conditioning

• According to an article by Dr. C. George Boerce on webspace.ship.edu, Skinner described operant conditioning this way: “The behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organism’s tendency to repeat the behavior in the future." In the experiment with the rats, Skinner would have labeled the act of pressing the bar as the “operant,” because it was the behavior done immediately prior to receiving the piece of food. The food would be referred to as the “reinforcing stimulus,” because it was the positive reward that caused the rats to continue a specific behavior. Skinner later discovered that, if the reinforcing stimulus was removed, the rats would stop performing the operant. This result is known as “extinction.”
  
  

Further Research

• Skinner coined several other concepts as he continued to research the idea that all behaviors are learned based on positive and negative reinforcers. He discovered the idea of “shaping,” in which the subject’s behavior is changed without ever teaching the specific desired behavior. He also experimented with aversive stimuli and punishments. These discoveries led him to further develop Joseph Wolpe’s idea of systematic desensitization, where the subject is taught to overcome fears by learning to relax in increasingly frightening scenarios.
  
  

Behavior Modification

• Once Skinner discovered that a rat’s behavior can be modified by the addition or removal of a reinforcer, psychologists began applying the same concept to humans. Positive behaviors were shown to increase when people received rewards, and negative behaviors decreased due to the aversive stimulus or lack of reward. This is the basic principle of behavior modification.
  
  

Today

• Most people today use the theories of operant conditioning and behavior modification daily without even realizing it. An article on referenceofbusiness.com states that behavior modification is effective in the workplace, where employees are rewarded with positive reinforcers when they perform well. Parents use this theory daily with their children when they reward them for good behavior and punish them for bad conduct. Psychiatrists also use behavior modification to successfully treat a wide variety of conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, separation anxiety, bed wetting and a number of other mental disorders.