Behavioral Principles

Operant conditioning is a form of reinforcement. It is a branch of psychology, specifically behaviorism. It aims at studying the behaviors of people and animals and how positive and negative reinforces affect their behavior. Operant conditioning follows specific processes to explain the behavior of different people. When an athlete performs a behavior, the coach has the freedom of choosing how to respond. If the goal wants the athlete to increase the frequency of the behavior, he or she provides reinforcements. It is essential to note that reinforcement can be categorized as either negative or positive. If the objective is to help athletes in competition, this calls for positive reinforcement. In this case, the coaches can provide the athletes with praise and recognition to influence better performance.

Among the four basic procedures of operant conditioning, response differentiation is my best. Response differentiation is the process through which responses are studied to determine whether to use positive or negative reinforcement (Staddon & Cerutti, 2003). By analyzing response differentiation, a person can develop effective measures that can be used in teaching new behaviors or destroying older ones. This is often the result of differential reinforcement that pertains to selective positive reinforcement of specific responses. The reinforced responses are differentiated, which results in the understanding of what is acceptable behavior and what is not.

One important factor to note is that in most cases, teachers and instructors practice positive reinforcement to help improve the performance of their students. For example, I was an average performer when it came to Chemistry. The teacher was extremely nice and always paid attention to the students that were struggling with their grades. She was always encouraging and called me to her office a couple of times to practice and emphasize topics I did not understand. Through her mentorship and constant encouragement, I was able to increase my grades and performance in class.