Table of contentsIntroductionClassical conditioning: influence of life event on behaviorInfluence of operant conditioning in my life eventPunishers: decrease undesirable behaviorConclusionWorks CitedIntroduction“A dream does not come true through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. (Powell). An important event in my life that helped me become the person I am today was becoming valedictorian of my college class. During these 3 years of college, I always exceeded my expectations in my school work and exams, I studied every night and made sure I knew every detail before an exam. Because of this diligence, several of my professors have praised me for the excellent work and effort I have put in. Starting in middle school, it helped me develop a hard work ethic and taught me the importance of not being lazy, especially in high school and college. start of college classes. I think there are many psychological perspectives that could help me explain the significance of this event but overall I chose the second which was behavioral. I chose behavioral because the many concepts of this perspective correlate with important events in my life, such as classical conditioning, operant conditions, and subcategories of these two fields, such as positive reinforcement and generalization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayClassical Conditioning: Influence of Life Events on BehaviorFirstly, at the start of the school day, I didn't expect to be called to the office, let alone speak with the school principal, I know I didn't do anything wrong but it still put a big pit in my stomach. This made me very nervous and every time I saw an administration official I felt like I was going to get in trouble and be kicked out of school. This would be an example of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning can be seen in responses such as phobias, disgust, nausea, anger and sexual arousal or in learning when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus to which the learner has an innate response automatic (Feist). Another example of classical conditioning would be a dog salivating at the sound of a bell. An additional subcategory of classical conditioning would be unconditioned stimulus. An unconditioned stimulus is the natural, automatic, innate and involuntary reaction to a stimulus (Feist). An unrelated example of an unconditioned stimulus would be when you are just walking through a shopping mall and you happen to smell your favorite food and you immediately feel hungry. One unconditioned stimulus connection I can make with my important life event occurred when I came home from school after being told I was going to be valedictorian and my mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner. As always, my mother asked me how my day was and I told her everything that happened, but I didn't know that my mother cut onions, which led me to start water. This would be another example of an unconditioned stimulus, my mother cutting onions. , so, which makes my eyes start to water. Next, a neutral stimulus is one that produces no response other than getting your attention. An example of a neutral stimulus would be a receptionist calling your name over the PA system andthat catches your attention. This may be related to an important event in my life because when I was called to the principal's office, I was alerted by my teacher and therefore received my attention. In addition to classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, and neutral stimulus, operant conditioning and ideas of reinforcers were also present in my significant life event and may be closely related. Influence of Operant Conditioning in My Life Event Next, operant conditioning was a pretty big factor in my significant life event. Operant conditioning is the process of changing behavior by manipulating the consequences of that behavior. First, Thorndike's Law of Effect states that "rewarding consequences can make spontaneous behavior more likely to occur" (Thorndike). and as this was not shown in my life event but an example of Thorndike's Law would be if you start training your dog and he does something that you like and want him to continue This behavior, you would give him a treat, this would also be an example of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcers mean the presentation or addition of a stimulus after a behavior occurs that increases the frequency with which the behavior will occur (Feist), an example of positive reinforcement would be rewarding my little cousin for doing something something that I thought should be rewarded and she would respond by learning the correct way to accomplish this task. Positive reinforcement is very common in parenting and is also often used with animal training. It was proven in a Harvard Business Review study that the idea of ​​positive reinforcement actually motivated employees rather than punishing them. As noted: “Not only is it more effective in motivating change, it is also less damaging to the employer-employee relationship” (Huhman). The opposite of positive reinforcers are negative reinforcers, a negative reinforcer is the removal of a stimulus after a behavior to increase the frequency of that behavior (Feist), an example of negative reinforcement would be you honking your car horn at a car that is sitting at a green light. This would be negative reinforcement because at first the car annoys you by not moving, you behave by honking, and after honking the car therefore inherently disappears every time you get behind a car that annoys you. , you will tend to honk your horn. Another category of reinforcers would be primary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers are unlearned reinforcers that satisfy biological needs. Examples of primary reinforcers would be food, water, sleep, air or sex. The opposite of a primary reinforcer would be a secondary reinforcer, secondary reinforcement refers to a situation in which a stimulus reinforces a behavior after previously being associated with a primary reinforcer. Examples of secondary reinforcements would be money or school grades. Most human reinforcements are secondary rather than primary. The following reinforcement schedules are intermittent reinforcement models that are distinguished by whether reinforcement occurs after a defined number of responses or after a certain amount of time has passed since the last reinforcement (Feist). A fixed ratio that is part of reinforcement schedules is an intermittent reinforcement model in which reinforcement follows a set number of responses. An example of a fixed ratio would be if I were to reward my little cousin for doing something worth rewarding. the reward if she has it./