Sophia, a second-year psychology student, is helping her younger brother, Liam, build better homework habits. She decides to use principles from B.F. Skinner’s behavioural theory to encourage Liam to consistently complete his homework.
Sophia identifies the behaviours she wants Liam to develop, such as starting his homework on time, staying focused, and completing it without distractions. She selects appropriate consequences to reinforce these behaviours:
Sophia uses positive reinforcement by rewarding Liam with a sticker for his chart or extra screen time when he completes his homework.
Sophia uses negative reinforcement by saying that if Liam finishes his homeworlk promptly, he doesn’t have to help wiith setting the table that evening.
She avoids using punishment by focusing on encouraging Liam’s positive behaviours rather than highlighting his mistakes.
Sophia applies different approaches as Liam’s habits improve:
- At first, Sophia rewards Liam with a small incentive (e.g., a sticker or verbal praise) every 15 minutes that he spends working on his homework without distractions. This helps establish a sense of routine and keeps Liam engaged during the initial learning phase.
- Once Liam begins completing homework regularly, Sophia starts rewarding him after every five completed math problems or after finishing a set number of tasks in other subjects. This creates consistency and encourages task completion.
- To encourage Liam to stay focused whille completing his homework, Sophia initially rewards him after a random number of completed taslks, such as after solving three, five, or seven math problems. This unpredictable reinforcement motivates Liam to keep working without knowing exactly when the reward will come.
- Once Liam consistently begins and completes his homework on time, Sophia, surprises him with small rewards (e.g., praise, a sticker, or an extra 5 minutes of screen
Sophia also uses another technique to gradually teach Liam better homework habits:
At first, she rewards Liam for simplly sitting at his desk with his materials ready within five minutes of being asked.
Once this behaviour becomes consistent, she rewards him only when he starts his homework and completes at least one task.
Finallly, she reinforces only when Liam completes all his homework for the day without distractions.
Over time, Sophia also influences Liam”s ability to stay focused for longer periods..
Initially, she praises him for staying focused for 5 minutes. Gradually, she increases the time requirement before offering reinforcement until lliam can complete his homework without
interruptions.
Read the above scenario, and in an academic essay of not more than 2000 words, provide a comprehensive explanation of the behavioural theory perspective of personality through application to the scenario above. Refer to applicable elements in the scenario in your explanation.
Make use of at least three (3) additional journal articles in the presentation of the theoretical elements of your explanation.
Make use of the below points to guide the presentation of your essay:
Provide an explanation of the behavioural perspective of personality.
Outline the schedules of reinforcement and successive approximation as proposed by B. F. Skinner.
Identify and explain the techniques used by Sophia to modify her brother’s behaviour in the scenario
Explain whether you believe the techniques applied by Sophia are effective and why.
Where relevant, based on the points above, application (with justification) must be made to the case study when explaining theoretical elements.
Answers to Above Questions on Psychology
Answer 1: The behaviour perspective of personality indicates that all types of behaviour are acquired by individuals through their interactions with their surrounding environment. The main basis of this theory can be identified in respect to the classical and operant condition by B.F. Skinner, and according to him, personal development in an individual is a learned behaviour that is affected by reinforcement and punishment. In the given case study, it is evaluated that Sophia makes use of the operant conditioning framework in order to help her younger brother Liam to develop positive homework habits. The main focus of this essay is therefore on understanding the behavioural theory of personality, analyses the reinforcement schedules, and finally evaluate the effectiveness of sophia’s strategy by referring to existing literature.
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