IndexIntroductionClassical conditioning: influence of life events on behaviorInfluence of operant conditioning on my life eventsPunishers: decreasing unwanted behaviorsConclusionWorks CitedIntroduction“A dream does not becomes reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work. (Powell). A significant life event that helped me become the person I am today was becoming top of my middle school class. During those 3 years of middle school, I always went above and beyond on homework and exams, studied every night, and made sure I knew every single detail before a test. Thanks to this diligence, many of my teachers praised me for the hard work and effort I put in. After middle school, this helped me develop a hard work ethic and taught me the importance of not being lazy, especially in high school and high school. start of university courses. I think many psychological perspectives could help me explain the importance of this event, but overall I chose the second one which was behavioral. I chose behavioral because the many concepts within this perspective correlate with my significant life event such as classical conditioning, operant conditions, and subcategories within these two domains such as positive reinforcements and generalization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Classical Conditioning: Influence of Life Events on Behavior First, at the start of the school day, I didn't expect to be called into the office, let alone talk to the school principal. I know I didn't do anything wrong, but this still put a big pit in my stomach. This led me to be very nervous and every time I saw a person from the administration I had the thought of getting in trouble and being 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 is paired with a stimulus to which the learner has an automatic innate response (Feist). Another example of classical conditioning would be a dog drooling at the sound of a bell. A further subcategory of classical conditioning would be an unconditioned stimulus. An unconditioned stimulus is the natural, automatic, innate, involuntary reaction to a stimulus (Feist), an unrelated example of an unconditioned stimulus would be when you are simply walking around a shopping mall and you happen to smell your body odor. favorite food and you immediately feel hungry. One unconditional stimulus connection I can make to my significant life event was when I came home from school after being told I would be valedictorian and my mother was in the kitchen making dinner. As always my mother asked me how my day had gone and I told her everything that had happened, but I didn't know that my mother was chopping onions, which made my eyes start to water, this would be a another example of unconditional stimulus, my mother chopping onions, therefore, with the result that my eyes start to water. Next, a neutral stimulus is a stimulus 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 to get your attention. This can beconnected to a significant event in my life because when I was called to the principal's office I was notified by my teacher and thus got my attention. In addition to classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus, operant conditioning and reinforcing ideas were also present in my significant life event and can be completely linked. Influence of Operant Conditioning in My Life Event Next, operant conditioning was a pretty important 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 notes that “rewarding consequences can make spontaneous behavior more likely to occur” (Thorndike). and since this wasn't shown in my life event, but an example of Thorndike's law would be if you are starting to train your dog and he does something you like and you want him to continue that behavior, you would give him a treat, this would be also an example of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement means the presentation or addition of a stimulus after a behavior has occurred which increases the frequency with which the behavior will occur (Feist), an example of positive reinforcement would be rewarding my little cousin for doing something I discovered needed to be rewarded and she responded by learning the correct way to perform that task. Positive reinforcement is very common in parenting and is also often used with animal training. In a Harvard Business Review study it was shown that the idea of ​​positive reinforcement actually motivates employees rather than punishment. As stated, “Not only is it more effective at motivating change, it is also less harmful to the employer-employee relationship” (Huhman). Opposite positive reinforcements are negative reinforcements, a negative reinforcement is the removal of a stimulus after a behavior to increase the frequency of that behavior (Feist), an example of a negative reinforcement would be if you honk at a car stopped at a green light. This would be a negative reinforcement because at first the car bothers you by not moving, you behave by honking and after you honk the car goes away like this by nature every time you get behind a car that you It's annoying, you'll tend to honk. 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 reinforcers might be money or grades in school. Most human reinforcers are secondary rather than primary. Subsequent reinforcement schedules are distinct intermittent reinforcement patterns depending on whether the reinforcement occurs after a certain number of responses or after a certain period of time has elapsed since the last reinforcement (Feist). A fixed ratio that is part of reinforcement schedules is a pattern of intermittent reinforcement where 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 the reward that I would provide the reward if he did it 5 times, if he does the action 5 times in a row he will receive the reward. Another example of a fixed ratio would be if you answered a question correctly every 10 times, say, you will receive a piece of candy, the fixed ratio/