Operant Conditioning
Several factors role-play to shape human and animal behavior. To a great extent, the environment, using rewards and punishment, trains human beings and animals to behave in a particular manner- a training that has since been famously named Operant Conditioning. Operant conditioning, therefore, implies the use of environmental consequences (positive and negative) to enhance to frequency at which a desirable behavior is repeated or to discourage repetition of undesirable behavior (Coon & Mitterer, 2010). First investigated by E. L. Thorndike (1874-1949) and later refined by B. F. Skinner (1904-1990), classical conditioning, as it is also called, forms relationship between the behavior and consequences thereby ...
