How To Do Things

Behavior does not occur in a vacuum. Sometimes a response will have certain consequences; sometimes it will not. Our daily behavior is guided by many different kinds of discriminative stimuli, which indicate that behavior will have certain consequences and thus set the occasion for responding.

For example, consider answering the telephone. The phone rings, you pick it up and say hello into the receiver. Most of the time, someone on the other end of the line begins to speak.

Have you ever picked up a telephone when it was not ringing and said ‘’hallo’’? Doing so would be absurd, because there would be no one on the other end of the line. We answer the phone (make response) only when the phone rings (the preceding event) because, in the past, someone with whom we enjoy talking has been at the other end of the line (the following event). Skinner referred formally to the relationship among these three items: the preceding event, the response, and the following event.

The preceding event, the discriminative stimulus sets the occasion for respond for responding because, in the past, when that stimulus occurred, the response was followed by certain consequences. If the phone rings we are likely to answer it because we have learned that doing so has particular (and generally favourable) consequences. The response we make in this case, ‘’picking up the phone when the phone ring and saying hallo’’ is called an operant behavior. The following event- the voice on the other end of the line is the consequence of the operant behavior


Operant behavior, therefore, occurs in the presence of discriminative stimuli and is followed by certain consequences. These consequences are contingent upon behavior that is they are produced by that behavior. In the presence of discriminative stimuli, a consequence will occur if and only if an operant behavior occurs. In the absence of a discriminative stimulus, the operant behavior will have no effect. Once an aperant behavior is established, it tends to persist whenever the discriminative stimulus occurs, even if other aspects of the environment change. Of course, motivational factors can affect a response. For example, you might not bother to answer the telephone if you are doing something you do not want to interrupt.

Normally, we learn about the consequences of our behavior or about stimuli that direct affect us. We can also learn by a less direct method: observing the behavior of others. Evidence suggests that imitation does seem to be an innate tendency. Classically conditioned behavior, as well as operantly conditioned behaviors, can be acquired through observation, suppose that a young girl sees her mother show sign of fear whenever she encounters a dog. The girl herself will likely develop a fear of dogs, even if she never sees another one. In fact, Bandura and Menlove (1968) reported that children who were afraid of animals, in this case dogs could not remember having had unpleasant direct experiences with them. We tend to imitate, and feel the emotional responses of people we observe. In fact, there is strong evidence that imitating the behavior of other people may be reinforcing itself.

Let’s take another example bullies

We know that bullies are aware of the power of manipulation, because in the past he bullied someone and go response (power against his victim) usually repeated act against their victims.

As a nation

Do we encourage bullies? Yes or No

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