Behaviorism is by far one of the most interesting areas of psychology in my opinion. B.F. Skinner's view on behaviorism was that a person's actions are controlled by rewards and punishments. If we compare this to a real-life situation, a good example would be that of a parent and a child. Behavioral analysis is how a person's behaviors are based on their personal history and past experiences. This is different from the radical behaviorism into which Skinner fell. Skinner believed that mental events, such as thinking, were not necessary to explain behavior. A parent raising a child is faced with a lot of operant conditioning, whether they know it or not. A parent always tries to teach their child right and wrong. From operant conditioning, they can teach the child how to use reinforcement and punishment. Positive reinforcement is any stimulus that, when added to a situation, increases the likelihood that a given behavior will occur. If a child does well in school and brings home a report card with all A's, the parent can reward the child. The reward should be something the child will find desirable. If the parent gives the child a Snickers bar and the child is allergic to peanuts, this will obviously not be a reward for the child. The positive reinforcer is often called an operant reinforcer, which is any event that follows a response and increases its probability of occurring again. Negative reinforcement is any aversive stimulus that, when removed from the situation, increases the likelihood that an immediately occurring behavior will occur. Even if the negative word is added, this type of reinforcement will still increase the likelihood that the behavior will occur. For example, if the parent always watches the news in the middle of the newspaper for hours all day and every two hours, the parent gives the child lemonade and cookies. Variable intervals are a variation of fixed intervals. Reinforcement is given for the first correct response made after a variable period of time. An example of this is if the child has a paid job under the table. Since this is not a formal contract job, the salary can be fixed whenever the boss receives money. There is therefore no consistency in the reward and the duration can vary depending on the amount of work required. children or to train a dog. Intermittent schedules are also seen almost everywhere, from how you collect your paycheck to how a casino operates. Skinner's behaviorism theories are very easy to demonstrate from real-life situations, but are a little trickier to understand when using psychology terminology alone...