how are classical conditioning, operant condition, and soical learning theory different from one another?

Favorite Answer

Pavlov's classical conditioning involves involuntary behaviour. A neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus that causes an unconditioned (automatic) response. Just like Pavlov's dogs who salivated because of their food, but soon learned to salivate at the sound of a bell when the food wasn't even present.

Skinner's operant conditioning is different because is involves reinforcement and punishment and the behaviours that the organism displays are voluntary. An organism's behaviour will be determined by positive/negative reinforcement or punishment. Remember that negative reinforcement does not mean the same thing as punishment. While positive reinforcement refers to giving incentive or reward for good behaviour, negative reinforcement refers to taking something negative away to reward for good behaviour.

Bandura's social learning theory is based upon the idea that organisms learn from each other. His theory states that who we are is shaped from watching and learning from others. An interesting study that was done involved monkeys and snakes. Lab monkeys were made to watch a film that showed other monkeys terrified of snakes. The film monkeys were screaming and running away. When the lab monkeys were then confronted with snakes, they acted in the exact same way ...even though they had never encountered real snakes ever before.

I hope this helps a little....Show more