Behaviorist, Ivan Pavlov who used to be a Russian was the one who first got here up with this theory. Ivan first experimented with dogs the place he paired a neutral stimulus with meals to elicit a conditioned response. The unbiased stimulus used to be the bell; the unconditioned stimulus was food. Matching these two for some time led to the canine salivating, which is the conditioned response, by the sound of the bell barring even seeing the food. J.B Watson later on built on Ivan’s idea and decided to work with humans. The effects of Watson’s experiment confirmed that human being could additionally be conditioned when one pairs the desired conduct with prestigious people. This is the basis of industrial advertising today.
Examples of classical conditioning in advertising
Among the companies that use classical conditioning to advertise, their products include the Coca-Cola Company, Mac Donald’s and Nike.
The above diagram is the latest coke zero adverts, which uses classical conditioning.
UCS- The adorable happy couple
UCR- Feeling good
NS- Coke
CS- Coke
CR- Desire to buy coke zero sugar
The above advert makes us associate coke zero with positive things like the beautiful people and happy faces driving us to buy coke instead of any other drink.
A basketballer scoring while wearing shoes from Nike
UCS- Basketball player
UCR- Shooting the ball
NS- Basketball
CS- Basketball
CR- Desire to buy the Nike shoes like the pair worn by the player
UCS- The beautiful model with a chicken leg
UCR- Crispy chicken
NS- Crispy chicken
CR- Buying the crispy chicken from Mac Donald’s after just like the model
In all of the above adverts, pairing prestigious and good-looking people makes people buy their products more. The adverts appear on the screens frequently, and this makes it stick in the heads of potential customers who need persuasion. The Coca-Cola Company is known all over the world for its adverts and not specifically for its taste. This advertising approach has worked for the MacDonald’s food stores to leading to the opening of such food stores all over the world. As for the Nike a shoe, the company is known to make the best shoes not by experience but by what people see in their advertisements instead.
Operant Conditioning
It is a behavioral model developed by BF Skinner while trying to find an alternative way of explaining the complex human behavior other than the classical conditioning explanation. Skinner proved that when a response is reinforced, it tends to recur. He also showed that an undesired behavior c eliminated by using his operant conditioning model. Nowadays rehabilitation centers are employing skinners model to rehabilitate addicts and alcoholics. The ABCs of the Skinners models are the antecedent (environment) that precedes the action and then the consequences that are the outcome.
An example of behavior that fits operant conditioning is aggression in children. Using the skinner model, the antecedent in this case is teasing from peers at school. The teasing leads the child to act aggressively by beating his teasers. This behavior lands the kid into trouble a suspended from school. Adjusting any part of the model is no guarantee that the desired behavior is learned or vice versa.
The reinforcement schedule in learning this behavior is a fixed interval because every time the student is suspended, it ends up strengthening his aggressive behavior making the learning process programmed.
ANTECEDENT
TEASING FROM CLASSMATES
BEHAVIOUR
BEATING THEM UP
SUSPENDED FROM SCHOOL
CONSESEQUENCE
Observational learning (Modeling)
This is the process of learning behavior through imitation. This is common in children when they mimic what adults do and even in teens who imitate what they see on the television. We shall use the example of a child learning how to wash dishes by watching her mother do it.
The process of learning through observation occurs in four stages as follows
1. Attention- the child observes as her mother washing cups before plates then rinsing them over a short time
2. Retention- this is the ability to retain remember what she saw earlier on
3. Production- after watching for a while she decides to act and picks the dishes and starts to wash
4. Motivation- when the mother sees what her daughter is doing she congratulates her and helps her in the process thereby encouraging her.
With the Banduras principles, we can improve the process of learning new behavior by focusing on the four stages especially the last part of the motivation.
