The nurse is conducting a series of workshops on life skills for clients with mental illness. Which of the following is an example of operant conditioning that could be used to help the clients gain appropriate social skills?

Question

A) Provide rewards for small approximations of the desired behaviors
B) Use positive reinforcement for all of the clients' behaviors
C) Use punishment to show the consequences of unacceptable behavior
D) Withdraw reinforcement when a client demonstrates undesirable behavior

Answer 1

Ans: A
Feedback:
People respond to achieve something rewarding or to avoid something aversive. In operant conditioning, the response precedes the stimulus. Clients would learn that socially appropriate behavior leads to certain rewards from staff. Thus, they increase that behavior to subsequently increase those positive events. It would be unrealistic for the client to perform the behavior entirely before receiving any reward. Learning is more effective with the use of positive rewards rather than negative reinforcement or punishment. Positive reinforcement is ineffective if applied to all behavior, whether acceptable or unacceptable.