Provide an example of something you learned through positive reinforcement; provide an example of something you learned through negative reinforcement.

Through positive reinforcement, I learned how to throw a ball. My father taught me in the backyard, and the farther I threw it, the more he told me I had done a 'good job.' I learned through negative reinforcement not to breathe through my nose while swimming -- every time I breathed incorrectly, I would always choke on the water, which made me extremely aware of how I was breathing.

Provide an example (and the steps involved) of something you can teach a child or a pet through shaping.

You can housebreak a puppy through shaping. First, you keep the puppy in a crate because it does not want to soil its den, and only let it out of the crate when you can observe the puppy. When the puppy wants to 'go to the bathroom' and begins to sniff around, you take it immediately outside, and praise it lavishly and reward it for the behavior. When it soils the inside of the house, you say "NO," and if you have caught the puppy before doing 'the act,' then you take the puppy outside and praise it lavishly.

You're trying to help your friend modify his behavior. Provide an example. How would you address immediate and delayed consequences of both the problem behavior and the appropriate alternative behavior?

When trying to quit smoking, suggesting the friend 'stimulate' him or herself with something negative, like snapping a rubber band on his or her wrist, when the urge strikes him, is one way to use negative 'shaping' to quit. To use positive behaviors to encourage quitting in terms of delayed consequences, like the cost of smoking might be to encourage the...

Provide an example of a goal that is too distant in the future. What is the problem with such a goal? How can this problem be effectively addressed?
A too-distant goal for someone contemplating weight loss might be 'you will be less likely to get heart disease and Type II Diabetes when you are older,' because that age is not emotionally (only intellectually) tangible to a young person. A more reinforcing behavior might be 'you can be more effective at soccer and make the Varsity team next year, or wear a smaller size prom dress this June.'

Provide an example of something you learned via observational learning through classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Use separate examples for each.

A learned by observing that whenever you ask something potentially controversial of my mother in the morning, she will say 'no,' because she is not a morning person. This is an example of classical conditioning -- I learned to avoid the 'stimuli of my mother's 'no' because silence was rewarded at the breakfast table, if I needed something. I learned to ask at some other time of the day.

Through operant 'shaping' I learned the value of eating healthfully. I learned that if I didn't eat fast food, I felt better and had more energy throughout the day. The more I was mindful of my diet, the better I felt, and the less mindful, the worse I felt. On days when I was 'half-healthy' I felt okay, but not as good as when I really tried to stick to an effective eating program, so I was slowly shaped to adopting a better diet.