How Operant Conditioning Can Affect Adolescent Development

Academic Development

• Teens are more likely to engage in behavior that results in a positive reward. Parents and teachers can apply this concept to encourage behavior that is more likely to result in positive academic outcomes. For instance, praising or giving material rewards to adolescents who engage in practices such as handing in their assignments in time or staying calm and attentive in class may reinforce this behavior. Conversely, ignoring adolescents who engage in undesirable behavior, like disruptiveness, may reduce such behavior, advises Boundles.

Health

• Adolescents̵7; healthy development depends on nutrition and physical activity. Some adolescents indulge in unhealthy eating habits to get rewards, such as peers̵7; praise of a slim body. This may lead to eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, report child development experts with the Kids Health website. Parents can apply the concept of giving or withdrawing rewards to promote healthy eating habits. For instance, you can reward an adolescent with positive remarks every time she eats well with the rest of the family.

Social Skills

• Social skills are essential in the social development of adolescents. Positive social skills enable them to form relationships with peers and other members of society. Psychological conditions, such as anxiety, may hinder the process of socialization among adolescents. Adolescents with this condition may avoid or escape from situations that provoke anxiety to get the reward of not having to experience the unpleasant experience of anxiety, reports Matthew Jacofsky, Ph.D., and his colleagues, in Mental Help.

Behavioral Therapy

• Some teachers use positive reinforcement, a basis of operant conditioning, to modify behavior in adolescents. Through positively reinforcing desired behavior using rewards, such as praise, teachers have successfully modified teen behavior in the classroom setting, states Lori Newcomer, Ph.D., of the University of Missouri. Parents too can use this principle to modify adolescent behavior. For example, a parent who gradually increases the reward for an overweight adolescent each time he participates in a more involving physical activity may eventually get him to participate fully in exercises that will help in weight loss.