Pick a superstition that you have or that you have heard another person discuss.
Use the principles of operant conditioning to discuss how that superstition came in to existence and has become imbedded into your (or the other person’s) belief system.
2. Your initial post (your response to the topic) must contain a citation. It is your ideas supported by research. Please refer to the APA Power Point in the Start Here section of the classroom for information on proper formatting. There will be a deduction of 20 points for failure to cite a source within your initial post and to provide a reference at the end of your initial post.
3. Your initial post must be a minimum of 300 words
Requirements: 300 words work
Answer preview
If an event comes after a certain behavior and increases the occurrence of said behavior, it is considered positive reinforcement. On the other hand, an event is considered a negative reinforcement if its prohibition following a certain behavior increases the performance of that behavior. Although we experience the luck of different kinds every day, if an event we consider bad luck comes after breaking a mirror, it will usually be attributed to the mirror since it is an age-old belief. This serves as positive reinforcement of the belief. Another principle is extinction, which refers to the removal of reinforcement for behavior that has been reinforced in the past. In terms of superstition, this could mean events that were previously linked to certain phenomena are no longer linked to those phenomena.
