When I think about what I will remember about psychology 5 years from now I have to think about why I would remember that certain concept. In order to do that I think about what I will be doing in the future and how that affects what I am going to remember. Therefore I think that I will most likely remember the concept of positive and negative reinforcement as well as punishment. This is because by remembering these things I will be able to attain my goals easier as well as know how to make something more likely to happen or not happen. This will always be useful in life as I deal with other situations such as raising my kids, having animals, and being in relationships. In order to really get what I want in life I will practice the things I've learned about reinforcement and punishment and when it is appropriate to use each different type to reach my goals. That is why I will remember that concept five years from now and well beyond that.
Reinforcing for the Future
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I totally agree. What is the most important concepts to me is also the ones that I would apply to my own life and to the community and the people I'm concerned about the most. The concept of positive and negative reinforcement is one of them that I considered would be very useful in many perspective. To myself, growing up in a modern society filled with advanced technology, I feel like I'm more likely to be distracted comparing to my parents' generation and more struggling in terms of being focused. For example, face-booking is probably one thing from the top list that has been keeping my attention away from my school work to social activities. Though I never define it is a very bad habit, I do want to be a more organized and structualized person. Say, it could be a good idea if I reward myself some face booking time after a period of concentrated study in the future and take away the social life once I fail to keep focused on my homework. That is one aspect regardinig how I am going to regulate myself in the future by taking the advantage of this great concept.
As a college student constantly moving forward and trying to achieve new goals that I set for myself daily, whether they be social, physical or educational goals, I always keep the idea of operant conditioning in the back of my head. I use these tricks to help myself achieve the goals that I have set whether it be by exercising more, studying more, partying less, etc. There is always a reward to be had. I think this concept is not only important for myself but in associating with other people and getting what I want, especially after I enter the work force. Operant conditioning is a big aspect to "street smarts" I believe, because it lets one manipulate people (not necessarily in a harmful way, of course. That's not the purpose). I also think the techniques we learned in lecture about lowballing, foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face are definitely things I will keep in the back of my head in getting what I want!
Operant conditioning, the way it was explained in our textbook, was great because it really explained to me why reinforcement is better than punishment. Punishment only shows/limits you to what you can't do- wheres reinforcement encourages you to do more of the right stuff- and lets the person know that they are doing what is necessary. I'd love to see how I could practically incorporate this if I ever had kids.
I think you hit the nail right on the head with examples that we can use positive/negative reinforcement on. I think indirectly we even all use it on ourselves. For example we may not want to study for our upcoming psychology exam so we do one of our favorite activities to take our minds off of it and take a break so we can then go back to studying to remained clear and focused. I think it will defiently come up for a lot of people when they have children, teaching them discipline and how to do certain things in their lives growing up.