Wishing you can easily make someone listen and obey your every request? Though it seems like a fantasy, this is a reality for Tim Bernard, who is a teacher at South High Community School with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. During his lesson of Classical and Operant Conditioning, he had shared a story of how he conditioned his roommate into being a better one. Now you might be wondering: How can you possibly successfully apply control on a person with conditioning? “Well, it’s actually not that hard. It all depends on how you go about it.” Bernard says, “You’re just essentially pairing something with a natural behavioral action to create a whole new response”.
Pay close attention to the person. How do they naturally react to certain things or general actions? By analyzing their behavioral instincts, founding ways to counteract or prevent such will be easier. Bernard had wanted Chris to contribute more in chores so he started observing Chris to see what could be manipulated to change his behavior. Making a plan before conditioning is crucial. You don’t want to just initiate a change without a plan. It won’t be effective.
Slowly introduce a neutral stimulus. This can be a handshake or knocking on a door, something subtle that will trigger a response from becoming associated with another stimulus. Everytime I had to feed my nephew his vegetables, I would say the phrase “Mmm, delicious!”. If you are constantly doing an action, the response to that action becomes automatic even without the action even happening. Now, my nephew willingly goes for the veggies on his plate without me feeding it to him and even says the phrase. He will definitely thank me later in life.
Give out rewards and punishments to continue this behavior. This is important because it promotes the person to continuously do the good behavior that has been conditioned. A lot of teachers give out treats like candy to students when they do a good job in class. But also take away phones when students aren’t listening nor paying attention. However, not every reward and punishment works on a person. Yelling at a child to be quiet everytime they cry could lead to trauma, with them growing up to suppress that emotion associated. Having the ability to condition someone or even yourself is beneficial, whether being intentional or subconsciously. Leading to a more stress-free life.
