Behavioral Theories and Thorndike’s Law of Effect

Conditioned response
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Conditioned response
Behaviorists argue that all behavior is learned through conditioning; a process involving the interaction with the environment. In his law of effect, Edward Thorndike tends to assert that various responses are only a result of the pleasure derived from actions, hence become engraved into one’s memory. In his puzzle box situation, the hunger and flight stimulus causes the cat to use its paw and a push of its nose in engineering its escape. Thorndike concludes that if an action ends with a reward, the action itself gets quickly stamped into the mind and becomes a habit (Jenningh, 2007).
Few Public Service Announcements utilize social psychological theories for persuasion purposes against social issues. Most PSAs tend to invoke a negative aspect of wrong behavior by focusing on the negatives, which lead to a negative response. In one Advert intended to caution against drugs, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World creates a message on how peer influence leads a young man into drugs. The causal effects of hallucinogens are observed vividly in how the young man behaves (Foundation for a Drug-Free World, 2008). Another PSA creates awareness on the consequences of tee...