Conditioned Behavior: The Importance of Caretakers and Culture during the Formative Years
...o events or stimuli that a child has associated with one another. (Davis, S., Palladino, J., 2005). Parents, teachers and caretakers can condition a child to have a positive or negative learned response. A child learns what is good and bad or right and wrong through conditioning. Take for example the words ‘stop’ and ‘no’ in combination with a slap on the hand. A child learns the meaning of these words during infancy after experiencing repeated events that resulted in being told ‘stop’ or ‘no’ and having a hand slapped. After a while the child will flinch when told ‘stop’ or ‘no’ because these words have then been associated with the punishment. This association in turn causes the child to further associate the specific event he/she is being told to stop with the punishment. The child learns what is bad and/or wrong because of these associations. Good behavior is rewarded with praise and an incentive. As a result of the parent, teacher or caretakers choice of stimuli the child learns behavior that will be implemented throughout his/her lifetime. Conditioned behavior varies not only based on the caretakers influence, but culture and ethnic influence as well. Culture and ethnic background can delineate specific conditioned behaviors based on specific influences. East Asian cultures view mathematics to be very important. “…[C]ultural beliefs and the social expectations of parents and teachers influence children to work persistently to understand mathematical concepts.” (Paris, S., Wellman, H., 1998). Because of the beliefs and expectations of caretakers the children’s conditioned response is to work persistently to do well. Children are conditioned very early to value education and to excel. How great are the differences of conditioned behavior in education across cultures? Paris and Wellman (1998) believe “East Asian and American students do no...