Compare and contrast classical, operant and social theory and tell who came with and give examples of each. Classical theory was founded by Ivan Pavlov an is one form of learning in which an organism "learns" through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. For example, when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus which produces some involuntary bodily response all on its own the neutral stimulus begins to trigger a response by the organism similar to that produced by the unconditioned stimulus. In this way, the organism has "learned" that the neutral stimulus equals something good (just like the unconditioned stimulus). An example is Ivan Pavlov's experiment on a dog. The neutral stimulus was the bell and when rang the dog started to salivate and then was fed. The dog assumed that when the bell was rang it would be fed so every time it rang the dog salivated. .
Operant conditioning is a process of learning where organisms learn to repeat behaviors for a positive outcome or repeat behaviors to avoid a negative outcome. Operant condition is why underground electric fences keep dogs in the yard. The dog learns not to cross a certain point in order to avoid an electric shock. A more common example is the Skinner box, which was discovered by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, where an animal will learn to trip a number of levers in order to get to a treat. .
Social conditioning is a theory; made famous by Albert Bandura, states that social behavior (any type of behavior that we display socially) is learned primarily by observing and imitating the actions of others. The social behavior is also influenced by being rewarded and/or punished for these actions. For example, if a child sees his older brother bring home a good report card and he gets a great reward for it, the child may observe this, see the older brother get rewarded, and then learn that having a good report card will get rewarded so he should do it too.