I have a tendency to smack my lips whenever I find myself in an embarrassing situation. This specific behavior interests me because I think I learned it from a friend, whether I actually did it or not will be discussed later. There's nothing particularly bad about this behavior, except that it becomes annoying once noticed. It's similar to when you realize you're saying “uhm” or “like” and it starts to bother you because you're now aware of it. That's fine until I realize I'm doing it, then it has to stop, but that's easier said than done. A plan was then put in place to extinguish this behavior, but to do this the possible origins of this behavior (classical or operant conditioning) were first examined. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Analyzing the origins of lip-smacking behavior is difficult to say the least because my learning history is not documented. However, plausible explanations can be provided for the basis of the behavior, lip smacking. Maybe there were awkward silences during arguments and lip smacking led to a break in the silence, which led to the other person laughing because they thought it was weird. Therefore, lip smacking would be the second-order conditioned stimulus (CS2) and CS1 is the breaking of awkward silence paired with the unconditioned laughter stimulus. The conditioned response is the desire to smack my lips when I find myself in awkward silence. Laughter, being an unconditioned stimulus, is combined with the unconditional response of happiness. Since CS2 occurs at the same time as CS1, they are conditioned simultaneously. The US could overlap with CS1 or occur after a time interval between each stimulus, they could be delayed or trace conditioned. This theory implies that there was already a previous pairing between the breaking of silence and the unconditioned stimulus, laughter. While higher order classical conditioning may be a reason as to how I learned the behavior, the more likely origin of this behavior is due to social factors. observational learning. The model, thanks to negative reinforcement, had learned to escape the aversive situation, the awkward silence, by smacking her lips, thus successfully creating a diversion from silence. By observing the model's behavior and consequences, my behavior was reinforced, so the behavior was reinforced indirectly. The only person I know who engages in this behavior is a friend of mine, and with this information, she could be used in a possible plan to extinguish this behavior. After examining the potential origins of the behavior, plans can be made based on these explanations. Extinction can be applied to weaken and possibly eliminate the conditioned response, the desire to smack one's lips during an embarrassing situation. Extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus. In this case, it would be when the subject smacks his lips, CS, and laughter, US, would not occur. In terms of operant conditioning, the subject would technically be on a fixed-ratio program, where it would take an infinite amount of lip smacking to get the reinforcer, laughter. Another possible plan is to weaken this behavior through positive punishment. Each time lip-smacking behavior is observed, the subject is reprimanded; this should lead to a decrease in behavior.,.