Operant conditioning teaches people to behave in certain ways by the use of reinforcement and punishment. This type of learning works with the brains reward center, often below conscious thought. When a person engages in a behavior that leads to satisfying consequences, or rewards, the behavior is likely to be repeated in the future. Conversely when a person engages in a behavior that yields unwanted results the behavior is not likely to be repeated. Social modeling is a form of conditioning in which a person learns how to behave through observation and imitation.
Individuals acquire responses by observing people and repeating their behaviors.
An adult who has a tendency to resort to violence instead of using verbal means to settle disputes may have learned this behavior as a child. A child whose arguments are actually settled as a result of violent means may be taught to respond that way in the future. This is an example of operant conditioning. Now consider the possibility that the aforementioned child had noticed an authority figure settling their disputes in a violent way. Then after his observation he then began to resolve his conflicts likewise.