system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How is it determined which way conditioning works?

If you try conditioning a negative response with a positive reward, how is it determined by the brain which of the two is affected? For example, one may try to make their morning more pleasurable by playing a song they like as their alarm, but instead end up hating the song. Why is it that the latter occurs instead of the first?
gpt
This process, pairing, means that both stimuli condition each other. Whichever stimulus is more effective reinforcement or punishment "wins". The are two kinds of conditioning, operant and respondent/reflexive. Your scenario of preferred music in the morning, describes both. Reflexive conditioning describes stimulus pairing that happens simultaneously. The morning might have aversive stimulation that include non preferred tasks (getting ready for work) or sensations (feeling tired). If these are more aversive than the music is pleasant , then the music, not the morning stimulation, is conditioned. Operant conditioning describes non simultaneous pairings of behaviors with stimuli. It could be that you are listening to music before having to do something aversive. If so, the music then indicates the occurrence of unpleasurable events, perhaps going to work. If the music happens after the unpleasant events, and does actually function as reinforcement, then only the behaviors that happen immediately before the music would be reinforced. 
There is also the phenomenon of unpairing. Your favorite music might have been conditioned by other stimuli that made it pleasant. If you usually are engaged in otherwise pleasant activities while listening to music such as dancing, relaxing, playing video games, eating, or other preferred activities, then the musical stimulation in the absence of those other preferred stimuli would lose its potency as "pleasurable".