Why reinforcement beats punishment

Punishment does not need be extreme. It is simply a stimulus that is used to discourage or decrease an undesirable behavior.

Although punishment does not replace the negative behavior like reinforcement does, it is still a resourceful technique. Positive Punishment: While this may sound odd, it is actually what most of us are familiar with. For example, the verbal warning you received as a child for misbehaving in class, or for doing something inappropriate was the stimulus that discouraged your unwanted behavior. Negative Punishment: When using negative punishment, the parent or teacher must remove a certain stimulus to lower the chances of an unwanted behavior from happening again.

For instance, a child may find that their favorite toy is taken away from them if they are messy or do not clear up after themselves. His focus on consequence manipulation is known as operant conditioning. In a nutshell, operant conditioning revolves around teaching strategies. Positive and negative punishment are used to discourage inappropriate behaviors.

Positive and negative reinforcement are used to encourage good behaviors. Used together, these strategies are designed to help the child form associations between behaviors and the results of behaviors. Positive punishment is a form of punishment in which you add something to the environment to deter a particular behavior. On its own, positive punishment may not be a good long-term solution.

It may be more effective when combined with positive and negative reinforcement. Ultimately, strive to teach your child how to replace unwanted behaviors with more acceptable ones. We'll tell you everything you need to know about negative reinforcement and provide examples for ways to use this technique. Is extrinsic motivation effective? A new study finds that children of parents who try to control their kids' behavior with screen time, spend more time on screens than their peers.

While even the most mild-mannered children have occasional outbursts, a persistent pattern of anger, defiance, and vindictiveness against authority…. Permissive parenting is one of three main styles of parenting. Learn about its long-term effects. Here are a few tips to prevent outbursts and bad behavior without negatively impacting your 2-year-old child and their development.

Authoritarian parenting is one of three major parenting styles, but research shows it can negatively impact both parent and child. Does the temperature of the beverages you drink affect your health? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. What Is Positive Punishment? Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, Ph. Examples Potential side effects Vs.

When positive punishment has too many negative consequences. Positive vs. Positive punishment vs. Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. Finally, only reinforce the desired behavior. Shaping is often used in teaching a complex behavior or chain of behaviors. Skinner used shaping to teach pigeons not only such relatively simple behaviors as pecking a disk in a Skinner box, but also many unusual and entertaining behaviors, such as turning in circles, walking in figure eights, and even playing ping pong; the technique is commonly used by animal trainers today.

An important part of shaping is stimulus discrimination. This discrimination is also important in operant conditioning and in shaping behavior. They use shaping to help him master steps toward the goal.

Instead of performing the entire task, they set up these steps and reinforce each step. First, he cleans up one toy. Second, he cleans up five toys. Third, he chooses whether to pick up ten toys or put his books and clothes away. Fourth, he cleans up everything except two toys. Finally, he cleans his entire room. Rewards such as stickers, praise, money, toys, and more can be used to reinforce learning. How did the rats learn to press the lever in the Skinner box? They were rewarded with food each time they pressed the lever.

For animals, food would be an obvious reinforcer. What would be a good reinforce for humans? For your daughter Sydney, it was the promise of a toy if she cleaned her room.

How about Joaquin, the soccer player? If you gave Joaquin a piece of candy every time he made a goal, you would be using a primary reinforcer. Primary reinforcers are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not learned. Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, among others, are primary reinforcers. Pleasure is also a primary reinforcer. Organisms do not lose their drive for these things. For most people, jumping in a cool lake on a very hot day would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing—the water would cool the person off a physical need , as well as provide pleasure.

A secondary reinforcer has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer. Another example, money, is only worth something when you can use it to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs food, water, shelter—all primary reinforcers or other secondary reinforcers.

If you were on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you had stacks of money, the money would not be useful if you could not spend it. What about the stickers on the behavior chart? They also are secondary reinforcers. Sometimes, instead of stickers on a sticker chart, a token is used.

Tokens, which are also secondary reinforcers, can then be traded in for rewards and prizes. Entire behavior management systems, known as token economies, are built around the use of these kinds of token reinforcers. Token economies have been found to be very effective at modifying behavior in a variety of settings such as schools, prisons, and mental hospitals. For example, a study by Cangi and Daly found that use of a token economy increased appropriate social behaviors and reduced inappropriate behaviors in a group of autistic school children.

Autistic children tend to exhibit disruptive behaviors such as pinching and hitting. When they hit or pinched, they lost a token. The children could then exchange specified amounts of tokens for minutes of playtime.

Behavior modification uses the principles of operant conditioning to accomplish behavior change so that undesirable behaviors are switched for more socially acceptable ones.

Some teachers and parents create a sticker chart, in which several behaviors are listed Figure 1. Sticker charts are a form of token economies, as described in the text.

Each time children perform the behavior, they get a sticker, and after a certain number of stickers, they get a prize, or reinforcer. The goal is to increase acceptable behaviors and decrease misbehavior. Remember, it is best to reinforce desired behaviors, rather than to use punishment. In the classroom, the teacher can reinforce a wide range of behaviors, from students raising their hands, to walking quietly in the hall, to turning in their homework.

At home, parents might create a behavior chart that rewards children for things such as putting away toys, brushing their teeth, and helping with dinner. In order for behavior modification to be effective, the reinforcement needs to be connected with the behavior; the reinforcement must matter to the child and be done consistently.