During lecture 15 Professor Wede discussed Operant Conditioning. One of the topics touched on during this lecture was reinforcements and punishments. Reinforcement increases behavior and punishment decreases it, but there are two types of reinforces and two types of punishment. Positive Reinforcement increases behavior be presenting positive stimulus. This would be like getting a hug, receiving a paycheck, or getting a prize. Negative reinforcement increases behavior by removing negative stimulus. This can be seen when you fasten your seat belt to stop the annoying ding/beeping. Reinforces should be thought of as any event that strengthen the behavior it follows. Punishment is almost the opposite of reinforcement. Punishment is any adverse event that decreases the behavior it follows. Positive punishment, like spanking or a parking ticket, administers an aversive stimulus. Negative punishment, time outs from privileges and revoked drivers license, is the withdrawal of a desirable stimulus.
I can confidently say that my parents used punishments more than reinforcements. When I would get a good grade, my parents would never reward me. They would say that it is expected of my to get good grades. If I ever got a bad grade i would get a punishment. It was usually negative punishment like getting my phone taken away, or not being allowed to hang out with my friends. From my own personal experience I believe that reinforcements are just as, if not more, important than punishments.
Operant conditioning is something near & dear to me because it definitely played a huge role in the dynamic between my parents and I growing up. As you stated, operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Its types are reinforcement/punishment and they come positively/negatively.
In my own experience, a lot of my parents disciplinary action was negative reinforcement, much to their consternation. When I did not clean my room, my parents would take my Nintendo DS away. While that was unfortunate, I still had my Nintendo Wii or the family computer to play on. Having a work around built in for me only reinforced that I didn’t clean my room, and it wasn’t for a while that my parents realized what they were doing. When they found out, they switched to negative punishment by taking ALL my devices away. THAT decreased my behavior of not cleaning my room for sure!