Positive and negative reinforcers affect our everyday lives, and have probably been used on everyone single of us without even realizing it. As we discussed in class, positive reinforcement is presenting a positive stimuli to encourage a desired behavior, which increases the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. Negative reinforcement is increasing a desired behavior my removing a stimuli. It took a little while for me to comprehend that negative reinforcement is not the same punishment. With negative reinforcement the behavior is still increasing by removing a stimuli, but with punishment there is no increase in a particular behavior. While we discussed positive and negative reinforcement, it made me think of a particular example from my childhood. When I was about four or five years old, I played soccer. I really did not like it and would cry before each game. My parents wanted me to explore different activities that I might be interested in and thought that it would grow on me eventually, so they kept me on the team. Before every game, my mom found that if she promised me a new Webkinz stuffed animal, I would play in a soccer game without throwing a fit. So, every time I did well in a game and played without getting upset, she would take me to the toy store and I would leave with a new Webkinz. This is an example of positive reinforcement, by increasing a positive stimuli (a Webkinz stuffed animal), she was able to increase her desired behavior, which was me to be motivated and enjoy playing soccer. I also thought of another example when we were going into depth about negative reinforcement in class. When I was younger and sitting in the back seat of the car behind my mom and dad, I remember hearing the constant dinging from the car because my dad did not put his seatbelt on. He would say to my mom “it’s only a few minutes, relax”, but she was extremely annoyed by the sound and would complain until he fastened his seatbelt. Not only did the annoying dinging of the car force my dad to put on his seatbelt, but my mom’s constant complaining also made him do so. By fastening his seatbelt, the noise stopped, and my mom stopped complaining to him. Before we discussed this in class, I didn’t even realize all of the reinforcements that occur around me each day.
Tag: negative reinforcement
Reinforces vs Punishment
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
Since childhood, we have all experienced operant conditioning, but most of us probably aren’t sure of what this means. Operant conditioning relates to the associations we create with our behavior and events that follow as a consequence. This in turn can result in shaping, which is guiding one towards a desired behavior through reinforcement and or punishment.
Reinforcements strength the exhibited behavior. This is done through positive and negative reinforcements. Positive reinforcement is when a positive stimulus, or something that one likes, is given or shown towards an individual or animal. This summer I had the privilege to work with children and experience first hand how this works. Each day I was with them, we gave one child a special award, which symbolized that they exhibited great skills that day. Some days the child would clean up without being told to, helping a new child feel welcome, or even conquering one of their fears. This is positive reinforcement because they were given a positive stimulus as a result of behavior that we wanted to strengthen.
Negative reinforcements, on the other hand, remove a negative stimulus, or in other words, taking away something they don’t like. For example, when the children were behaving well on certain days, we would take them to play one of their favorite games instead of going to a pre-scheduled activity where no one had fun. We didn’t do this very often, though, especially as the children had to have behaved exceptionally well. Many people struggle with the idea of negative reinforcements, so here are some other every day examples: cleaning the kitchen to avoid getting in a fight with a roommate; leaving early for work in order to beat traffic so you’re not late for work; putting on sunscreen to avoid sunburn.
Punishments are the opposite of reinforcements. Instead of trying to strength a behavior, the idea is to decrease the behavior. This is also done through positive and negative means. A positive punishment is when an aversive stimulus is administered, which means that a negative consequence is given or added. In order for positive punishment to be effective, though, the negative consequence has to be immediate and consistent. An example of this can be seen when the children were goofing around during their instructional swim time. As a result, the instructor made them swim additional laps, something they didn’t like.
A negative punishment is when a desirable stimulus is withdrawn. In other words, something they like is taken away. One time, two of the children were taking too long in the bathroom, so I went to go find them. I found that they were messing around instead of coming back right after they were done. As a result, their privilege to go to the bathroom without supervision was revoked until they showed that they were responsible enough to go by themselves.
Here is a summary table of positive and negative reinforcement as well as positive and negative punishment:
Chung, Cindy. “Positive Punishment.” Verywell. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-positive-punishment-2795411. Accessed 14 Nov 2019.
Olah, Jessica. “Negative Reinforcement.” Verywell. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-negative-reinforcement-2795410. Accessed 14 Nov 2019.
“Operant Conditioning.” Boundless.com. http://oer2go.org/mods/en-boundless/www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/reinforcement-and-punishment-199-12734/images/operant-conditioning/index.html. Accessed 14 Nov 2019.
Seong, Joshua. “Positive Reinforcement.” Verywell. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-positive-reinforcement-2795412. Accessed 14 Nov 2019.