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A negative punishment is when a desirable stimulus is withdrawn.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.
