Punishment

Definition (#f7aeae)

Important (#edcae9)

Extra (#fffe9d)

Learning Outcomes:

1. Different types of punishments.

2. What influences the effectiveness of punishments.

3. How does punishment works.

4. What are the consequences of punishment.

5. Can we decrease undesirable behavior without punishment.

Types of Punishments:

• A decrease in the strength of behavior due to its consequences.

• Characteristics:

  • A behavior must have a consequence.

  • The behavior must decrease in strength.

  • the reduction in strength must be due to the consequence.

1. Positive Punishment: Method that involves adding an unpleasant stimulus after a behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior occurring again.

   Ex: A teacher scolding a student for talking out of turn.

2. Negative Punishment: Decreasing a behavior by removing a desirable stimulus after the behavior occurs.

   Ex: If a child misbehaves, a parent might take away their favorite toy. 

Variables affecting punishment:

1. Contingency: Dependency between the behavior and punishment.

2. Contiguity: Closeness in time between the behavior and punishment.

3. Punisher intensity: Intensity can significantly influence a punishments effects.

4. Introductory level of punisher: Consistency, intensity of the punishment, the presence of alternative behaviors and reinforcement for those alternatives.

5. Reinforcement of punished behavior: Reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior, while punishment decreases it.

6. Alternative sources of reinforcement: Providing positive consequences for desired behaviors to make them more likely to occur.

7. Motivating operations: Can either increase the effectiveness of a punisher (establishing operation for punishment) or decrease its effectiveness (abolishing operation for punishment). 

8. Qualitative feature of punisher: Characteristics of the aversive stimuli.

Theories of Punishment:

1. Two-process theory:

   • Classical conditioning + operant conditioning.

2. One-process theory:

   • Suggests that punishment works through a single process, operant conditioning.

   • Punishment reduces the likelihood of a behavior by making the person learn to suppress the behavior to avoid the unpleasant consequences associated with it.

Problems:

1. Escape:

   • Lying, cheating.

2. Aggression:

   • Defensive and attack the punisher.

3. Apathy:

   • Suppression of behavior.

   • Stopped answering.

4. Potential for abuse

5. Imitation of the punisher

Side effects with punishments:

• Fear and anxiety: Could lead to a variety of undesirable consequences.

• Impairment of attention: Due to fear, anxiety causes poor performance.

• Learned helplessness: Feels defeated.

Alternatives:

1. Response prevention:

   • Altering the environment, instead of punishing the child.

   • Ex: putting a toy out of reach.

2. Differential reinforcement:

   1. Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO):

      • A procedure that combines non-reinforcement of an unwanted behavior and reinforcement of other behavior.

      • Ex: Ignoring a child when banging pots, but praising it when coloring.

   2. Differential reinforcement of low rates of behavior (DRL):

      • Use this when the purpose is not to eliminate but bring down a behavior.

      • Reinforces when behavior is projected at a desirable level.

      • Ex: A child is reinforced when they practice drums once a day.

   3. Differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviors (DRI):

      • Reinforce behavior that is incompatible with the unwanted behavior.

      • Increasing the rate of desired behavior automatically reduce the rate of incompatible behavior.

      • Ex: To stop children from wandering around the class, teacher praises the children who are sitting down.