Psychology Punishment and Reward

The article “The Secret of Effective Motivation” by Amy Wrzesniewski and Barry Schwartz, appeared in Sunday Review on July 4, 2014. The article introduces different types of motives and examines their effectiveness with the help of real life social experiments. The differences between two main types of motives: internal and instrumental, are introduced in the first part of the article. Although, many people think that both internal and instrumental motives are good in engaging some kind of activity, authors argue that instrumental motives are not so useful and sometimes can be counterproductive for success. Authors develop their argument by analyzing the results

“Motivation is the process whereby goal-orientated activity is instigated and sustained” (Schunk, Pintrich & Meece, 2008. As cited in Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p.284). Motivation comes in many forms and can be divided into two broad categories - extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators are external

Of the many mini theories developed, intrinsic motivation plays a role in workplace situations I have personally experienced. Factors that encourage intrinsic motivation include challenge, curiosity, control, fantasy, competition, cooperation, and recognition. Intrinsic motivation challenges the way we learn, our purpose, interests, and meaning. Intrinsic motivation occurs when there is a generalized interest in a goal and it benefits us when the behavior to achieve the goal is self-imposed (Reeve, 2009).

This paper will provide the behavioral definition of punishment and give examples of both positive and negative punishment in different types of settings. The guidelines for the effective use of punishment, as well as legal and ethical issues that should be considered by the Behavior Analyst while designing a behavior intervention plan are identified.

Writer, Anne Stuhldreher, in her persuasive article, “They Earn as They Learn,” suggests that a financial incentive program in schools can lead to improvements in student performance on standardized test. She supports this claim through an encouraging anecdote recounting the positive progress a student has made due to the program, then she introduces the favorable observations made by a teacher employed at a school piloting the program, and finally by presenting the compelling beliefs and statistics provided by a principal, whom has witnessed student progress. Stuhldreher’s purpose is to persuade the readers to agree that paying students to perform well on exams can improve overall academic achievement. She adopts an optimistic tone for Americans

In the introduction and chapter one of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel H. Pink expressed how behavioral science can change the common understanding of people’s driving force and suggests a more helpful way to better performance. Pink mentioned that there are two main drives that are powered by behavior. First is the biological drive which comes from within individuals and the second drive comes from without rewards and punishments the environment provides for performing in particular ways. However, a scientist named Harry F. Harlow came up with a third drive after experimenting with monkeys and Harlow called it the “intrinsic motivation.” Harlow said that to completely comprehend the human condition, people have

The article examines studies about giving incentives to schools, teachers, and students when they perform well on high-stakes or low-stakes assessments. The article stated that giving the student’s incentives increased scores only by .08% and incentives to teachers for the exams were only .04%. They found that incentives did not work for low-stake assessments either. The only significance they found was with the math assessments increasing by 1 to 2 points with incentives. So overall, the scores were not increasing when given

And that’s what Markley made happen for two lucky individuals who were in a raffle for best attendance records. Although in some other cases incentives have backfired in 2015, a New Jersey district awarded students gift cards so they would show up for the all new standardized tests. But the parents didn’t like this idea too much so they started protesting throughout the country by refusing to have their children to allow them to participate, and in the mits of this little delema there is a bigger one going on about making learning transactional.

In order for us to understand the moral theories surrounding the justification of punishment we must first accept that punishment exists to benefit the society we live in. Punishment as a whole should protect a community by sanctioning crimes to a significant degree whilst preventing them from reoccurring. If a punishment does not protect a community it is believed that that punishment is unjust and will be unfair to both the criminal and the community members. I believe that a retributivist style of punishment only focuses on the treatment of the singular rather than that of the masses. It is for this reason that I will argue why a consequentialist or utilitarian theory best allows us to understand the justification of punishment.

Realistically the argument made by Ariana Prothero is that paying students might be a good thing, but stylistically it doesn't work in every case. Taking research from an outside source, about an incentive program in college where a man named Roland Fryer put six million dollars into eighteen thousand low income students to try to improve test performance. In the end, the takeaway is that students feel more entitled to have a reward of an output more so than input. Therefore meaning some students, test scores aren't going to improve, because they don't know how to improve them. So students would rather get money after they know what grade they have other than, having a requirement to meet. It's probably way too much pressure for them to have on themselves.

Research has shown that the money incentive works best for Hispanics and students who have behavioral issues. According to a Harvard study, in the school year of 2008-09 the academic gains of Hispanics and other subgroups on the DC-CAS standardized tests were equivalent to an additional five months of schooling. These improvements were attributed to money incentives that the school offered (Turque). This evidence shows that in Washington D.C hispanics increased their standardized test scores to a proportion that is equal to another full academic year of learning all because of cash incentives. Additionally, the article states, “the group that achieved the biggest test score gains was students who had been suspended the previous school year (2007-08) for disciplinary reasons” (Turque). Essentially, this quote means that the cash incentive was most effective for students who were generally troublemakers in the past (this includes the Hispanics). Although there are bright spots to this experiment as shown in the evidence, there are not enough mutual gains from other kids around the country to continue this method. Plus, just because Hispanics and troubled kids had the largest increase in scores, does not necessarily mean that they had the best scores; they could have gone from a failing grade to a

The work of Harlow and Deci, however, brought a different perspective to the table. The idea that people can be motivated internally by things that cannot be seen or touched was a startling new concept. Intrinsic motivation, or Motivation 3.0 as Pink calls it, was officially born. Motivation 3.0 suggests that “I want to do something” because the sheer act of doing so is personally satisfying and deeply meaningful on a much grander scale. Intrinsic motivation, as the name implies, comes from within an

In the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the murder of Alyona Ivanovna leaves many characters scratching their heads. While authorities come up with several suspects, they are unable to connect the suspects to the crime without reasonable uncertainty. When discussing the murder, Razumikhin says “In this one case alone, one might open up a whole new approach. From the psychological information alone it would be possible to show how to get on to the right track. “We’ve got the facts,” they say. But facts aren’t everything; at least half the battle consists in how one makes use of them” (164). For Razumikhin, the “whole new approach” is using the psychology of the murderer to understand the facts and recreate the narrative.

They were able to control the curricula and everything about the entire learning experience along with conducting small scale complimentary experiments to better understand why the effects observed were happening. The hope was to determine which key skills children should acquire to prepare them for later success. The overarching theme in this experiment was that parents, teachers, and students from preschool to ninth grade were motivated to perform better when they were incentivized. Additionally, when students and teachers were provided with an incentive and threatened with the loss of the incentive, everyone preformed

There are several different kinds of motivation, and some of the different types include extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, physiological motivation, and achievement motivation. Intrinsic, extrinsic, and psychological motivation all play a role in an individual’s achievement motivation. Extrinsic motivation is motivation from outside circumstances that can influence an individual’s motivation. Extrinsic motivation factors can range from social acceptance, a promotion, or even a monetary reward. Intrinsic motivation on the other hand is motivation that comes from within an individual. Intrinsic motivation factors would be a person’s enjoyment and satisfaction they get from achieving a task. A person’s