Skinner Punishment

Operant conditioning is “learning resulting from the response an organism receives following a behavior” (Burger, 2014). An example that I see of this is when I see children throwing tantrums in a grocery store because they did not get what they wanted. The parents give the child what it wants, and the child is no longer throwing a tantrum. The example of the child is showing a negative reinforcement. The negative reinforcement is taking away something troublesome because of the behavior that is acceptable (Burger, 2014). Another example that I have witnessed beforehand was when a child misbehaves in class, the teacher gives the child a timeout. This type of punishment is positive. Positive punishment is used to decrease a behavior and is showing

In chapter six in the General Psychology course, we learned about “Learning”. We learned the types of conditions that help people learn. One of the conditions is “Operant Conditioning” where learning is controlled by the organism’s behavior. During the lecture one thing that stood out to me was that in the operant condition, there is a term called positive punishment which is used to decrease bad behavior. It is used usually by parents to discipline their children when they misbehave in order to break that bad habit.

Negative reinforcement is removing an unpleasant consequence when a behavior is exhibited in order to encourage said behavior. This was shown when

Differential reinforcements refers to the balance of anticipated or actual rewards and punishment that follow or are consequences of behavior. Whether individuals will refrain from or commit a crime "depends on the balance of past, present, and anticipated future rewards and punishments for their actions" (Akers and Jensen, 2006 p. 39-40). The probability that an act will be committed or repeated is increased by rewards that are higher in value and/or greater in number- positive reinforcement. Reinforces can be nonsocial as well, for example, the direct physical effects of drugs and alcohol (Akers et al. 1979). However, whether or not these effects are experienced positively or negatively is based upon previous learned expectations.

Operant Conditioning Theory by B.F. Skinner is a psychological manipulation using rewards and punishments to enforce positive behavior. It uses an individual person’s response to events or stimulus. When a particular Stimulus-Response pattern is rewarded, the individual is conditioned to respond. The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning is related to previous forms of behaviorism. The Operant Conditioning theory comprises of neutral operants, positive/negative reinforcers, and positive/negative punishers. Through these factors, we get the desired behavior of our subject because they do not want to be punished for under performing so they do what they’re told to or do more of what they were assigned to to receive positive stimulus

Operant conditioning is the effects punishment and reinforcement have on behavior; “the law of effect, which states that behaviors associated with good consequences (satisfiers) are more likely to occur again in the future, whereas behaviors associated with bad consequences (annoyers) are less likely to occur again” (Durwin 162). This is a necessary component used by many psychologists and educators to provide the best positive outcome in a child’s behavior. When analyzing the “Billy Scenario,” it is obvious that the teacher, Ms. Allen, tried different techniques of punishment to decrease the students’ misbehavior, but was unsuccessful; leading to an increase in the frequency of response or more disruptive behavior.

Operant conditioning comes with four types of consequences: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Positive and negative reinforcement has shown to increase associated behaviors while positive and negative punishment has shown to decrease associated behaviors. For example, positive reinforcement could be giving an autistic child candy when they are taught new things. Negative reinforcement could be placing a rat in a box to try and teach it to press the bar to release food but instead sends an electric shock. As for positive punishment, we could use the same rat and after repeated shocks he understand that when he presses the bar he will get shocked. For negative punishment, if the rat continues to press the bar his food will disappear. Non-associative learning changes the size of responses to a single stimulus rather than form a connection between stimuli. Non-associative learning is split into two subcategories: habituation and sensitization. Habituation lessens our reactions to repeated experiences while sensitization enlarges our reactions to a range of stimuli following exposure to one strong

The term punishment as used in operant conditioning refers to any change that occurs after a behavior happens that reduces the likelihood that the behavior will follow again in the future. Punishment occurs when a response is followed immediately by a stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of similar responses. Behaviorist B.F. Skinner was the first psychologist to identify

Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an unpleasant experience. Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response rather than to increase it.

A researcher named Burrhus Frederic Skinner thought he would develop the idea of operant conditioning. He suggested than we act in regard to consequences (reward or punishment) in which we actively learn. He suggested there are 3 types of these consequences of behavior; positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment. Positive reinforcement is receiving a reward for acting in a certain way. An example of this could be getting a school prize for performing well in your exams, because of the reinforcement of the prize, the student will try to perform well every time. Negative reinforcement occurs when we act in a way that avoids an unpleasant consequence (e.g. not being late to a meeting because you do not want to be perceived as rude). Punishment is an unpleasant consequence that comes from the way we act. For example, gaining a detention for arriving late to lessons. Punishment decreases like probability that behaviour is likely to be repeated. Whereas, in positive and negative reinforcement the chances are you will repeat the behaviour. Skinner’s conducted research in the form of a lab experiment. He used a hungry rat that was placed in a cage that had been especially developed for the purpose of the study and was named Skinner’s box. In the cage was a button and a food dispenser. When the rat pressed the button food would appear in the dispenser. The animal soon learned that

First, I am presented with the sound of a friend smacking gum. The sound serves as the discriminative stimulus for punishment. This causes me to react with internal disgust. To decrease the future possibility of hearing them smack gum again, I stop hanging out with them. This situation is an example of positive punishment; I wish to reduce my chances of feeling disgusted from the sound by removing myself from the situation.

e. Positive reinforcement presents an encouraging element to an individual after a wanted behavior is demonstrated. It helps to make the wanted behavior more likely to occur again in the future. An example of this is when a mother gives her child a treat after cleaning up his room. The child is more likely clean his room in the future because he received positive enforcement for performing the desired behavior.

The other process is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the process where behaviour is reinforced. If behaviour is done and the consequences are negative they are therefore punished and so therefore the person does not enjoy it. If they make an action that is good it will be rewarded so therefore positively encouraged the action to be reinforced.

Operant conditioning focuses on a system of reinforcement and punishers where actions will have a consequence (Skinner, 2016). In operant conditioning, behaviour that is reinforced will be strengthened while behaviour that is not reinforced will weaken with time (Skinner, 2016). There are three types of operants. The neutral operants that will neither increase nor decrease the chances of repeating a behaviour (Skinner, 2016). The reinforcers will increase the chances of repeating a behaviour (Skinner, 2016). The punishers will decrease the chances of repeating a behaviour (Skinner, 2016). Positive reinforcement strengthens a behaviour as an individual gains rewards through it (Skinner, 2016). Negative reinforcement strengthens the behaviour by removing an unpleasant consequence

Negative and positive reinforcements and extinction strengthen certain kinds of behavior of individuals. Punishment is a big form of operant conditioning used all over the world. When people are punished, it is to decrease that certain behavior produced by the individual. Therefore, behavioral theory refers to conditioning which leads to different behavioral pattern of juvenile offenders.