The Developing Child Punishment and Reinforcement

Question: Which do you think is more effective: reinforcement or punishment? What do you think are the strongest motivators for most people? Answer: Psychologists have differentiated punishment and reinforcement in a very subtle manner. Punishment is a term in operant conditioning which aims at reducing the likelihood of behaviour in a person. Reinforcement is another part of operant conditioning which aims increasing the likelihood of behaviour in a person (Kravitz, Kreitzer, 2012). Out of punishment and reinforcement, reinforcement can be said to be more effective for a person. Punishment always has a negative vibe attached to it as it aims at decreasing certain behaviour in a person. Whenever, a person hears about punishment, he or she always figures some negative thing that might happen to him or her (Kravitz, Kreitzer, 2012). Reinforcement will be the best motivator for people. Reinforcement can be positive and negative but both types of reinforcement aims towards some positive changes in the human being. Punishment aims at putting a permanent stop to behaviour in one go. The might not understand the reason behind the command. On the contrary a negative reinforcement helps the person to recognize the negativity in the behaviour by overcoming small challenges. The person is able to understand that the changes that are happening are for good. Thus, it can be said as reinforcement always aims at positivism. Part 1 Positive reinforcement can be defined as the presentation of certain positive stimulus once a positive behaviour is being exhibited by a person (Lewis, Vrabie, Vamvoudakis, 2012) Giving a chocolate to a child once the child does the homework on time Negative reinforcement can be defined as the removal of a certain positive stimulus when a certain negative behaviour is being exhibited by the person (Lewis, Vrabie, Vamvoudakis, 2012). A child completed his homework on time in the fear that his mother might scold him if he does not do it on time. Positive punishment can be defined as the presentation of a negative stimulus of a person exhibits a negative stimulus (Rooker, Jessel, Kurtz, Hagopian, 2013). Scolding a child in front of the class because he or she was disturbing another person in the class Negative punishment can be defined as the removal of certain desired stimulus if the person exhibits certain negative activities (Rooker, Jessel, Kurtz, Hagopian, 2013) Not letting a child go out to play as the child did not get good marks in the exhibition Part 2 The best way to deal with child is by reinforcement. Punishment always aims at negative outcome. On the contrary, reinforcement aims at bringing some betterment in the child. The child will also understand the positive change if he or she is rewarded for doing something good and hence will continue the good behaviour (Boyd, Bee, 2012). The main limitation of operant conditioning is that the process of reward and punishment keeps on going. The theory does not support the fact that a child should learn to continue the positive behaviour even after the reward is stopped. The child will be well-mannered just to get the reward but would not understand the importance of the good behaviour. Reference Boyd, D. R., Bee, H. L. (2012).The developing child. New Jersey: Pearson. Kravitz, A.V. Kreitzer, A.C., (2012). Striatal mechanisms underlying movement, reinforcement, and punishment.Physiology,27(3), pp.167-177. Lewis, F.L., Vrabie, D. Vamvoudakis, K.G., (2012). Reinforcement learning and feedback control: Using natural decision methods to design optimal adaptive controllers.Control Systems, IEEE,32(6), pp.76-105. Rooker, G. W., Jessel, J., Kurtz, P. F., Hagopian, L. P. (2013). Functional communication training with and without alternative reinforcement and punishment: An analysis of 58 applications.Journal of applied behavior analysis,46(4), 708-722.