Positive Punishment
What is Positive Punishment?:
Occurs when the presentation of a stimulus (or an increase in the intensity of an already present stimulus) immediately following a behavior results in a decrease in the future probability of the behavior. (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007). Positive Punishment is sometimes referred to as Type 1 Punishment.
Some Other Ideas about Positive Punishment:
The definition of positive punishment given above is defined in behavior analytic terms, however, many people have different ideas of what constitutes as positive punishment. Most people think positive punishment is the application of aversive consequences in order to teach a lesson, make an example of others, retribution, and repay a debt to society, etc. For our purposes, the behavior analytic definition is what we will use to define and talk about positive punishment.
Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Positive Punishment:
This is a list of things that can influence how effective positive punishment is:
Possible Side Effects and Problems with Punishment:
Various side effects and problems are often observed with the application of positive punishment:
***For more information on Positive Punishment please refer to the follow websites and research links:
Occurs when the presentation of a stimulus (or an increase in the intensity of an already present stimulus) immediately following a behavior results in a decrease in the future probability of the behavior. (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007). Positive Punishment is sometimes referred to as Type 1 Punishment.
Some Other Ideas about Positive Punishment:
The definition of positive punishment given above is defined in behavior analytic terms, however, many people have different ideas of what constitutes as positive punishment. Most people think positive punishment is the application of aversive consequences in order to teach a lesson, make an example of others, retribution, and repay a debt to society, etc. For our purposes, the behavior analytic definition is what we will use to define and talk about positive punishment.
Factors that Influence the Effectiveness of Positive Punishment:
This is a list of things that can influence how effective positive punishment is:
- Immediacy: The maximum amount of suppressive effects are observed when the presentation of the punisher occurs as soon as possible after the occurrence of a target response. The longer the delay between the presentation of the punisher following the target behavior, the less effective the use of positive punishment.
- Intensity/Magnitude: The greater the magnitude of the punishing stimulus, the more immediately it suppresses the occurrence of the behavior. The more intense the punisher, the less likely that responding will begin again when punishment has been removed. Strong punishers will be less effective if they are gradually introduced.
- Schedule:The suppressive effects of a punisher are maximized by a continuous schedule of punishment (FR1) where each occurrence of the behavior is followed by the punisher. Typically, the greater the amount of responses that are followed by the punisher, the greater the decrease in the response will be.
- Reinforcement of Target Behavior: A punisher will be more effective if the target behavior is no longer reinforced.
- Reinforcement of Alternative Behaviors: A punisher will be more effective if reinforcement is provided for alternative behaviors.
Possible Side Effects and Problems with Punishment:
Various side effects and problems are often observed with the application of positive punishment:
- Emotional and Aggressive Reactions: When positive punishment is delivered in the form of aversive stimulation can potentially result in aggressive behavior that has both respondent and operant components. Respondent Aggression (i.e., pain-elicited aggression) can be directed toward any nearby person or object. Consider a student who is punished severely. This student may begin to throw or destroy materials within their reach. Additionally, the student may try to attack the individual delivering the punishment. Aggressive behavior that occurs following punishment occurs because it has allowed the individual to escape the aversive stimulation in the past is known as operant aggression.
- Escape and Avoidance: Avoidance and escape are considered to be natural reactions to the presentation of aversive stimuli and these behavior take a large variety of forms. Some escape and avoidance behaviors can prove to be more of an issue than the target behavior that is being punished. For instance, a child that is constantly punished for coming to class unprepared may stop coming to class all together or individuals may lie, cheat, hide, and/or display other challenging behaviors in order to avoid punishment. The likelihood of escape and avoidance increases as the intensity of the punisher increases (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007). The following link is for a research study conducted by Powell and Azrin (1968) that looked at the effects of electric shock on cigarette smoking. This study illustrates how an aversive stimulus can result in the participants refusal to experience the shock altogether. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1310976/pdf/jaba00083-0063.pdf
- Behavioral Contrast: A phenomenon in which a change in one component of a multiple schedule that increases or decreases the rate of responding on that component is paired with a change in the rate of responding in the opposite direction on the other, unchanged component of the schedule (Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007). In other words, if one response (one component of a multiple schedule) is punished that response will decrease but the other response (the other component of a multiple schedule) remains unpunished and the rate of the unpunished response will increase. Behavioral contrast can be observed as a function of a change in reinforcement or punishment density on one component of a multiple schedule.
- Punishment May Involve Undesirable Modeling: This effect of punishment can be explained via the use of many real life examples. However, here we will use the example from the textbook Applied Behavior Analysis (Cooper, Heward, and Heron, 2007). The example the authors discuss is of a parent, who says, "This will teach you not to hit your playmates!" while they spank the child. On the contrary, the only lesson the child may learn is to imitate the actions of the parent. Research has found a strong relationship between a child's exposure to harsh and excessive punishment and antisocial behavior and conduct disorders as adolescents and adults.
- Negative Reinforcement of the Punishing Agent's Behavior: We will use an example to explain this issue connected to punishment. Person A delivers a reprimand (or other aversive consequence) to Person B for misbehaving, most times the immediate result is Person B stops emitting the misbehavior, this immediate cessation of the the troubling behavior serves as negative reinforcement for Person A. In other words, "Punishment reinforcers the Punisher" (Reese, 1966: as cited in Cooper, Heward, and Heron, 2007).
***For more information on Positive Punishment please refer to the follow websites and research links: