Please use this to comment on your reading for sec 2.3. I'll leave it up to you about what and how you would like to comment, however I would ask that you attempt to write using behavioral terms. I will also use this as a way to 'time stamp' that you read the section on or before Friday. I realize that the Thursday and Friday due dates are close together. If you want you can turn in your Friday assignments in on Saturday.
Please include a list at the end of the behavioral terms you used in the comment you posted.
Let me know if you have any questions,
--Dr. M
I don't really know what to say so I just had my reflection of the section and a few questions about it.
I really liked this chapter! This section was a lot easier for me to understand the terms that have to do more with our behaviors. I am pretty sure I understand the primary and secondary reinforcer, but it is something that I may have to go over with you in our meeting on Thursday. As for intrinsic value, can my stuffed animal be one to me that it isn't to others? Because I put that in my packet.
It's nice to be familiar with the positive and negative reinforcements, and after all of the stuff that happened today I am excited to go to the OP as a positive reinforcement for myself!
Terms: behavior, negative, positive, reinforcement,
For section 2.3, I liked the review of positive and negative punishment. I like how it broke it down and explained each part and what it was. I also learned that behavior modification can be a controversial issue, though I don’t have anything against it. It also states that two of the best tools for behavior modification are positive reinforcement and extinction. When these two tools fail to work, other steps are considered to get the desired behavior. It also talked about extreme negative reinforcement. The example here used was water boarding, which is a form of torture. Apparently, this type of reinforcement can also get the desired behavior, but I don’t really like this idea. In addition to this I also learned about different areas of punishment. The first area was abruptness of punishment. Abruptness of punishment means that the punishment should be abrupt enough to completely stop the operant behavior. One example that was used is a child throwing rocks at other children. This behavior must be stopped right away because it is endangering the other children. The second one I learned about was intensity of punishment. You have to make sure that the punishment is intense enough for the behavior to stop. The third one I learned about was immediacy of punishment. This involves punishing the behavior immediately after it occurs. Another type is frequency of punishment. This basically means that you just have to keep punishing. I also learned, but was mostly aware, that different cultures punish differently and for different things. Some behaviors that are acceptable here may not be in other countries. This section also talked about what society would be like without punishment. I personally think we would not be better off. Some behaviors just need punishment so that they don’t happen as much. Even with controversies on punishment there is one thing that is agreed on. Punishment does disrupt the operant behaviors. No matter which type is used – it still has an effect on the behavior.
After reading section 2.3, the idea I was most interested in was Skinner's conception of a society without punishment. Skinner thought it was possible, but using only effective reinforcement to control a society would seem difficult. Perhaps it's because we live in a country where the idea of punishment is constanstly controlling our actions, whether it be to drive the speed limit or not drinking and driving. We are also constantly using aversive stimuli to prevent actions from happening again or negative punishment in which something is taken away (like your driver's license). While I think operant conditioning would be effective, especially within an educational setting, how would such a thing as drunk driving be treated in Skinner's society? This utopian society is definitely an ideal to consider, especially in comparison to the behavioral contingencies we live under today.
Terms: Aversive stimuli, negative punishment, operant conditioning, punishment, reinforcement, Skinner,
Section 2.3 was the best section so far! It really made me think of the importance of punishment and reinforcement and why we need either of them. I had never heard the term waterboarding before so when I looked it up online I felt sick to my stomach. I can't believe such an aversive punishment existed. I liked the section about the abruptness of punishment and why it may take longer for a reinforcement to change a behavior rather than a punishment. I work at a daycare center so the activity where we had to think of behaviors that we ordinarily punish, and change the antecedent to reduce the behavior instead, was very useful for me and I am going to try to apply it when I am working and dealing with the children. In the end, I don't think it is possible to live in a scoiety without punishment. There will always be people in this world that are going to commit crimes or disobey the law and there needs to be consequences to deal with these negative actions.
Terms: punishment, reinforcement, aversive, behavior, antecedent, consequences, negative
I didn't really get the difference between positive and negative punishment from earlier, but now I understand it better. The section also discussed why it is important to punish unwanted behavior right after it occurs. Consistency is also very important when trying to address an unwanted behavior.
Positive and negative punishment.
I enjoyed reading this chapter. I think it's nice when we can build on concepts we have learned in previous chapters; it makes it easier to understand. Even though I understand the concepts, sometimes I get them confused. Now that we have learned so many, some of them begin blurring together.
I thought it was interesting to ask us why we think punishment is used so often. You don't realize it until you sit and think about it, but punishment is used much more than reinforcement. I think this happens because many might act out of anger, which makes punishment the number one response. Also, when we think about aversive behavior, we think there is only one choice: to punish. People don't think there could be another option. I personally think that reinforcement might be much more effective when trying to modify a behavior. When a child emits a kicking behavior, you should not punish that specific behavior, but you should reinforce the positive behavior. For example, you should give the child verbal praise as positive reinforcement instead of punishment.
Terms used: punishment, reinforcement, aversive, punish, emit, punish, positive reinforcement
In my sport psychology courses, we never specified a difference between positive and negative punishment, there was only positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. I didn't really think about it at the time, and never differentiated between positive and negative punishment, but knew exactly what they would be when they were first mentioned in the class. I guess I had a lapse of critical thinking...whoops.
I really need to take to heart the idea that our two best tools for behavior modification are positive reinforcement and extinction, especially when it comes to coaching. Part of me would love to run a fully positive (pleasurable) program, using only positive reinforcement and extinction (actually, on a side note, I have a video I had "favorited" on YouTube a while ago-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQRRGIaZjNs --I think I've only seen it once, but the way this guy runs his high school program is interesting, and very non-traditional. I am positive there is some excellent behavior modification going on in this video, maybe I'll use that for one of my video analyses in the future) but I know it will be exceptionally hard to not fall into the habits that are somewhat innate, or the way I was raised, or the way my coach used to do it. Running a program like that would take extreme forethought, self control, and organization.
I believe punishment is used so often because its familiar to people, and its easy, so its your immediate reaction to a lot of situations. Most people don't realize that it can be so bad, and I feel that its probably at least partially human nature, but I have no proof of that right now. Overcoming all of these factors would be so difficult, and that is actually one of the reasons I was so interested in taking this course. But, when it comes down to it, I don't think a society without punishment is even possible. Hypothetically, even if everyone could actually eliminate punishment behaviors (would you emit a punishing behavior in order to punish punishment, since you are attempting to decrease its frequency?), I still think that a "Utopian" society like the one Skinner imagines would fail, for one reason or another. A situation off the top of my head is someone who wasn't reinforced enough, so he acts out in a matter that requires punishment. The text even pointed out an example of throwing rocks, where reinforcement would not have been satisfactory; punishment was necessary.
The facets of punishment effectiveneess (abruptness, intensity, frequency and immediacy) all make sense, and are definitely things to take into account when utilizing punishment. I thought those were good (I don't really know what else to say about them).
positive punishment, negative punishment, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, behavior, emit, frequency, abruptness, intensity, frequency, immediacy
While reading through this chapter on punishment, a lot of examples came to mind. Under the cultural differences in punishment section, I thought of the Nazi war crimes and the Salem witch trials, in which people different from the superior race are punished and put to death. This elicits some people to lie and hide their identities, or in the case of the Jews, hide their entire lives from persons of authority in order to escape the punishment or death.
As for Skinner's belief in a utopian society, I do not think it is possible to function without punishment. One way or another, people will end up subconsciously punishing others while merely simply trying to avoid all punishment procedures in general.
I liked the idea of using disruption as a form of stopping certain undesirable behaviors. In stead of full-blown punishment, disruption allows the person emitting the target behavior to determine their own form of "punishment." When given a choice, people seem to respond better and perceive the context as fairer than if they were being punished without a say in the matter.
Terms: disruption, punishment, emitting, target behavior, Skinner, utopian society, elicit, undesirable behaviors
Of particular interest to me in this chapter were the questions raised regarding the efficacy of punishment and how it relates to ethics, tied together by the ending paragraph regarding disrupting the operant behavior.
BMod techniques have been demonstrated to be highly effective, and could very easily be used for good or ill purposes. I raised an issue in my notes for the chapter that all professionals must also be ethicists, although most classes rarely go into much depth on the issue other than saying "oh yeah, remember to be ethical."
The discussion/analysis that we have to remember that punishment, asside from being aversive to ourselves and the other, must be administered quickly (almost instantaneously), frequently/consistantly (almost always), and with sufficient intensity in order to be effective further demonstrates why it can be a potentially unethical tool.
I feel strongly about deciding to implement a form of behavior disruption in order to manipulate behaviors rather than a form of punishment. In magic we often use the term "pattern interupt" or "time interupt" to refer to techniques which stop an audience member from performing a particular behavior because punishment is really not an option for a performer. I just now (reading this chapter) put together that this is a form of "disrupting the operant behavior."
When I want the spectator to shuffle the cards, but in an overhand shuffle, not a riffle shuffle, you cannot punish them, and often it is difficult or bizarre to have already reinforced this behavior. And telling them makes it sound fishy. A table (or flat surface of any kind) further acts as an establishing operation eliciting riffle shuffle behaviors.
You casually watch and when they begin a motion that looks as though they are going to riffle shuffle you make a joke, or get them to shake your hands or touch something, even simply pointing off out of their line of sight is sufficient ("Is that a rabbit over there?"). This "disrupts the operant behavior" (riffle shuffling) and basically gives them a second chance at emitting the target behavior (overhand shuffle) usually if this is done once or twice they will emit the overhand shuffle behavior you want. Follow it then with a casual reinforcer "Nicely done, your quick," and now they will continue to follow directions in general and associate overhand shuffles with moving the show along more quickly. It is far less noticable than anything else you might do to modify their behavior.
Terms: punishment, operant behavior, aversive, establishing operation, eliciting, disrupting the operant behavior, emitting
This section was very interesting to me because it was more about the ethics behind behavior modification than learning new concepts, other than the distinction between positive and negative punishment. I actually had never learned what the difference is between positive and negative punishment in another class. In my intro to psych class, we just learned about positive and negative reinforcement, but not different types of punishment. After reading this though, I can see how some families when raising their children lean toward one form of punishment rather than another. For instance, one family that I babysat for would always make their child sit in time out after she emitted a wrong behavior. This would be positive punishment, since the time-out is the addition of an aversive stimulus. However, another family might take away privileges to use the family car, or hang out with friends. This is negative punishment because it involves the removal of a desirable stimulus, like driving the car. The discussion of the ethical issues made me think about punishment in a way that I never had before. I had never questioned whether it is possible to have a society without punishment. Upon thinking about it, I do not think that it is possible or good. It would be unrealistic to always wait for the alternative pleasant behavior to be emitted so it could be reinforced. Also, if people grew up never being punished, they would probably think that they never did anything wrong because their wrong would never be pointed out to them. This would be a very dangerous and prideful way of thinking. Overall, it was good for me to consider the different aspects of punishment.
Terms: positive and negative punishment, aversive, emit, positive reinforcement, stimulus
I found this section to be very helpful. I understand that there is a fine line between effective punishment and punishment that is not effective. This section helped to clarify the difference. The chapter also helped to tell when and how to use punishment. I took a lot from the sections about the abruptness of punishment, intensity of punishment, the immediacy of punishment, and the frequency of punishment. All of these topic areas helped to explain how punishment can be properly and improperly used. For example: If a child elicits a hitting behavior it will be less effective for a parent to emit a punishing behavior two days later. This example shows the importance of the immediacy of punishment. It would be more productive for a parent to emit a punishing behavior of a time out immediately after the aversive stimulus was elicited. This would allow both the child and the parent to pinpoint the target behavior. Another example is of one of the topics discussed is of the intensity of punishment. For example: if a child is eliciting a disruptive behavior in class. The teacher may keep that child from having recess for the new 2 days, in order to ensure that the consequence was harsh enough to stop or slow the frequency of the behavior. Both examples would be considered negative punishment, because they are taking away something that the child previously previously enjoyed.
Terms: punishment, emit, elicit, aversive stimulus, target behavior, negative punishment.
In past psychology classes I had learned the difference between positive and negative punishment so this section was a great review/refresher. In my opinion punishment is an excellent approach to eliminating an aversive behavior (extinction). There is no doubt that effective punishment depends on the context of the situation. For example a murder in certain states will elicit the death penalty. I was really interested in the ethical issues portion of the section because it touched on behavioral techniques that our United States military have used for years. In my opinion water boarding isn't as bad as other methods. Yes it is aversive. Yes it is somewhat unethical, however, negative punishment (punishment in general) works to correct an undesirable stimulus.
Terms: positive punishment, negative punishment, aversive behavior, extinction, elicit, undesirable stimulus.
This was an easier section for me to understand than previous ones.
I like that we had to do examples of positive punishment and negative punishment because sometimes it's easy to confuse the two.
Personally, I think punishment can be a good way to eliminate a behavior, but I firmly believe that it will only eliminate the aversive behavior for a limited amount of time. Some people are still going to do whatever they want despite being punished. For instance, I elicitted a skipping school behavior because what I was doing during my skipping time was reinforcing my skipping behavior. Detention was only 2 hours on saturdays, where as skipping school was an all day thing. People are more likely to repeat a behavior if they are rewarded for that behavior.
Terms: positive punishment, negative punishment, behavior, aversive, reinforcing, reward, elicit
What I took from 2.3:
I thought this to be an interesting section in that it took a twist on punishment. I have always known what punishment was and a couple years back, I learned it could be positive or negative. What made me think of punishment in a different way was the question: "Do you think a society without punishment is possible?" I said that because I have only lived in a world that consists of punishment and reinforcement, it would be difficult to imagine. If reinforcement was emitted rather than punishment, I think this world would dwell in positiveness. I also think that to a point, it would be possible that there would too much praise that the meaning of praise would start to diminish.
What also stood out to me was the disruption of the operant behavior. I have been in these situation where the behavior is disrupted but I have never analyzed it from a behaviorist perspective....it is strange. I plan to be a teacher in the future and I would like to take an aversive behavior and change it through disruption of the operant behavior. I would prefer to do this over punishment so I will feel afterwards, the child will not resent me for emitting my actions toward the child.
Terms: punishment, positive, negative, reinforcement, emitted, disruption of the operant behavior, behaviorist, aversive
I really enjoyed reading section 2.3 as I have personally found punishment to be a more difficult concept to grasp. This section really broke down the idea of positive and negative punishment and, even further, when it can and/or should be used instead of reinforcement. I felt that the examples given in this section brought punishment into day to day terms that are easy to understand, which helped me a lot.
Terms: Positive and Negative Punishment, Reinforcement
I thought section 2.3 was really great because it started out talking about how some people think there is a “dark side” to behavior modification. I used to be one of those people! Now I realize that I would much rather be reinforced than punished for my actions, and that I would respond much better if I was reinforced because it is non-aversive. It was also interesting to think about how punishment could decrease a behavior in general (even when the person is not in the same context). This could be very bad because certain actions are appropriate in some situations, but not in others. I also liked the idea of disrupting a behavior instead of punishing it, because I think this works much better!
Terms: Reinforce, punish, aversive, decrease, context, disrupting a behavior
I liked this section because it gave time to reflect on my own opinions on how behavior modification affects everyday life. Often times these situations aren't analyzed in beahvioral terms and ideas. It addressed the ideas of how some people may think negatively about bevhaior modification and how it can be looked on as manipulation. Punishment is definitely an easier task to grasp than reinforcment, possibly due to the fact that punishisment is more widely used and easier implemented.
Terms: Reinforcement, punishment, behavior modification
This section was interesting because I was able to look further into the different ways to go about and understand how punishment works. When thinking of punishment people most often think of something unfair and unethical. However, this section puts a unique spin a punishment showing that although aversive acts are taken when implementing this behavior technique there is a positive type/side also. This section really got me thinking about the difference between negative and positive punishment and how the context and discriminative stimuli play a huge role in which type (positive/negative)should be used. Although punishment is seen as a bad thing this section shows that if used correctly the outcome can be productive and a good learning experience. When discussing the idea of immediacy of punishment it reminds me of training an animal such as a dog. When you arrive home from a week gone and notice the dog has eaten the garbage and has torn apart the couch punishing the dog will do not be good because so much time has passed and the dog does not link his bad behavior with the punishment he is enduring as a consequence to his behavior. However, if you catch the dog in the act of tearing up the couch or going to the bathroom on the floor the dog will associate the punishment with the behavior. As a trainer/ or punisher you are able to see what the antecedent is which made the dog act in such a way and then you can elicit an appropriate consequence. If the antecedent is not understood but a consequence is still emitted then you as the punisher will not be able to target other behaviors that could elicit the same outcome as the one you were punishing.
Terms: Punishment, Negative, Positive, Aversive behavior, behavior, consequences, antecedent, discriminative stimulus, context, immediacy of punishment, target behavior
This chapter was interesting. When I read about positive punishment I did not understand it until I read negative punishment. I have to re-evaluate each scenario to comprehend the terms. Positive punishment involves the introduction of an aversive stimulus and negative punishment involves the removal of a desirable stimulus. An example of positive punishment is putting someone in time out. That person will decrease the frequency of bad behavior. An example of negative punishment is someone getting a DUI for driving drunk and getting their license taken away and thrown in jail. This is removing something something pleasing and decreasing the undesired behaviors. Extreme negative reinforce can be a form of torment, for example the use of water boarding when interrogating enemies.Using the technique of disrupting operant behaviors can be an effective alternative to punishment.Punishments may create many consequences which may decrease the regularity of other behaviors which may not necessarily be undesirable and least interesting. Here is an example of negative punishment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmg3H62ebjk
Terms: Aversive,Positive and Negative Punishment, Negative Reinforce, Consequence
I enjoyed this chapter because it asked me to focus on the different outcome of punishment and reinforcement. I find Skinner's idea that a society without punishment is possible really interesting,but I disagree with him. I believe that certain behaviors occur frequently in a society that actual deserve a severe punishment. Hopefully, the punishment can stop the person who is emitting the behavior from emitting the behavior again. However, I wonder if a society could alter the antecedents in the environment to the point where events would not occur that typically elicit a negative behavior from certain people that deserves severe punishment.
I was also impressed by the section of the chapter that discusses the timing of punishment. As a future teacher, I know the power of immediacy when it comes to punishing children. If children do not receive a consequence right after they emit a particularly behavior they will not understand what they are being punished for. Children will not make the connection if the punishment occurs several minutes after they emitted a negative behavior that deserved punishment.
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, emit, elicit, consequence
I really liked section 2.3 and the clarification of punishment and when its acceptable. I feel that the use of punishment is something that was a part of my childhood but something i would like to try and minimize when i have kids. I think the use of punishment in todays society is something that is still around because it was the same way the individuals doing the punishing were also punished. So i guess through a form of conditioning through the ranks so to speak these punishments and ways of dealing with aversive behaviors have still remained in society. Also the aspect of the UNI police being able to carry guns is something i would like to sound off about. What i would like to know is did they give them tasers before they decided it was a good idea to get guns? Did something happen on campus that wouldve required the use of a gun or a situation that needed to be handled accordingly and the safety of the officer wouldve resulted in the use of a gun? If not, then why the hell did we give them guns? Its my opinion that our campus is small enough to commute around that the need of a gun is obsolete. Unless like i said a situation has risen currently that would require the immdediate use of a gun. And even then so, would it be more acceptable to give one on duty officer a gun and the rest tasers? Just food for thought.
Punishment I think is a tricky issue. Most psychologist would agree that reinforcement is a better approach to use for bmod, but there are situations were doesn't work. For example you mentioned the waterboarding use in the article. While I in no way, shape, or form condone the use of torture, there really isn't another way to try to extract information out of people. You cannot use positive reinforcement. I guess all I really have to say about this chapter is that while punishment is usually not the best choice, or morally advisable you cannot dismiss it out of hand just because of the bad connotations.
This is punishment.
I think punishment comes from pain. Pain is how we keep our bodies safe. I think it is alright that punishment occurs in society because it just seems natural.
I think section 2.3 was a great summary of the significance of the use of reinforcement and punishment on behavior modification. This section helped to differentiate when each one one works best to change a behavior. This section put a new spin on the term punishment by using examples in the context of our government and ethical issues concerning punishment. For example, our government is thought to use extreme negative reinforcement with a technique known as water boarding, where the revealing of desired information is the target behavior and the removal of the aversive stimulus the water, increases the frequency of revealing the wanted information. Within our criminal justice system, the death penalty is considered the ultimate punishment. This part introduced something that had never really occurred to me which is that less severe punishments have the likelihood to produce multiple consequences which may decrease the frequency of other behaviors which may not always be undesirable in other contexts. One example that came to mind for this was singing. Singing is an acceptable and pleasurable behavior in certain public places, like a bar on karaoke night, a concert, or a church service. But if a person elicits a singing behavior in a quiet computer lab, people may give them dirty looks as a consequence. Although this is likely to decrease the frequency of the singing behavior in the computer lab, the dirty looks may also elicit a decrease in frequency of the behavior in more appropriate contexts as well.
I enjoyed reading this chapter because I think it included a lot of good information about punishment. I understand that punishment is not the most desirable way to modify behavior but it is sometimes necessary. The chapter points out that reinforcement and extinction should be tried first but as it says they do not always work. In my workplace we do try to use positive reinforcement when we’re able to. But when our residents are hurting themselves or others this isn’t always practical. Punishment can work if used correctly. For example, when a kid has earned all of their privileges and then tries to run away we use negative punishment by taking away the privileges they have earned. They had already been reinforced for safe behaviors by earning the privileges and it obviously didn’t work. Therefore, the next step is to take away something that is desirable (their privileges). Often times, this works and the residents realize that it isn’t worth it to run away.
I also liked reading about the ethical issues related to behavior modification. I understand that in some situations it’s not our place to try and alter other people’s behaviors however in some situations it’s necessary.
Punishment
It seems simple, but a little tricky with positive and negative punishment. It all makes sense, for positive you add an aversive stimulus to emit an undesirable behavior. In turn you decrease the response. Negative involves the removal of a desirable stimulus. You're either adding or taking away. In the examples mention in the book, punishment doesn't sound so bad. I would still rather use reinforcement, but I guess depending on the circumstance, sometimes punishment may be beneficial. Skinner had some interesting ideas about reinforcement and using it exclusively. I seem to relate a lot of my post to my son, but I think it would be interesting to see punishment and reinforcement used exclusively in raising 2 different kids. That might have some ethical issues, but an interesting study.
Punishment both positive and negative are easier to understand than reinforcement. I think I have a good handle on both, but I think the more I read on punishment the more I could understand the differences with reinforement and inturn make them both easier. I think in other psych classes went over punishment but it wasnt in full detail like this. The intensity, immediacy, nd frequency all factor in to how effective punishment is. I thought the part about BF Skinner and his "society" is crap. I think people will always have to be punished. This got me to thinking about something simple such as speeding. I assume we would reinforce people for not speedng but what happends when we get some person who is late and they really need to get where they need to go and fast. Will they be punished by getting a ticket? how will they control that? If they did not recieve a ticket what is there to stop other people or even that same person from speeding again once he/she isnt getting punished for it?