Have you noticed that what one person thinks is delicious, another person thinks is disgusting? If I give you a cookie it is either positive reinforcement or positive punishment. Positive means that it is given, posited or deposited. Punishment indicates that you didn’t like the result. Reinforcement is when you like the result. Punishment is a very individual matter.
Here are 5 things you need remember from this class session:
- Why We Punish
- Assumptions about Punishment
- Types of Punishment
- Effects of Punishment
- Alternatives To Punishment
Terms
- accident
- assumptions
- avoidance
- bartering
- blocks behavior
- broad impact
- change viewpoint
- correction
- counterattack
- deterrent
- distancing
- effective
- fair
- fear
- good for you
- justice
- likelihood
- mediation
- models
- moral
- natural
- negative punishment
- negotiation
- positive punishment
- power play
- problem-solving opportunity
- punishment
- punishment alternatives
- punishment effects
- punishment types
- rehabilitation
- retaliation
- retribution
- right
- side effects
- suppression
Quiz
1. Time out is:
- a. negative reinforcement
- b. positive reinforcement
- c. negative punishment
- d. positive punishment
2. The biggest problem with punishment is that it:
- a. lasts long after the punisher is gone
- b. builds love and respect too quickly
- c. has bad side effects
- d. generalizes well
3. PERMA is the brain-child of:
- a. Thorndike
- b. Seligman
- c. Skinner
- d. Guthrie
4. In the original learned helplessness study:
- a. cats got out of puzzle boxes
- b. wolves roamed the forests
- c. dogs were yoked together
- d. birds were stuck together
5. Punishment impacts the:
- a. pleasure center of the brain
- b. conditioned stimulus
- c. individual’s schema
- d. whole operant
1. Time out is:
- a. negative reinforcement
- b. positive reinforcement
- c. negative punishment
- d. positive punishment
2. The biggest problem with punishment is that it:
- a. lasts long after the punisher is gone
- b. builds love and respect too quickly
- c. has bad side effects
- d. generalizes well
3. PERMA is the brain-child of:
- a. Thorndike
- b. Seligman
- c. Skinner
- d. Guthrie
4. In the original learned helplessness study:
- a. cats got out of puzzle boxes
- b. wolves roamed the forests
- c. dogs were yoked together
- d. birds were stuck together
5. Punishment impacts the:
- a. pleasure center of the brain
- b. conditioned stimulus
- c. individual’s schema
- d. whole operant
Why We Punish
- We punish
- Coaches yell and curse at players
- Teachers impose penalties for late assignments and late students
- Parents shun, yell, belittle, insult and physically assault their children
- Police officers make traffic stops, give tickets and arrest people
- Judges impose fines, assign to work details, incarcerate and sentence inmates to death.
- Suspected traitors, terrorists and spies are drugged, waterboarded and abused
- We expect punishment to occur
- norm of life
- not surprised to see a child being pulled by the arm
- offended but are not astonished to hear ethnic slurs
- pay late fees, parking fines or speeding tickets
- we expect life to include punishment
- Upset when criminals get off
- We feel like something should be done
- We want someone to be punished
- We celebrities, politicians and Wall Street to pay for their deed
- Put to death for heinous crimes
2. Assumptions about Punishment
Assume punishment is natural
- Part of our flight-or-flight systems
- When attacked, we want to counterattack
- When frustrated, we become aggressive
- When insulted, we want our critics to be punished
- All primates beat their chests
- We can overcome our initial wiring and reprogram ourselves to act more compassionately.
Assume punishment is right
- Retribution or retaliation for evil done
- Extreme version
- we all deserve to die
- horrible people, a fallen race or guilty
Assume punishment is right
- Compared to what we deserve
- punishment is easy
- Does a baby deserve punishment?
Assume it is moral
- Eye for an eye
- Cain killing Abel
- argues death is too harsh
- God commutes sentence to banishment
- no is allowed to kill him
- mark of Cain
Assume it is fair
- Punishment must be proportional
- What is proportional response to a crying child?
- Is making them cry more actually the answer?
Assume good for you
- Rehabilitation and correction
- grow up to be a good person
- If you don’t punish children, they will never learn to behave properly
- No empirical evidence that punishment makes us good
- might be worth the risk to go against the evidence of emotional problems caused by punishment, if it work effectively.
Assume effective
- At extremes, highly effective
- if executed, zero percent chance will commit another crime
- Doesn’t teach the person anything
- To measure effectiveness, goal must be clear.
- Goal: change character
- Change heart or path in life
- punishment is not effective
- Doesn’t act a deterrent
- people aren’t thinking clearly
- Can temporarily suppress a behavior
- Must stay present all the time
- Has bad side effects
- Punishment is not a good long-term solution
3. Types of Punishment
Two Types of Punishment
Positive punishment
- lowers likelihood of a behavior reoccurring
- Give a yell, an insult, a slap, a spanking or an electric shock
- Positive doesn’t mean pleasant
- Something has been given or added
Negative punishment
- decreases the likelihood that a response will occur
- take something away
- examples include time out, grounding, taking away privileges and shunning
4. Effects of Punishment
- Broad impact
- Doesn’t change one behavior
- Impacts all behaviors being displayed
- Phone answering operant
- Not understand which behavior is being punished
- Dog cower
- Can’t be sure what you are mad about
- Undo existing rewards
- May unintentionally disrupt a positive behavior
- Limited
- Slow for police car
- Only works when the punisher is present
- Blocks behavior. It doesn’t eliminate it
- No long-term positive changes
- Stopping old behaviors is not the same as learning new ones
- Learning requires the acquisition of good behaviors
- Punishment isn’t learning
- Fear
- Not learn an association between the action and punishment
- Not want to be around the punisher
- Delivered in anger
- Jeopardizes the premise of fairness
- Not distribute justice evenly
- Not act rationally
- Models inappropriate behaviors
- Aggressive
- Use of power
- Teaches to be a punisher
- Teaches us to be manipulative
- Punishment is a power play
- Illegal residents
- avoid becoming involved in their community
- fear local police
- Punishing makes you scary
- No fun to be around
- Avoid the teacher
- Distance their parents
- Happens after the event stops
- Destroys son’s Lego masterpiece
- Deed is done
- Where does punishment fit here? What is the appropriate course?
5. Alternatives To Punishment
- Mediation
- Negotiation
- Bartering
- Punishment isn’t only option
- Reward could be given for creators
- Convert destroyer to a creator
- Wait
- Decisions don’t have to be made instantly
- Can take its time to figure out what to do.
- As a family
- Change viewpoint
- Crime that needs to be punished
- Accident that needs compassion
- Problem-solving opportunity
