Positive_Reinforcement

WA1 1 Writing Assignment #1 Leslie Halsell PSY 101 – Online Daniel Kachur February 16, 2010 WA1 2 Writing Assignment # 1 Though some people might be quick to assume, that all positive reinforcement is positive and all negative reinforcement is harmful, and therefore tailor their guidance skills strongly in the positive reinforcement direction the challenges become even more evident as they constantly remind themselves of both the difficulty of finding positive reinforcement for all the situations that need it and also the challenge of responding to negative behavior without consequences associated with negative reinforcement, such as withholding of reward or even aversive techniques. Reinforcement means that when the consequence produces, it either strengthens the behavior or stops the behavior, there have four kinds of reinforcement such as positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction. Now, I would like to focus on positive and negative reinforcement. When we impose the events, which either add the desirable event or remove the undesirable event, then it reinforced the behaviors; the positive or negative reinforcement will strengthen our behaviors, from current to future. Here are some examples of these two situations. Positive Reinforcement Positive reinforcement is when you reward a behavior to encourage it. I guess I can think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. There are many plans that can come into contact with this. A positive reinforcement during this process could be paying my son after mowing the grass and he understanding that every time he mows the grass, there is something in it for him.   This gives him something to look forward to and a reason to want to mow the grass.  Another example of positive reinforcement could be is I have actually had to teach a dog tricks WA1 3 before. The only way that worked the best for me was using treats and also making them come up and down depending on the trick.   The more a dog learns the motions his master is doing and the words that are coming out, the more the dog will understand what to do. Negative Reinforcement Negative reinforcement is the strengthening of a response through the removal of a stimulus after the response occurs. In negative reinforcement, a response is strengthened when it leads to the removal of an adverse (unpleasant or painful) stimulus. Negative reinforcer's are aversive stimuli such as loud nose, cold, pain, or nagging, or a child's crying. We are more likely to repeat behaviors that lead to their removal. A negative reinforcement could be not hearing the dad yell anymore about it not being done.   The more she waits and does not do this act, the more the dad gets mad and has to yell to get something out of her. The second example that I used about me training my dog is that as long as I do the same thing every time with the dog, there should be no problem in teaching it to shake "hands" with visitors when they walk in the door.  The dog is learning as it goes, so this might take time. The less frustrated I get, the easier it will be to teach the dog new tricks. So in my honest opinion I believe that to be negative reinforcement. Most often, the dog needs a treat or something after each time that it does something good so he or she knows to do it again the same way.   Positive Punishment Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is disciplining. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he WA1 4 or she will stop behaving in that manner. In an attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring in the future, an operant response is followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus. This is positive punishment. If you stroke a cat's fur in a manner that the cat finds unpleasant, the cat may attempt to bite you. Therefore, the presentation of the cat's bite will act as a positive punisher and decrease the likelihood that you will stroke the cat in that same manner in the future. An operant response is a behavior that is modifiable by its consequences. When behavior is modified by its consequences, the probability of that behavior occurring again, may either increase (in the case of reinforcement) or decrease (in the case of punishment). Another example could be, speeding through a red light may lead to getting struck broadside by another vehicle. If this consequence follows such a response, then the likelihood of a person's responding in the same way under similar conditions should drop significantly. Negative Punishment Negative reinforcement is the removal of an aversive stimulus. When we all were young, punishment came in handy for our parents because they could have spanked us, taken the toy blocks from us, or even help us learn a lesson and from the mistakes of misbehaving. In this manner, parents are most likely to use negative punishment. This is defined as someone’s behavior decreasing because the positive stimulus is not longer present A good example of negative punishment is when a teacher removes a child from the class because he or she is misbehaving. The result of this the child getting taken out of the positive reinforcement of the learning environment to be separated from the others by being asked to sit in a corner and face WA1 5 the window or another punishment that does not allow the child to be with the rest of the class. In this case, the child gets punished and most likely will not make the mistake again in the future. In conclusion Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these. Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also invoke other negative responses such as anger and resentment. I found this assignment to be very interesting I actually learned a lot.  "I have read and understand the section on what constitutes plagiarism for this assignment, as listed on the PSY 101 web site Assignments page. Further, I have read and understand the Indiana University page on plagiarism. I attest that I have listed all sources used for this paper, and that I have attributed all quotations and paraphrases used in this paper. I attest that all work not represented as belonging to someone else is my own. I understand that any amount of plagiarism on this assignment will lead to a recommended grade of zero for the assignment."