Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner was a behavioralist. Starting in the 1940s he wrote that human behavior was naturally controlled by whether it was rewarded. In other words, people do what they do because it works for them. This is true, Skinner taught, for both desirable behaviors and those we wish to extinguish. Skinner advocated positive reinforcement over methods of punishment, both because he proved it to be more effective and because he believed it to be more humane, according to the B.F. Skinner Foundation, and his approaches are still used in 21st century psychology,education and coaching.
Positive Reinforcement
Behavioral modification techniques include positive reinforcement, extinction and punishment. In positive reinforcement performance of a desired behavior is rewarded. Extinction uses withholding of an anticipated reward if a negative behavior is demonstrated or if a positive behavior is not performed. In a punishment system a negative behavior or the failure to meet behavioral expectations is met with an aversive stimulus, something the person will want to avoid in the future.
Positive reinforcement is most effective, according to University of Georgia Professor Melissa Standridge, when the expectations are well known and very specific and when the reward is something very much desired.
Telling a child "You will get to play outside for an hour right after all of your math homework and all of your corrections are complete" is more effective on a sunny afternoon than during a rain storm.
Consistency is also important in helping to internalize positive behaviors and make them habits.
Extinguishment: Natural Loss of a Desired Reward
Extinguishing is effective when the reward has already been experienced and is very much desired. It is also more likely to produce consistently positive behavior when there is a natural connection between the thing the person is doing and the natural loss of the intended reward.
For example, a 2-year-old child enjoys a piece of fruit at the end of his lunch each day. When he throws his plate on the floor one afternoon, his dad calmly says that this has ended the meal and he won't be able to have his fruit. It's a natural consequence of throwing your plate, purposefully, to the floor. Tomorrow, if dad sets the desired fruit off to the side, but in eye's view, his son is not likely to let the same loss reoccur. He did not have to punish. If consistency is practiced in the home the child simply learns that the natural consequence of negative behavior is the loss of a desired reward.
Punishment
Punishment, especially that which causes shame or fear, may cause behavior to change for the moment but does not promote a desire to grow or to become better behaved. It may destroy the relationship that could create a desire within the person for positive change. For example, many students become motivated to do their work with greater diligence because they admire and want to please a kind and supportive teacher. If this teacher then shames them in front of the class the catalyst for positive change can be lost. It is for this reason that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, called for an end to corporal punishment and other forms of punitive child discipline in schools and in family life, through legislation and programs of education.
Business environments often punished employees for things outside their own control, by firing, demotion or reprimand commonly for failed financial results. This is counterproductive because employee engagement, which is associated with increased company profits across industries, is promoted by positive reinforcement, team goal setting and rewarding the mastery of new skills, according to Robert Vance, an industrial and organizational psychologist writing for the Society for Human Resource Management.
References
- B.F. Skinner Foundation: About Skinner
- University of Georgia, Department of Psychology; Behaviorism and Behavioral Modification; Melissa Standrisge, Ph.D.; February 2008
- United Nations, UNESCO:Moving Towards Constructive Discipline:
- Society for Human Resource Management: Employee Engagement and Commitment: 2006
