How to Change the Behavior of Your Children: the Psychology Behind Punishment and Reinforcement

We have all been in some Wal-Mart and heard a child crying and embarrassed adult try to silence them. Raising children can be very difficult and there are so many different ways to react to their behaviors. Psychologists have studied these reactions and today are trying to decide what the "best" way to react to your child in order to change their behavior really is. They have divided these reactions into two major categories: reinforcement and punishment.

Reinforcement

Many parents, especially today, are fond of using this technique to teach children how to behave. The psychologist defines reinforcement as any action that encourages a behavior. This is not necessarily always a good thing for parents, however, as we will see. Reinforcement can be divided into two categories: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

Positive Reinforcement refers to any action that encourages behavior by giving the person something they want. This can be as simple as giving a lab rat a treat every time it hits a lever or giving ice cream to a child whenever they make an A on their test. This technique is used by McDonald's Corporation on some report cards when they offer a free McDonald's hamburger to any child who has made A's and B's. Positive reinforcements has a lot of upsides, but some studies show that rewarding children with food may be contributing to childhood obesity. This association between doing well and eating could last their entire life, causing them to continue to eat whenever they are pleased with themselves. Another problem is reacting positively towards bad behavior. If a child cries and is given candy to make them stop then they will be more likely to cry in the future.

Negative Reinforcement has a somewhat contradictory sounding name, but don't let it confuse you. Negative reinforcement is simply encouraging an action by taking something annoying away. The easiest example for this is the annoying beeping noise that some cars use to get drivers to buckle their safety belts. Without even realizing it, you are being taught to buckle your safety belt automatically in order to remove the annoying stimulus. Another example would be a mother rewarding a child who has cleaned his room without having to be asked by ungrounding him. This encourages the behavior in the future. One disadvantage to this is if the child does this form of teaching to the parent. For example, if a child begins to cry when dropped off at a certain place and the parent reacts by not taking the child there any more. In this way, the child is training the parent how to behave. Another disadvantage to this style of reinforcement is that often there is no negative stimulus that needs to be taken away unless it is added by the parent, which can sometimes be somewhat cruel in the eyes of the child.

Punishment

The second group of reactions is the one that is probably most common. Parents for hundreds of years have found that punishment is an effective way to teach their children right from wrong behavior. As of late, many people believe that it is not always the best way of teaching, but it is still under intense debate. Punishment is defined by psychologists as any action that discourages a certain behavior. It is divided into two main groups: positive and negative punishment.

Positive Punishment is also a term that seems contradictory, but it really refers to any action that adds an unpleasant stimulus in order to discourage a certain behavior. An example of this would be spanking or giving someone a parking ticket. Both instances are unpleasant and they are intended to teach us the wrongness of our actions. Many psychologists do not stand behind positive punishment because it has been seen in some cases to create resentment. In these cases, the person being punished feels an association with the punishment and the punisher rather than the punishment and the wrong. Thus, nothing is taught except to avoid being caught by the punisher and perhaps to avoid the punisher altogether. However, some psychologists say that some spanking is okay, but it should not be the primary teaching method for children.

Negative Punishment refers to any action that removes something good in order to discourage certain behavior. An example of this would be taking away a child's toys when they didn't share or not inviting someone to a party because of the way they have been acting towards you. This form of punishment is less directly aggressive than positive punishment, but it can also be associated with the person. It is a good way of teaching that is less cruel in some ways than adding something unpleasant. This method is particularly popular in wealthy nations where children have a lot that they enjoy that can be taken away (video games, cell phones, cars, etc).

Extinction

Another form of learning is simply called extinction. This is where behavior is completely ignored in order to end it as quickly as possible. Some parents take this method when it comes to their child's "acting out" behavior. Psychologists find that when behavior is ignored it quickly ends. An example of this would be ignoring your teenager's wild dyed hair instead of trying to force him or her to look a certain way. Some research finds that this learning style does not always work, however, especially for older children. The negative aspect of this, besides it not always working, is that it can create a lack of communication between parent and child and make the child seem uncared for or neglected after a certain age. Extinction works best with young children who are specifically trying to elicit a certain response from their parents.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning