POSITIVE PUNISHMENT AND NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT: DEFINITIONS AND TYPES - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The positive and negative punishment punishment are based on operant conditioning techniques and depend on different types of stimuli.

On the one hand, positive punishment consists of providing a pernicious stimulus when the person performs a certain behavior, with the aim that it is reduced and / or disappears completely.

Instead, negative punishment occurs when a person does not receive a positive stimulus in order for the inappropriate response to diminish or stop.

According to operant conditioning, behavior that is followed by positive consequences is more likely to recur in the future. On the contrary, behavior that is followed by negative or unpleasant consequences for the person is more likely to not occur again in the future.

In positive punishment, the contingency between the behavior and the consequence is positive, since the response gives rise to a negative stimulus, producing a decrease in the instrumental response.

In negative punishment this contingency is negative since the instrumental response eliminates the occurrence of a positive stimulus, also suppressing the response rate and the corresponding decrease and disappearance of the behavior.

Punishment is intended to reduce or eliminate a behavior that the person does not want to carry out through aversive stimuli or through the suppression of appetitive stimuli.

However, although there are, for example, different effective ways to avoid punishment for children, they can be essentially summarized in two types: positive punishments and negative punishments, which are explained below:

Positive punishment

This type of learning is based on operant conditioning, being used many times as a way to stop the subject when he has performed an inappropriate type of behavior.

Authors such as Skinner and Thorndike concluded that this punishment was not a very effective method of controlling behavior as it had only temporary effects. Instead, later investigations concluded that it was effective as long as appropriate procedures were used, being an effective technique to modify behavior.

Its basic procedure consisted of the presentation of a negative stimulus when performing a specific behavior. In this way, non-realization would avoid the aversive stimulus.

In experimental situations and with animals, aversive stimuli such as electric shocks, loud noises and previously conditioned keys have been used.

An example of positive punishment would be petting a dog and its response is to bark and attempt to bite. This would function as an aversive stimulus that allows the next time the animal is seen to decrease the behavior towards it.

Another example would be punishing a student without going to recess because he hit a classmate during class. The consequence of that response of harming her friend would be the withdrawal of a positive stimulus such as allowing the student to go outside to play during class break.

Within the techniques of positive punishment, we speak of punitive stimulus as a synonym for aversive stimulus.

In turn, aversive is understood as that stimulus that after its withdrawal increases the probability of the emission of the behavior that is intended to reinforce.

It is for this reason that positive punishment and negative reinforcement should not be confused since the former aims to reduce a certain behavior while the latter aims to maintain or increase it.

Here is a practical guide for the application of positive punishment:

• Use valid and admissible punitive stimuli depending on the person and the context.
• Do not make negative global comments.
• Define punitive stimuli that are effective and new for the person, since stimuli that have previously been used as a form of intermittent punishment are usually not effective.
• Do not resort to physical punishment as it is illegal, in addition to being inappropriate for other reasons, there are more techniques that are equally valid and effective both in the short and long term.

Overcorrection

Other types of positive penalties include overcorrection. This practice is a type of punishment procedure that involves not only correcting the behavior but also overcorrecting it.

In this case, the behaviors that are related to the one that is carried out inappropriately must be carried out repeatedly.

Thus, punitive stimuli would be the appropriate behaviors carried out after the inappropriate one. This technique also presents two basic factors such as restorative overcorrection and overcorrection through positive practice.

- Restorative overcorrection

This type of positive punishment would be applied to behaviors that have an agitating or damaging effect on the person's environment and on himself. Overcorrect the consequences of their behavior, restoring and improving the environmental conditions prior to the appearance of it.

An example would be the child who paints a table and not only has to clean the graffiti but also all the others.

- Overcorrection through positive practice

Within the previous one, there is this subtype of punishment that involves the long-lasting and repeated performance of appropriate alternative behaviors to inappropriate ones, as long as they are issued. It requires the person to engage in positive behavior incompatible with the problem behavior.

An example would be the person who needs to stop biting their nails and who is asked to substitute for another type of behavior. This technique is used with children and adults with disabilities who have various problems.

In this sense, there is also a guide for the application of overcorrection that may be useful:

• Restorative and positive practice activities must be contingent on the performance of the problem behavior.
• For its explanation and realization, verbal instructions, gestures or physical guides are used. If physical guides are used, gradually remove the supports.
• When overcorrecting activities are performed, positive reinforcement has to be removed.
• During the activities there should be no breaks.
• The duration of the same should not be very long.

Negative punishment

On the other hand, negative punishment implies a conditioning through which a pleasant or positive stimulus is withdrawn from the person as a result of the performance of an undesirable behavior, so that in the future the emission of said behavior decreases and / or get to disappear.

It would be a type of punishment for elimination, since in order to reduce the emission of a certain behavior, one proceeds through the withdrawal of a positive stimulus for the person. Also, it would be effective as long as it is applied consistently.

Examples of this type of punishment would be to remove tokens or stickers of good behavior (token economy) from the child for having engaged in inappropriate behavior.

Another could be the withdrawal of points on the license for driving with an alcohol level above what is allowed.

Cost of responses

This procedure is a form of negative punishment that consists of the withdrawal of a contingent positive reinforcer to a behavior with the aim of reducing or eliminating it.

It is combined with the differential reinforcement of adapted behaviors and makes it possible to punish maladaptive behaviors. Furthermore, the response cost has to be proportional to the behavior to be punished and is usually presented together with a token economy.

The response cost application guide along with a token economy allows:

• Define the conducts that will be fined and the cost that each of them will entail.
• Always report what behavior has led to the loss of points.
• It is recommended not to remove chips if the person is left with a negative balance. To avoid this, other punishment techniques such as time out are used.
• If a person refuses to pay for their infraction, possible solutions would be to deduct the number of tokens from the next salary, double the prices of the reinforcers for several days until they pay back what they owe, eliminate or reduce the exchange of tokens for reinforcers until they pay.

Time out

Another technique or modality of negative punishment consists of the withdrawal for the person of being able to obtain a positive reinforcer during a determined period of time and, contingently, to the execution of a behavior.

It is used in children with antisocial behaviors such as yelling, fighting, verbal aggression, throwing objects, etc. This is not effective for self-stimulating or self-injurious behaviors, since in this time out they can continue to do them.

To carry out this procedure there are different ways of this type of negative punishment:

• Time out for isolation. The person is isolated for a certain time in a specific area after carrying out an inappropriate behavior.
• Time out with exclusion. The person is not isolated in another area but cannot see what is happening, for example because they are sitting facing the wall.
• Time out without exclusion. The person is not isolated or excluded, not being able to participate in the activity and seeing how others can obtain the reinforcer and he cannot.

In this case, the guide for applying time out allows to include the following points:

• The time-out area should be adequate, with enough space but without objects of interest or distractions for the child.
• The duration of the time out will be as many minutes as the child's age is.
• The time-out must not be terminated as long as inappropriate conduct continues, that is, its termination must be contingent upon the cessation of conduct.
• Explain to the child what behaviors the time out will be applied to, emphasizing that it is a period or time for them to think and reflect.
• The child should not be reinforced while on time out.
• This technique will not work if the situation from which he is removed to take the time out is reinforcing or motivating for the child.
• If the child does not obey and does not want to take the time out, they will be notified that the duration of the time will be increased in advance.
• If you leave the time out area you will be redirected and advised that the time will increase if you continue to disobey.
• When the time-out ends, the child will be asked to perform the behavior correctly and expected, reinforcing him later.

Is the punishment effective?

Although there are situations in which we may think that punishment is not effective, researchers have concluded that if appropriate guidelines are followed, punishment is an effective technique. However, it must immediately follow the problem behavior and must be applied consistently.

Despite having advantages, punishment also has disadvantages such as that a person through punishment learns what behaviors he should not perform and, on the contrary, he is not shown what behaviors he should learn.

Punishment is a valid method of behavior modification if it is applied appropriately, if it is used responsibly and if it is not used regularly. Furthermore, its effects are immediate, specific and temporary.

Among the characteristics that the punishment must present to be effective is that it be of medium intensity. In addition, it should also be clearly defined which behaviors are to be reduced or eliminated, presenting it immediately and being contingent on the performance of the problem behavior.

In turn, the person must also be warned about the possible consequences that the performance of said behaviors would trigger. In this case, the type of punishment must have some kind of relevance to the person to be effective.

Finally, physical or psychological punishment must be avoided since they are illegal and are forms of child abuse. They do not teach anything positive, on the contrary, the child learns inappropriate behavior patterns reflecting the way they act or the models of the people who interact with them and are part of their environment.

References

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