The difference between positive and negative reinforcement
In operant conditioning, reinforcement is used to help increase the probability that a specific behavior will occur with the delivery of a stimulus or item immediately after a response or behavior is exhibited. The use of these procedures has been used with both typical and atypical developing children, teenagers, elderly, animals, and to treat some psychological disorders.
There are two types of reinforcement: positive and negative. It can be difficult to tell the difference between the two.
Positive Reinforcement:
This is a very powerful and effective tool to help shape and change behavior. It works by presenting a motivating item to the person after the desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future.
The following are some examples of positive reinforcement:
- A mother gives her son candy for cleaning up his toys.
- A little girl receives $5.00 for doing chores.
Negative Reinforcement:
This is when a certain stimulus item is removed after a behavior is exhibited. The likelihood of the behavior occurring again in the future is increased because of removing/avoiding the negative stimuli. It should not be thought of as a punishment procedure. With negative reinforcement, you are increasing a behavior, whereas with punishment, you are decreasing a behavior.
The following are some examples of negative reinforcement:
- Billy hates when his mom nags him to do the dishes. He starts to do the dishes immediately after finishing a meal to avoid his mother’s nagging.
- Lisa always complains of a headache when it is time to start doing her homework. Her parents allow her to go to bed without doing her homework.
Remember, that the end result is to try to increase the behavior, whereas punishment procedures are used to decrease behavior. For positive reinforcement, try to think of it as adding something positive in order to increase a response. For negative reinforcement, try to think of it as taking something negative away in order to increase a response.
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