Ch 6: Punishment

Punishment is _________ an association.

Forming

4 parts to the definition of punishment

1. Antecedent 2. A particular behavior occurs 3. A consequence immediately follows the behavior 4. As a result, the behavior is less likely to occur again in the future (The behavior is weakened).

Positive punishment is defined as follows

1. Antecedent 2. The occurrence of a behavior 3. is followed by the presentation of an aversive consequence 4. and as a result, the behavior is less likely to occur in the future.

Negative punishment is defined as follows

1. Antecedent 2. The occurrence of a behavior 3. is followed by the removal of something of value which may be functioning as a reinforcer 4. and as a result the behavior is less likely to occur in the future.

Problems with punishment

1. Punishment may produce elicited aggression or other emotional side effects. 2. The use of punishment may result in escape or avoidance behaviors by the person whose behavior is being punished. 3. The use of punishment may be negatively reinforcing for the person using punishment, and thus may result in the misuse or overuse of punishment. 4. When punishment is used, it's use is modeled, and observers or people whose behavior is punished may be more likely to use punishment themselves in the future. 5. Finally, punishment is associated with a number of ethical issues and issues of acceptability.

Punisher

A consequence that makes a particular behavior less likely to occur in the future.

You cannot define punishment by whether the consequences ______ unfavorable, unpleasant, or aversive.

Appear

Punishment is defined in terms of the _________.

Behavioral outcome

Extinction is ________ an association.

Breaking

Immediacy speaks to

Contiguity (Interval of time)

It is _______ to say that you punish a behavior (or a response).

Correct; You are weakening a behavior by punishing it. To say "The teacher punished Sarah's disruptive behavior with time out" is correct.

If these were not unconditioned punishers, we would be more likely to engage in ____ that could result in injury or death.

Dangerous behaviors

In the case of negative punishment, _____ is an establishing operation that makes the loss of something of value more effective as a punisher and ______ is an abolishing operation that makes the loss of something of value less effective as a punisher.

Deprivation, satiation

Some debate exits among professionals about whether it is ______ to use punishment, especially painful or aversive stimuli, to change the behavior of others. Some argue that the use of punishment cannot be ________. Others argue that the use of punishemnt may be _______________, and therefore, the potential benefits to the individual are great.

Ethical, justified, justified if the behavior is harmful or serious enough

In the case of positive punishment, any event or condition that enhances the aversiveness of a consequence makes that event a more effective punisher, whereas events that minimize the aversiveness of a consequence make it less effective as a punisher.

Ex: Some drugs (morphine) minimize the effectiveness of a painful stimulus as a punisher. Other drugs (alcohol) may reduce the effectiveness of social stimuli (peer disapproval) as punishers.

A ______________ may be a conditioned punisher.

Facial expression or look of disapproval

When we define punishment according to wether the behavior decreases (or increases) in the future as a result of the consequences, we are adopting a __________.

Functional definition

Contingency

If, then

________ is necessary.

Immediacy

It is _______ to say that you punish a person.

Incorrect; You don't weaken a person, you weaken a person's behavior. To say, "The teacher punished Sarah for disruptive behavior" is not correct.

Juan's teasing and hitting is immediately followed by his sister's crying and scolding and spanking from his mother. What is the outcome?

Juan continues to hit and tease his sisters in the future.

Unconditioned punishers

Painful stimuli or extreme levels of stimulation have biological importance.

Through the process of evolution, humans have developed the capacity for their behavior to be punished by these _____ without any prior training or experience.

Naturally aversive events

________ is needed for an unconditioned punisher to function as a punisher.

No prior conditioning

In the example of Otis and the hot skillet, the immediate consequence of grabbing the skillet handle was a painful stimulus. The outcome was that Otis was less likely to grab a hot skillet in the future. This is ________.

Positive punishment

Unconditioned (________) and Conditioned (_________) Punishers

Primary and secondary

With ____________, the decrease in behavior typically is immediate and there is no extinction burst.

Punishment

For punishment to be most effect, the consequence must follow _______.

The behavior immediately

You can conclude that a particular consequence is punishing only if __________.

The behavior is decreases in the future.

Notice that positive punishment and negative punishment definitions parallel the definitions of positive and negative reinforcement. What is the difference?

The critical difference is that reinforcement maintains/strengthens a behavior or makes it more likely to occur in the future, whereas punishment weakens a behavior or makes it less likely to occur in the future.

Positive and negative reinforcement vs positive and negative punishment

The defining features of each principle are that a behavior is followed by a consequence, and the consequence influences the future occurrence of the behavior.

Some students may confuse negative punishment and extinction.

They both weaken behavior.

_______ often are conditioned punishers.

Threats of harm; Because threats have often been associated with painful stimulation in the past, threats may become conditioned punishers.

Two common examples of negative punishment are

Time out from positive reinforcement and response cost (aka behavior cost); Both involve the loss of something of value.

How is negative reinforcement involved in the Otis example?

When Otis used a hot pad, he avoided the painful stimulus. As a result, he is more likely to use a hot pad when grabbing a hot skilled in the future (negative reinforcement). Touching the hot skillet is punished by the presentation of a painful stimulus; using the hot pad is reinforced by avoidance of the painful stimulus.

In general, _______ is more likely to function as a punisher.

a more intense aversive consequence

By definition, you never use punishment ______.

alone

Abolishing operation

an event or a condition that makes a consequence less effective as a punisher (or reinforcer).

Establishing operation

an event or a condition that makes a consequence more effective as a punisher (or a reinforcer).

One other form of positive punishment is based on

an inverse form of the Premack principle

Conditioned punishers

are stimuli or events that function as punishers only after being paired with unconditioned punishers or other existing conditioned punishers.

Any stimulus or event may become a conditioned punisher if it is paired with an ______ punisher.

established

Although extinction also decreases a behavior, it usually takes longer for the behavior to decrease and an ______ often occurs where the behavior increases briefly before it decreases.

extinction burst

The events that function as punishers vary

from person to person

Punishment procedures are always used in conjunction with

functional assessment and functional interventions emphasizing extinction, strategies to prevent problem behaviors, and positive reinforcement procedures to strengthen the desirable behavior.

(Premack principle) When a person is made to engage in a low probability (less preferred) behavior contingent on a high-probability (highly preferred) behavior, the _______ will decrease in frequency.

high-probability behavior; That is, if, after engaging in a problem behavior, a person has to do something that he doesn't want to do, the person will be less likely to engage in the problem behavior in the future.

One thing you should notice in figure 6-1 is that punishment results in an _______ in the target behavior.

immediate decrease

Behavior modification operates at the

individual level

The word ____ is a common conditioned punisher.

no; It is considered a generalized conditioned punisher because it has been paired with a varied of other unconditioned and conditioned punishers over the course of a person's life.

Motivating operations take place

on the antecedent side

Reinforcing replacing ____________ with good.

poor behavior

One important requirement when using punishment is to use a ________ in conjunction with punishment.

reinforcement procedure

Negative reinforcement by contrast involves

removing or withdrawing a positive reinforcer after the behavior.

A ______ may become a conditioned punisher if it has been paired with the loss of something valued such as allowance money, privileges, or preferred activities.

warning from a parent; As a result when a child misbehaves and the parent gives the child a warning, the child may be less likely to engage in the same misbehavior in the future. A

Extinction involves

withholding the reinforces that was maintaining the behavior.