This and the following chapter have "Modified Behavior Modification" as part of their titles. These chapters take the practical point of view that few teachers actually need to plan and apply full-scale behavior modification programs while they teach. Rather, most teachers should simply understand the basic principles of behavior modification and apply them whenever they need them. Furthermore, these chapters assume that if behavior modification is to present a useful set of strategies it must be integrated with the other principles discussed in this book.

There are two good reasons for understanding the principles of behavior modification. First, if you need to develop specific plans for helping students change their behavior, these principles will help you do that. Secondly, the effects of these principles often occur by accident. If, after reading these chapters, you are simply better able to avoid accidentally reinforcing undesirable behaviors and inadvertently punishing desirable behaviors, you will substantially enhance your teaching abilities.

Behavior control strategies can be effective only if educators use them. Teachers tend to be willing to use intervention strategies that are relatively easy to implement, that require relatively little time and financial resources, and that they view as acceptable ways for dealing with problem behaviors (Elliott et al, 1984). A major advantage of behavior modification strategies is that teachers can readily understand and apply them with satisfactory results.

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Define reinforcement and describe its effects.

2. Describe the three types of reinforcement and give examples of each.

3. Define the major schedules of reinforcement and describe their effects..

4. Describe strategies for using group contingencies to manage behavior.

5. Describe strategies for using reinforcement to reduce or eliminate undesirable behaviors.

6. Define punishment and describe its effects.

7. Describe the three types of punishment and give examples of each.

8. Describe the major negative side effects of punishment, and give examples of each of these negative side effects.

9. Describe the guidelines for administering punishment and give examples of the implementation of these guidelines.

10. Identify situations in which each of the types of reinforcement and punishment would be appropriate.

11. Define and give examples of extinction.

12. Identify the factors that influence the rate at which extinction will occur.

13. Distinguish extinction from other techniques for eliminating behaviors.

14. Describe the guidelines for using extinction as a technique to eliminate a behavior.

15. Describe the major advantages and disadvantages of extinction compared to punishment.

 

Putting This Chapter in Perspective: The chapters preceding this one have dealt primarily with cognitive aspects of human learning and development. The present chapter focuses on observable behaviors and ways to manage them. This chapter introduces the principles of behavior modification, and the next chapter completes the treatment and integrates these principles with the others discussed in this book.

 

Reinforcement: Strengthening Behavior¹

Reinforcement is the most important strategy employed in behavior modification. Simply stated, the word "reinforce" means to strengthen. If a contractor puts steel into the frame of a building to reinforce the building, the contractor is trying to strengthen the building. Whenever the word reinforce is used in the English language, it refers to some sort of increase in strength. This is exactly what reinforcement does to human behavior: it strengthens the behavior.

Reinforcement is defined as the contingent presentation of a pleasant situation.² The word contingent indicates that the person experiencing the pleasant situation sees a cause-and-effect relationship between the pleasant situation and some behavior which he or she has performed.

 If I wake up in the morning and feel really good but cannot connect this good feeling with any behavior that caused me to feel good, I am not experiencing reinforcement. No behavior is being strengthened. On the other hand, if I wake up in the morning feeling really great and if I attribute this good feeling to the fact I ran six miles and drank a glass of warm milk before I went to sleep the night before, then I am experiencing reinforcement. If I feel that the running and drinking milk caused me to feel good, then I'll probably continue running and drink a lot of milk in the future.

Note that this change in my behavior would occur even if I were wrong in my belief about what caused the good feeling. As long as I have a clear perception that running and drinking warm milk caused me to feel good, this perception is likely to have an impact on my behavior. To state it scientifically, my good feeling has occurred contingent upon my running and drinking milk, and therefore these behaviors have been reinforced.

 

This is the principle behind reinforcement. Because reinforcement makes a person feel good, it has the effect of strengthening (or increasing) the behavior which preceded the reinforcement or seemed to cause the pleasant situation. There are three ways³ to present a pleasant situation:

Type I Reinforcement occurs when something pleasant is added to a person's existence. The addition of something nice obviously provides a pleasant situation. 

Examples: praise, tokens, candy, money, being allowed to clean the blackboard.

 

Type II Reinforcement occurs when a person discovers that something unpleasant has been removed. If something bad has been happening to you and it suddenly stops, you would naturally say that this represents a good situation.

 

Examples: being let out of the time-out room, getting out of the "doghouse," being allowed to watch TV when homework is finished.

 

Type III Reinforcement occurs when a person is able to avoid an unpleasant situation which was very likely to have occurred. If something bad was going to happen to you and you managed to avoid it, you would normally say that this represents a good situation.

 

 

Examples: being quiet to avoid going to the time-out room, being quiet to avoid a spanking, doing one's homework early to avoid having to miss one's favorite TV show.

 

With all three types of reinforcement, the recipient feels good. These are simply three different ways to create a pleasant situation. The distinction among the three types is that each represents a different reason for feeling good.

There are two good reasons to become aware of all three types of reinforcement. First, you will often be looking for a strategy to strengthen a behavior, and it will be useful to look for all three types as possible sources of reinforcement. Secondly, all three types may occur by accident; and if you wish to avoid accidentally strengthening undesirable behaviors, it will be necessary to look for the accidental misapplication of all three types of reinforcement.

When we discuss accidental reinforcement, we must be concerned not only about reinforcing "deviant" or disruptive behaviors, but about accidentally promoting any inappropriate behavior. For example, if students value teacher approval and high grades, they tend to figure out what will please their teachers. Students may find that the most efficient way to do this is to engage in rote memorization of trivial information (which will guarantee success on the tests) rather than to take the riskier path of trying to come to a deeper understanding of the subject matter. To overcome this problem, teachers must adopt teaching and assessment strategies that will make the more desirable alternatives more likely to lead to reinforcement. In other words, the goal is to make pleasing the teacher and succeeding in the course overlap as closely as possible with acquiring a deep understanding of the subject matter (Ramsden, 1988).

Box 10.1

Examples of Reinforcement

1. Three reasons why Mike Jones spends five evenings a week at the local pub.

He might like the people he meets there. (Type I Reinforcement).

His wife might have been nagging him, and so he left the house and went to the pub. (Type II Reinforcement).

He might have been reluctant to go home after some other activity, because he knew his wife would nag him if he went home. (Type III Reinforcement).

2. Three reasons why Joey Schneider is visiting his mother in the hospital.

He enjoys the opportunity to make his mother happy. (Type I Reinforcement).

He has been feeling guilty for staying away for three months. (Type II Reinforcement).

He knows he will feel terrible later is he doesn't visit her now. (Type III Reinforcement).

In each of these examples, the protagonist is being reinforced in three different ways. The only difference within each set of examples is the reason why the person feels that he is in a pleasant situation.

 

 

REVIEW QUIZ 1

 

Classify each of the following as one of these types of reinforcement:

 

Type I Reinforcement

Type II Reinforcement

Type III Reinforcement

 

Brush your teeth because:

_____ 1. You can’t leave the bathroom until you do.

_____ 2. Your breath smells bad.

_____ 3. Your teeth will be white and bright if you do.

_____ 4. I’ll nag you if you forget.

_____ 5. You’ll get tooth decay if you don’t.

_____ 6. Big kids do so.

_____ 7. Batman says you should.

_____ 8. I’ll give you a "good mark" if you do.

_____ 9. You’ll lose a "good mark" if you don’t.

_____ 10. It tastes good.

 

ANSWERS are at the end of the chapter.

 

The Fundamental Principle of Behavior

Modification

The most fundamental principle of behavior modification, therefore, is simple: if you want a person to start (or continue) performing a behavior, see to it that pleasant situations occur as a result of that behavior. If the person sees a cause-and-effect relationship between the behavior and a good situation, then the behavior is likely to be strengthened. A few points need to be emphasized:

 

1. The pleasant situation can arise for any of the three reasons discussed previously. All three types of reinforcement result in the strengthening of behavior.

2. All types of behavior are subject to reinforcement. This includes highly internalized thinking skills and affective outcomes as well as easily observable behaviors. Thus, if a learner employs a thought process and feels good about the success generated by that manner of thinking, then that thinking strategy has been reinforced.

3. Reinforcement will not occur unless the recipient sees a cause-and-effect relationship between the behavior and the pleasant consequence. This is what the word contingent means. The failure to focus on the contingent relationship between the behavior and the consequence is probably one of the most serious weaknesses in many futile efforts to apply behavior modification.

4. It is the perception of the recipient that counts &endash; not the perception of the person administering the reinforcement. If a recipient thinks that a situation is pleasant, then (and only then) can that person be said to be receiving reinforcement.

5. Reinforcement will occur whether we want it to or not. A child's behavior, for example, will lead to contingent pleasant or unpleasant results even if the parents make no attempt to manage the consequences. If a child says to herself, "Because I did this I feel good," then that behavior has been reinforced. To state that reinforcement is thus widely prevalent is not the same as to argue that we should "manipulate" children and others more than we already do. Rather, being aware of the pervasiveness of reinforcement should enable us to use the principle of reinforcement to formulate solutions when problems arise. When interpersonal relationships are functioning smoothly and happily, this means that desirable behaviors are meeting with automatic reinforcement, and there is no reason to interfere with this process.

6. At least initially, reinforcers should be delivered immediately. This enables the learner to see the connection (contingency) between the reinforcement and the behavior that caused it. If the reinforcer is not delivered immediately, some other behavior may intervene, and this may weaken the effectiveness of the reinforcer. For example, Kazdin (1977) reinforced children for attending to the teacher for a designated amount of time. He found that if the children were attending to the teacher immediately before they received tokens their attending behavior was more strongly reinforced that if they were inattentive immediately before the reinforcement (even though they had previously been as attentive as the other children). When reinforcers cannot be delivered immediately, there must at least be some reason to believe that the recipient sees the connection between the behavior and the reinforcer. When there is a delay, it is often a good idea to verbally restate why the reinforcer is being delivered.

7. Human beings are complicated and unpredictable &endash; even inscrutable &endash; with regard to what they will consider to be reinforcing. As human beings become more mature, they are stimulated by higher levels of motivation (discussed in Chapter 5). They begin to seek vague things like self-fulfillment and mutual respect, rather than toys and pieces of candy. As persons become more mature, they tend to internalize their reinforcers. However, the principles of reinforcement are still applicable. A mature person's behavior will still be motivated by the contingent presentation of a pleasant situation - even though pleasant situations are defined differently than they are defined for a less mature person.

8. Finally, reinforcement can be either artificial or natural. This is the topic of the first section of chapter 11 of this book.

 

Online Links:
Mental Retardation

Schedules of Reinforcement

There are many other principles that can be discussed in connection with the topic of reinforcement. Some of these will be discussed later in this chapter and the next, and others are covered in the references cited in the Annotated Bibliography at the end of this chapter. At this point, we shall discuss schedules of reinforcement.

A behavior can be reinforced on either a continuous or an intermittent schedule of reinforcement. When a behavior is reinforced continuously, the learner receives the reinforcer after every correct performance of the designated behavior. When a behavior is reinforced intermittently, the learner receives the reinforcer on a non-continuous basis &endash; that is, sometimes the behavior generates the reinforcer, and sometimes it does not. These schedules of reinforcement are summarized in Figure 10.1.

FIGURE 10.1 Schedules of Reinforcement

Continuous Intermittent

/ \

Interval Ratio

/ \ / \

Fixed Intermittent Fixed Intermittent

The schedule of reinforcement is important, because it determines how strongly the behavior will resist extinction, which is discussed later in this chapter. Although it might seem obvious that continuous reinforcement is always superior to intermittent reinforcement, this is not actually the case. Research shows that continuous schedules are superior for learning new behaviors quickly. Intermittent schedules, on the other hand, receive the edge when it comes to causing behaviors to persist for a long time when the reinforcers are no longer offered for the behavior. The most effective strategy, therefore, is to reinforce a learner continuously when the behavior is brand new, but to switch to an intermittent schedule before the training program is terminated.

Note that the schedule of reinforcement refers to the contingent presentation of the reinforcer for the correct performance of the behavior. A child who is reinforced with "good boy" every time he tries to pronounce a word correctly &endash; whether he makes the sound correctly or not &endash; is not on a continuous schedule of reinforcement. The noncontingent presentation of a pleasant situation does not represent any systematic schedule of reinforcement at all. Note, however, that in this example, if the child makes a serious effort to pronounce a word (but fails) and if the speech therapist evaluates the degree of effort and says "good boy" only after the child has made a serious effort, then the child in this example would be receiving continuous reinforcement for "effort" &endash; but not for "correct pronunciation."

The subtleties of schedules of reinforcement are discussed more completely in books that deal specifically with behavior modification (e.g., Alberto & Troutman, 1990). Schedules of reinforcement will also be an important topic in the Extinction section of this chapter.

Contingency Contracting

A contingency contract is a formal (usually written) agreement between the teacher and student that states the terms of a behavior modification program. The physical contract makes explicit what the student needs to do and what the teacher will do if the student fulfills his/her side of the contract. The contract may also specify what help the teacher will supply in order to help the student attain the desired goal. Contingency contracts can be worked out on an individual basis with each student, and they should be the result of reasonable negotiations between the student and teacher.

Like all other forms of reinforcement, contingency contracts should employ consequences that are as natural as possible. If the contract involves artificial consequences, it is likely to lead to "the lawyer syndrome," in which the child tries to get by with as little as possible and looks for loopholes which will fulfill the contract's literal but not intended meaning (Balsam & Bondy, 1983).

Group Contingencies

It is possible to reinforce group performance as well as individual performance. For example, in some approaches to cooperative learning, the entire group receives reinforcement if each individual member meets a specified criterion. When using this strategy, it is important to foster both individual responsibility and group interdependence (See Chapter 13).

If group members help and support others, group reinforcement is productive; but it is also possible that group contingencies will result in undesirable peer pressure on some individuals (Balsam & Bondy, 1983). When using group contingencies, it is important that the teacher ascertain that each member of the group is actually capable of performing the behavior needed for the group to receive reinforcement and is not likely to take a free ride on the backs of the others. It is also important to note that group reinforcement is more likely than group punishment to be effective. Unless group punishment is done effectively, the negative consequences (discussed in the punishment section of this chapter) are likely to occur for the whole group, while only one or two persons experience the benefits.

  What Teachers and Parents Can Do

About Reinforcement

 

1. Be sure that students feel good after performing appropriate behaviors.

2. Refrain from reinforcing students for inappropriate behaviors.

3. Be sure that the students see the cause-and-effect relationship between productive behaviors and the favorable consequences that follow these behaviors.

4. Use natural (logical) reinforcement whenever possible.

5. When problems occur, look for ways to reinforce productive behavior.

6. Arrange for yourself to be reinforced for your own productive behaviors.

7. Reinforce not only students but also others (including administrators, parents, and media specialists) for their helpful and productive behaviors.

8. Reinforce students who are likely to be perceived as prestigious and similar by other students. Look for models elsewhere (for example, in the media) and point these out to students. Be aware of your own value as a model.

 

What Students Can Do About Reinforcement

 

 

 

1. Look for ways to make yourself feel good after accomplishing an academic task. If the completion of the task itself is not sufficiently rewarding, invent artificial reinforcers.

2. When you have a major task to complete, break it down into smaller components, so that you can be reinforced for successive steps in the right direction.

3. Use activities that you enjoy (such as watching a movie or having a snack) as a reward for completing academic tasks you dislike or resist doing.

4. Keep charts or other records of your performance in school, and use your recorded progress as a basis for self-reinforcement.

5. Always look for intrinsic benefits that will accompany mastering a topic in school. If you don't easily see the intrinsic benefits, ask somebody or conduct research to find out what they are.

6. Reinforce your teachers, parents, and peers for engaging in behaviors that help you learn.

 

Online Links:
Reinforcement

Punishment: Reducing and Eliminating Behaviors

Sometimes it is important to teach what not to do. The two main strategies for doing this are punishment and extinction. There are two good reasons for understanding these principles. First, if you need to develop specific plans for helping students stop a behavior, these principles will help you do that. Secondly, punishment and extinction often occur by accident. If, after reading the next sections of this chapter you are simply able to systematically avoid accidentally punishing or extinguishing desirable behaviors, you will substantially enhance your teaching abilities.

Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement. Punishment is defined as the contingent presentation of an aversive situation.⁴ Contingent means that a person sees a cause-and-effect relationship between the aversive situation and some behavior that person has performed. Thus, if something aversive happens to a person by sheer accident, such an event would not constitute punishment. "Aversive" means unpleasant. An "aversive situation" occurs when something happens to make someone feel bad.

Punishment can also be defined by its effects: it is a consequence which reduces or eliminates the behavior which preceded or caused it. People prefer to avoid aversive situations, and therefore they try to refrain from doing things which will put them in an aversive setting. Thus, the only use of punishment is to reduce or eliminate behaviors. Punishment teaches what not to do.

Just as there were three types of reinforcement, there are also three types of punishment.⁵ These three types of punishment represent three different ways to provide an unpleasant situation.

 

Type I punishment occurs when something unpleasant is added to a person's existence. This addition of something bothersome provides an unpleasant situation.

 

Examples: spanking children, reprimanding them, politely expressing disapproval, making children play with other children they do not like, requiring teachers to have bothersome children in their classrooms, returning home to an antagonistic spouse, making a person do something she does not want to do.

 

 

Type II punishment occurs when something pleasant is withdrawn. Taking something pleasant away from a person makes that person feel bad and creates an unpleasant situation.

 

Examples: taking away recess time, withdrawal of the use of the car on Friday night, being forced to miss one's favorite television show, not being permitted to work on one's favorite school subject.

 

 

Type III punishment occurs when something pleasant is first added and then withdrawn. A person who has gained something pleasant which was not available before but then loses what was gained will feel bad about this loss, and therefore this is a presentation of an unpleasant situation.

 

Examples: (1) If a teenage girl does not normally have the privilege of using the family car on weekends, she might be granted this new privilege on the condition that she will lose the privilege if she gets home later than a designated time. (2) A child who tattles over trivia might be told that he can use the computer for ten minutes near the end of the day, but that he will lose five minutes of that privilege each time he tattles.

 

Note that there is a fine line between Type II and Type III punishment. However, a child who loses ten minutes of his current recess feels different than a child who has been promised ten minutes of extra recess and then has this extra time removed. It is an unpleasant situation for both children; but the second child feels bad because of not getting something, whereas the first feels bad because of losing something he already had. Also note that a "new" privilege is new only for a reasonably short time. Thus, if I give my children an extra ten minutes of recess and continue this practice every day for six months, then contingently remove it, I am actually exercising Type II, not Type III punishment. The children are likely to view themselves as losing something rather than not gaining something.

Many of the examples in the preceding lists are not automatically thought of as examples of punishment. However, each example represents a situation which is unpleasant and which happens to someone who performs some specific behavior. Unpleasant events are part of life; and when learners identify the contingencies responsible for these events, they experience punishment. Thus, punishment does not have to be a traumatic event; any set of circumstances that is perceived as mildly annoying can qualify as punishment and can have the effect of reducing the behavior seemed to cause it. For example, if you have read a chapter in this book and said to yourself, "I didn't understand that properly, because I read too fast," then you have been punished for reading too fast - provided you felt bad over your failure to understand. On the other hand, if you felt miserable over your failure to understand the chapter but did not connect this with reading too fast, then your hasty reading habits were not being punished.

This book takes the position that when punishment is legitimately defined, it is absolutely counterproductive to oppose its use or to recommend it "only as a last resort." If students are doing things that they should not do, they can benefit from learning not to do them; and punishment - legitimately defined - is often the best way to teach what not to do. It is certainly wise to understand the shortcomings of punishment and to administer it properly. It may also be wise to resist harsh and artificial punishment and even to ban corporal punishment - but students are often most likely to stop engaging in harmful and counterproductive behaviors if they feel bad because they have done them. Like reinforcement, punishment is most effective when it is natural; and the most effective use of punishment consists of enabling learners to recognize the behaviors that naturally cause unpleasant events, to avoid doing these behaviors in the future, and to engage in other behaviors that are likely to be more productive.

The presentation of aversive situations will have the effect of discouraging the behavior that brought them about, even if this effect is unintended by the naive punisher. For example, when I taught high school freshmen, I once realized that the reason that I had the five most disruptive students assigned to my class was because of my success in dealing with one particularly disruptive student the year before. I knew that if I did a good job with these five I would have even more difficult students assigned to me the next year. I had been punished for doing a good job, even if my principal was unaware of this phenomenon.

As with reinforcement, the important issue is to know that punishment occurs whenever an unpleasant situation is contingently presented. It is important to be able to recognize, to create, and to avoid such unpleasant situations. It is not especially important to be able to make fine distinctions among the three types. Nevertheless, it is useful to be fully aware of the distinctions for two reasons. First, when it is necessary to punish, it is useful to be able to select from among all three types. Secondly, punishment often occurs by accident; and only if we are aware of all three types of punishment can we successfully avoid the accidental misuse of punishment. Sometimes more than one form of punishment will occur in a given situation. For example, a teenage girl who is told she cannot go out on a date but must instead stay at home with her little sister (who is likely to persecute her all evening) is suffering from multiple forms of punishment. It is not necessary to analyze all the components of her punishment. The main point is that she has been presented with an extremely aversive situation, and in the future she is likely to avoid doing whatever it was that got her into such a situation. If she feels that these bad things happened to here because she was spending her time around the house where her parents could find her too easily, then in the future she will spend her time elsewhere.

Review Quiz 2

 

Examine each of the following descriptions of punishment. Classify each as either Type I, II, or III punishment. (Note: These descriptions do not necessarily represent recommended forms of punishment.)

 

1_____ Telling a football player to run twenty laps for missing an easy pass.

 

2_____ Making a child pay out of his own allowance for the vase he broke.

 

3_____ Forbidding two children to play with a toy over which they have been fighting.

4_____ Telling a child he can stay up until midnight to watch a television show, but then telling her to go to bed at 9:30 for being rude.

5_____ Forbidding a child to sit where he usually likes to sit in church.

6_____ Making a child sit in the corner.

7_____ Telling a person her answer is wrong.

8_____ Telling a person he is stupid.

9_____ Taking a child to a ball game, but leaving early when he starts cursing at the umpire.

10_____ Telling a child to write 100 times "I must not waste paper."

 

ANSWERS are at the end of the chapter.

 

Online Links:
Punishment

Negative Side Effects of Punishment

Punishment is often accompanied by serious negative side effects (Newsome, Favell, & Rincover, 1983). The following pages, will discuss these negative side effects in detail. Afterwards, suggestions will be made concerning ways to avoid these shortcomings. A basic premise of this book is that these shortcomings are not inherent in punishment itself, but rather occur because of the manner in which punishment is administered in specific situations. The shortcomings are as follows:

1. Punishment merely teaches what NOT to do. When used alone, punishment does not develop positive behaviors. If we wish to develop positive behaviors, we must use some form of reinforcement (discussed earlier in this chapter). Strategies for combining reinforcement and punishment into an integrated strategy are discussed later in this chapter.

2. Punishment often causes avoidance behaviors. The recipient of punishment is likely to avoid both (a) the person who administered the punishment, and (b) the situation in which the punishment was administered. Thus, in schools where the assistant principal is the one whose main job seems to be to administer swats to unruly students, students often avoid the assistant principal. Since parents and teachers (and even assistant principals) are interested in teaching children appropriate behaviors, they make their job considerably more difficult if they must first make the children stop avoiding them before they can initiate positive contacts. Likewise, if children are frightened of school or of staying around the house out of fear of being punished, it will be difficult to help them develop adaptive skills. In addition, the other way out strategies discussed on page xxx of this chapter arise from the desire to avoid punishment.

3. Punishment often results in a mere suppression of the undesirable behavior. The punished person discovers that it is advisable to stop doing whatever incurred the punishment, but that the same behavior can be tried again as soon as the punishment becomes less probable. Since punishment merely teaches what not to do and suggests avoidance strategies, the punished person may merely cease the designated behavior until it appears that the aversive situation has been successfully avoided, or until a time when the pleasant results outweigh the aversive results.

4. Punishment often results in a sort of behavioral constriction. The person who is punished may discover that the safest way to avoid punishment in the future is to avoid doing anything that even remotely resembles the punished action. (Note that this problem is related to the problems of attributions for failure and learned helplessness, which were discussed in Chapter 5.)

 

A notorious instance of such overgeneralized punishment is cited by educators who maintain that school systematically eliminates creativity in children. Being informed that they are wrong is viewed as at least mildly aversive by most children and adults, just as being informed that they are right is at least mildly reinforcing. When children give wrong answers and are told they are wrong, they are likely to attempt to stop the behavior which leads to being told they are wrong. However, many of them feel that they are being punished for "giving it a try" or for offering a hypothesis, rather than for a misuse of a cognitive process or a simple mistake in memory. This is especially likely to be true if the punishment is severe (e.g., being called wrong in front of all their peers). When this punishment happens, children can avoid being called wrong in the future by simply not volunteering and not trying very hard. (It is less aversive to be called wrong if you have not even tried than if you have given your best efforts only to fail.)

 

Likewise, some educators and critics of education contend that children approach our schools with a great deal of eagerness and creativity, and then as they go through school they are punished and told what not to do so often that they lose their spontaneity and become apathetic. The problem is one of overgeneralization; the child learns not only to avoid the specific undesirable behavior but also to avoid a large number of neutral or desirable behaviors.

5. Punishment often results in undesirable modeling. If a child perceives that adults solve most of their problems by employing punishment, that child is likely to resort to punishment to solve his or her own problems. This vicarious learning (discussed in Chapter 12) becomes an especially serious problem when adults use such overtly aggressive tactics as spanking, hitting, and verbal attacks as their punishment techniques. In such cases adults should not be surprised when children engage in socially undesirable behaviors such as hitting other children when these others annoy them. The fact that the parents feel that they are "right" in administering their punishment, whereas the children are "wrong," is of little relevance. What a child perceives is: "Mom and Dad solve their problems by hitting. I have a problem now. So I should hit the person who is responsible for my problem."

6. Punishment often leads to retaliatory behavior. A person who has been frustrated through punishment is likely to be upset. Depending on the person's level of maturity and the degree to which the person holds the punisher responsible for the aversiveness of the situation, the recipient of punishment is likely to want to get even. Many children "declare war" in this way and nurse their need for revenge for remarkably long periods of time.

7. Punishment often leads to negative self evaluations. A person's self concept (discussed in Chapter 8) is based on the person's self-evaluations; and these evaluations are derived, in large part, from significant others in the person's environment. A person who is constantly the recipient of punishment is likely to form a negative self concept, and to develop perceptions of low self-efficacy and learned helplessness (discussed in Chapter 5). Learners who perceive themselves as incompetent are likely to either avoid undertaking activities out of a fear of failure or to engage in undesirable activities which are related to their negative self evaluation.

 

These negative side effects are sound reasons to consider strategies other than punishment for controlling undesirable behaviors (Matson & DiLorenzo, 1983; LaVigna & Donnellan, 1986; Donnellan & LaVigna, 1988). If these negative side effects of punishment were inevitable, perhaps punishment should never be used as a behavior control technique. However, it is important to note that reinforcement also has consequences that could be considered negative side effects (described on page xxx of this chapter); but most people have a tendency to ignore these (Balsam & Bondy, 1983). These side effects are often parallel to those that accompany punishment. For example, while punishment may cause undesirable avoidance, reinforcement often causes equally undesirable dependency. Likewise, while punishment may model violence, reinforcement may model greed and materialism. However, these shortcomings are not actually inevitable. These negative side effects are not inherent in the act of punishment or reinforcement itself, but rather result from the procedure is administered. If either punishment or reinforcement is properly administered, these undesirable consequences can be minimized or completely eliminated.

In weighing the usefulness of punishment, it is important to keep two points in mind:

1. Punishment is an extremely useful technique to teach a person what NOT to do. Teaching what not to do will often be a valid and important goal.

2. Punishment is very frequently poorly administered. This means that the undesirable side effects occur very frequently. This also means that many of the perfectly valid criticisms of parents and teachers who have abused punishment should be directed more toward the perpetrators of the punishment rather than toward the strategy itself.

 

With these two factors in mind, it is apparent that a person who refuses to learn how to administer punishment appropriately is faced with two equally undesirable alternatives:

l. Not employing punishment at all, and thereby rejecting a very useful technique for teaching what not to do.

2. Punishing inappropriately, and thereby imposing unnecessary negative side effects upon the person being punished.

 

In addition, it is likely that a person who does not understand the principles behind administering punishment effectively will let punishment occur accidentally - thereby causing the reduction or elimination of behaviors that should actually be encouraged. Therefore, it is extremely important to come to a thorough understanding of the principles of punishment. Developing a proficiency in punishment does not mean that educators should punish students as often as possible or brag about new and unique ways they have devised to torture children. Nor does it mean that teachers should resort to punishment first whenever a problem arises. What proficiency in punishment does mean is that when punishment is the appropriate technique (which will sometimes be the case) effective educators will be able to punish appropriately. It is essential to be sure to accomplish the desired goal, rather than an unintended outcome.

Guidelines for Effective Punishment

The following guidelines will be helpful in making punishment work effectively:

1. Punish a behavior, not a person. Punishment should never be presented or perceived as a personal attack. There is little point in calling a person a "bad boy" or a "spoiled brat."

 

Box 10.2

It's the Way You Say It

(Punish the Behavior, Not the Person)

If two children are preparing to hit each other with baseball bats, this act might be an appropriate occasion for punishment, since hitting with bats is something not to do. Some bad ways to present the punishment would be: "Can't you two ever stop fighting?" "You could kill each other with those bats!" "What the hell are you trying to do?" Some better approaches might be: "Bats are for hitting baseballs, not for hitting baseball players. I am going to take the bat away for today." "When fights start it is best to cool off for a while. You can rejoin the game as soon as you have cooled off."

 

An obvious problem with a personal attack is that it puts the person being punished on the defensive side of an argument. Losing the argument is perceived as a second (usually unintended) aversive event. A second problem is that the personal attack attaches a label. A person labeled as "lazy" or "irresponsible" is provided with a rationale for adopting that role; and adopting the role may often be easier and more rewarding than working to reject or disprove the label. In addition, since the recipient of a personal attack is likely to doubt his or her self-efficacy and to attribute failure to stable, uncontrollable factors, motivation to improve is likely to be reduced. (See Chapter 5.)

To overcome this difficulty, be sure that the person being punished understands that you think he/she is really a fine, lovable person, who is capable of performing the appropriate behavior - even though the action just performed was inappropriate. This positive regard is something that should be conveyed in an overall relationship with the person rather than in a single sentence just prior to the administration of punishment. A good idea is to arrange a chance for the person being punished to perform a desirable activity shortly after the punishment, so that you can then express your high regard and so that the person can confirm perceptions of self-efficacy.

2. Specify the behavior that is being punished. The recipient of punishment should not be left with a "What did I do now?" feeling. You have perhaps heard the story of the mother and father who decided late one night that it was about time their children stopped cursing. The family gathered for breakfast the next morning and the oldest son initiated the conversation in his customary manner: "Pass the damn ham!" The father immediately slapped the boy with his open hand, knocking the stunned child about twelve feet across the room. The father then turned to the next oldest son and asked, "Now what do you want?" The boy was scared stiff and could only mumble, "I don't know. But I sure as hell don't want any of that damn ham!"

 

The person being punished can best avoid further punishment by focusing on the specific behavior that caused it. If the contingency is unclear, the recipient may either fail to avoid the targeted behavior or avoid more behaviors than we really want to prevent. In many cases the person being punished will be able to identify the specific undesirable behavior without a detailed explanation. A sermon need not accompany every punishment. The important point is that if ambiguity exists, then clarification is in order.

3. Punish as early as possible in the behavioral sequence. If you see a child reaching for his little brother's toy (which he usually throws out the window), punish him as soon as you see him start the activity. (Be certain, of course, that grabbing the toy is what the child really intends to do.) If you wait until the process is completed, then your punishment has to compete with the rewards he reaps from his brother's screams. To outweigh such reinforcement, you would have to resort to a much more severe punishment than if you had punished early in the sequence.

An exception to this guideline occurs when the behavior is likely to have a natural unpleasant outcome. If no serious harm will occur and if the person performing the behavior is likely to feel naturally punished at the end of the activity, then it would be desirable to let the natural punishment occur rather than to intervene earlier with an artificial form of punishment.

4. Match the severity of the punishment to the severity of the misbehavior. This matching is actually more difficult than it sounds, because either the punisher or the recipient of the punishment is likely to make an inaccurate estimate of the severity of either the misbehavior or the punishment. If the punishment is too light, the reinforcers inherent in the undesired behavior are likely to outweigh the punishment and the behavior will persist. If the punishment is too severe, the recipient is likely to engage in avoidance, suppression, self-devaluation, or retaliatory behaviors.

5. Introduce the punishment at its full intensity. Well-intentioned attempts to start with a mild punishment and build gradually to more difficult forms of punishment are often misguided, because the recipient is likely to become habituated to the punishment. When this happens, the intensity of punishment eventually needed to actually reduce the behavior is likely to be much greater. This guideline does not mean that you should always give extremely severe punishments or that you should never make adjustments. It merely means that punishment will be more effective if you make an accurate judgment regarding the intensity of punishment that will be needed and deliver the punishment at that level of intensity when it is called for.

 

6. Be sure that the recipient views the punishment as aversive. Something is aversive and therefore an effective source of punishment not because we think it is aversive, but rather because the recipient perceives it as aversive. What is punishment to one person in one situation may not be punishing to that same person in a different situation or to someone else in any situation. Many of the things we think are aversive to children and students are actually reinforcing to them!

Box 10.3

Be Sure the Punishment is Aversive

Jamie is often required to sit in the corner when he misbehaves. The corner is right next to the bed, and he keeps a supply of comic books hidden under the mattress.

Ken is a football player. Whenever he talks out of turn in math class, he is required to come to the front of the room and receive three hard swats from a powerfully-built teacher with a very thick paddle. The swats hurt a little, but no more than a solid tackle on the football field. Ken happens to know that one of his friends is keeping a list of the number of swats he receives. If he gets 20 more swats within the next ten days, he'll break the school record. (Ken is being reinforced by peer admiration.)

Judy is kept after school for detention almost every night. Pat also spends much time on detention, almost always on the same nights with Judy. Judy's parents don't approve of Pat, and this is the only time they can get together. The two girls later get a ride home from school with Pat's boyfriend.

 

7. Use natural consequences whenever possible. Everything said about natural and artificial reinforcement on pages xxx to xxx applies to punishment as well. Logical, unpleasant consequences are an effective form of natural punishment. Logical unpleasant consequences have the advantage of being available even when you are not available to deliver the punishment. They present a rationale that can be integrated with cognitive structures, and this information can be used to solve related problems in the future. In addition, logical consequences are likely to be perceived as fair. A person who views you as dealing fairly will not resort to avoidance, suppression, negative self evaluation, undesirable modeling, or retaliation as often as a person who views the punishment as arbitrary.

 

8. Whenever possible, use punishment in conjunction with the reinforcement of an alternative behavior. This way you will be teaching what to do, as well as what not to do. Such multiple strategies are emphasized throughout this chapter. The combination of punishment with Type II reinforcement has been discussed on page xxx, and with Type III reinforcement on page xxx. A specific discussion of combining punishment with Type I reinforcement follows in the next section.

Box 10.4

Ben Imitates His Friends

(Punish One Behavior, Reinforce Another)

Ben usually plays very nicely with his friends. He is now three years old, and is starting to imitate some selfish behaviors which some of the older children in the neighborhood exhibit. Ben's mother has told him that she wants him to be like "Ben," not like the other children, and that if he grabs toys from little children, he will have to stay in the house. One day she sees Ben grabbing a toy from the two-year-old next door. She says, "Ben, those are Ronald's toys. Don't take them from him like that. Now you will have to stay in the house for a while.!" Fifteen minutes later she tells Ben to come outside and adds, "You're a good boy. Let's read your favorite storybook together."

Is this last sentence a good way to demonstrate to Ben that he has his mother's overall approval in spite of the fact it was necessary to punish him?

Sample Answer:

This was a hard one! No. It would have been a have been more constructive approach to first give Ben an opportunity to do something desirable and then give him the reward in the context of his desirable behavior. He would then know he was "good" because he had just done something good (as opposed to his previous bad behavior) and his mother had rewarded him for it.

 

The Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (1990) has issued a position paper for helping professionals regarding the use of behavior reduction strategies with children with behavioral disorders, which includes the following guidelines:

1. Practitioners planning to use behavior reduction procedures, especially those involving more aversive, intrusive, or restrictive techniques should obtain prior consent from the child's parents or legal guardians and from administrators, and clearance from human rights committees.

2. Practitioners should carefully analyze potential target behavior(s) and the factors associated with their occurrence before initiating behavior reduction procedures.

3. As a general rule, practitioners should implement and document the use of appropriate less aversive, intrusive, or restrictive procedures prior to implementing other procedures.

4. Practitioners should develop and follow appropriate guidelines involved in using behavior reduction strategies.

5. Practitioners should develop and subsequently follow a plan detailing the behavior reduction procedure(s) to be used in a particular case.

6. Once aversive behavior reduction procedures are selected and approved, practitioners should select appropriate procedures for specific situations.

7. Persons responsible for carrying out behavior reduction procedures must be appropriately trained.

8. Practitioners should keep data on the efficacy of the behavior reduction procedures.

 

In addition, Griffith (1983) and Yell (1990) discusses the legal issues involved in administering punishment in schools.

Combining Punishment with Reinforcement

Punishment should almost never be used alone. The proper technique is to teach what not to do by punishing one behavior and simultaneously to teach what to do by reinforcing another behavior. The combination of punishment with Type II and III reinforcement has been discussed on pages xxx to xxx. It is also desirable to combine Type I reinforcement with punishment. This combination of punishment and Type I reinforcement is actually an extremely effective technique; both the reward and the punishment are intensified by a contrast effect (e.g., Van Houten and Doleys, 1983). The following examples show how punishment and Type I reinforcement of incompatible behaviors could be combined in examples previously discussed in this chapter.

 

Bill could be required to stay in the house when the room is messy (punishment). He could be reinforced for neat behavior in the following ways:

1. He could be allowed to leave the room as soon as it met his parents' standards of neatness (Type II reinforcement).

2. His parents could praise him when he subsequently keeps the room neat (Type I reinforcement).

3. He could be given additional privileges once he has shown responsibility by keeping his room neat (Type I reinforcement).

4. Because the room is neat, he could avoid the nuisance of being unable to find things when he wants them (Type III reinforcement).

 

Note that the negative side effects of punishment still occur when it is accompanied by reinforcement. With this in mind, it is often better to use Type I reinforcement alone if such undesirable side effects are likely to appear and if the reinforcers are strong.

It may seem that the ideal classroom management strategy would be to employ positive consequences as often as possible. Actually, this belief may be slightly inaccurate. While positive classroom control is highly desirable, there is evidence that positive control techniques become more effective when used in settings where there has been at least an occasional use of punishment (Pfiffner & O'Leary, 1987).

The Relative Strengths and Weaknesses of the

Three Types of Reinforcement

In selecting an appropriate type of reinforcement, the following guidelines should be observed:

1. When you are able to use natural (logical) reinforcement, there is no clear-cut advantage to Type I over the other two types of reinforcement.

2. When you are using artificial (contrived) reinforcement, there is a clear-cut advantage to Type I reinforcement.

3. When you punish a person, you should use forms of punishment which provide opportunities for Type II as well as Type III reinforcement.

4. Type II is often a much more powerful type of reinforcement than Type III.

5. It is often a good idea to use several types of reinforcement simultaneously.

 

Each of these guidelines will be discussed briefly in the following paragraphs.

 

1. There is often a tendency to assume that Type I reinforcement (often referred to as "positive reinforcement") is preferable to the other two types. Such an assumption is inaccurate. In terms of effectiveness, there is actually no consistent advantage in favor of either Type I, Type II, or Type II reinforcement. Some of the major accomplishments of both individuals and groups have arisen out of attempts to overcome adversity; and in such cases people were motivated by Type II or Type III reinforcement. Such accomplishments have occurred because people have wanted to either escape from or avoid unpleasant circumstances. It is just as ethical and just as useful to help people overcome the dissatisfactions in their lives as it is to help them acquire new satisfactions.

2. Type I reinforcement becomes preferable to the other two types only when we are dealing with artificial reinforcement. In dealing with artificial Type II or Type III reinforcement⁶, we first have to present a new aversive situation to the learner, and then allow the learner to undertake action to either have it withdrawn or to avoid this aversiveness in the future. In other words, we have to punish the learner first; and punishment is accompanied by several undesirable side effects. With natural Type II or Type III reinforcement, the learner is already in an unpleasant situation and will therefore appreciate the opportunity to get out of it or to avoid it in the future. With artificial Type II or Type III reinforcement, we first have to present the learner with a new unpleasant situation and then enable the learner to get out of or avoid that situation. His resentment over our putting him into that situation might overshadow his gratitude for our having shown him the way out of the aversiveness. Therefore, when artificial reinforcement is necessary, it is often best to use Type I reinforcement.

3. In spite of the preceding paragraph, it will sometimes be necessary to punish a learner. Whenever we use punishment, it is always a good idea to accompany the punishment with Type II or Type III reinforcement. The correct strategy is (a) to punish the undesirable behavior and (b) to provide Type II or III reinforcement for an incompatible desirable behavior. A person who has been punished or is threatened with punishment will be motivated to undertake behaviors that will enable her to avoid the aversive situation in the future. Therefore opportunities for Type III reinforcement accompany all forms of punishment. In addition to wanting to avoid future punishment, a person who is actually receiving punishment will also want to have the aversive situation stop. While all forms of punishment arouse this motivation to get out of the current aversiveness, not all forms are accompanied by an obvious way for the person to get this existing aversiveness to stop. Therefore, opportunities for Type II reinforcement accompany only some forms of punishment. In selecting forms of punishment, therefore, it is best to select punishments which will enable the learner to both (a) avoid the punishment on future occasions and (b) earn her way out of the present aversive situation.

4. The tendency to select punishments which can easily be accompanied by Type III reinforcement but not by Type II reinforcement is especially unfortunate in view of their relative power: Type II reinforcement is usually much more powerful than Type III reinforcement. You can easily understand this difference in power if you have ever had a severe toothache: the motivation to get rid of a severe toothache is much more intense than is the motivation to brush your teeth to avoid future tooth decay. Type II reinforcement enables the learner to get out of an already-existing unpleasant situation, whereas Type III merely enables the learner to avoid a future aversive situation. When using natural reinforcement, of course, we simply have to take advantage of whatever opportunity for reinforcement is available; and if Type III is what exists, we can make the best of it by making the future as realistically obvious to the learner as possible. When using artificial reinforcement, we will be more successful if we have selected punishments which provide opportunities for Type II as well as Type III reinforcement.

5. There is no reason why we should limit ourselves to a single form of reinforcement. It is often possible to use all three types of reinforcement to strengthen a single behavior. For example, assume that a parent wants to teach her child to do his homework promptly. The following strategy might be effective: Tell the child that he has to do his homework before he is allowed to watch his favorite television show. Then show your interest by discussing the homework with him. The sequence of events in Box 10.5 might arise from this strategy.

 

  Box 10.5

Possible Sequence of Punishment

and Reinforcement Associated with Homework.

1. The child misses his favorite television show because he fails to do his homework. (He is being punished for whatever he did instead of the homework.)

2. Next, the child does his homework, while missing part of the television show. When he gets it neatly and correctly finished, he receives Type II reinforcement by being allowed to watch the rest of the show.

3. The next day, he does his homework instead of playing video games after school. He receives Type III reinforcement (by avoiding loss of television) for doing homework.

4. His parents talk to him during supper about his homework. He receives Type I reinforcement from this interesting discussion.

5. The child perceives homework as interesting. He receives Type I reinforcement (by doing an interesting activity) for doing homework.

6. Doing homework helps child do well in school the next day. The child receives Type I reinforcement (by doing well in school) for doing homework.

 

The Most Serious Shortcoming of Type III

Reinforcement

A frequent strategy in child-rearing and in classroom management is to punish an undesirable behavior and hope that the child will receive Type III reinforcement of an opposing desirable behavior. For example, a teacher might punish a child for doing badly on a test (by giving a low grade) and then expect the child to study hard to avoid such punishment in the future. The most severe shortcoming of this combination of strategies is that performing the desired behavior is usually not the only way to avoid the punishment. In this example the child might avoid punishment not only by studying hard (which is what the teacher desires), but also by cheating on the next test (which is the opposite of what the teacher desires). In fact, if cheating on the test is easier (less unpleasant), then the child is very likely to follow that course of action to avoid future punishment.

  Box10.6

Examples of "Other-way-out" Behaviors

That Occur with Type III Reinforcement.

Johnny and his friends play very noisily at Johnny's house. His mother likes to have the children play there, but she wants the noise to subside. She frequently nags the children, which annoys them and embarrasses Johnny.

Desired behavior to escape nagging: Play quietly at Johnny's house.

Alternate behavior to escape nagging: Play at somebody else's house where there is less supervision.

Stephanie is a competent student, but she blurts out answers in class without thinking. The teacher wants Stephanie to think carefully before answering, and so she makes sarcastic comments whenever Stephanie blurts out an indiscriminate answer.

Desired behavior to avoid sarcastic comments: Stephanie will think carefully and give a reflective answer.

Alternate behavior to avoid sarcastic comments: Stephanie will look down to avoid eye contact with the teacher. If called on, she will say, "I don't know."

Pat has a tendency to drive very fast on interstate highways. To stop people like Pat, the state police rely on a system of radar in patrol cars and heavy fines.

Desired behavior to avoid fines: Pat will drive within the posted speed limit.

Alternate behavior to avoid fines: Pat will purchase an electronic device that spots police radar and enables her to slow down whenever she approaches a radar patrol car.

George's teacher has a stern policy of giving an F to any student who does not turn in homework assignments on time.

Desired behavior to avoid and F: George will do the homework promptly and turn it in.

Alternate behavior to avoid an F: George will copy his homework from Frank.

 

This "other-way-out" difficulty is a severe shortcoming, and therefore it is a good idea not to rely on Type III reinforcement alone to develop adaptive behaviors. Use Type III reinforcement in combination with punishment only when you're interested in stopping a specific, identifiable behavior and want to reinforce its opposite. For example, reprimand a person for "looking out the window" when he should be reading. Don't reprimand him for "not learning to read." (Also note that since Type III reinforcement is closely associated with punishment, this "other-way-out" possibility is likely to cause problems with the use of punishment.)

Nevertheless, there are many situations when punishment is appropriate, and in such cases provision should be made for Type III reinforcement. You will be more successful if you follow these guidelines:

1. Make the desirable route to Type III reinforcement more attractive than undesirable alternate routes. Teachers and parents often try to accomplish this by providing an additional punishment if the child follows the undesirable alternate route. A wiser course of action is to provide additional positive incentives (Type I reinforcement) for the desired behavior.

2. Use natural (logical) rather than artificial (contrived) Type III reinforcement. Natural consequences are not irrefutable, but because of the inherent connection between the behavior and the reinforcer, the child is less likely to seek an alternate route to Type III reinforcement.

3. Don't use overly-harsh punishments. Such harsh strategies promote the urge to avoid detection, which is usually not the desired outcome.

4. Use Type III reinforcement only in conjunction with other strategies. Such other strategies may include modeling the desired behavior, Type I reinforcement of the desired behavior, and Type II reinforcement. Do not construct strategies in which Type III reinforcement is the only strategy available for developing desirable behaviors.

 

The perfect use of Type III reinforcement, therefore, occurs when you use natural (logical) Type III reinforcement in conjunction with a fair punishment, when the desired behavior is attractive, and when other techniques are also incorporated into the behavior-control strategy.

Eliminating Behaviors Through Type I

Reinforcement

The discussion of reinforcement has focused on the "positive" goal of developing desirable behaviors. Another reasonable goal is to try to reduce or eliminate behaviors. There are essentially two ways to reduce or eliminate behaviors: (1) attack the behavior directly through punishment, or (2) attack the behavior indirectly by strengthening its opposite. At this point we will discuss the use of reinforcement to lead to the indirect elimination of behaviors.

As you read this section, it will become obvious to you that incompatible behaviors can be strengthened through all three types of reinforcement. However, since Type II and III reinforcement occur in close conjunction with punishment, the previous discussion has already made it obvious how these strategies can strengthen desirable behaviors while eliminating undesirable behaviors. The strategy for using Type I reinforcement to accomplish the same goal, however, is not so obvious; and therefore a specific treatment of this topic may prove helpful.

Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible

Behavior (DRI)

As the name suggests, with differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI) we eliminate a designated behavior by strengthening other behaviors that are incompatible with it. Logically, if one behavior increases as a result of reinforcement, then behaviors which are incompatible with the increased behavior must decrease. (If the weather gets warmer, it cannot simultaneously get colder; if my team has the ball and is scoring a touchdown, the other team cannot simultaneously be doing the same thing; if a child is being good, she cannot simultaneously be bad.) Thus, Type I reinforcement provides an indirect attack on the undesirable behavior: the undesirable behavior is eliminated by encouraging its opposite. However, while the undesirable behavior is attacked only indirectly, the outstanding advantage of Type I reinforcement is that it directly teaches what to do, instead of merely teaching what not to do. On the other hand, punishment has the advantage of directly attacking the undesirable behavior, but the disadvantages of (1) not directly teaching what to do and (2) producing negative side effects.

A large number of "undesirable" behaviors are really labels applied to the absence of desirable behaviors. For example, "being lazy" is a negative behavior which really means "not being active." "Being tardy" really means "not being on time." "Being sloppy" means "not being neat." Therefore, when such "undesirable behaviors" present problems, the most direct approach to their elimination is not punishment, but rather Type I reinforcement of the desired behaviors. Once the child starts to perform the desired behaviors, the "undesirable behaviors" automatically disappear.

BOX 10.7

Pamela's Tardiness for Supper

(Reinforcing Desirable Opposite Behaviors)

Pamela is constantly late getting home for supper. Her parents could punish her for her tardiness; and if punishment is effective, she will stop being late. On the other hand, her parents could take the opposite course of action and reward her for getting home on time. If the reward is effective, Pamela will develop the habit of arriving on time for supper; and since being on time is the opposite of being late, Pamela's problem of lateness thus could be eliminated without punishment. (Whether or not Pamela's parents would actually want to choose this second course of action would depend on several factors that will be discussed later in this section.)

 

Differential Reinforcement of Alternative

Behavior (DRA)

In the examples discussed so far, a desirable behavior has been the logical opposite of the undesired behavior. Even when such a logical opposite does not exist, Type I reinforcement can still be used to eliminate an undesired behavior. This is referred to as differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA). As an example, children get into trouble many times because they "have nothing to do." If this is the case, then, reinforcing any positive or neutral behavior would be a desirable tactic. The theory is that a person can be doing only one thing at a time; and if the person is receiving Type I reinforcement for an activity which is at least harmless, then the person will not need to look for destructive ways to obtain such reinforcement.

DRI is more likely than DRA to lead to a permanent elimination of the undesirable behavior. By reinforcing a non-opposite alternative behavior, we do not provide a permanent solution for the problem; we merely distract the person from the undesirable behavior. Both DRI and DRA are more likely to be successful when the learner already knows how to perform the incompatible (or alternative) behavior. Likewise, if the teacher performs a functional analysis and identifies the reasons why the student has been performing an undesirable behavior, the teacher will be more successful by reinforcing an incompatible or alternative behavior that fulfills the same function. Finally, the alternative or incompatible behavior should be one that can be reinforced frequently and will eventually be maintained by natural reinforcers.

A specific approach to counseling, referred to as "brief therapy" is really an extension of the principle of reinforcing incompatible or alternate behaviors. In brief therapy, the counselor or other helper assists the client focus on exceptions to a prevalent undesirable behavior &endash; circumstances in which the stated problem does not occur. The goal of the counseling is to expand the situations in which this more adaptive behavior is likely to occur (Cade & O'Hanlon, 1993; de Shazer, 1985, 1991; Murphy, 1994).

The Positive Value of Failure

For most people, failure is a form of punishment. When we fail to accomplish something we care about, we feel bad. If we can identify the behaviors that caused this failure, those behaviors will be punished - that is, they will be less likely to occur in the future. What educators often fail to realize is that recovering from failure or avoiding it in the future can be powerful forms of Type II or III reinforcement.

American parents and educators are often irrationally afraid to let their children experience failure. To a certain extent, their concern is legitimate. If failure is a form of punishment, it has the potential to lead to the negative side effects described in this chapter. Particularly troublesome side effects may include the avoidance of the subject matter in which the failure occurred and negative self-concepts that may impede both further learning and future happiness.

However, if children are behaving inappropriately - as by acting disruptively in class or by using ineffective cognitive strategies to solve a problem - they are more likely to be motivated to change that inappropriate behavior if they feel upset about the fact that the behavior is causing them to fail at something they care about. From this perspective, when children are doing something wrong, the best thing that can happen to them is that they will perceive that they have failed because of their inappropriate behavior and will be motivated to get rid of this annoying feeling of failure.

A major key to helping learners profit from failure can be found in the discussion of motivation (especially attribution theory) in chapter 5 of this book. An especially effective strategy is to encourage students to make strategic effort attributions (Pressley, Borkowski, & Schneider, 1987). That is, when students succeed, perhaps we should reinforce them not for success itself, but for making accurate attributions related to productive ways they channeled their effort in order to be successful. {For example, instead of saying, "That's great!" when a student completes a project, say instead, "I like it! How did you manage to accomplish this?" Then when the student relates the successful use of her time, say things like, "That was a good idea!"} Likewise, when students fail, it may be unnecessary to focus more than briefly on the failure itself; instead it may be better to focus on how they can use their effort more fruitfully in the future and especially to focus on their subsequent success when they eventually achieve success by using their effort more productively.

Using failure as a punitive threat is not likely to be productive. It is better to integrate failure into students' intrinsic motivation. For example, by overcoming failure, they can set and achieve important goals, they can feel more in control of their lives, and they can gain recognition. Another key is to employ the guidelines in the present chapter for administering punishment effectively. Learners are most likely to profit from failure when they perceive it as a natural consequence that upsets them at least mildly but not traumatically and when they perceive specific causes for it that can be altered by channeling future effort more effectively.

Because people vary in their previous experience with failure, it is impossible to state specific, absolute guidelines for how to handle failure among all students. However, failure is likely to be an important part of the lives of all learners. Teachers should not try to insulate students from the possibility of failure; rather, they should help students learn to overcome and profit from failure. It is counterproductive (that is, a bad learning-to-learn thinking skill, discussed in chapter 7) for students to believe that they are "stupid" if they don't get an answer right on the first try. The ideal perception for students who fail at a task is for them to say to themselves that they "have not succeeded yet."

Most readers of this book have at some time or other experienced the wonderful sensation that comes when we have tried and tried and then finally succeeded. This is an immensely powerful form of reinforcement for students to receive.

The following are appropriate general guidelines for dealing with failure (Vockell, 1993):

 

1. Structure academic work so that students can succeed and will therefore feel good about legitimate successes.

2. Refrain from praising inferior performance. Instead of praising inferior work, restructure the task or provide help that will permit success at a legitimate task; and then praise that success.

3. Encourage students to evaluate themselves primarily with reference to their own past performance rather than in constant competition with others.

4. Think before you either criticize or praise. Either may be appropriate at the right time; but try to have a good reason for either criticism or praise and direct it toward an activity rather than a person.

 

 

1. When your children do well at legitimate tasks, praise them for it.

2. When your children perform badly at legitimate tasks, help them feel dissatisfied. They should not feel ashamed, obsessively guilty, or disgusted with themselves - just dissatisfied and wanting to do better.

3. Help your children believe that if they set realistic goals and work hard they can overcome most obstacles.

4. When you fail at something yourself, express dissatisfaction and work hard to overcome the obstacles - children can learn how to deal with failure by watching others.

5. Focus both your praise and your criticism on tasks - not on the child's personality. Refrain from labeling your child as "good" or "bad" because of performance on an academic task.

6. Think before you either criticize or praise. Either may be appropriate at the right time; but try to have a good reason for either criticism or praise.

 

 

1. Try your best, but expect to fail sometimes. Only people who risk failure actually grow better or stronger.

2. When you fail at a task, remember that you are not "a failure." You are a person who has failed at one thing but succeeded at many other tasks. Figure out exactly what went wrong, and try to succeed the next time. Seek help, if necessary.

3. Look at how people whom you admire handle success and failure and imitate their example.

4. Remember, the only people who never fail at anything are the ones who don't try anything difficult. If you try things that are difficult, you'll fail occasionally, and this is nothing to be ashamed of.

 

Online Links:
Dealing with Failure

Accidental Punishment

In discussing strategies for helping learners develop desirable behaviors, we have focused on strengthening such behaviors through the various types of reinforcement. However, in some cases there is an even simpler approach: stop punishing the behavior, and it will increase on its own. One of the most significant features of punishment is that the aversive situation is often brought about by accident. When an aversive situation occurs unintentionally, the rules of punishment still apply. In order for punishment to have its impact of reducing behavior, the only prerequisites are (1) that the recipient of the punishment must perceive the situation as being aversive and (2) that the recipient must see a cause-and-effect relationship between the aversive situation and a behavior which the recipient has performed. It matters not at all whether someone imposed this aversive situation on purpose or whether it occurred without outside planning. In either case, the outcome will be the same: the punished person will be less inclined to perform the activity which brought about the aversive situation.

 

1. Follow the guidelines in this chapter to avoid the negative side effects and gain the benefits of punishment.

2. When it is appropriate that students should feel bad about performing maladaptive behaviors, be willing to administer punishment.

3. Refrain from punishing students for appropriate behaviors.

4. Be aware that there are many other sources of unpleasant consequences besides yourself in the lives of your students, and take advantage of these to reduce inappropriate behavior among your students.

5. Be sure that the children see the cause-and-effect relationship between inappropriate behaviors and the unpleasant consequences that follow these behaviors.

6. Use natural (logical) punishment whenever possible.

7. When problems occur, look for ways to provide unpleasant consequences for unacceptable behaviors.

8. Resist the tendency to use punishment when a more appropriate strategy is called for. Be aware that punishment may temporarily solve a problem that requires a better long-term solution.

9. Be aware of the undesirable negative side effects of punishment and take steps to minimize their occurrence.

10 Arrange for yourself to feel bad for your own unacceptable behaviors.

 

 

 

1. Recognize that punishment is directed toward a behavior, not toward you personally.

2. When you are punished, identify the specific behavior for which the punishment is being administered. By eliminating that specific behavior, you can eliminate the unpleasant consequences.

3. Look for ways to make yourself feel bad after you engage in inappropriate or unproductive behavior. If the performance of the inappropriate behavior does not itself generate unpleasant consequences, invent artificial punishers.

4. Identify the intrinsic ill effects (natural punishment) that will accompany the performance of inappropriate behaviors that you want to stop. If you don't easily see the intrinsic ill effects, ask somebody or conduct research to find out what they are.

5. Be aware that when you yourself use aversive consequences to manage someone else's behavior (including parents and teachers), your management strategies are likely to be accompanied by negative side effects.

 

Extinction: Eliminating Behaviors Without

Punishment

Extinction refers to the systematic withholding of the reinforcers which had previously maintained a behavior. Adding reinforcers causes behaviors to increase. Withholding them makes behaviors decrease or disappear completely. Extinction is another procedure for eliminating undesirable behaviors. It often works more slowly than punishment, but it is accompanied by fewer negative side effects.

A common misunderstanding is that extinction and ignoring are synonymous. This is not the case. Ignoring a behavior is an example of extinction if (and only if) that behavior has been maintained by the attention of the person doing the ignoring. If a behavior is being performed to gain some reinforcer other than attention, then ignoring that behavior has nothing whatsoever to do with extinction. Most teachers who ignore behaviors are not applying extinction - they are merely ignoring behaviors. It is often difficult for teachers to determine whether their attention is a reinforcer for specific children. One good way to deal with this uncertainty is to have someone else observe the teacher's interaction with the child and to give an objective opinion. Only after it has been verified that attention is an effective reinforcer for a particular child can ignoring be used as an successful tool to help control that child's inappropriate behavior.

Another frequent misunderstanding is that the term "extinction" means "elimination" or "obliteration." This is not the case. There are many ways to "eliminate" a behavior; but only when the behavior is eliminated by withholding the reinforcers which had previously maintained the behavior is this elimination referred to as "extinction."

Factors Influencing the Rate of Extinction

of Behaviors

The speed with which a behavior can be eliminated through extinction depends on the following factors:

1. The previous schedule of reinforcement for the behavior which is to be extinguished. If a person's behavior has been reinforced continuously (reinforced every time he or she performed the behavior), this behavior will extinguish much more rapidly than if that person has been reinforced intermittently (reinforced on an irregular basis). For a more specific discussion of schedules of reinforcement, see page xxx.

 

The reinforcement history established in one setting can transfer to another. For example, a child who has been intermittently reinforced for bothering his mother is likely to be very persistent in school if the teacher tries to use extinction to stop him from trying to get her attention.

Box 10.8

Margaret and Archie Look for Attention

(Previous Schedule of Reinforcement)

Margaret sits in the front row of her fourth grade class. To get Ms. Brown's attention, she often asks unnecessary and annoying questions to which she already knows the answers. Every time she raises her hand to ask one of these questions, Ms. Brown calls on her, since she is right in front of Ms. Brown anyway. Alex sits in the back left corner. He does the same thing as Margaret, but Ms. Brown calls on him less often, since she doesn't see him as easily. Ms. Brown decides to eliminate unnecessary questions by not calling on the students unless they are actively involved in their projects.

Question: Who will stop asking unnecessary questions most rapidly, Margaret or Alex?

Answer: Margaret, because she has been on a continuous schedule of reinforcement.

 

2. The number of reinforced trials. If two persons have both been reinforced on a continuous schedule, one five times and the other fifty times, the one who has been reinforced fifty times will resist extinction longer than the one who has been reinforced only five times.

 

Box 10.9

Playing the Horses

(Number of Reinforced Trials)

Tom, Dick, and Harry bet on the horses at the local racetrack. When they first started gambling, Tom and Dick both won every time they placed a bet. Harry won only occasionally. Tom placed a wager five times and won all five times. Dick placed twenty bets and won all twenty. Harry placed twenty bets; and he won on the second, fifth, eleventh, thirteenth, and nineteenth occasions. Then they all hit on a period of hard luck and lost every time they placed a bet. If the odds makers were taking bets on this, which person would they expect to give up gambling first? Who would keep gambling the longest?

Answer: Tom will be the first to quit, because he was reinforced continuously and less frequently than Dick. Harry will persist the longest, because he was reinforced intermittently.

 

3. The person's deprivation level. The more deprived a person is of the reinforcer, the longer the person will keep trying to get the reinforcer when it has been withdrawn. A hungry child will whine for a piece of candy longer than one who has just eaten. If the child wants a reinforcer and the only way to get it is by performing the undesirable behavior, that behavior will continue for a long time. On the other hand, if the child can get the same reinforcer from a number of sources or in a number of ways, the child will perform the undesirable behavior for a shorter period of time before stopping.

4. The effort needed to make the response. If a great deal of effort is expended in an unsuccessful effort to obtain a reinforcer, then the person is more likely to give up in the face of extinction than if the required response were easier.

5. The degree to which the reinforcers can actually be withheld. Some teachers are simply inept ignorers; they find it impossible to ignore inappropriate behavior that is occurring in their presence. If this is the case, they should either learn to ignore more effectively or not try to use the withdrawal of attention as a form of extinction. In addition, extinction will fail if students do not realize that their reinforcers are being withheld. For example, a child who thinks he is getting the teacher's attention by standing next to his desk and talking to the teacher at inappropriate times may think the teacher is attending, even if this is not the case. To make extinction more effective in this case, the teacher could become very busily and obviously involved with a different student. (Note that it might also be reasonable to turn to the child and say, "What's the rule?" or "Why am I not paying attention to you? Such statements deviate slightly from the principle of extinction, but as long as they do not supply the kind of positive attention the child wants, they would not be reinforcing; and as long as they are not unpleasant, they would not constitute punishment. Such reminders should simply serve as a neutral stimulus to prompt the proper behavior.)

In addition, sometimes only part of the reinforcers can be withheld, and in such cases the behavior will be maintained by those reinforcers which are still being provided. If these additional reinforcers are unimportant to the person, the behavior is still likely to be extinguished quickly. On the other hand, if these other reinforcers are even more important than the ones being withheld, extinction may not work at all. For example, a behavior may be maintained by both teacher attention and peer attention. If only the teacher withholds attention, the behavior may continue unabated. However, if the teacher is able to enlist the support of the peers in withholding attention, the behavior will diminish more rapidly.

6. The availability of procedural combinations. By combining extinction with other techniques (such as punishment, reinforcement of alternative behaviors, and modeling) extinction can become more efficient. For example, if a student who wants attention finds that the teacher tends to ignore a certain behavior 90% of the time and give aversive attention (punishment) the other 10% of the time, the student is likely to try another approach. In addition, if some other way is provided to get attention (for example, raising a hand), this same student can obtain reinforcement through this other approach and not have to persist in the undesirable behavior. Thus giving the reinforcer for one behavior minimizes the need for the person to seek the reinforcer through an undesirable route. In combining extinction with punishment, however, remember that negative side effects are likely to accompany punishment.

 

In summary, extinction is likely to work effectively under these conditions:

1. If the person has previously received continuous reinforcement for the behavior.

2. If reinforcement has occurred only a few times.

3. If the person is not excessively deprived of the reinforcer.

4. If the behavior requires a great deal of effort.

5. If it is possible to withdraw all the reinforcers.

6. If extinction can be combined with punishment, reinforcement of an alternative behavior, or modeling.

 

To the extent that any of these conditions is absent, then extinction is less likely to be effective. If a large number of these conditions are absent or if the absence of a single condition presents a significant problem, then a different technique should be employed.

There are three further problems with extinction. First, behaviors that have undergone extinction may later suddenly reappear. This spontaneous recovery is more likely to occur with extinction than with punishment. When this happens, it is necessary to re-extinguish the behavior. As long as the person does not receive intermittent reinforcement for it, the behavior is likely to undergo extinction more quickly during spontaneous recovery than when it first presented a problem.

Second, when a teacher uses extinction with one student, other students in the same class may mistakenly believe that the student is receiving reinforcement; and those students will experience vicarious reinforcement for the undesirable behavior. This is why extinction often works more effectively when teachers are working with students individually rather than in large groups.

Third, because reinforcers may be available in other settings, it is often difficult to for students generalize behaviors learned through extinction.

Accidental Extinction

One of the disadvantages of extinction is that it is often less efficient than punishment. Many parents and teachers who have tried to apply extinction have found it to be a tedious process; and because of the difficulty they have encountered, they have abandoned extinction in favor of another technique. Therefore, it may be surprising to discover that extinction often occurs by accident.

If a person performs a behavior in order to gain reinforcement, but finds that the reinforcers are not forthcoming, this behavior will decline. It doesn't matter whether the reinforcers are withheld on purpose or by accident. Since extinction often occurs by accident, it is important to take steps to prevent the accidental extinction of desirable behaviors. For example, many children misbehave because they like to receive attention from teachers and peers, but they get little attention by behaving properly during class time. This is because the teacher and everyone else may have no reason to notice that bad things are not happening. Under such circumstances, the children's good behavior may undergo extinction, and they may resort to disruptive behavior to gain attention. Teachers can prevent this accidental extinction by making a purposeful effort to "catch children being good" - that is, by occasionally drawing favorable attention to these children's productive behavior.

If you examine the many of the behaviors in which you don't engage, you will discover that a large number of these have undergone extinction. If you don't spend many nights at the opera, if you don't listen to classical music, if you've only been to one hockey game in your life, if you've never read a second book by Henry James, if you've started reading a novel but haven't bothered to finish it - in all these cases, you may have experienced punishment, but chances are that what you experienced was extinction. For example, I personally don't actively dislike Henry James novels, but after falling asleep on several occasions while trying to read Portrait of a Lady, I don't feel a thirst to try again - unless I'm suffering from insomnia. Indeed, the social significance of extinction becomes evident when we examine popular music, where "not telling her how much I loved her" - that is, "allowing her desirable behaviors to undergo extinction" - is a major reason for failure in romantic relationships.

Using Extinction When Attention is the Reinforcer

Sometimes we hear parents or teachers say, "He's only doing that misbehavior to get attention. So let's not give it to him." Is this statement what this chapter recommends? The answer is NO. A much better comment would be, "He's only doing that misbehavior to get attention. Let's not give him attention for that." The difference in emphasis produced by the final two words is considerable. If a person wants and needs attention, we have a very effective reinforcer at our disposal. We would be foolish not to use this reinforcer. When a child acts out to get our attention, the one thing we know about this child is that he wants our attention. Not all children automatically crave our attention; and so when we discover a child who does consider our attention to be reinforcing, we should take advantage of this fact. Withholding our attention for inappropriate behavior is only a part of the strategy: applying attention for a desirable behavior is the most important part.

Guidelines for Employing Extinction

The following guidelines will help you administer extinction effectively:

1. Avoid giving occasional rewards for the behavior. The inadvertent rewarding of behaviors during extinction is a very serious problem. Failure to go all out with extinction almost inevitably backfires, because the result of such failure is a transfer to an intermittent schedule of reinforcement, which makes the behavior more resistant to extinction. By using extinction poorly, we may be worse off than if we had done nothing! Look at this example:

 

Box 10.10

Trying to Ignore Ivan the Clown

(Occasional Reinforcement During Extinction)

Ivan is an extremely withdrawn sixth grader. Ms. Goldschmidt decides to allow him to tell jokes to the class, thinking that this might bring him out of his shyness. Whenever he tells a joke, she laughs at him and gives him attention. The problem is that the rest of the class thinks that Ivan's jokes are weird, and so the jokes don't help Ivan make friends with the rest of the class. Eventually Ms. Goldschmidt realizes that telling the jokes is a bad idea, and she decides to extinguish the joke telling by ignoring Ivan whenever he tries to tell a joke. She does this for three days, while Ivan continues to perform. Then on the fourth day Ivan tells an especially dumb joke, and Ms. Goldschmidt breaks out laughing. Two days later she breaks up laughing again. Ivan continues to tell the jokes even though Ms. Goldschmidt has ignored him for a week.

Ms. Goldschmidt has accidentally put Ivan on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement. His behavior will now be even more resistant to extinction than it was when she started her efforts. The moral of the story is: if you can't use extinction completely, don't use it at all. Use a different technique instead. If Ms. Goldschmidt had to give Ivan attention at all, she would have been better off giving him aversive attention (punishment) rather than the kind of attention he wanted.

 

2. Expect a slight increase in the behavior at the beginning of the extinction program. The person seems to think, "Hey! Where's my reward? I'd better try harder." If a teacher uses extinction to control a pupil who has been shouting to get the teacher's attention, the child will often respond by shouting a bit longer and louder at first. This initial upsurge is typically followed by a dramatic curtailment when the child realizes that the increased effort has not led to the desired reinforcement. In some cases, a parent or teacher can afford this slight increase in the undesirable behavior. However, if the child is throwing knives or chairs, such an increase cannot be tolerated. If you can endure the initial increase in the undesirable behavior, then use extinction and continue to apply the procedure systematically. If all goes well, the behavior will subside.

3. It may be necessary to develop skills at withholding reinforcers. This is especially likely when attention is the reinforcer to be withheld. Some parents and teachers cannot ignore behaviors effectively. If this shortcoming applies to you, then you will have trouble applying extinction when attention is the reinforcer which has been maintaining the behavior. You will have to either give up a very useful technique or train yourself to ignore undesirable behaviors. However, even if you do have trouble ignoring misbehaviors, remember that you may still be able to employ extinction in situations where attention is not the critical reinforcer.

4. Do not use extinction to eliminate self-reinforcing behaviors. Ignoring a child for cheating on a test would not reduce cheating behavior - except in the very rare cases when children actually cheat because of a need to get attention. The reward for cheating is getting the right answers and doing well on the test. Likewise, in cases where a behavior is receiving natural reinforcement, it is often impossible for an outsider to eliminate the behavior through extinction.

5. Avoid undesirable modeling for others who observe the extinction process. Specifically, there may be a "disinhibitory effect". (See page xxx in chapter 12.) If a child has been engaging in an undesirable behavior, it is possible that some of the child's peers may also like to engage in this misbehavior. These peers may be refraining from such activity because they are inhibited by the threat of punishment. When these peers see their colleague apparently go unpunished for a behavior for which they were certain they would have been punished, this increases the likelihood that they themselves will engage in similar misbehavior.

 

Box 10.11

Misbehavior Becomes Contagious

(Accidental Modeling During Extinction)

Miss Perkins had just read a book on behavior modification before she received her first teaching job - a class of eleven emotionally disturbed children in the upper primary grades. She had established a token reinforcement system, and it seemed to be working well. On the fourth day, Donny misbehaved; and Miss Perkins calmly walked up to him and said, "You know the rules, Donny. That will cost you ten tokens." Donny glared at Miss Perkins, but she calmly took the tokens and walked away. Donny slammed his book shut. "He just wants my attention," thought Miss Perkins. She was right. Next Donny threw the books violently to the floor. Miss Perkins continued ignoring him. The rest of the class watched in stunned silence. Donny next got up and turned his desk over. As Miss Perkins continued to ignore him, Donny went on a short pilgrimage around the room, turning over empty desks, throwing the globe into the waste basket, and wreaking minor havoc. Eventually, however, he returned to his seat, fixed his desk, picked up his books, and continued working. Miss Perkins was pleased to see that extinction had worked. But to her dismay, another child named Bobby rose to his feet, threw his books on the floor, and started on a similar tour of the room. Soon five or six children were walking about the room, having a great time doing exactly what they had always wanted to do.

The extinction procedure actually worked for Donny. The only problem was that it backfired for the rest of the class. From a practical point of view, this undesirable modeling often presents one of the most serious difficulties in employing extinction. For this reason, extinction works best when the participants are not on display in front of a crowd. Extinction often works better in a one-to-one situation than it does with large groups.

 

6. Do not ignore intense misbehaviors. What is good for the individual must be at least harmless to others. If harm is likely to occur by letting a behavior continue, some form of punishment might be the more appropriate procedure. This problem is often closely related to the undesirable modeling cited previously.

7. Watch for the recurrence of old habits. The person hasn't learned NOT to do something (as was the case with punishment). Therefore, the person is likely to try an old trick to see if the trick will work again under new circumstances, even though this behavior had been extinguished previously. If this happens, simply reextinguish the behavior. If this recurrence happens too often, then you may wish to combine punishment with the extinction procedure.

8. Watch for the appearance of new misbehaviors. Like punishment, when extinction is used alone extinction does not teach what to do. If new misbehaviors occur, you can also submit them to extinction. This whole problem can be minimized by building reinforcement for an alternative behavior into your extinction program.

 

Online Links:
Extinction

Extinction vs. Punishment

Extinction and punishment pursue the same goal: reducing or eliminating a behavior. Some educators argue that extinction is a more humane technique and should therefore be given precedence over punishment as a behavior-management technique. However, it is not especially obvious that extinction is actually the more humane technique. In some cases, at least, it seems clear that the more efficient strategy is the more humane strategy. If a child is engaging in an inappropriate behavior which keeps her from performing activities that would lead to natural reinforcement, it would seem that the more efficient technique would be more humane. If punishment works significantly more rapidly than extinction, then there are at least some cases where punishment would be preferred to extinction on purely humanistic grounds.

For example, are we really being humane when we let a child be rude to other children for several months when we could stop such behavior very quickly through mild punishment? This line of reasoning can, of course, be abused. Punishment should certainly not be immediately invoked in every case, and punishment need not be harsh. The guidelines on page xxx can minimize negative side effects, and punishment can often be a natural form of behavior control. The correct procedure is to decide whether to use extinction or punishment by examining the situation in question and weighing the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the available techniques. The question should be which of these techniques is appropriate for use in an individual situation, not which is inherently the more humane strategy.

  WHAT TEACHERS AND PARENTS CAN DO

ABOUT EXTINCTION

 

1. Be sure that students do not receive pleasant consequences for performing inappropriate behaviors.

2. Be aware that simply refraining from reinforcing a student for productive behaviors may cause those productive behaviors to stop - especially if the student can gain desired reinforcers by engaging in other behaviors.

 

Summary

Reinforcement has been defined as the contingent presentation of a pleasant situation. Three conceptually distinct ways to bring about a pleasant situation have been referred to as the three types of reinforcement. Type I reinforcement involves the contingent presentation of a pleasant stimulus. Type II involves the contingent removal of an unpleasant stimulus. Type III involves the avoidance of a future unpleasant stimulus.

All three types of reinforcement can occur by accident as well as intentionally; and the effects are exactly the same whether the reinforcement occurs intentionally or accidentally. The guidelines given in this chapter should be useful both for selecting effective reinforcement strategies and for avoiding their accidental misapplication.

If we do it perfectly, reinforcement of desirable behaviors which are incompatible with undesirable behaviors will totally eliminate the need for punishment. Although such perfection is impossible to attain, such a possibility should provide a basis for concerned thought. A vast number of the inappropriate behaviors in school and in society occur primarily because the perpetrators can find their reinforcement nowhere else.

Punishment has been defined as the contingent presentation of an aversive situation. Three conceptually distinct ways to bring about an aversive situation have been defined. Type I punishment involves the contingent presentation of an aversive stimulus. Type II involves the contingent removal of something pleasant. Type III involves the addition of a new privilege and then the contingent removal of this new privilege.

All three types of punishment can occur by accident as well as intentionally; and the effects are exactly the same whether the punishment occurs intentionally or accidentally.

One reason to avoid the use of punishment is that punishment often is accompanied by negative side effects - shortcomings which can actually do harm beyond what we intend for the recipient of the punishment. However, these negative side effects occur because of the way punishment is administered and are not automatically inherent in the act of punishment itself.

Extinction has been defined as the systematic withholding of the reinforcers that have maintained a behavior. It has the impact of eliminating behaviors without the negative side effects that accompany punishment. This chapter has described the factors that influence the rate at which extinction is likely to occur and has provided guidelines for employing extinction effectively. Finally, this chapter has provided an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of extinction compared to punishment as a means for eliminating undesirable behaviors.

Extinction does work. It works when a specific undesired behavior is being performed to obtain a specific reward, such as attention. When these circumstances are present, removing the reinforcer for the undesirable behavior and supplying it instead for a desirable behavior will work remarkably quickly. Under such circumstances, the combination of extinction for the undesirable behavior and Type I reinforcement for a desirable behavior accomplishes the goal as efficiently as punishment and without negative side effects. In such cases extinction is clearly the preferred strategy.

Quiz Answers

Review Quiz 1:

1.  
2. II
3. II
4. I
5. III
6. III
7. I
8. I
9. I
10. III
11. I

Review Quiz 2

1.  
2. I
3. I
4. II
5. III
6. II
7. II
8. I
9. I
10. III
11. I

Annotated Bibliography

(Note that many of the references cited at the end of the following chapter are also appropriate for this chapter.)

 

Axelrod, S. (1977). Behavior Modification for the Classroom Teacher. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Axelrod, S. & Apsche, J. (Eds.) (1983). The Effects of Punishment on Human Behavior. New York: Academic Press. The authors of the various chapters in this book reject the notion that punishment is always undesirable. They present careful syntheses of research to document their belief that punishment is often the most effective and sensible strategy for dealing with behavior problems.

Burke, J.C. (1992). Decreasing Classroom Behavior Problems: Practical Guidelines for Teachers. San Diego: Singular Publishing Group. This book presents an extremely clear, straightforward set of guidelines for solving classroom problems by applying the principles of behavior modification.

Evans, I.M. & Meyer, L. H. (1985). An Educative Approach to Behavior Problems: A Practical Decision Model for Interventions with Severely Handicapped Learners. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Evans, W.H., Evans, S.S., & Schmid, R.E. (1989). Behavior and Instructional Management: An Ecological Approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Kaplan, J.S. (1991). Beyond Behavior Modification: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to Behavior Management in the School (2nd Ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

Walker, J.E. & Shea, T.M. (1991). Behavior Management: A Practical Guide for Educators (5th Ed.). New York: Macmillan.

Wielkiewicz, R.M. (1986). Behavior Management in the Schools: Principles and Procedures. New York: Pergamon.

 

Footnotes