Positive/Negative Reinforcement/Punishment

Today's post will be short & sweet! I just have one tiny thing I want to clear up with everyone, which is the truth about positive and negative reinforcement. I'm sure you've all heard of this idea before because pop-culture has a tendency to use it often, but in most cases use it improperly. So, here is the most simple way to put it. When trying to change behaviour (in most cases) you can have either "reinforcement", which increases a behaviour; or "punishment", which decreases a behaviour. Furthermore, you have something (item, words, prize, deprivation, etc.) that is either GIVEN (positive) or TAKEN AWAY (negative). The positive and negative do not refer to whether the thing is good or bad but whether you give or take something away.

To put it more clearly, I've made a list of the four possible behaviour modification techniques you can have (of the kind I'm writing about).

1. Positive reinforcement (this is the famous one)
This refers to when you try to change someone's behaviour by giving them a prize (food, hug, kind words, etc.) to increase a wanted behaviour. For example, when Penny has good behaviours, Sheldon reinforces her good behaviour by giving (positive) her chocolate.

2. Positive punishment (always mistakenly called negative reinforcement in pop-culture references)
This refers to when you try to change someone's behaviour by giving them a punishment (hit them, give them detention, etc.) to decrease an unwanted behaviour. For example, when Dolores Umbridge punishes Harry Potter's supposed "lying" by making him write out "I must not tell lies"and also by indirectly making him carve it into his hand (ouch!).

3. Negative punishment
This refers to when you try to change someone's behaviour by taking something nice away (a favourite toy, TV time, a blanket to sleep with, your love, etc.) to decrease an unwanted behaviour. For example, when Regina George removed her acceptance of Gretchen Weiners in an attempt to try to change her annoying behaviour (her words, not mine)... this can kind of end up being manipulation. It's also important to note that when people do change their behaviour with this technique they usually do it out of fear of the individual and it's usually not a long-lasting effect.

4. Negative reinforcement (this is the one! pop-culture always gets this wrong!)
This refers to when you try to change someone's behaviour by taking something bad away (buzzer, poking them, yelling, etc.) to increase a wanted behaviour. I can't think of a great example for this one so here is my completely random attempt at an example, you're trying to teach your friend to do a sudoku puzzle as quickly as possible so you put on a Country CD and promise them that as soon as they figure out the puzzle you'll turn it off :P

I'm so glad I finally got to get that semi-rant off my chest. It's honestly been bugging me for years. Thanks for reading and in case you were wondering reinforcement usually takes longer to change behaviours than punishments but the behaviours are more long-lasting and they don't leave your test subject feeling insecure, vulnerable, and afraid of you. So if you were thinking of using one of them I suggest the reinforcers.