Essay On Negative Reinforcement

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In this week’s reading assignment we learned about the four types of reinforcement used in behavior modification. The four types are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, and punishment. Positive reinforcement involves the use of some type of positive consequence given after a desired behavior is displayed. Negative reinforcement involves removing something negative after a desired behavior is displayed. Extinction is designed to weaken a behavior by either giving no consequence when the behavior is displayed. Finally punishment involves weakening a behavior by establishing something negative after the unwanted behavior is displayed or by removing something positive (Knicki & Williams, 2013). Of the four …show more content…

This is most often confused with punishment, which is not the case. Negative reinforcement seeks to increase a desired behavior while punishment seeks to decrease a behavior (Knicki & Williams, 2013). One example of negative reinforcement that could be implemented at a school such as Marshall Metro would be no homework on Friday if the student in question was not late to school during the week. The desired behavior, being on time for school, would be reinforced by withdrawing homework assigned on Fridays, the negative event the student wished to avoid. The student could avoid the negative consequence of having homework over the weekend by being on time during the …show more content…

An example of this in the classroom would be allowing the disruptive student to draw the teacher into an ever escalating confrontation. Often students who disrupt the classroom are seeking attention from the teacher. This can even be negative attention as for some student’s negative attention is better than no attention. As difficult as it may be, the teacher should strive to avoid letting the student drag them into an escalating situation such as a verbal confrontation. As the disruptive student becomes more agitated and seeking attention, the teacher should remain calm and disengage from the student and return once the situation has calmed down (Shukla-Mehta & Albin, 2003). The student is less likely to continue to try and escalate the situation if he/she repeatedly fails to receive the desired attention. A final reinforcement is punishment. This is an attempt to weaken a behavior by presenting something negative or withholding something positive when an undesired behavior is displayed. This is most effective when the punishment can be given privately and as soon as possible after the undesired behavior is demonstrated (Knicki & Williams, 2013). Most simply a teacher could assign extra work to a student who displays undesirable behavior such as being late to class. In theory, the provision of extra work would discourage the student

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