Final answer:
Extinction and punishment are strategies for behavioral change aimed at reducing the incidence of undesired behavior, with punishment potentially having negative long-term effects, leading modern psychologists to recommend positive reinforcement as a preferable approach.
Step-by-step explanation:
Strategies for behavioral change that focus on supervisory attempts to reduce the incidence of undesired behavior include extinction and punishment. Extinction involves the removal of rewards after an undesired behavior, which decreases the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. Punishment, on the other hand, can be either positive (adding an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior) or negative (taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior). Both these strategies aim to decrease the rate of undesired behaviors.
In operant conditioning, a form of learning that reflects changes in behavior as a result of experiences subsequent to a behavior, positive and negative do not necessarily mean 'good' and 'bad' but rather refer to the addition or removal of stimuli to influence behavioral outcomes.
Punishment may have immediate effects in reducing undesired behavior, but it's essential to consider its potential long-term negative effects, such as inducing fear or increasing aggression, particularly in children. Modern psychology typically recommends positive reinforcement, adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior, as a more effective and less harmful strategy for behavioral modification