Question

What is the difference between positive punishment and negative punishment? Provide examples that illustrate each type of punishment. (pg 373)

Answer 1

Positive punishment involves adding something undesirable to decrease a behavior, such as writing sentences as a result of hitting. Negative punishment involves removing something desirable, like taking away a toy or giving a time-out, to decrease a behavior.

Step-by-step explanation:

The difference between positive punishment and negative punishment lies in their operant conditioning mechanisms. Positive punishment involves adding an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior. For example, a child who hits a sibling might be made to write 'I will not hit my brother' 100 times. This addition of a task (writing sentences) is intended to decrease the likelihood of the hitting behavior being repeated. On the other hand, negative punishment consists of removing a pleasant stimulus to reduce an undesired behavior. A common example of this is taking away a favorite toy from a child who misbehaves. The removal of the toy is expected to decrease the misbehavior.

Answer 2

positive punishment can be defined as the inclusion of something unpleasant so that the initial behavior would be reduced. For example, a driver who ignores road signs and drives as he pleases is asked to pay a fine. In this example, the misbehavior is driving irresponsibly. The inclusion is the paying of the fine.

Unlike in positive punishment where something unpleasant is added, in negative punishment, something pleasant is removed. For example, a child performs poorly in academics and makes no attempt to work hard. He plays around all day long and is completely disinterested in his studies. The parent decides to give his child a punishment by limiting the hours of leisure. This is an example of a negative punishment because something that the child enjoys (the activity of playing) has been removed.

Hence, the key difference between positive and negative punishment is that while something negative is added in positive punishment to reduce the recurrence of a particular behavior, something positive is removed in negative punishment. In both cases, by adding something or removing something a pattern of behavior that has been considered as wrong is discouraged.

What is the difference between Positive Punishment and Negative Punishment?

• Definitions of Positive Punishment and Negative Punishment:

• Positive punishment can be defined as the inclusion of something unpleasant so that the initial behavior would be reduced.

• Negative punishment can be defined as the removal of something pleasant so that the recurrence of a particular behavior would be reduced.

• Connection to Operant Conditioning:

• Both positive and negative punishment can be considered as subcategories of punishment in operant conditioning.

• Aim:

• Both positive and negative punishment aims to reduce the recurrence of a particular behavior.

• Approach:

• In positive punishment, something unpleasant is included to discourage a type of behavior.

• In negative punishment, something pleasant is removed to discourage a type of behavior.