What is the difference between negative reinforcement and negative punishment provide examples for each?

Behavioral issues can begin at a young age and carry on through a person’s entire life if not dealt with accordingly. Reinforcement is what we use to help increase the probability that a behavior will occur with the use of a stimulus or item as soon as the required response or behavior is shown. If this doesn’t make sense, in simple terms; it is a reward for a certain behavior.

Reinforcement procedures have been commonly used with children, teenagers, the elderly, animals, and for many psychological disorders. The reinforcement used can be either positive or negative, each having different outcomes completely. It can be quite difficult to differentiate between positive and negative reinforcement, which can often cause problems.

Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is an extremely powerful tool that has proven to help change and create new behavior. It works by rewarding the person with a motivating item after the behavior is achieved, making it more likely to happen again in the future.

An example of positive reinforcement is: A child receives money for doing chores.

Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement is where instead of being rewarded with an item for making positive choices, and item or stimulus is removed after a specific behavior is shown.

The likelihood of the behavior occurring again is increased because of removing the negative association, however negative reinforcement should not be seen as punishment (which decreases a behavior) but should be seen as a way to increase a behavior by removing a negative association.

An example of negative reinforcement is: A teenager dislikes when her parent is constantly reminding her about cleaning her bedroom, or how messy her bedroom is. If the parent removes or decreases the reminders, it is more likely the teen may clean her room to avoid hearing the reminders.

The result you are seeking for negative reinforcement is to increase a behavior by removing the negative association. The result you are seeking for positive reinforcement is adding a positive association to increase a response.

Punishment

Punishment is usually seen as an unpleasant stimulus or a harmful consequence, however this is not necessarily the case. Punishment is where a consequence directly follows an action which reduces the frequency of the particular behavior. Comparable to reinforcement, a stimulus or reward can be added (positive punishment) or taken away (negative punishment).

Just like reinforcement, there are also two types of punishment: Negative and positive. Also, like reinforcement, it can be difficult to determine the difference.

What is Positive Punishment?

Positive punishment is when you offer an unpleasant consequence once an undesired behavior is shown, which will make the behavior less likely to happen again.

An example of positive punishment: A child has a tantrum and throws himself onto the ground, hitting his head hard on the floor (behavior) and feels pain (aversive stimulus).

What is Negative Punishment?

Negative punishment is when a stimulus is removed after an undesired behavior is shown, which will make the behavior less likely to happen again.

An example of negative punishment is: A teenager bullies another teenager at school (behavior). The bully is removed from the school (reinforcing stimulus removed).

The purpose of punishment is to reduce the undesired behavior. Although there are negative and positive ways to enforce punishment, remember that the desired result is the same.

Fine-tuning how to positively and negatively reinforce situations with your family members is one of the most difficult parts of parenting. Being on the same page as your partner will ensure the same results are being aimed for and achieved.

Posted in Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Punishment is used to help decrease the probability that a specific undesired behavior will occur with the delivery of a consequence immediately after the undesired response/behavior is exhibited. When people hear that punishment procedures are being used, they typically think that something wrong or harmful is being done, but that is not necessarily the case.

The use of these procedures have been used with both typical and atypical developing children, teenagers, elderly persons, animals, and people exhibiting different psychological disorders. There are two types of punishment: positive and negative, and it can be difficult to tell the difference between the two. Below are some examples to help clear up the confusion.

Positive Punishment:

This works by presenting a negative consequence after an undesired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior less likely to happen in the future. The following are some examples of positive punishment:

A child picks his nose during class and the teacher reprimands him in front of his classmates.
A child wears his favorite hat to church or at dinner, his parents scold him for wearing it and make him remove the hat.
During a meeting or while in class, your cell phone starts ringing, you are lectured on why it is not okay to have your phone on.

Negative Punishment:

This happens when a certain desired stimulus/item is removed after a particular undesired behavior is exhibited, resulting in the behavior happening less often in the future. The following are some examples of negative punishment:

For a child that really enjoys a specific class, such as gym or music classes at school, negative punishment can be removal from that class and sent to the principal’s office because they were acting out/misbehaving.
If a child does not follow directions or acts inappropriately, he loses a token for good behavior that can later be cashed in for a prize.
Siblings get in a fight over who gets to go first in a game or who gets to play with a new toy, the parent takes the game/toy away.

When thinking about punishment, always remember that the end result is to try to decrease the undesired behavior. For positive punishment, try to think of it as adding a negative consequence after an undesired behavior is emitted to decrease future responses. As for negative punishment, try to think of it as taking away a certain desired item after the undesired behavior happens in order to decrease future responses.

Learn about the difference between positive and negative reinforcement here.

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Negative reinforcement is a term described by B. F. Skinner in his theory of operant conditioning. In negative reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus.

Verywell / Jessica Olah

Negative reinforcement works to strengthen certain behaviors by removing some type of aversive outcome. As a form of reinforcement, it strengthens the behavior that precedes it. In the case of negative reinforcement, it is the action of removing the undesirable outcome or stimulus that serves as the reward for performing the behavior.

Aversive stimuli tend to involve some type of discomfort, either physical or psychological. Behaviors are negatively reinforced when they allow you to escape from aversive stimuli that are already present or allow you to completely avoid the aversive stimuli before they happen.

Deciding to take an antacid before you indulge in a spicy meal is an example of negative reinforcement. You engage in an action in order to avoid a negative result.

One of the best ways to remember negative reinforcement is to think of it as something being subtracted from the situation.

When you look at it in this way, it may be easier to identify examples of negative reinforcement in the real world.

Looking at some real-world examples can be a great way to get a better idea about what negative reinforcement is and how it works. Consider the following situations:

Before heading out for a day at the beach, you slather on sunscreen (the behavior) to avoid getting sunburned (removal of the aversive stimulus).
You decide to clean up your mess in the kitchen (the behavior) to avoid getting into a fight with your roommate (removal of the aversive stimulus).
On Monday morning, you leave the house early (the behavior) to avoid getting stuck in traffic and being late for work (removal of an aversive stimulus).
At dinner time, a child pouts and refuses to eat her vegetables for dinner. Her parents quickly take the offending veggies away. Since the behavior (pouting) led to the removal of the aversive stimulus (the veggies), this is an example of negative reinforcement.

Can you identify the negative reinforcer in each of these examples? Sunburn, a fight with your roommate, being late for work, and having to eat vegetables are all negative outcomes that were avoided by performing a specific behavior. By eliminating these undesirable outcomes, preventive behaviors become more likely to occur again in the future.

Positive reinforcement is a type of reinforcement that involves giving someone the desired reward in response to a behavior. This might involve offering praise, money, or other incentives.

Both positive and negative reinforcement work to increase the likelihood that a behavior will occur again in the future. You can distinguish between the two by noticing whether something is being taken away or added to the situation. If something desirable is being added, then it is positive reinforcement. If something aversive is being taken away, then it is negative reinforcement.

One mistake that people often make is confusing negative reinforcement with punishment. Remember, however, that negative reinforcement involves the removal of a negative condition to strengthen a behavior.

Punishment involves either presenting or taking away a stimulus to weaken a behavior.

Consider the following example and determine whether you think it is an example of negative reinforcement or punishment:

Luke is supposed to clean his room every Saturday morning. Last weekend, he went out to play with his friend without cleaning his room. As a result, his father made him spend the rest of the weekend doing other chores like cleaning out the garage, mowing the lawn, and weeding the garden, in addition to cleaning his room.

If you said that this was an example of punishment, then you are correct. Because Luke didn't clean his room, his father punished him by making him do extra chores.

If you are trying to distinguish between negative reinforcement or punishment, consider whether something is being added or taken away from a situation.

If an unwanted outcome is being added or applied as a consequence of a behavior, then it is an example of punishment. If something is being removed in order to avoid or relieve an unwanted outcome, then it is an example of negative reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement can be an effective way to strengthen the desired behavior. However, it is most effective when reinforcers are presented immediately following a behavior. When a long period elapses between the behavior and the reinforcer, the response is likely to be weaker.

In some cases, behaviors that occur in the intervening time between the initial action and the reinforcer are may also be inadvertently strengthened as well.

Some experts believe that negative reinforcement should be used sparingly in classroom settings, while positive reinforcement should be emphasized.

While negative reinforcement can produce immediate results, it may be best suited for short-term use.

Negative reinforcement can have a powerful effect on behavior, but it tends to be most useful when used as a short-term solution. The type of reinforcement used is important, but how quickly and how often the reinforcement is given also plays a major role in the strength of the response. The schedule of reinforcement that is used can have an important impact not only how quickly a behavior is learned, but also on the strength of the response.