Behavior modification
8th Class
Punishment
Punishment
•„First thing the public tries and the last thing behaviorist tries.“ (Paul Chance)
•Providing unpleasant consequences for a behavior that decrease the frequency of that behavior.
Types of punishment
•REPRIMAND - Expression of disapproval, usually verbal remarks
▫Most often used punishment
▫Research: teachers reprimand twice as often as they praise.
▫Attention - reinforcer
RESPONSE COST– you have to pay price
e.g. Fines, after-school, parking ticket, lower bonuses
Types of punishment
•TIME OUT – we remove the person from positive reinforcement situation
•OVERCORRECTION – making restitution for damage done and repeted
performance of appropriate behavior
•PHYSICAL P. – brief and non-injurius contact with skin
How to use punishment
•Define target behavior
•Select appropriate punishers
•Make puishment immediate and certain
•Use extinction and diff. Reinforcement
•Monitor results
Problems with punishment
•Inappropriate use
•Moral objections
•Negative side effects (fear, anger)
„People who use shocks become shocks“ – Muray Sidman
•Imitation
▫Studies have shown that parents who
physically punished their children have often children who are phisically aggressive
Case study
•Jane is (except 2 days in a week) going to sleep around 1am. She likes to spend
evenings in th pub but somtimes just wathes TV. This makes the morning
getting up very hard. When she needs to go in the morning to school, she feels
there very tired and cannot concentrate very well.
▫She would like to sleep more. How would you change her behavior?
Case study
•When Martin gets into argument with his girlfriend he often raises his voice and
sometimes almost starts to yell at her. His father did it the same way. Of course his girlfriend doesn´t like it and it makes
troubles in their relationship. She perceives this to be aggressive.
▫How would you change Martins´behavior if you were his girlfriend?
Assignment
•Pick up a specific behavior
▫Yours
▫Of somebody around you – discuss this with him
•Define target behavior
•Select appropriate tools for decreasing or increasing behavior
•Do the interventions
•Monitor results
•If it doesn´t work – change the intervention
▫Date: 15th May
▫Length: 400 words
Discussion
[The end of the today's class]
