Impact of Cold War on African States

Skinner's Theory of Operant Conditioning as seen Through Positive Behavior Support

Punishment and Reinforcement in General

In order to explain his theory of operant conditioning, Skinner defined two main terms: reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is simply defined as "the effect of a reinforcer"(Lefrancois, 2006). A reinforcer is "an event that follows a response and that changes the probability of a response's occurring again" (Lefrancois). Additionally, reinforcers are defined by observable and measureable behaviors. Reinforcement can then be broken down into positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement occurs "when the consequences of the behavior, when added to a situation after a response, increase the probability of the response's occurring again in similar conditions" (Lefrancois). An example of this would be a reward. Negative reinforcement on the other hand, occurs "when the probability of a response's occurring increases as a function of something being taken away from a situation" (Lefrancois). An example of this would be similar to the feeling of relief.

Punishment is similar to reinforcement in that both are defined by its effects. The main difference between the two, however, is that the effect of punishment involves the suppression of a behavior rather that the strengthening of it as in reinforcement (Lefrancois, 2006). Punishment also has two types, positive and negative. Positive punishment is "when a positive contingency is removed"(Lefrancois). An example of this could be a penalty. It is also known as removal punishment. Negative punishment is "when a negative contingency follows a behavior" (Lefrancois). This is what most people commonly think of when they think of the term punishment and is sometimes referred to as presentation punishment. An example could be the spanking of a child after misbehaving.

Schools' Use of Punishment and Reinforcement

As Skinner described in his theory of operant conditioning,...