Punishment Good or Bad?

PUNISHMNENT: GOOD OR BAD?

Week one

Eureka Pendleton

4/29/2010

Punishment is a way to correct to stop a habit or a way to help instruct in the correct way. Is negative punishment or positive punishment the right way? How do you decide which one to use? How some should be trained as to how to act as a child or on the job? Correcting a child, animal or adult is something that is necessary. In the following passage we will look at some of the choices that are available to us as parents, pet owners, bosses and educators.

Reinforcement can be a great way to get a resolution that you want. Now the definition in the business dictionary states this: positive reinforcement is the condition where the introduction of a stimulus or challenge, penalty or reward increases or maintains the likelihood of the same and recurrence of a response, behavior, or output. In other words giving something that is immediately rewarded for a behavior that is desirable. Positive reinforcement is something that many parents use for their children. This is something that can be used with any setting not just with children or animals. An example of positive reinforcement is when you have a person let use the example of a famous clothing store. This store may want you to shop there and shop often. So some stores may offer you great incentives to come to their store. For example I shop at Macy's and they are always having "door busters" sales which many times require you to get up early and go to the store at seven in the morning and shop until eleven. Well maybe you might save some money but is it worth it? They may even give you a coupon of some sort for $30.00 or some other dollar amount. That is great but is it necessary?

What is negative Reinforcement? That is a question that many parents, teachers and others have asked for years. They also ask how to implement this task? The definition for negative reinforcement is the opposite of positive and not only that it involves allowing a negative response to an action when there is no reward or incentive for doing the right thing. In some instances it can involve a punishment for less than favorable performances and usually there needs to be some kind of fear, pain or discomfort threatening the subject. Negative reinforcement can lead to a worst scenario as well.

The next point is positive punishment. What is Positive punishment? Simply defined it is a chance to attempt to decrease the likelihood of a behavior from occurring now or in the future. So in other words positive punishment happens