Rewards and Punishment Reinforcement Theory Term Paper

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The popularized Skinnerian position concerning the inadequacy of punishment in suppressing "instrumental" behaviour is, if correct at all, only conditionally correct."

Still other researchers such as Baron (1977) state that punishment can work under certain conditions: "(a) if you can punish almost every time, (b) punish immediately, - punish in socially acceptable ways, and (d) do not punish harshly or become overly angry." Regardless of scientific evidence or suspected measures that would make punishment more effective, the intent of punishment in Reinforcement Theory is to suppress inappropriate behavior, not to solve underlying problems. Considering the scope of the application of punishment, it is, in many instances, neither practical nor desirable to replace punishment with a rewards system. Crime is an obvious example. True, suppression may only be short-term with punishment as the only redress, but this is why the length of the prison sentence is designed to match the severity of the crime.

Several behavioral researches have contributed to understanding the benefits of rewards. For example, Thorndike defined the Law of Effect which says: "behavior that is followed by satisfying consequences will be more likely to be repeated and behavior that is followed by unsatisfying consequences will be less likely to be repeated.

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" (cited in Ormrod, 1999) Skinner would add to this understanding with his Law of Conditioning and his Law of Extinction (cited in Ormrod, 1999):

Law of conditioning: A response followed by a reinforcing stimulus is strengthened and therefore more likely to occur again.

Law of extinction: A response that is not followed by a reinforcing stimulus is weakened and therefore less likely to occur again.

Today, there are many studies showing that positive reinforcement increases the likelihood that the immediately preceding behavior will be repeated (Shaffer, 1994). Attacks by researchers such as Kahn focus on misdirected rewards and motivation, but they do nothing to refute the usefulness of rewards to increase behavior.

Skinner in his negative views on punishment and Kahn on his negative views on positive reinforcements such as rewards have not successfully proven the ineffectiveness of these two categories of Reinforcement Theory. Evidence suggests that consequences do either increase or decrease a behavior. Sinner and Kahn do, however, call out the need for supplemental measures to change motivations for behavior......

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