What is punishment in psychology and how is it used?

Punishment is one of the central concepts for behavioral psychology. It is a behavior modification technique whose purpose is to reduce or extinguish the repetition of a behavior.

It is, likewise, a concept that has been constantly taken up and even criticized by some disciplines outside of psychology, as well as by sub-disciplines within it; especially for pedagogy, educational psychology, clinical psychology and also organizational psychology, among others.

In colloquial language, the term "punishment" has also been extended and loaded with different meanings, often they use it as a synonym for emotional or physical harm.

This is why speaking of "punishment" can have some variations depending on who uses the concept, and can also give rise to different confusions. In this article we will look specifically at what punishment is in traditional behavioral psychology (especially operant conditioning), and how it is used.

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What is punishment? Its use in operant conditioning

The concept of punishment applied in psychology arises from the stream of operant conditioning. The latter was systematized by the American psychologist Frederic Skinner, who took up the most classical theories of conditioning developed by John watson and Ivan Pavlov; and later worked by another American psychologist: Edward Thorndike.

Classical conditioning refers to how we learn a behavior through the presentation of a stimulus. Broadly speaking, classical conditioning tells us that when a stimulus is presented, a response (an action or a behavior) appears. Thus, it is possible to develop a behavioral technology capable of creating situations and contexts that increase the probabilities that certain actions will be carried out, and reduce the probabilities that they will be carried out other

Operant conditioning, for its part, also assumes the technical implications of classical conditioning, although it proposes other means to achieve it. He proposes that said response is followed by a certain consequence. And the latter, the consequence, is the element that defines whether the behavior is repeated or diminished.

Thus, operant conditioning analyzes how and what are the consequences that can produce or eliminate certain behavior or action. For this, it has been necessary to use different concepts that have had an important impact on both theories and behavior modification interventions. These concepts include "consequence" and "punishment", which we will see further developed.

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The consequence and punishment according to behavioral psychology

In short, the consequence is the effect of the behavior. In other words, it is what occurs after a certain action occurs. The consequence can have two possible outcomes: it can either cause the action to be repeated, or it can cause the action to decrease.

The first case is a “positive consequence”, since it reinforces the behavior and favors its reiteration. In the second case, we speak of a “negative consequence”, because its main effect is the suppression of behavior. We see then that, despite frequently using concepts such as "positive" or "negative", in the context of operant conditioning it is not about terms that indicate morality, that is, they should not be understood as "good" or "bad", but in terms of their effects and according to the way in which a stimulus.

So the consequence can both strengthen a behavior and suppress it. And the latter depends on how it is applied and what its purpose is, which lends itself to allowing the implementation of desirable behavior models from the point of view of the family, society, etc. We can then distinguish two types of consequence:

1. Positive consequence (the reinforcer)

Operant conditioning tells us that to strengthen a behavior, It is necessary to present or withdraw a stimulus. The goal of both introducing and removing it is always to reinforce the behavior. The latter can occur through two different actions and elements:

1.1. Positive reinforcer

Positive reinforcement is that which occurs through the presentation of a pleasant stimulus. For example, when a person is given an incentive (material or immaterial) that he likes, after having had the expected behavior. A classic can be to give a small child a candy when he has done something that we want to repeat. In the more traditional context of animal experimentationAn example of positive reinforcement is when a rat is given a food ball after pressing a lever.

1.2. Negative enhancer

Negative reinforcement consists of removing an unpleasant stimulus. For example, taking away something that the person does not like: if a child dislikes doing homework, negative reinforcement is reduce the number of the latter after it has had a desired behavior (as this will cause the behavior to be repeat).

Another example is when inside a car the alarms begin to sound that indicate that we are not wearing a seat belt. These alarms are only removed once we have put on the seat belt. In other words, their withdrawal reinforces our behavior.

2. Negative consequence (punishment)

On the other hand, the negative consequence, also called “punishment”, has the objective of suppressing a behavior. As in the previous cases, it is necessary to present or withdraw a stimulus; only in this case, the purpose is always to extinguish, or at least reduce, the appearance of a behavior. This follows a more complex learning mechanism than that of positive consequence, and can occur in two possible ways:

2.1. Positive punishment

In this case, a stimulus is presented that causes disgust or rejection, so that the person or the body associates a behavior with this unpleasant sensation and then avoids its repetition. For example, electric shocks have been used in animal experiments when they perform unwanted behaviors. An example among people can be punishments based on unpleasant words or physical approaches.

Punishments often extinguish or lessen a behavior only temporarily. In addition, they can reinforce the negative emotional association with the behavior or with the conditioned stimulus, which is the situation (it can be the simple presence of a person) that alerts about the aversive stimulus that is approximates.

2.2. Negative punishment

Negative punishment consists of the withdrawal of a pleasant stimulus. For example, when something that he likes is taken away from a person. A typical case could be that of taking a toy that he likes from a child after he has had a behavior that we do not want him to repeat.

Depending on how much coherence and relationship exists between the unwanted behavior and the stimulus, this behavior can be extinguished in the short or long term; and it may or may not be generalized to other contexts or people.

In other words, it may happen that the child only suppresses the behavior when he is in front of a person specific (the one that always takes the toy away), but does not suppress it in front of other people or in other circumstances. In this case, it is important that there is a logical and immediate relationship between the negative consequence and the behavior that we want to extinguish. Finally, even if a behavior is extinguished, this does not necessarily imply that it has been replaced by reference models that result in an alternative and more desirable learning.

Bibliographic references:

• D'Amato, M.R. (1969). Learning Processes: Instrumental Conditioning. Toronto: The Macmillan Company.
• Holth, P. (2005). Two Definitions of Punishment. The Behavior Analyst Today, 6 (1): pp. 43 - 55.
• Meindl, J.N., & Casey, L.B. (2012). Increasing the suppressive effect of delayed punishers: A review of basic and applied literature. Behavioral Interventions, 27 (3): pp. 129 - 150.
• Skinner, B.F. (1938) The behavior of organisms. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
• Zhao, Y. (2002). Cultural Divide Over Parental Discipline, The New York Times.