What is reinforcement and punishment in psychology?
Reinforcement is anything that increases the liklihood that a learner will repeat a behavior. Conversely, punishment aims to decrease the frequency of unwanted behaviors.
https://study.com/learn/lesson/reinforcement-types-examples-psychology.htmlEarly behaviorists focused their interests on associative learning. Skinner was more interested in how the consequences of people's actions influenced their behavior.
Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences." Skinner's theory explained how we acquire the range of learned behaviors we exhibit every day.
His theory was heavily influenced by the work of psychologist Edward Thorndike, who had proposed what he called the law of effect.3 According to this principle, actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated.
Operant conditioning relies on a fairly simple premise: Actions that are followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and more likely to occur again in the future. If you tell a funny story in class and everybody laughs, you will probably be more likely to tell that story again in the future.
If you raise your hand to ask a question and your teacher praises your polite behavior, you will be more likely to raise your hand the next time you have a question or comment. Because the behavior was followed by reinforcement, or a desirable outcome, the preceding action is strengthened.
Conversely, actions that result in punishment or undesirable consequences will be weakened and less likely to occur again in the future. If you tell the same story again in another class but nobody laughs this time, you will be less likely to repeat the story again in the future. If you shout out an answer in class and your teacher scolds you, then you might be less likely to interrupt the class again.
https://www.verywellmind.com/operant-conditioning-a2-2794863
