Would you rather reinforcement?
As many of us know from Psychology 101, or even way earlier than that, that reinforcement always outworks punishment.
There was an activity in my class the other day. Class activities are rare, especially in university since all the material are often serious, plus class capacity and time don’t allow many activities. Anyway, two volunteer, each take turn to do the activity, while the other has to wait outside. The first person had to find a hidden object in the auditorium, following the class instruction. The fun part is the instruction, whenever he got close to the object the class would clap hands and cheer for him, the closer he got the more cheers he received until he find whatever was hidden. Second person had to do the same thing, except he received “boos” as a punishment whenever he’s far away from the object.
Results: The first person found the hidden object way faster than the second one.
Lesson learned after 5 days since I didn’t pay attention at first and think more about it as the days went: If you want someone to achieve a certain thing, there is only 1 or very limited ways to do the job right. If you help and point him/her to the right direction, they will eventually be successful with the task. On the other hand, there are tons and tons tons of ways to do the job wrong, and if you just point out whatever was done wrong, the person would not find the real path as effectively. All the reasons why he’s not doing it right, all the BS and drama along the way will confuse him. (the second person in the activity ended up running around, looked all confused and we could see his face turning red from embarrassment and pressure)
Quick & easy definition:
Positive reinforcement is when you add a stimulus right after a behavior to increase future frequency of that behavior. Giving your little brother a candy after he gets a good grade to increase his future likelihood of getting another good grade.
Negative reinforcement is when you remove an unpleasant event for an increase in future frequency. A headache is an unpleasant event, you take a pill to remove it so you can feel better.
Punishment is whatever the heck you do to decrease future frequency. When you punish a kid for peeing in the floor as an example.
My Very Own Experience at SDSU 