Watch the below video, or alternatively, read the transcript, then move on to Consolidation Exercise 1.
In Lesson 1, we learned that a stimulus that occurred in a person?s environment immediately following a behaviour is called a consequence and that different types of consequence have different effects on a behaviour.
We talked about how Reinforcement is a type of consequence that strengthens a response.
But what about stimuli that weaken a response?
A stimulus that follows a behaviour and weakens a response is known as punisher. By weaken, we mean that future frequency of that behaviour is weakened because of that punisher.
Why we avoid exposure to punishment
The use of punishers and aversive stimuli is avoided within ABA.? As you will know from Module 1, ABA procedures needs need to socially acceptable to the client, the behaviour analyst and society.? For this reason, punishment based procedures tend not to have socially validity.
In addition, punishment based procedures tend to have unwelcome side effects.
1. Aggression ? When people are subjected they tend to lash out. They may aggress towards themselves or others
2. Modelling -? When we model punishment towards others, we should not be surprised when they imitate our behaviour.
3. Avoidance ? Punishment does not teach a new skill. It only teaches somebody to avoid the person who punishes them. Even when it works in one setting, it does not readily generalise to other settings.
4. Disruption to social relationships ? Punishing a person?s behaviour can harm social relationships. It decreases both rapport and trust. The person delivering punishment can become an aversive stimulus.
5. Trauma ? Excessive exposure to aversive events can cause trauma. Long term impacts of trauma can include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea.
Rationale for Lesson
With all of this in mind, you may be wondering why you need to know about punishment. The answer is that punishment ? as the behaviour analyst understands it ? is a part of everyday life.? If you want to understand a client?s behaviour ? why they make the choices they make ? then you need to be able to identify when and where their behaviours are being punished.
For example, imagine you are working with a client who has stopped speaking at school. The client continues to work at home.? When you interview the client, their carers and teachers, you see that the client?s speaking has generally been punished in the school environment. The client?s peers mocked their accent. Teachers did not honour their requests. When the client answered questions from teachers incorrectly, they received negative feedback.
Without understanding the role of punishment, an RBT will struggle to understand their clients and they risk inadvertently punishing a clients behaviour.
Positive and Negative Punishment.
As with reinforcement, there are two main forms of punishment ? positive and negative.
Positive punishment involves weakening or decreasing the frequency of a behaviour by adding some aversive stimulus to the environment.
If a child runs across the road and their parent reprimands them, we saw that the reprimand was a positive punisher if running across the road decreases in the future.
If you touch an electric fence and get an electric shock, we say that the shock functioned as a positive punisher, if touching electric fences decreases in the future.
Remember, positive does not mean ?good?. It means that something was added to the person?s environment.
Negative punishment involves weakening or decreasing the frequency of a behaviour by removing something pleasant from the environment.
If two children are arguing about what to watch next on the television and their mother turns off the TV as a result, we say that turning off the TV functioned as a negative punisher if arguing decreases in the future.
If you are driving too fast, pulled over by a police officer and fined, then we say that negative punishment has occurred if speeding decreases in the future.
Remember, negative does not mean ?bad?. It means that something was removed from the environment. In these cases, television and money.
In summary
Punishment occurs when a behaviour is followed by a stimulus that results in that behaviour decreasing in the future. A punisher is a stimulus that is usually aversive to the learner and that decreases the future occurrence of behaviour that it follows.
Positive punishment involves adding something aversive to the a person?s environment. Negative punishment involves removing something pleasant from a person?s environment.
As ABA professionals, we seek to minimise the amount of exposure our clients have to punishers ? both in the short and long term. We avoid the use of punishers as part of our procedures and instead focus on the use of reinforcement to encourage behaviour change.