Today we will tell you everything you need to know about the negative reinforcement, what it consists of, what are its differences with positive reinforcement, and if it is advisable to apply it in the different areas of our lives.
What is negative reinforcement?
The American psychologist and philosopher, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, a native of the town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, carried out extensive work on psychology based on human behavior.
For Skinner, using the so-called positive and negative reinforcements is vital to modify human behavior, either to encourage some behavior, or to eradicate it.
The reinforcement theory presented by Skinner, also known as operant conditioning, focuses on explaining human behavior as a consequence of the environment and the stimuli that surround us.
Skinner argued that positive and negative reinforcement can be used as a tool to help modify, increase or eradicate certain behavior in an individual.
Positive reinforcements are those that appear after performing a certain behavior, and that the individual considers satisfactory or beneficial.
An example of positive reinforcement is that of the mother who gives the child an ice cream for having completed his homework on time. This implies that there is a higher probability that the child will do her homework on time in the future.
Today we will dedicate ourselves to analyze what are the negative reinforcement, what is its application in behavior modification, and also, we will give you some examples so that you can put them into practice in the future.
What are negative reinforcements?
To begin with, we must make it very clear that there is a big difference between the negative reinforcement and punishment, although people tend to think that they are the same.
If we are talking about ADDING an unpleasant task as a response to certain behavior, we are clearly talking about a punishment. The negative reinforcement ELIMINATE an unpleasant action as a result of carrying out the desired behavior.
Unlike positive reinforcement, where an action is taken to elicit satisfactory reinforcement, negative reinforcement seeks to modify behavior by eliminating a consequence that the individual considers negative.
If instead of offering the child an ice cream if he completes his chores on time, the same mother in the previous example offers instead to excuse him from helping to wash the dishes after dinner, she is using negative reinforcement.
This reinforcement technique, eliminating a daily task that the child finds unpleasant, is as effective as giving him ice cream for completing his schoolwork. In terms of behavior modification, both techniques are successful.
One of the characteristics of negative reinforcement is that it ignores mental processes. Like other techniques derived from behaviorism, negative reinforcement deals only with the behavior of individuals, and completely ignores their internal processes.
Next, we invite you to watch the following video in which Skinner's theory of positive and negative reinforcements is explained in an easy and detailed way.
Examples of applications of negative reinforcement
El negative reinforcement it can be a very effective tool to modify or strengthen behavior; however, it is important to remember that it is much more effective when applied immediately after the behavior.
This type of reinforcement does not only occur when an authority figure suppresses an unpleasant task as a reinforcement for desired behavior.
It can also occur spontaneously, when the individual decides to carry out an action, to avoid something unpleasant, which would be generated as a consequence of not carrying it out.
Here are some practical examples that will help you better understand what negative reinforcements are, and some of their applications in different areas of our lives.
Applications in our family environment
- If you want your child to clean his room every weekend (behavior), you can offer to cut leaves from the yard on Sundays (aversive stimulus).
- The husband decides to wash the dishes after dinner (behavior), to avoid the wife's complaints if the dishes are dirty (aversive stimulus).
apps at work
- The seller who manages to complete his billing goal in the month (conduct), will be exempt from participating in the scheduled extraordinary warehouse cleaning day (aversive stimulus).
- The worker decides to leave his desk clean and organized at the end of the day (behavior), to avoid being scolded by his supervisor the next morning (aversive stimulus).
We invite you to read our work on the personal weaknesses of the human being, since knowing our own strengths and weaknesses is necessary to be able to enhance our personal abilities and skills.
