as of March 1, 2018
A. THE ISSUES AND DAILY LIFE ILLUSTRATIONS:
Punishment is an area in psychology that has generated considerable confusion.
(1) People have been told that they should not use punishment because it doesn’t work.
(2) It supposedly only produces temporary effects.
(3) Some people believe it is all right to punish children all the time as long as you don’t slap them in the face.
(4) Some equate any form of isolation procedure with prison.
(5) Others believe if you don’t punish them, you don’t love them.
(6) Some believe we should ban the word, as if that would somehow make people better.
1. An early recorded use of aversion material in the treatment of alcoholism dates back to 77 AD, when Pliny the Elder wrote the following in Historiae Naturalis XXXVII: Eggs of a night owl given in wine to drunkards for three days produces abhorrence to the wine. The fried lung of a sheep taken before drinking eliminates drunkenness. The ashes of a swallow’s beak ground with myrrh and suspended in wine, given unbeknownst to drinking people, will forestall drunkenness; a barbell drowned in wine, or the fish rubellio, or two eels, as well as two and one-half sear-grapes, allowed to rot in wine will bring about revulsion against wine in those who drink any of these preparations.2. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This philosophy of life still prevails with many people.3. A small child who rolls off the bed is punished immediately by colliding with the floor. Baer in a 1971 article showed this did reduce nocturnal tossing.
4. We are often punished as a natural result of our behavior. For example, walking carelessly is more likely to result in stumbling and hitting one’s toe on a piece of furniture. Also consider the following consequences.
a. If you do not wash or rinse the dishes before the food hardens on them, the task becomes more difficult.
b. Staying up late when you have to get up at 6:00 a.m. results in a tired person the next morning.
c. If the child is to empty the garbage can but he/she does not do it and instead does other things, the result is an odor at a later time.
d. If you put sand in your mouth the result is an immediate non-tasty meal and perhaps later illness.
5. Various agencies in our culture use these techniques in a variety of ways.
a. Religion: sin, penance, long sermons, censure deviant behavior, denial of sacraments, condemnation to hell, purgatory, poverty, excommunication, shame/guilt
b. Social: do it or else, nagging, credit-rating, reprimand, jeers, “dirty look,” shun/ostracize, rejection/disapproval, snubbing, restriction, gossip, sneers, rude treatment, mental hospital, time out.
c. Education: grades, “reform” school, expel, punishing assignment, stay after school, criticism, stand in corner, flunk, time out, probation, ridicule, rebuke – “stupid”
d. Parents: disapproval, spanking, embarrassment, no-no, privilege withdrawal, scorn
e. Nature: injury, ill effects of certain event, cold, hot, sunburn, falling, starvation, death, weather effects, upset stomach, gravity effects, famines, floods
f. Family: silent treatment, serve disliked food, apathy, sexual approach rejected, slaps, “cold water” treatment, bully
g. Government: police “disapproval,” prison, penal system, jail, capital punishment, fines, war, “police” action
B. DEFINITION:
Punishment is defined as following a response with a stimulus which decreases the rate of responding.
Q-1. Following a behavior with the presentation of stimuli that decrease the rate of responding is called ______.
(punishment)
Q-2. Any procedure which decreases the strength of behavior when following the behavior with a stimulus is called…
A. punishment
B. negative reinforcement – escape
C. avoidance
(A)
Q-3. If each time you looked in the professor’s direction, he asked you a difficult question, you would probably find yourself making this “looking” response with a decreasing frequency. This is an example of
A. classical conditioning
B. goal setting
C. a punishing stimulus
(C)
Q-4. Time out is defined as any period of time used as a consequence, during which the organism is prevented from receiving any reinforcers for emitting the behavior which has been positively reinforced. If a time out follows a behavior, it tends to reduce the rate of responding. Time out is designed to serve as a form of punishing stimuli.
A. True
B. False
(A)
Q-5. ______, used as a consequence, is defined as any period of time during which the organism is prevented from getting any reinforcers.
(time-out)
Q-6. Time out can be used as a punishing stimulus.
A. True
B. False
(A)
One is likely to associate time out with isolating a child from other people for a while. But isolation is not necessarily time out, nor is time out necessarily isolation. As noted before, time out refers to time out from reinforcement. If the classroom is not reinforcing, taking the child out of the classroom cannot be a time out punishment. In fact, placing a child in the hall or sending him to the principal may be very reinforcing if special attention is given. Time out consists of cutting off the possibility of all reinforcement for a period of time.
C. APPLICATIONS OF THE PUNISHMENT PRINCIPLE:
1. Sneezing: For six months 17-year-old June could not stop sneezing. She had consulted neurologists, endocrinologists, allergists, urologists, psychiatrists, and hypnotists, but it continued to be one of the most baffling problems they had ever examined. She had even tried medicines, but she kept sneezing.
When Kushner first saw her, June was sneezing at a rate of once every 40 seconds. A microphone was placed around June’s neck and connected to a voice key and a shock source. When the girl sneezed, the sound relay triggered a brief but painful electric shock through electrodes connected to her fingers.
Results were amazingly fast. After she had worn the apparatus only four and a half hours, June stopped sneezing.
Five years after June’s six-month sneezing jag, she had not been bothered again by her sneezing behavior.
(Baer, 1971)
2. Sex Behavior: When Bill was 12, he became sexually aroused watching girls go down a playground slide with their panties exposed. During masturbation these fantasies became the central incident and the powerful reinforcer of orgasms became effective. His fetish for women’s panties persisted for more than 20 years. Even in Bill’s early 30’s he associated panties with his sexual arousal – he would buy panties or steal them from department stores or clotheslines and he would wear them and fondle them while he masturbated.
Bill’s relations with women were strained. He was impotent and depressed. He agreed to participate in an aversive therapy program that used electric shock with the hope that his problem could be helped. Using electric shock in these therapy sessions, Bill would receive a painful shock in his forearm while looking at pictures of women in panties or holding panties. He would tolerate the shock for a long as he could. When he wanted the shock to end, he would say “stop” and simultaneously put the panties or pictures aside.
This procedure was repeated 12 times in every 20 to 30 minute session with three such sessions per week. Gradually, Bill’s obsession with panties decreased, and after 14 weeks, he reported that panties no longer aroused him. Eighteen months later, Bill remained free of his fetish and no substitute symptoms had appeared. He was married, a new father, and reported that his sexual life was normal. (Baer, 1971)
3. Play Time: A six-year-old fails to come home from school on time. Warnings have failed. On the way home, the child can get lots of reinforcement from other children for playing en route and he/she stops here and there. A parent may not be able to leave the house to get the child each day because of other children at home. So the parents make a rule, “For every minute after such and such a time you are late, you will have to stay in from playing for five minutes.”
4. Toys and Children: A four-year-old takes toys away from his/her younger sister or brother. This behavior is reinforced by having the toys to play with themselves. To keep the child from doing this, five minutes away from the toys could be used. Say, “You cannot take toys away from X. Give it back right now. You go into the living room and sit in the brown chair until I say you can play with these toys. X, you have to show me that you can share.” The next step is to teach what sharing is and reinforce them for doing it.
D. PUNISHMENT IMPLICATIONS:
1. How long will it take to change? If a therapist tries more so-called “benevolent treatments,” and the patient continues getting worse, then not to rescue a person from this poor treatment is to punish.
2. Arrangement for Maximum Effectiveness of Punishment: We have seen that punishment can be quite effective in eliminating behavior. Let us imagine that we are given an assignment to eliminate behavior by punishment. Let us summarize briefly some of the circumstances which have been found to maximize its effectiveness:
a. Unauthorized Escapes: The aversive stimulus should be arranged in such a manner that no unauthorized escape is possible.
b. Frequency: The frequency of punishment should be as high as possible; ideally the punishing stimulus should be given for every response.
c. Immediacy: The punishing stimulus should be delivered immediately after the response.
d. Intensity: The punishing stimulus should not be increased gradually but introduced at maximum intensity. The punishing stimulus should be as intense as possible.
e. Duration: Extended periods of low-intensity punishment should be avoided.
f. Conditioned Reinforcing Properties: Great care should be taken to see that the delivery of the punishing stimulus is not differentially associated with the delivery of reinforcement. Otherwise, the punishing stimulus may acquire conditioned reinforcing properties.
g. Discriminative Stimulus: The delivery of the punishing stimulus should be made a signal or discriminative stimulus that a period of extinction is in progress.
h. Deprivation: The degree of motivation (deprivation) to emit the punished response should be reduced.
i. Frequency of Positive Reinforcements: The frequency of positive reinforcement for the punished response should similarly be reduced.
j. Alternative Response: An alternative response should be available which will not be punished but will produce the same or greater reinforcement as the punished response.
k. Different Situation: Effective punishment relies on taking away reinforcers and providing a clear-cut method for earning them back.
3. Implications of Punishment and Race Relations:
a. Heistad, in his article “Hell on Earth,” points out a consequence which operates in many minority housing problems. At times, this general problem has been discussed under the term “block busting.” As minorities move into a previously white neighborhood, realtors set a lower value on the houses in that area.
Q-7. Therefore, the consequence is that a person who owns a house in a neighborhood and encourages a minority group member to buy a house in his neighborhood
A. loses money
B. makes money
C. is punished
D. two of the above
(D) A & C
b. Heistad also points out that if an employer hires people with the best work background the consequence is good profit. But if he hires those furthest removed from the majority culture, those with poor work records, and less of a history of success, he may be punished by a loss of profit.
Q-8. If one were to hire minorities with little job experience, one might
A. lose his life
B. lose profit
C. make money
D. be continually reinforced by the majority culture
(B)
Many other cultural practices might be cited where behaviors sought after culturally (e.g. peaceful race relations) result in unfavorable consequences. The question that exists is, “Can tax laws be introduced that make social separation less profitable?”
4. Implications of Immediacy: People learn to do things if they get reinforcement. Isn’t going to jail, having a hangover, etc. punishment? Look at all the trouble, suffering, and pain encountered. Why doesn’t punishment interfere with it? A child gets into the cookie jar; the child has seen in the past that when his parents get home the child sometimes gets a spanking. What is wrong here? In any learning situation it is what immediately follows the behavior which determines what is learned. When a person drinks, within a short period of time, the person gets a number of possible reinforcers. Hours and days later he/she gets punished. In this case, punishment is so remote in time that it will not be effective. In any learning situation the reinforcement or punishment has to occur immediately if it is to be effective. You can promise
a child all kinds of things for Christmas if he/she will be good, but you would be better off giving him/her a dime now because of the importance of an immediate consequence.
5. Immediacy of Results and the Popularity of Punishment: Punishment changes the environment favorably for the user of punishment. Punishment effects are immediate and this helps account for punishment’s popularity.
6. When Punishment Might Be A First Choice Of The Behavioral Principles Used: There are two circumstances under which punishment may be required because positive reinforcement approaches would likely be slower. If a certain type of behavior is so frequent that there is little or no incompatible behavior to reinforce, punishment may help.
The second circumstance under which punishment may be required is when the problem behavior is so intense that someone might get hurt, including the child himself/herself. Intense aggression, self-destructive behavior, and tantrums may require punishment. One occurrence of such behavior may cause severe damage to the child or to others. Under such circumstances, punishment is a possibly helpful alternative.
Since the initiation of the mental health movement, the trend has been away from punishment in treatment. However, experimental work using punishment in both applied and experimental situations indicates the value of punishment in certain situations. (For example, see the work of Lovaas and Azrin.) Some contend a brief painful experience is a reasonable exchange for the interminable pain of lifelong harmful behavior.
Some believe that punishment in any form is bad. The advocates of unconditioned tender loving care are often from mental health professions where they have learned that much of the problem behavior people show stems from cruel treatment by other people or from a deprived environment. They see the need for positive care in rehabilitating problem children and adults.
Bob has been kept in a straitjacket whenever unattended to prevent the child from gouging through his flesh and cutting an artery. Now suppose that by applying a mild electric shock (no more painful than a hypodermic needle) every time the child begins to gouge himself, this behavior can be eliminated in three days. Which is the moral thing to do, (1) to use punishment to eliminate a behavior that completely restricts this child’s possibilities for normal development, or (2) to cuddle him and be kind to him each time he begins to hurt himself?
A mother punished a boy by placing him in his room with the door closed until he was quiet for five minutes. She used this only six times the first week and his behavior changed dramatically. A positive relationship with his mother became possible after his demanding and aggressive behavior was punished. Did the result justify the method used?
Punishment does work and can be used to change undesired behavior. When the long-term effects of using punishment are far more beneficial than the effects of not using it, the moral person will do what is best for the child and use punishment. It would be immoral not to do everything possible to help children learn. Many parents have argued for “rights to effective treatment,” including controlled use of aversives when they’re effective and other treatments have failed.
7. Is Punishment Effective? In early studies, the rate of punished behavior decreased during the period of punishment (temporary suppression), but increased to the pre-punishment rate after the punishment was removed. Now, suppose we used the same logic when looking at the effects of reinforcement. As long as a behavior is reinforced, it is maintained at a high rate. When the reinforcement is removed, the rate eventually returns to its pre-reinforcement level (extinction). Azrin & Holz reviewed the status of punishment research and they conclude that punishment can have a lasting effect on elimination of behaviors. Most of the principles of reinforcement are readily transferable to the analysis of punishment, except that in punishment the goal is weakening behavior rather than strengthening behavior. For example, punishment is more effective when it is intense or given in greater quantity as is reinforcement. Also, intermittent schedules prolong the weakening effects of punishment after punishment is withdrawn. This is parallel to the greater resistance to extinction of the effects of reinforcement when intermittent schedules are used.
There is no question that it is possible to use punishment to produce strong and lasting effects on behavior. However, that does not mean it should be used. Other matters need to be considered in deciding about when and where to use punishment.
PART II. ESCAPE
A. ISSUES AND DAILY LIFE ILLUSTRATIONS:
a. Sunglasses – reduce glare.
b. Pinch nose – reduce odor.
c. Remove pebble from shoe – reduce rubbing or skin penetration.
d. Close eye – no dust in eye.
e. Turn on light – remove eye strain.
f. Living organisms work to terminate aversive stimuli.
B. DEFINITIONS:
Escape is when a response increases in frequency because that response results in the REMOVAL of an aversive condition.
In a different way, aversive stimuli may increase behavior. For example, people move away from a hot fire or an electrical shock. We call their responses escape from the aversive stimuli.
Q-1. When a subject attempts to end or terminate this exposure to an aversive stimulus, we call the process ______.
(ESCAPE)
Q-2. Suppose a rat is in a shock box in which the floor becomes electrified. The rat presses a lever, the effect of which is to terminate the shock. Later, the rat presses the lever at the onset of the shock. The rat’s learning would be classified as
A. conditioned reinforcement
B. escape
C. avoidance
(B)
Q-3. If an animal can terminate or end an electric shock by pressing a lever, the rate of pressing the lever will increase. If an individual can terminate harmful or aversive stimuli by drinking alcoholic beverages, one might expect that the frequency of drinking such beverages would be
A. increased
B. decreased
C. constant
(A)
Q-4. Behavior cannot be learned through using aversive stimuli.
A. True
B. False
(B)
Q-5. Turning off a loud, aversive alarm clock is an example of _____ behavior.
(ESCAPE)
Q-6. Coming in out of the cold is an example of _______.
(ESCAPE)
C. APPLICATION:
Application of escape will be presented later, along with application of avoidance (Part III).
D. ESCAPE IMPLICATIONS:
There are interesting implications when looking at outcomes when events are associated with termination of aversive stimulation.
1. Affection: Lovaas has been able to obtain “social” and “affectionate” behavior in autistic children when these social or affectionate behaviors terminated shock. Later, the adults who were involved in shock avoidance could be used as positive reinforcing agents. Some of the reinforcing properties of parents develop this way, e.g. parents many times rescue their children from aversive stimulation.
2. Anxiety Relief Response: A patient with fear of crowds was conditioned to an “anxiety-relief response.” This consisted of a shock given at a gradual intensity increase until it became too great to stand. When this point was reached, the patient was told to say silently, “Calm yourself,” and the shock was discontinued.
Along with this treatment, the patient was taken to a movie in the afternoon with no crowd. The time of departure was gradually made later and later until the visit could be made at a time when the movie was quite filled. When the patient noted getting anxious, the patient could use the “anxiety-relief response.”
PART III. AVOIDANCE
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“Shut up or else! I have the chapter about ‘Why You Shouldn’t Use Aversive Control’ to write for my new child psychology book.”
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A. THE ISSUES AND DAILY LIFE ILLUSTRATIONS:
People tend to prevent or delay aversive events. A number of names have been used to describe avoidance behavior. Here are a few of them:
Cheating: Avoiding the punishment that goes with being wrong.
Truancy: Avoiding aversive events that go with school.
Sneaking: Avoiding being caught misbehaving.
Hiding: Avoiding being found.
B. DEFINITION OF AVOIDANCE:
Avoidance is when the frequency of a response increases because it PREVENTS an aversive condition.
Bob, an auto driver, turns to prevent a collision with an oncoming car. We say that he has avoided an accident. The aversive event has not happened. Avoidance behavior prevents or postpones the occurrence of an event.
Q-1. If an animal has learned to terminate an electric shock by pushing the lever (escape), and we then begin to turn on a light a few seconds before we shock it, the animal will learn to press the lever when the light comes on. It avoids the shock which it learned follows the light. The response of pushing the lever when the light comes on, to prevent or postpone the painful stimulus, is called ______.
(AVOIDANCE)
Q-2. A student works all night to finish a paper by the deadline. Which of the following would probably be most applicable?
A. punishment
B. escape conditioning
C. avoidance conditioning
(C)
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Teacher: “Bobby, I’ve had to punish you at least once every day this week! What have you got to say for yourself?”
Bobby: “I’m sure glad it’s Friday!”
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Q-3. If a response postpones the onset of aversive stimulation, it is _______.
A. escape behavior
B. avoidance behavior
C. aversive behavior
(B)
Q-4. When a behavior postpones an organism from a situation which would have been aversive, we have an instance of ______.
A. avoidance behavior
B. stimulus generalization
C. escape behavior
(A)
Q-5. Avoidance behavior differs from escape behavior in that in avoidance behavior
A. a reward as well as punishment is required
B. the aversive is prevented
C. a conditioned reinforcer is used
D. successive approximations are reinforced
(B)
Q-6. If, in alcoholics, the consumption of alcohol prevents the onset of aversive stimuli, drinking could be
A. an avoidance activity
B. positively reinforced
C. mental activity
(A)
Q-7. Paying taxes and cramming for an exam can be examples of avoidance behavior if they prevent the onset of aversive stimuli.
A. True
B. False
(A)
Q-8. One of the differences between escape and avoidance conditioning is that in escape conditioning the aversive stimulus always
A. follows the response
B. precedes the response
(B)
Stimuli that frequently precede punishment come to be cues which indicate that punishment may follow. We call these cue-like stimuli “conditioned aversive stimuli.”
Q-9. Stimuli which precede punishment become
A. conditioned aversive stimuli
B. unconditioned aversive stimuli
C. chaining stimuli
(A)
Q-10. Those stimuli from which we escape without previous learning are called unconditioned aversive stimuli. Which of the following is generally an unconditioned aversive stimulus?
A. a dinner bell
B. the smell of oyster stew
C. a slap
(C)
Q-11. Which of the following is a definition of unconditioned aversive stimulus?
A. Without previous conditioning, the person will emit escape behavior upon the presentation of this stimulus
B. As a result of previous pairing, this stimulus depresses the rate of responding.
C. A stimulus which increases the rate of behavior it follows after conditioning.
(A)
Q-12. When punishment is regularly preceded by a stimulus, this stimulus becomes
A. an unconditioned aversive stimulus
B. a conditioned aversive stimulus
C. an unconditioned aversive response
D. a conditioned aversive response
(B)
Q-13. If a parent frequently spanks a child, what type of aversive stimulus does the parent represent?
A. a conditioned stimulus, in that the parent is present with the slap.
B. an unconditioned stimulus
C. a reinforcing stimulus
(A)
Q-14. A threat such as “Do it or else” is generally
A. a conditioned aversive stimulus
B. an unconditioned aversive stimulus
C. an unconditioned, unavoidable stimulus
(A)
Q-15. At the very beginning of a fight, Johnny knocks Teddy down, takes his lollipop, and quickly eats it. Teddy gets up and hits Johnny, after which Johnny runs away. From Johnny’s point of view, knocking Teddy down results in
A. the termination of a conditioned aversive stimulus
B. the termination of an unconditioned aversive stimulus
C. the receipt of conditioned positive reinforcement
D. the receipt of unconditioned positive reinforcement
(D)
Q-16. Teddy’s behavior of hitting Johnny is (Hint: Johnny is associated or paired with getting knocked down)
A. reinforced positively
B. is reinforced negatively by the termination of an unconditioned aversive stimulus
C. is reinforced negatively by the termination of a conditioned aversive stimulus
(C)
Q-17. Johnny’s running away is _____ behavior.
(ESCAPE)
One may summarize in a matrix arrangement what we have been talking about in this unit:
Presented Removed
Positive Reinforcement | Positive | Extinction
Aversive Stimuli | Punishment | Escape or Avoidance
C. APPLICATION:
1. Patient Care And Avoidance: An avoidance response was used in a program of Donald’s with a client who self-inflicted pain. If the subject would hit himself, he was given a slight shock. He could escape the shock by touching one of the toys. He soon learned to avoid the shock altogether by continuously clutching the toy. Clutching the toy was incompatible with his self-inflicting behavior. The boy’s response not only allowed him to avoid the shock, but it also kept him from injuring himself.
2. Hallucinate: If you cannot handle problems, you may hallucinate. This behavior has the consequence of getting you out of an aversive situation – escape and/or avoidance.
3. Social Failure: Continual trial-and-error has certain consequences. The end products of no success are traditionally termed apathy, rationalizing, or other defense mechanisms.
4. Reading: Many students find reading academic or professional material to be a form of avoidance behavior. The aversive consequence, failing, is put off by studying. The unfortunate part involves what occurs after the aversive stimuli have been removed, e.g., when one completes school. If one’s study of behavior has been only under aversive control, the behavior may end after formal schooling ends.
5. Do It Or Else: All threats are of the avoidance paradigm. This implies that if you do something, an aversive event will not follow.
6. Publish or Perish: A philosophy of some universities is that the faculty should be publishing journal articles, books, etc., or suffer consequences.
7. Various Negative Reinforcing Properties Of Certain Drugs: The negative reinforcing effects of drugs are many. In a non-technical language some of these effects have been called
a. Sedative – reduce tenseness
b. Hypnotic – promote sleep without the person first becoming intoxicated
c. Narcotic – bring about deep sleep or stupor
d. Analgesic – may relieve statements of pain without producing sleep
e. Anesthetic – produces a progressively descending depression of the central nervous system. (Yale School of Alcoholism Guide)
8. Masochism: At times, a child receives affection from parents only after lickings. (This often results from guilt [Conditioned Aversive Stimuli – CAS] in parents.) Subsequently, after such a pairing, what was a punishing stimulus may become a conditioned positive reinforcer. When a person works for what was formerly a punisher we say he has become what some call a masochist.
Q-1. Rats received food by taking a route which required the crossing of an electrified grid. It was the only way to food. This illustrates
A. schizophrenia
B. electric shock in itself is an unconditional positive reinforcer
C. electric shock may become positively reinforcing by pairing with food
D. electric shock increases hunger as an inner mental drive
(C)
Q-2. When punishment becomes a conditioned positive reinforcer, the behavior is termed masochistic.
A. True
B. False
(A)
Q-3. If parents consistently follow their punishment of a child with a lavish display of guilt-produced affection, the child
A. may become guilt-ridden through psychic means
B. will never make the punished response again
C. may learn punishment is a means to a reinforcer
D. may view the guilt of the parent as the internalized super-ego at work
(C)
D. IMPLICATIONS:
1. Punishment can lead to avoidance behavior and social disruptive behavior, for example
a. tardiness – stay away from the aversive event for awhile
b. truancy – stay away totally
c. dropping out of school – leave the aversive place
d. apathy in the punishing environment
e. giving up
f. defense mechanism which is escape or avoidance behavior
g. aggression
(see Azrin in Honing’s book, 1966, p. 438-441)
2. Implication of Punishment and Pro Football: Jim Taylor, former star running back with the Green Bay Packers, was quoted as saying: “When I look at the other team I see a hitter bent on destroying me.”
3. “Chicken” & Avoidance: A missed-tackle in football may prevent aversive stimuli of impact (on the flip side is the social aversion of a “missed tackle”).
4. Frustration Training As Help for Behavior Self-Control: We give each child a lollipop which has been dipped in powdered sugar so that a single touch of the tongue can be detected. We tell her/him she/he may eat the lollipop later in the day provided it hasn’t already been licked. First of all, the children are urged to examine their own behavior while looking at the lollipop. This helps them to recognize the need for self- control. Then the lollipops are concealed and the children are asked to notice any gain in happiness or any reduction in tension. Then a strong distraction is arranged in an interesting game. Later, the children are reminded of the candy and encouraged to examine their reaction. The value of the distraction is generally obvious (Skinner, 1948, p. 107-108).
A group of children arrive home after a long walk tired and hungry. They’re expecting supper; they find, instead, that it’s time for a lesson in self-control: they must stand for five minutes in front of steaming bowls of soup. The children begin at once to work upon themselves to avoid any unhappiness during the delay. One of them may make a joke of it…they’ve learned it’s a good way to make the time pass (Skinner, 1948, p.109).
Using the same methodology, frustration training could be established for a multitude of behaviors. Many of the situations which we have come to refer to as difficult are those in which some form of frustration training has not been applied.
Although not specifically referred to as frustration training, Charles Ferster et al., (1962) used a somewhat similar self management technique to reduce overeating. Among the things he suggested for control of eating were exercises, such as a brief interruption in eating, at first towards the end of the meal. Later, the exercise was moved progressively toward the early part of the meal. Similarly, chewing was prolonged for increasing periods before swallowing, or the subject held food on his fork for increasing periods.
5. Taking Responses Back: Taking a verbal response “back” is another example of escape or avoidance learning.
6. Alarm Clock: The response of setting the alarm clock the night before results in waking up the following morning to an aversive alarm.
DEFINITIONS FOR ESCAPE:
Aversive stimulus:
-A stimulus
-that increases the future frequency of a response
-it’s removal (termination) follows.
Escape contingency:
-The response-contingent
-removal of
-an aversive stimulus
-resulting n an increased frequency of that response.
DEFINITIONS FOR AVOIDANCE:
Avoidance contingency:
-Response-contingent
-prevention of
-an aversive condition
-resulting in an increased frequency of that response
DEFINITIONS FOR PUNISHMENT:
Overcorrection:
-A contingency
-on inappropriate behavior
-requiring the person
-to engage in an effortful response
-that more than corrects
-the effects of inappropriate behavior.
Punishment contingency (positive punishment):
-Response-contingent presentation of
-an aversive condition (negative reinforcer)
-resulting in a decreased frequency of that response.