Carl Marthy M.

Javier PsychoSocial Foundation (4:30-7:30 PM)

Assignment # 8 Dr. Concepcion Libuit

A. When can a negative reinforcement become a reward? As a

teacher what positive reinforcement do you adopt?
In operant conditioning, the concepts of reinforcement and punishment
are a bit more complex than we usually think. We generally think of
those terms as meaning "+1 good thing" or "+1 bad thing," respectively.
In operant conditioning "+1 good thing" is called a positive
reinforcement and "+1 bad thing" is called a positive punishment.
However, positive reinforcements and positive punishments are only
half the equation. The other half is negative reinforcement and negative
punishments. If you’re thinking, "How can a ‘reinforcement’ be negative
and how can a ‘punishment’ be positive?" fear not! We were all thinking
the same thing. It’s a bit confusing because, here, "positive" means
"additive" and "negative" means "subtractive."
For a teacher like me with almost 10 years of teaching experience, I
usually take away few minutes of my students’ recess because they were
talking too much. I believed in that way their behavior will be changed.
In my class I give extra credits to those students who pass their
assignment on time. In that way, the extra credit is intended to remove
the unpleasant condition (receiving a poor grade) after the desired
behavior (turning in homework on time) has occurred, in order to
increase its future occurrence. the extra credit is not given if the student
does not turn in their homework on time. This is because negative
reinforcement is only intended to work when it follows the desired
behavior. I also give credits for those students who pass their assignment
late. And in this way, it can be a reward or a simple token.