Reinforcement and punishment use similar tactics but have different results.
Reinforcement and punishment are two different methods of what is known as operant conditioning. Operant conditioning was first experimented with by the psychologist B.F. Skinner, and it refers to the use of consequences to encourage or discourage a particular behavior. The difference between punishment and reinforcement is that reinforcement is designed to encourage certain behaviors, while punishment is meant to discourage them. There are positive and negative forms of both reinforcement and punishment.
Positive Reinforcement
Reinforcement of a behavior involves the anticipation of future consequences. Because there are many types of consequences, reinforcement can be grouped into two types --positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement occurs when someone receives something after a particular behavior. For instance, if a child receives a cookie for saying "please" and "thank you," this is positive reinforcement. The gift of a cookie strengthens the child's behavior, making her more likely to say "please" in the future. The cookie in this instance is the "stimulus" -- i.e., the object that reinforces the behavior.
Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement differs from positive reinforcement in that it involves the removal of a stimulus in response to a behavior, rather than a reward. For instance, a teenager who gets bad grades may have his computer or video games taken away. This reinforces behavior such as studying after school. Keep in mind, though, that a negative reinforcement does not have to be unpleasant to the subject, nor does a positive one have to be pleasant. If the same teenager manages to land on the honor roll at the end of the year, his parent may remove his curfew. This removal, though positive to the teenager, is also an example of negative reinforcement.
Positive Punishment
Punishment also has positive and negative forms. Both forms are designed to discourage a behavior. Positive punishment means that someone receives something. For instance, if the same child who got a cookie for saying "please" attempts to take the rest of the cookies by force, she may receive a smack on the hand. The addition of this stimulus serves to discourage the child from taking cookies in the future. However, it may take several instances for a new behavior to take effect.
Negative Punishment
Negative punishment involves the removal of an object after an undesirable behavior. If the teenager from the above example falls from the honor roll and comes home at the end of the year with a failing report card, it is too late to encourage (reinforce) studying behavior, but the parents still may punish the teenager by taking away privileges and possessions. Here, the punishment is meant not to enforce good behavior (studying) but to discourage bad behavior (visiting friends instead of studying).
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