Punishment is one of the central concepts for behavioral psychology . It is a behaviour modification technique whose purpose is to decrease or extinguish the repetition of a behaviour.

It is, likewise, a concept that has been constantly taken up and even criticized by some disciplines outside of psychology, as well as by sub-disciplines within it; especially by pedagogy, educational psychology, clinical psychology and also organizational psychology, among others.

In colloquial language, the term “punishment” has also become widespread and loaded with different meanings, which often use it as a synonym for emotional or physical harm .

This is why talking about “punishment” can have some variations depending on who uses the concept, and can also give rise to different confusions. In this article we will see specifically what punishment is in traditional behavioral psychology (especially in operant conditioning), and how it is used.

What is the punishment? Its use in operative conditioning

The concept of punishment applied in psychology arises from the current of operant conditioning . The latter was systematized by the American psychologist Frederic Skinner, who took up again the most classical theories of conditioning developed by John Watson and Ivan Pavlov; and later worked on by another American psychologist: Edward Thorndike.

Classical conditioning refers to how we learn a behavior by presenting a stimulus. In very broad terms, classical conditioning tells us that upon presentation of a stimulus, a response (an action or a behavior) appears.

Operating conditioning, on the other hand, proposes that this response be followed by a certain consequence. And the latter, the consequence, is the element that defines whether the behaviour is repeated or diminished .

Thus, operant conditioning analyzes how and what are the consequences that can produce or eliminate a certain behavior or action . To do this, it has been necessary to use different concepts that have had a significant impact on both theories and behavioural modification interventions. Among these concepts are the concepts of “consequence” and “punishment”, which will be developed below.

Consequence and punishment according to behavioral psychology

In short, the consequence is the effect of the conduct. In other words, it is what happens after a given action occurs. The consequence can have two possible outcomes: it can either make the action repeat itself, or it can make the action decrease.

The first case is a “positive consequence”, since it reinforces the behaviour and favours its repetition . In the second case, we speak of a “negative consequence”, because its main effect is the suppression of the behaviour. We see then that, despite the frequent use of concepts such as “positive” or “negative”, in the context of operant conditioning these are not terms that indicate morality, that is, they should not be understood as “good” or “bad”, but rather as regards their effects and according to the form in which a stimulus is presented.

Thus, the consequence can both strengthen a behavior and suppress it . And the latter depends on how it is applied and what its purpose is. We can then distinguish two types of consequence:

1. Positive outcome (the booster)

Operant conditioning tells us that in order to strengthen a behaviour, it is necessary to present or, alternatively, to withdraw, a stimulus . The aim of both presenting and withdrawing is always to reinforce the behaviour. The latter can occur through two different actions and elements:

1.1. Positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is that which occurs through the presentation of a pleasant stimulus. For example, when a person is given an incentive (material or immaterial) that they like, after they have had the expected behavior. A classic can be giving a candy to a young child when he has done something we want him to repeat. In the more traditional context of animal experimentation , an example of positive reinforcement is when a rat is given a ball of food after pressing a lever.

1.2. Negative Reinforcer

Negative reinforcement consists of removing an unpleasant stimulus . For example, removing something that the person does not like: if a child dislikes doing homework, a negative reinforcement is to reduce the number of homework assignments after he has had a desired behaviour (as this will make the behaviour repeat itself).

Another example is when alarms start sounding inside a car indicating that we are not wearing our seat belts. These alarms are only removed once we have fastened our seatbelts. In other words, their removal reinforces our behaviour.

2. Negative consequence (the punishment)

On the other hand, the negative consequence, also called “punishment”, is intended to suppress a behavior. As in the previous cases, it is necessary to present or withdraw a stimulus; only in this case, the aim is always to extinguish, or at least to diminish, the appearance of a behaviour . This follows a more complex learning mechanism than that of the positive consequence, and can occur in two possible ways:

2.1. Positive punishment

In this case a stimulus is presented that provokes repugnance or rejection, so that the person or the organism associates a behavior with that unpleasant sensation and then avoids its repetition. For example, in experiments with animals, electric shocks have been used when they carry out undesired behaviour . An example among people could be punishments based on words or unpleasant physical approaches.

Often, punishments extinguish or diminish a behavior only temporarily. In addition, they can reinforce the negative emotional association with the behavior or with the conditioned stimulus, which is the situation (may be the simple presence of a person) that alerts about the approaching aversive stimulus.

2.2. Negative punishment

Negative punishment consists of the withdrawal of a pleasant stimulus . For example, when you take away something that a person likes. A typical case could be when a child is taken away from a toy that he likes after he has had a behaviour that we do not want him to repeat.

Depending on how much coherence and relationship there is between the undesirable behaviour and the stimulus, such behaviour may be extinguished in the short or long term; and it may or may not become generalised to other contexts or people.

In other words, it may be that the child only suppresses the behavior when in front of a specific person (the one who always takes the toy away), but does not suppress it in front of other people or in other circumstances. In this case it is important that there is a logical and immediate relationship between the negative consequence and the behavior we want to extinguish. Finally, even if a behavior manages to be extinguished, this does not necessarily imply that it has been replaced by reference models that result in alternative and more desirable learning.