Punishment (psychology)

Punishment is any change in a human or animal's surroundings which, occurring after a given behavior or response, reduces the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. Reinforcement, referring to any behavior that increases the likelihood that a response will occurs, plays a large role in punishment. Motivating operations (MO) can be categorized in abolishing operations, decrease the effectiveness of the stimuli and establishing, increase the effectiveness of the stimuli. For example, a painful stimulus which would act as a punisher for most people may actually reinforce some behaviors of masochistic individuals.

There are two types of punishment: positive and negative. Positive punishment involves the introduction of a stimulus to decrease behavior while negative punishment involves the removal of a stimulus to decrease behavior. While similar to reinforcement, punishment's goal is to decrease behaviors while reinforcement's goal is to increase behaviors. Different kinds of stimuli exist as well. Rewarding stimuli are considered pleasant; however, aversive stimuli are considered unpleasant. There are also two types of punishers: Primary and secondary punishers. Primary punishers directly affect the individual such as pain and are a natural response. Secondary punishers are things that are learned to be negative like a buzzing sound when getting an answer wrong on a game show.

Conflicting findings have been found on the effectiveness of the use of punishment. Some have found that punishment can be a useful tool in suppressing behavior while some have found it to have a weak effect on suppressing behavior. Punishment can also lead to lasting negative unintended side effects as well. In countries that are wealthy, high in trust, cooperation, and democracy, punishment has been found to be effective.

Punishment has been used in a lot of different applications. It has been used in applied behavioral analysis, specifically in situations to try and punish dangerous behaviors like head banging.

In some situations, punishment techniques have been seen as effective. Children with intellectual disabilities, such as autism and those who participate in stuttering therapy have had a positive outcome using punishment as a means to learn. Stuttering therapy can help a child improve their speech fluency, develop communication effectively, and be able to participate in all class activities.