Question

What a negative reinforcement is, and what it is for? And what is punishment, what is it for?

Answer 1

Negative reinforcement was coined by B.F. Skinner where a  response or behaviour is strengthened by stopping,removing or avoiding a NEGATIVE OUTCOME.OR( NEGATIVE reinforcer which refers to strengthen responses that permit an organism to avoid or escape from their presence.) When we perform an action to avoid or escape this negative reinforcer or that will lead to unpleasant consequences refers to Negative reinforcement.

For eg-Tom does the dishes(Behaviour) -to stop his mother's nagging(negative reinforcer ).Here tom does the cleaning of dishes as behaviour to avoid listening to his mother's nagging which was really unpleasant to him.Any behaviour or action done to avoid the negative outcome is negative reinforcement.

PUNISHMENT REFERS TO the process of removing a stimulus or decreasing the strength of that  behaviour or decrease in the occurrence of it in the future.Punishment is of two types-negative and positive.

Negative punishment -when a behaviour is done to avoid unpleasant consequences. For eg-Child hitting a peer (behaviour) is not allowed to attend his sports period(reinforcing stimulus removed).The child will never hit his peer to avoid getting dismissed from sports period.here his behaviour is influenced by an unpleasant behaviour.

Positive reinforcement -₩eakens responses that precedes occurrence of stimulus. Organism learns to supress behaviours that lead to unpleasant consequences. For example -spanking a child when he throwas tantrum is positive reinforcement.