Times have changed; research in psychology has developed parenting strategies on how to effectively shape your teenagers behaviour. Let's read on! What is operant conditioning. Reinforcement vs. Punishment: Changing Behavior. Being a parent has been known as the best thing ever BUT also the most challenging endeavor you will encounter in your lifetime.
Parents strive to raise a healthy and happy child that will one day grow up as a full-fledged mature and independent adult. But to successfully accomplish this goal, a parent must set forth structure or rules throughout their childhood to help them understand and be realigned when their behavior needs to be modified. What is reinforcement and punishment? Learning: Negative Reinforcement vs. Punishment.
Positive Reinforcement for Adolescents. By the time children have reached adolescence, their responses are often ingrained, but parental actions can still positively affect adolescent behavior. Since adolescents are struggling to develop their personal identity and are concerned about their body image, parental support is crucial to help positively frame experiences as learning opportunities. Positive reinforcement remains a powerful teaching tool during these formative years, and we encourage parents to take time to contemplate the ways they can help adolescents mature and become self-reliant. Reinforce mature decisions by allowing increased privileges when adolescent demonstrates increased responsibility. <Website reference. 12 Examples of Positive Punishment & Negative Reinforcement.
You might be thinking that “positive punishment” sounds like an oxymoron, after all, how can punishment be positive?
Not many people “like” punishment, right? The disconnect in understanding this concept comes from the usage of the word “positive;” here at PositivePsychology.com, we generally use the term “positive” to refer to things that are inherently good, things that are life-giving, and things that promote thriving and flourishing. The concept of positive punishment comes from a very different era and a very different perspective on psychology; namely, the 1930s and behaviorism. <Website reference. Using Reinforcement and Punishment at Home. It isn't all about punishments! Effective Consequences for Teenagers. If you’re having trouble giving effective consequences to your teen, know that you are not alone.
Many parents tell me that nothing seems to work, and that coming up with the right thing for their child can seem like an impossible task. If you’re the parent of an adolescent, you may have grounded your child, taken away their video games, or suspended their driving privileges for months on end. But as James Lehman says, you can’t punish kids into acceptable behavior—it just doesn’t work that way. Important considerations for effective punishments. Adolescent learning: rewards, punishments, and the importance of context: BOLD.
Adolescents’ unique sensitivity to rewards is thought to be due to increased activity in and communication between areas of the brain that respond to rewards.
However, we also know that many of the same brain areas also respond to punishment and that there are dynamic changes occurring throughout the brain during adolescence. Much like the complexity of brain development, the story about how adolescents learn from reinforcement might not be so simple. “The way that adolescents learn from the choices that they have made in the past will ultimately influence their future choices and actions.” <Website reference.