Note: Science Research Associates published the book in 1971. I am unsure if the publishers reprinted the book or if it is available to buy. I found it through a university inter-library loan program. I suspect that Becker or Engelmann use the book or some form of it in their special education teaching classes at the University of Oregon.
- Punishment: when we use punishing stimuli to weaken behavior
- Punishment is effective
- Punishment is not immoral but it can be used in harmful ways
- Why to avoid punishment
- Teachers and parents want students to solve problems
- Punishment teaches people to avoid and escape the punishment
- Physical punishment teaches students how to be aggressive to others
- Neutral stimuli can become conditioned punishers just as the stimuli can become conditioned reinforcers
- Example: a student who is spanked by his parents learns not only to avoid the spankings (unconditioned punishers) but the people who spank him and where it occurred (conditioned punishers)
- Common avoidance behaviors in school as a result of punishment
- Cheating
- To avoid punishment of being wrong
- Tardiness or absences
- To avoid punishment of school failure, disliked classes, and punitive administrations
- Lying
- To avoid the punishment of being caught
- Sneaking
- To avoid being caught misbehaving
- Hiding
- To avoid being caught
- How to use punishment effectively
- Steps
- Prevent avoidance and escape from the punishment
- Example: Withdrawal of privileges
- Example: Do not let the student escape the punisher (only possible with little children and drastic techniques, this cannot usually be done by a teacher)
- Minimize the need for future punishment
- Do not provide a model of aggressive behavior
- Example from unit 3 with the boy who did not want to obey his mother
- Prevent avoidance and escape from the punishment
- The mother did not use spanking
- She took away reinforcers (her attention) by placing him in time out
- The boy wanted to come back to his mother because she was reinforcing for him with her attention and affection
- They key is there are clear steps to get the reinforcers back
- He got the attention back by being quiet in time out for five minutes
- Minimize the need for future punishment
- The mother used two procedures to minimize the need for punishment
- She gave a warning signal of “stop that”
- She paired the signal with time out
- Eventually “stop that” was enough to encourage the boy to behave
- She reinforced behavior incompatible with the problem behavior
- He only received attention when he behaved
- Do not provide a model of aggressive behavior
- The mother used withdrawal of reinforcers instead of aversive stimuli (spanking)
- Effective punishment is...
- Given immediately after the problem behavior
- Taking away reinforcers
- Giving clear steps to earn back reinforcers
- Using a warning signal (usually words) to signify punishment will come
- Given in a calm way
- Given with reinforcement for behavior incompatible with the problem behavior
- Consistent and insures that the problem behavior is never reinforced
- Time out: with-drawl from positive reinforcement
- Isolation is not necessarily time out
- How time out can backfire
- Example: putting a child in the hallway when the class is not reinforcing for him will reinforce his behavior to be put in the hallway
- Example: sending a student to the principal will be reinforcing if he gets attention there that he likes
- Isolation can be reinforcing for a student with autism
- Time out can be done in the classroom
- Maybe you take away a certain material for the rest of that subject
- Or you move the student from peers
- When to use punishment
- If a behavior is so frequent that there is no incompatible behavior to reinforce at the time, punishment may be required
- Examples: head banging, rocking, and other self-injurious behaviors
- Examples: extreme aggressiveness, destructive behavior, and tantrums
- You still need to teach the student to engage in other behaviors
- Examples of effective punishment
- Truant high school student
- A high school student was going to be expelled for being truant so often
- The mother was trying unsuccessfully to get the student to go to school by taking away money, the phone, and dating privileges
- The plan was that the student needed to earn notes from school each day that showed she went to class
- One note equalled telephone privileges
- Four notes equalled one weekend date
- Five notes equalled two dates
- The plan worked so well that notes were not needed in a few months and there was no attendance loss
- A student working in a group
- A student was engaged in off-task behavior such as defiance, showing off, and not responding to instructions
- The teacher decided between ignoring the behavior or punishing the behavior to work more quickly
- The teacher designed punishment with some rules
- No reinforcement from peers for misbehavior
- No getting out of work for misbehavior
- If the lesson is unfinished, make up the work when the other students are doing something preferred
- Not cooperating was more costly than cooperating
- Reward work and cooperation with privileges
- She asked him to do something she could enforce
- She told him to stand up
- When he did not stand up, she stood him up
- She told him to sit down
- She sat him down
- After five times he was tiring of the directions
- She told everyone to stand up and sit down
- He followed directions
- She returned to the lesson
- She asked the group to answer
- He answered
- She asked him to answer
- He refused
- She held him in at recess to finish the lesson
- She was not friendly with him but let him know if his responses were good
- At the end she was friendly and let him know he was improving
- The next day she did the stand up/sit down game to see who was caught
- He was not caught
- In the group he started to refuse to answer so she let him know he might have to stay in
- He stayed with the lesson
- Summary
- Loss of recess
- Enforcement of commands
- Other students were reinforced for working and so was he
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