Conditioning

After becoming a pet owner, I have recently become interested in operant conditioning. BF Skinner said that he never used positive punishment on his children and that he believed it was the most effective way to raise them.

There are four types of conditioning:

Positive reinforcement (Reinforcement): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a stimulus that is appetitive or rewarding, increasing the frequency of that behavior. In the Skinner box experiment, a stimulus such as food or sugar solution can be delivered when the rat engages in a target behavior, such as pressing a lever.

Negative reinforcement (Escape): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus, thereby increasing that behavior's frequency. In the Skinner box experiment, negative reinforcement can be a loud noise continuously sounding inside the rat's cage until it engages in the target behavior, such as pressing a lever, upon which the loud noise is removed.

Positive punishment (Punishment) (also called "Punishment by contingent stimulation"): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a stimulus, such as introducing a shock or loud noise, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.

Negative punishment (Penalty) (also called "Punishment by contingent withdrawal"): occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of a stimulus, such as taking away a child's toy following an undesired behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.

Which of these do you find is best at teaching/training/living by?

Do you beat yourself up when you fail? Or do you reward yourself.

This terminology is foreign to me. I listened to Bing:

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?

(Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear
About the elininatin' of the negative
And the accent on the positive)
And gather 'round me children if you're willin'
And sit tight while I start reviewin'
The attitude of doin' right

(You've gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between)

You've got to spread joy (up to the maximum)
Bring gloom (down) down to the minimum
Otherwise (otherwise) pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene

To illustrate (well illustrate) my last remark (you got the floor)
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they say (what did they say)
Say when everything looked so dark

Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
No! Don't mess with Mister In-Between

AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE

When my son was in elementary school I often used positive reinforcement. My son has ADHD and a learning disability so he needed more help in some areas of school work than average children. I put colorful wrapping paper on an empty box and put items in the box that he would like to have as well as some envelopes with unknown rewards such as trip to movie theater. We called it the reward box and he would get a reward when he completed a task in a notebook that I wanted him to accomplish. On a page I would list the contract including description of task and reward and he and I would date and sign the contract and I could make sure he understood what I wanted him to do. For example a task could be "use Mavis Beacon software until you can achieve 45 wpm with 95% accuracy". Using the reward box worked well for my son.

But when he became a teenager his attitude changed and he was not as motivated to achieve the tasks and receive rewards. That was a tough time for us both. I finally began using negative punishment to extinguish behaviors I didn't like, such as cursing or disobeying. He would lose phone privileges or I would take video games away. I always defined how long the item would be gone when I took the item.

The teen years were horrid but my son is now much more well behaved and usually pleasant mannered.

For myself I think positive reinforcement works to a degree. I am fanatical making 'to do' lists and love to reward myself by placing check marks on the list when I complete tasks. I still procrastinate though.

My gf is a 5th grade science teacher in a rough inner city neighborhood, and all the kids there know is positive punishment (aka punishment).
My gf told me that the best way to modify their behavior is to slowly teach them that there a positive consequences when they behave well. Some kids just don't respond to yelling and violence.