1. Using Punishment?

2. Side effects and ethical issues:
Elicitation of undesirable emotional response and aggression
Escape and Avoidance
Increased rate of the problem behavior under nonpunishment
Modeling undesirable behavior
Not teaching the learner what to do
Overusing punishment because of the negative reinforcement it provides the punishing agent.

3. Let’s look at some examples Warning: This may be hard to watch

4. Punishment effects
Traditional Definition: Any contingent event which results in a decrease in operant responding
New Definition: Punishment effects are Produced when schedule constraints produce a state of of disequilibrium
Give the individual “Too much” of something contingent on a behavior

5. Positive Punishment Interventions: Reprimands
Delivery of verbal reprimands following the occurrence of misbehavior is an example of attempted positive punishment.
Reprimands given repeatedly may lead to habituation to the reprimand.

6. Why not use negative reinforcement?
Side effects: don’t like the person delivering negative reinforcer
Uneven and sporadic behavior
Strong stimulus cues: only behave when “sD” is around: when teacher not there, the kids go wild!

7. Guidelines for punishment
Behavior must be dangerous to person or others
No chance to interrupt and reinforce “good” behavior
Tried other alternatives

8. Remember:
Punishment as part of a behavior change program has nothing to do with retribution.
Punishment is not about threats.
When punishers are threatened and not delivered, the organism learns that your verbal threats are not associated with the actual punishing behavior.

9. Using Punishment Effectively
Use the Least Intensity of Punishment That is Effective
Ethical guidelines and the doctrine of the least restrictive alternative require that punishment be:
the most effective
but least intrusive form of punishment
Punishment is most effective when the learner can make other responses for reinforcement.
The more reinforcement the learner obtains by emitting appropriate behavior, the less motivate he will be to emit the problem behavior

10. Using Punishment Effectively
Deliver the Punishment Unemotionally
Punishment should be delivered in a business-like, matter-of-fact manner.
Resist statement such as, “I told you so.” “Now, you’ve gone and done it.” and “What do you have to say for yourself?”
All you want to do is modify behavior, not make people atone for their sins.

11. Least Restrictive Alternative
less intrusive procedures should be tried and found to be ineffective before more intrusive procedures are implemented.
View punishment as falling along a continuum of restrictiveness from least to most.
A procedure’s overall level of restrictiveness is a combined function of
its absolute level of restrictiveness
the amount of time required to produce a clinically acceptable outcome
the consequences associated with delayed intervention.

12. Right to Effective Treatment
Failing to use a punishment procedure that research has show to suppress self-destructive behavior similar to the client’s is unethical because
it withholds a potentially effective treatment
may maintain a dangerous or uncomfortable state for the person.
Consult local, state, or professional association policy statement regarding the use of punishment.

13. Positive Punishment Interventions: Reprimands
Delivery of verbal reprimands following the occurrence of misbehavior is an example of attempted positive punishment.
Reprimands given repeatedly may lead to habituation to the reprimand.

14. Response Blocking
Physically intervening as soon as the person begins to emit the problem behavior
prevent or “block” the completion of the response
show to be effective in reducing the frequency of some problem behaviors.
Suppressive effects of response blocking may be due to punishment or to extinction.
Side effects: aggression and resistance to the response blocking procedure

15. Overcorrection:
contingent on the problem behavior, the organism is required to engage in effortful behavior that is directly or logically related to the problem.
Two Forms:
Restitutional: Restoring environment
Positive Practice: practicing the correct response
Contingent Exercise: organism is required to perform a response that is not topographically related to the problem behavior.
Both overcorrection and contingent exercise developed out of Premack’s principle/Disequilibrium

16. Contingent Electric Stimulation
More than 100 studies have demonstrated that contingent electric stimulation can be a safe and highly effective method for suppressing chronic and life- threatening self-injurious behavior (SIB).
Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System (SIBIS)
Functional analyses have shown that these behaviors occur for
Attention
Escape
Pain or self stim
Extinction is ineffective; sometimes must punish
But also must reinforce!

17. Take home message
Punishment, particularly positive punishment, is part of a continuum of treatment
Positive reinforcement first
Reinforce alternative (opposite) responses
There are individuals who engage in behavior SO severe that immediate disruption of the behavior is necessary- for those individuals positive punishment MAY be their least restrictive treatment.