Essays on Reinforcement

At a young age, children are exposed to actions that are deemed appropriate to society through authority figures such as parents, teachers, religious figures, and other family members. These behaviours and actions are eventually imprinted on the child and they eventually learn typical and atypical…

Within nearly every situation presented to a person lies choices about how they choose to react. Those include reacting with positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, and ignoring the situation. Each reaction has a response, which may be positive or negative. When faced…

Introduction “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both?” – Niccolo Machiavelli. This famous question originates from chapter XVII of The Prince and is an extension on a larger discussion on human nature and virtue that ultimately, at the heart…

Positive Reinforcement vs. Punishment It is common practice that when a child does something bad, they must be punished. Alan Kazdin, director of the Yale Parenting Center, is suggesting that parents learn to use positive reinforcement instead of punishment. He claims that this will yield…