Reinforcement psychology is the study of how rewards and punishments affect behavior. Rewards increase the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated, while punishments decrease the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.
Some common rewards and punishments used in reinforcement psychology are positive reinforcement (rewards that increase the likelihood of a behavior being repeated) and negative reinforcement (rewards that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated).
One example of positive reinforcement is giving a student a reward after he or she finishes a homework assignment.
This increases the likelihood that the student will do the same homework task again in the future because the student has received a reward for doing it.
One example of negative reinforcement is punishing a student for not doing his or her homework. This decreases the likelihood that the student will not do his or her homework in the future because he or she has received a punishment for doing it.
Reinforcement psychology is an important tool for teaching children how to behave. It can be used to increase the likelihood that a child will do his or her homework or decrease the likelihood that a child will misbehave.
