Assignment
For the following questions (1-3), read the small vignette and then using the bold behaviour as the behaviour of interest, show the behaviour of interest, the stimulus consequence and whether the behaviour increased or decreased. Then label the procedure as an example of either positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or avoidance.
1. Erin is in the third year of her program. She has to take a statistics course, which is mandatory for the degree. She arrives, and the professor immediately arranges the students according to his/her last name. For the next few weeks, Erin and her classmates endure humiliation after humiliation, as the professor very quickly explains a complicated formula, puts up a long and difficult question, calls out one of the students by last name and expects them to solve it on the spot, in front of 70 peers.
When the student is unable to solve it, the professor is rude and condescending, often insulting the student and implying that he/she is stupid. This has caused a lot of anxiety, as expected. Erin begins skipping class, and instead, goes to meet some of the other students in her class and they work through the material together...eventually skipping so often that she is only going for the exams.
2. My shins have a complicated relationship with my coffee table. They seem perversely drawn to banging into the corners, which causes a sharp pain and throbbing sensation. However, if I take my palm and firmly compress the whole area and keep it compressed, the pain goes away. I'm not only more likely to use this technique with my shins, but with other areas as well, when they have been injured.
3. I have two dogs...Nula and Balla. They are both 10 years old and starting to show signs of aging. Nula, in particular, really enjoys her naps now. Balla, every once in a while, will channel her inner puppy, and she'll dance around Nula like she's a boxer, diving in, giving Nula jabs to the head, and jumping back, to avoid retaliation. Nula will ignore her for quite a while, no doubt hoping her sister will give up, but Balla has surprising staying power.
At some point, Balla will lunge forward and tap Nula on the head, and Nula will jump up and start to wrestle with her. We've noticed over time that Balla has become more likely to engage in this behaviour with Nula, with increasing persistence. (poor Nula)
4. If you'll recall from this module, a sick social cycle exists when one person's behaviour is being reinforced by positive reinforcement, and the other's is being reinforced by negative reinforcement. (e.g. room-mate nagging you to take the garbage out and you finally do because it stops the nagging - your room-mate's behaviour of nagging is positively reinforced by you taking the garbage out, while your behaviour of taking the garbage out, is negatively reinforced by the nagging stopping.)
Look for an example of the sick social cycle in your own environment, and describe it here, being careful to identify the behaviours of interest, the consequences and which person's behaviour was reinforced by positive or negative reinforcement.
Attachment:- positive_reinforcement.rar