Punishment (psychology)
Reinforcement, referring to any behavior that increases the likelihood that a response will occurs, plays a large role in punishment.Secondary punishers are things that are learned to be negative like a buzzing sound when getting an answer wrong on a game show.Children with intellectual disabilities, such as autism and those who participate in stuttering therapy have had a positive outcome using punishment as a means to learn.Stuttering therapy can help a child improve their speech fluency, develop communication effectively, and be able to participate in all class activities[3].In experiments with laboratory animals and studies with children, punishment decreases the likelihood of a previously reinforced response only temporarily, and it can produce other "emotional" behavior (wing-flapping in pigeons, for example) and physiological changes (increased heart rate, for example) that have no clear equivalents in reinforcement.[citation needed] Punishment is considered by some behavioral psychologists to be a "primary process" – a completely independent phenomenon of learning, distinct from reinforcement.If the child were to misbehave, this rewarding stimulus of TV time would be removed which would result in negative punishment.A classic example would be mis-behavior that is 'punished' by a teacher but actually increases over time due to the reinforcing effects of attention on the student.Pain, loud noises, foul tastes, bright lights, and exclusion are all things that would pass the "caveman test" as an aversive stimulus, and are therefore primary punishers.[5] The sound of someone booing, the wrong-answer buzzer on a game show, and a ticket on your car windshield are all things society has learned to think about as negative, and are considered secondary punishers.Some side effects can reach into adulthood as well such as antisocial behavior and support for punishment that involves physical force such as spanking.Punishment is considered one of the ethical challenges to autism treatment, has led to significant controversy, and is one of the major points for professionalizing behavior analysis.