TDLC Blog

Hello, TDLC family! I know that many of you read and enjoyed our 4-part blog series on the basics of ABA, found here. Over the course of the next few blogs, we’re going to take those basic ideas and expand on them, giving you insight into some of the more difficult concepts in ABA!

 

The time has come to wrap up our 4-part blog series! As I mentioned in our first blog, the goal of this series is to explain the basic tenets of Behavior Analysis: Reinforcement (Positive and Negative) and Punishment (Positive and Negative). In last week’s post, we looked at positive punishment, which is a means of reducing a behavior by adding an unwanted condition as a consequence. Today, in our fourth and final installment, we’re going to take a look at negative punishment and extinction.

 

In the last two parts of this blog series we looked at reinforcement, which increases a certain behavior. Today we are going to explore positive punishment, which has the effect of decreasing a behavior. As I mentioned in the first blog, we as behavior analysts want to understand why certain behaviors may occur, and what consequences either maintain them or prevent them from occurring again. Reinforcers maintain behavior, and punishers decrease the probability that they will happen again.

In our last blog installment, we explored positive reinforcement, which is when something is given or added as a consequence in order to increase a response. Today we’re going to take a look at negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement has the same effect that positive reinforcement does – it increases a certain behavior (reinforcement, whether positive or negative, always increases a behavior!). However, it is achieved by taking away something undesired, instead of giving or adding something that is desired.

As part of this 4-part blog series, we are going to explore the basic tenets of Behavior Analysis: Reinforcement (Positive and Negative) and Punishment (Positive and Negative). As behavior analysts, we want to understand why certain behaviors may occur, and what consequences either maintain them or prevent them from occurring again. Understanding these principles gives us better insight into not only our child’s behavior, but also that of everyone around us (including ourselves).