Shaping Behavior

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Shaping Behavior

When a systematic attempt is made to change individuals’ behaviour by directing their learning in
graduated steps, it is called shaping behavior. There are four methods of Shaping Behavior. They
are as follows:
1. Positive reinforcement – This is the process of getting something pleasant as a consequence of
a desired behavior, to strengthen the same behavior. For example, one get a commission, if he/she
achieves sales target.
For example,
i) Bonuses paid at the end of a successful business year are an example of positive reinforcement.
ii) Employees will work hard for a raise or a promotion.
iii) Salesmen will increase their efforts to get rewards and bonuses.
iv) Students will study to get good grades, and
v) In these examples, the rises, promotions, awards, bonuses, good grades, are positive reinforces.
2. Negative reinforcement – This is the process of having a reward taken away as a consequence
of a undesired behavior. For example, scholarship is withdrawn from the student who has not done
well on the examination. Just as people engage in behaviours in order to get positive reinforces, they
also engage in behaviours to avoid or escape unpleasant conditions. Terminating an unpleasant
stimulus in order to strengthen or increase the probability of a response is called negative
reinforcement.
3. Punishment is causing an unpleasant condition in an attempt to eliminate an undesirable
behavior. This is the process of getting a punishment as a consequence of a behavior.
According to B. F. Skinner, punishment is still the most common technique of behaviour control in
today’s life. When a child misbehaves, he is spanked. If a person does not behave as the society or
law wants him to do, he is punished by arrest and jail.
Example: Loss of pay for coming late to office. Punishment can be accomplished either by adding an
unpleasant stimulus or removing a pleasant stimulus. The added unpleasant stimulus might take the
form of criticism, a scolding, a disapproving look, a fine, or a prison sentence. The removal of a
pleasant stimulus might consist of withholding affection and attention, suspending a driver’s license,
or taking away a privilege such as watching television.
Accordingly, in situations where punishment is desirable as a means of behaviour modification,
certain guidelines would make it more effective thus minimizing its dysfunctional consequences.
a) Praise in public; punish in private.
b) Apply punishment before the undesirable behaviour has been strongly
reinforced. Thus, the punishment should immediately follow the undesirable
behaviour.
c) The punishment should focus on the behaviour and not on the person.
4. Extinction – An alternative to punishing undesirable behaviour is extension – the attempt to
weaken behaviour by attaching no consequences (either positive or negative) to it. It is equivalent to
ignoring the behaviour. The rationale for using extinction is that a behaviour not followed by any
consequence is weakened. However, some patience and time may be needed for it to be effective.
This type of reinforcement is applied to reduce undesirable behaviour, especially when such
behaviours were previously rewarded. This means that if rewards were removed from behaviours
that were previously reinforced, then such behaviours would become less frequent and eventually
die out. For example, if a student in the class is highly mischievous and disturbs the class, he is
probably asking for attention. If .the attention is given to him, he will continue to exhibit that
behaviour.
Both positive and negative reinforcement result in learning. They strengthen a response and
increase the probability of repetition. Both punishment and extinction weaken behavior and tend to
decrease its subsequent frequency

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