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Punishment

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences
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Synonyms

Negative punishment; Positive punishment

Definition

A process in which a stimulus change, (also called a consequence), immediately follows a behavior and as a result, the future frequency of that behavior and other similar responses decreases (Azrin and Holz 1966).

Introduction

Punishment falls under the umbrella of operant conditioning, which was first described by B.F. Skinner. Operant conditioning describes the differential effects of consequences on (Miltenberger 2016). Operant conditioning delineates two separate consequence contingency relationships: reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement occurs when a behavior is followed by a consequence and as a result, there is an increased chance of future occurrences of that behavior. In contrast, punishment occurs when a consequence follows a behavior and results in a decreased chance of future occurrences of that behavior.

The Operation and Defining Effects of Punishment

Punishment is defined by a functional...

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References

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Correspondence to Jamie Pasqua .

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Pasqua, J., Dufrene, B. (2017). Punishment. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_994-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_994-1

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