Set up positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment programs that a parent could use to teach a ten-year-old child to clean his room. What are the drawbacks of using punishment? What is the most effective way to use punishment?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
?In a positive reinforcement program, a parent could give the child something that he regards as positive every time the child cleans his room. Shaping would involve giving reinforcement every time the child cleaned even a small part of his room. Some positive reinforcers could be having ice cream or pizza, going to a movie, or visiting with friends.
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In a negative reinforcement program, a parent would impose a continual unpleasant situation on the child and remove it only when the child cleans his room. Some examples include grounding the child until he cleans his room, allowing no television until he cleans his room, or allowing no snacks until he cleans his room. By exhibiting appropriate behavior, the child could remove the aversive situation.
A program based on punishment would involve applying something negative with no chance of removal in the hopes of eliminating an undesired behavior. The child could be grounded for a week, allowed no snack, or allowed no television because he has not cleaned his room. This punishment would aim to eliminate the non-room-cleaning behavior.
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A drawback of punishment is that the child may associate the punisher with the punishment and thus become afraid of the parent. Punishment will be ineffective unless it is administered immediately after a response and follows every response made. The child must always be punished immediately after he does not clean his room.
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For punishment to be effective, the parent must specify that the child is being punished and that it is his non-room-cleaning behavior that is being punished, not the child himself. The punishment must be immediate and severe. The punishment should be paired with reinforcing a more appropriate response.