Punishment and reinforcement worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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What is the theory behind this Punishment and reinforcement worksheet?
Operant conditioning, according to Behavioral Therapy, is a method that uses rewards and punishments to alter a behavior. Favorable outcome as result of a desired behavior is known as positive reinforcement while removal of an unfavorable stimulus as result of the desired action is called negative reinforcement. Similarly, punishment means to introduce an aversive stimulus to reduce the likelihood of an undesirable behavior to reoccur.
How will the worksheet help?
This worksheet will help parents to strengthen positive behaviors of their children by practicing the method of operant condition effectively. Corrective, non-extreme and age appropriate (e.g. doing an extra chore for hitting the little sister) punishments should be selected. This would help in understanding that actions have consequences.
How to use this worksheet?
This worksheet contains a table with four columns. The parents are required to make a list of desirable and undesirable behaviors in their respective columns. Decide the reinforcements and punishments they want to set for these behaviors by discussing them with their children.
