Capella PSY7708 2020 JULY Week 6 Discussion Latest

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 6 Discussion

Punishment Guidelines

As discussed in this unit's activities, punishment is not just those contrived consequences that are set up to decrease behavior but also something that naturally occurs. For example, when walking across a wet slippery floor one may fall and hurt oneself. The behavior of walking across a wet slippery floor is punished by the added, aversive consequence of falling and hurting oneself.

For this discussion, think of two recent examples of when your behavior has been punished. Ideally, try to describe examples of punishment contingencies occurring naturally, but contrived punishment contingencies are fine as well.

Describe the environmental variables surrounding the behavior and whether they were negative or positive punishment.

Discuss whether the behaviors you identified in your examples were necessary for your overall well-being. In other words, if these behaviors continued to occur, would that put your survival or overall well-being at risk?

Finally, discuss your previous understanding of punishment before you took this course, and explain whether it is the same or different from how punishment is defined in the science of behavior analysis.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Describe real-life examples of positive and negative punishment.

Distinguish between a common definition of punishment and a behavior analytic definition.