Mr. Argumentor
I fab shitboxes and shitbox accessories.
Blatant stab in the dark.
Tell me what you know about human behavior. I like to learn. I have a job that pays me to learn.
A lot of it is basically applied uses of Operant Conditioning, specialized around children roughly 3-10. Mostly it boils down to me trying not to laugh or shake my head at parents that end up reinforcing behaviors in their kids that the parents obviously hate.
Example: kid in supermarket screaming, parent stops every five minutes to tell them to stop. The screaming is an attention seeking behavior, the parent stopping to tell the kid to hush is the attention that the kid wants. The kid has learned that if it screams it gets the attention it wants.
There are two basic ways to get the kid to shut up. Positive reinforcement would be ignoring the kid or teaching it a less annoying way of getting your attention (such as tugging on your sleeve or pants leg).
Negative reinforcement is always harder for me to explain. Textbook definition of it goes along the lines of: removing averse stimulus as a behavioral modifier. It is taking away an outcome that the subject sees as negative or limiting. @Mortlach can correct me if I get too wrong on this, but negative reinforcement in this situation would be something like "stop screaming or I will not buy your favorite cereal"
In behavioral circles, neither of these are punishments, and a fair number of studies show that punishments usually cause more harm than good.
Despite this, most Behavioral Analysts will still admit that they would like to spank a child who is misbehaving.
Make any sense?
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