Hoda (age 8) is my younger sister; she is kind, playful, and is often annoying. Hoda is always jealous of me whenever I buy something or receive something as a present, she wants whatever I get, and sometimes she even takes it without me knowing. Two ways to discourage Hoda from performing this behavior is positive punishment and negative punishment. Positive punishment is giving something a person does not like to decrease an undesirable behavior, to do this I will tell her in a louder voice that she cannot get everything I get or have, and tell her that she isn’t being kind. Negative punishment is taking away something a person likes in order to decrease the undesirable behavior. Using negative punishment I would tell her that I want something …show more content…
Using positive reinforcement which is giving something a person likes to increase the desired behavior, I can encourage her to continue with this behavior. When I would see her happy for me I would firstly say “Thank you”, and it would make me feel like giving her something such as a sticker, toy, or a big hug! This would make her feel happier, and using this form of operant conditioning will shape her into a better person because she would most definitely want to continue with this behavior not just with me but with others also. I can also encourage Hoda using negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement is taking away something you do not like to increase the specific (or desired) behavior, to do this I would feel happy for her whenever she receives something even though she doesn’t like it. By doing this I would be taking away her negative thoughts about that item, and make her feel happy and thankful for it. Between positive and negative reinforcement I tend and prefer to use positive reinforcement because I like giving her something and seeing her happy, then she would still want to continue with the great behavior I am encouraging her to do. Of all four forms of operant conditioning: negative and positive reinforcement and negative and positive punishment, positive punishment is what I use most and is most effective in dealing with Hoda’s annoying behavior, because she mostly listens to me when I talk to her more of what her undesired behavior is, and that it isn’t a good behavior. By showing her a consequence after the undesired behavior, it would make the behavior less likely to happen in the future. I have had positive results using positive punishment, in many situations that person had stopped the undesired