Positive reinforcement is the process of introducing a stimulus to increase the probability of reoccurrence of a, particularly desirable behavior. In the positive reinforcement, the stimuli that are added usually have a pleasant consequence. Negative reinforcement, on the other hand, is the process by which unfavorable stimulus is removed to encourage good behavior. Throughout the development of human beings, learning is usually motivated by various reinforcers. These can range from the stimuli that are essential for survival such as food to environmental stimuli such as social approval. The primary goal of the reinforcers is often to increase the frequency of a specific favorable behavior or discourage unfavorable one ( Payne & Dozier, 2013 ). The optimal mental, physical and psychological development can always be achieved by discouraging the anti-social behaviors and disobedience amongst the pre-kindergarten students. Reinforcing good behaviors and discouraging hostile attitude can help motivate the children to make the right choices and develop positive behaviors that will increase their educational outcome and eliminate anti-social behaviors as well as obedience.
Positive Reinforcement
Recognition and appreciation of positive behavior provides an appropriate response to the social environment and help in the behavioral development of the pre-kindergarten kids. According to operant conditioning theory, learning involves the acquisition of new ideas that are not innate but depends on the experience and feedback an individual gets from the environment ( Slocum & Vollmer, 2015 ). Behaviorism theories believe that if an action is followed by a favorable effect, then there is a high probability that an individual will repeat the same action to get the reinforcement. A behavior that is followed by a positive consequence is likely to repeat, and the one that is followed by an unpleasant consequence is less likely to reoccur. Recognition of the efforts made by kids is essential in helping them develop a positive behavior and eliminate the anti-social one. The teachers should appreciate and recognize the kids on any excellent effort they make because this will produce a positive consequence and the need to repeat the same action.
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Positive behavioral development is significant in increasing educational outcome of the kids and instilling respect and positive attitude. Before the pre-kindergarten children still have a brain that is undergoing development, they learn by appreciation and recognition. When a child does well in a specific task, simple reinforcers such as clapping, cheering or just verbal appreciation can make them feel excited ( Slocum & Vollmer, 2015 ). As a result, they will work harder the next time to achieve the same result with the expectation of receiving the pleasant consequence. The presentation of a stimulus after an act strengthens the occurrence of the same behavior in the future ( Slocum & Vollmer, 2015 ). Every time a teacher rewards or recognizes a positive behavior, children grow up always acting positively with the expectation to receive the same reward. This helps in developing a positive behavior in children and increasing their chance of academic success. Rewarding a child for doing well in a class task creates a positive stimulus thus making the child work hard in the future to receive the same reward. The result will be high standards of respect and higher levels of academic achievement among the children.
Social learning theory emphasizes behavior modeling and internal mental processes. People learn by observing the positive behavior and recognition from others for good efforts ( Fleiter, Watson &Lennon, 2013 ). When the children witness a teacher praise a classmate for their excellent work, he/she will imitate the positive behavior. Thus, understanding that specific behavior will result in recognition will motivate the students to emulate the behavior. According to the social learning theory, observing a positive behavior being rewarded will motivate the observers to follow the same track so that they can get the reward. As a result, positive reinforcement will lead to positive behavioral development among the pre-kindergarten students and promote higher academic achievement as well as respect while it removes the anti-social behavior.
The self-determination theory focuses on human motivation and the need to meet certain psychological needs. Human motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is the inner drive to meet certain psychological needs ( Blackman, 2017 ). The impact on positive behavior recognition can result when an individual does something to satisfy psychological needs. Recognition and verbal appreciation are usually associated with the need to meet certain psychological needs such as ego-worth. Positive recognition can make children want to achieve a psychological need such as ego. They feel motivated and self-worth when they are praised for good action. As a result, they will tend to imitate the good behavior and seek higher achievements if they know it will help them feel self-worth and value. A child emulates a positive behavior because of the expectation that they will get a positive reward. This helps in achieving positive behavior development and instilling discipline among children. Positive reinforcement also helps the children to develop self-esteem by building confidence and boosting morale ( Blackman, 2017 ). Young people feel happy to be appreciated and help in the character development thus making the child to enhance significantly and grow up a disciplined person. Positive reinforcement requires the teachers to focus on what is right and be specific in making the praises for any positive behavior and achievement.
Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement involves the need to have a child drop an unfavorable behavior by creating an unpleasant consequence. In negative reinforcement, the goal is to work towards removing any behavior that is deemed unfavorable. It is mainly used by teachers in the classroom to manage children who have problematic behaviors. The teachers aim to become keen on the children who may not be adhering to the acceptable code of conducts in the classroom. When a child does an unfavorable behavior, this behavior creates a stimulus resulting in the negative consequence on the child ( Isaacs, Thomas & Goldiamond, 2013 ). This then weakens the unfavorable behavior making the child less likely to repeat the same. Skinner argues that learning involves the acquisition of new ideas and depends on the feedback that one expects from the environment. The consequences that one expects can trigger the possibility of a behavior reoccurring. The consequences of an individual’s current behavior can affect the ability for such behaviors to reoccur. When a child receives a negative reinforcement for an action, it creates an unpleasant consequence thus limiting the chances of such behavior reoccurring.
When a child develops an unfavorable stimulus, the teachers can present a negative reinforcement which will then discourage them from repeating the unfavorable behavior. Pre-kindergarten children usually get their motivation from being appreciated and recognized for their actions. By presenting a negative reinforcement to the children, they will tend to avoid repeating the unfavorable behavior. The benefit of the negative reinforcement is that it helps to remove the anti-social behavior and encourage them to adopt a positive behavior. It can also help promote discipline amongst the children and enhance educational achievement.
Modeling the behavior and the internal mental process is based on the consequence that an individual will receive. Pre-kindergarten do what they are encouraged to do and avoid what the teachers discourage them from doing. Learning among children is mainly done by observation, what a child observes is what they will do as they grow ( Isaacs, Thomas & Goldiamond, 2013 ). When a child sees a classmate get unfavorable consequence due to negative reinforcement, they will tend to avoid the behavior so that they do not get the same unpleasant consequence. The children will, therefore, imitate what is favorable and avoid what could get them into unpleasant consequence. By learning to avoid actions that will lead to negative reinforcement, children develop positive behavior change that will benefit them both in their social life and in the educational achievement. Children will always seek to achieve self-esteem and motivation through appreciation and recognition.
Negative reinforcement is associated with the avoidance of behavior. The target behavior increases to escape and eliminate the possibility of the aversive consequences. While taking away the unfavorable in response to a stimulus, a change in behavior for the future is created ( Skinner, 2014 ). Teachers can use negative reinforcement to help the children avoid behaviors that are problematic and adopt those that are favorable. By avoiding the problematic behaviors, children will be learning on the best and accepted behaviors in the society while they also increase their chances of greater academic achievement.
Conclusion
Both positive and negative reinforcements play a key role in the positive behavioral development of children and make them obedient. Positive reinforcement is useful in promoting motivation and self-esteem among children and makes them always want to imitate favorable behavior to receive praise. It instills discipline and obedience among children which then leads to higher educational success and achievement. As long as there is positive reinforcement, the children will continually work to achieve the best and imitate positive behavior. Negative reinforcement on the other ensures that children remove anti-social behaviors that could lead to an unpleasant consequence. By learning that a given behavior will lead to an unpleasant consequence, children tend to avoid such behaviors. This ensures that young people grow with positive behaviors and discipline that increase their chances of higher academic achievement and success in life.
References
Payne, S. W., & Dozier, C. L. (2013). Positive reinforcement as treatment for problem behavior maintained by negative reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis , 46 (3), 699-703.
Slocum, S. K., & Vollmer, T. R. (2015). A comparison of positive and negative reinforcement for compliance to treat problem behavior maintained by escape. Journal of applied behavior analysis , 48 (3), 563-574.
Fleiter, J. J., Watson, B. C., & Lennon, A. J. (2013). Effective punishment experiences: The need for a more comprehensive approach to conceptualising behavioural punishers and reinforcers in a road safety context. In Psychology of punishment: New research (pp. 1-30). Nova Science Publishers.
Blackman, D. E. (2017). Operant conditioning: an experimental analysis of behaviour . Routledge.
Isaacs, W., Thomas, J., & Goldiamond, I. (2013). Application of operant conditioning to reinstate verbal behavior in psychotics. Experiments in Behaviour Therapy: Readings in Modern Methods of Treatment of Mental Disorders Derived from Learning Theory , 207.
Skinner, B. F. (2014). Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis (Vol. 3). BF Skinner Foundation.
