Dr. Sharon Chan, C.Psych, Ph.D.
For families that struggle with changing difficult behaviours, reviewing principles of B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning can be helpful. While concepts in operant conditioning are simple to understand from a theoretical point, they can often be some of the most difficult to execute in day-to-day life because their proper implementation requires consistency, a great deal of patience, and the ability to tolerate difficult push back behaviours which is much easier said than done. Sometimes without realizing it, we can be reinforcing maladaptive behaviours; for example giving a child what they want when they have a temper tantrum because we want the tantrum to stop. Behavioural bursts (aka extinction bursts) inevitably occur when deeply ingrained behaviours that have previously been effective in achieving a desired outcome are challenged. It occurs when we attempt to remove a reinforcement from a previously reinforced behaviour, in order to eliminate that behaviour (extinction). For example, a parent who tries to implement scheduled screen time, video games, or scheduled access to wifi with a child who is used to having free access will certainly experience yelling, screaming, threatening, pleading, attempts to negotiate, aggression, guilt-tripping, and beyond all in the child’s attempt to restore the status quo because those above activities are incredibly reinforcing and gratifying by design.
It is important to realize that many parents experience similar challenges during a behavioural burst and that these responses are an expected part of changing behaviour, especially when you have a child who struggles with emotion regulation. Behavioural bursts can involve anything from verbal to physical aggression, property destruction, to fervent declarations of “I hate you, you are the worst parent” to threats of self-harm and suicide. Working with your therapist to create safety plans, learning distress tolerance skills as parents, and understanding the long-game of shaping behaviour is imperative to success.
The eventual outcome is that consistent application of operant conditioning techniques are some of the most powerful and effective tools we have for changing behaviour. Family members are sometimes faced with the difficult realization that they cannot wait for a child to be ‘ready’ for change, especially when safety is a concern or the behaviour heavily impacts the child’s day to day functioning (socially, academically, etc.). In such cases, they must take change into their own hands by setting contingencies and creating a change-ready environment to move their child along in changing problematic behaviours, for the sake of their child’s current and future wellbeing, and often the wellbeing of the entire family. As a parent, understand that you have the power to change your child’s behaviour, even if your child never steps foot in a therapy room (although it is often helpful for them to be part of the process too!) using the principles of operant conditioning.
Below is a review of operant conditioning principles. Operant conditioning deals with setting contingencies, or rewards and punishments (or consequences) in response to behaviour. Reinforcers are used to increase behaviours, while punishments and consequences are used to decrease behaviours. While many people get anxious at the prospect of a ‘punishment’ know that in this context we are not necessarily resorting to physical punishment – no therapist should ever give the directive that you must spank your child – however, living in the real world, your child will encounter many natural consequences because of their behaviour. For example, not keeping commitments will impact one’s ability to make and keep friendships, or even lead to missed career opportunities. Acting out in aggressive ways to get what you want will not be tolerated in most of society and lead to negative outcomes. As parents, teaching your child that behaviours have consequences is a necessary and loving act to prepare them for the real world. The caveat is that punishment alone is often ineffective, and best paired with reinforcement. Too much punishment can also certainly be harmful, however, one must be comfortable responding to ineffective or unsafe behaviours with consequences to create change.
Reinforcement: Increasing Behaviour
To increase behaviour, we can use positive reinforcement, such as giving a reward, which could be material (e.g., money, treats, toys) or non-tangible (e.g., praise, affection, respect, acknowledgement, increased freedom and privileges). Another way of increasing behaviour is by negative reinforcement. Remember negative reinforcement by thinking of relief. For example, going to therapy is hard, when I stop going to therapy, the discomfort, awkwardness, and difficult tasks that I’m faced with will stop, so by avoiding therapy, relief provides negative reinforcement. However, this may not be a behaviour we actually want reinforced. Knowing negative reinforcement is at work, the solution is to interrupt the reinforcement process, in this case, helping your child resist the urge to give up or run away from therapy, to remove the reinforcing relief that results. You will also be more effective pairing the cessation of this negative reinforcement with a positive reinforcement (e.g., reward for engaging in therapy). Another example of negative reinforcement is a child cleaning their room in order to get a nagging parent to stop complaining – the cessation of the nagging brings relief and results in the cleaning behaviour being more likely to occur. Over time, the process of fading gradually reduces prompts so that the behaviour can be sustained without them.
Punishment: Decreasing Behaviour
When we aim to decrease behaviour, we introduce punishments or consequences. Positive punishment means we apply a consequence in response to an undesired behaviour. For example, hitting your sister means you will get extra chores, or making a mess means you have to clean it up. Spanking would also fall in this category. With positive punishment, a child may become habituated to punishment (the punishment loses its effect unless intensified) and increasing punishment without limit can introduce other psychological and emotional problems. For this reason, punishment is best paired with reinforcement such that when the child engages in the desired behaviour or an approximation of that behaviour, efforts are rewarded. Negative punishment involves removing a privilege, or the loss of something desirable to the child in response to the undesired behaviour. For example, hitting your sister means the loss of that week’s allowance, or missing therapy means that wifi privileges are cancelled for the day.
Many parents struggle most with negative punishment – they fear removing privileges because of the dreaded behavioural burst that inevitably follows, however this is sometimes necessary due to satiation, or the idea that too much of a good thing, results in that good thing losing its power. You cannot convince a child to change a behaviour by rewarding that behaviour with screen time if they already have unlimited free access to screen time. If a parent provides everything the child wants, in the way of clothes, make up, toys, or other material objects they want, an increased allowance may have no sway. In these examples, one might remove established privileges until changes in behaviour occur (negative punishment), or, re-establish a new baseline such as reducing overall screen time use to a level where the child will want more, and using the offer of more screen time as a way of changing behaviour (positive reinforcement). Regardless, finding the appropriate currency is important to sufficiently motivating your child to make the desired changes. As your child matures and internalizes the reasons behind making these changes, contingencies can be gradually phased out.
When your child is young, and/or while you still have the influence in their life to do so, you may use operant principles and contingencies to help shape effective and healthy behaviours that later can become internalized through life experience and cultivation of wisemind goals. For example, a child may understand on some level that too many video games is detrimental to academic functioning, and generally understand that academic outcomes are linked to one’s future ability to provide for one’s self. In the moment while they are playing video games however, asking them to apply this knowledge to stop the very tempting prospect of continuing to play in order to go to school or finish homework may be too difficult, particularly if they also struggle with self-regulation. Setting contingencies helps shape helpful habits while their frontal lobe and its associated processes of inhibitory control, planning, problem solving, and future planning are developing, alongside the emotion regulation skills they learn in therapy, and the wisdom that they accrue through life experiences.
Summary Table of Operant Conditioning:
| Increase behaviour | Decrease behaviour |
| Positive Reinforcement REWARD “I do the thing you want, you give me something I want.” | Positive Punishment/Consequence DISCOMFORT Example 1: Having to do extra chores Example 2: Having to clean a desk you vandalize at school (This is the area where spanking falls under) Be aware of habituation to punishment; best paired with reinforcement |
| Negative Reinforcement RELIEF Example 1: “I do the thing you want, you stop nagging/complaining.” Example 2: “I do the thing I’ve been avoiding and need to do, I feel less shame or guilt.” Example 3: Escaping, giving up on therapy brings relief, it ineffectively reinforces avoidance. | Negative Punishment/Consequence LOSS Take away the privilege or the fun thing Loss of something desirable Be aware of the behavioural/extinction burst |
Key Terms:
- Positive = something added after the behaviour
- Negative = something removed after the behaviour
- Satiation = too much of a reinforcer, it loses its power and does not work so you need to identify what currency works and retain that power
- Fading = gradually removing prompts and extrinsic rewards
- Extinction/Behavioural burst = removing a reinforcement form a previously reinforced behaviour in order to eliminate that behaviour will result in an extinction burst where problem behaviours first increase, then decrease as limits are maintained.
- Spontaneous recovery = a previously extinguished behaviour may suddenly reappear without reinforcement; keep calm and maintain your expectations and contingencies.
Image:
B.F. Skinner New York Times Co. / Getty Images