Rewarding behavior is key to parenting teens, study suggests
Parenting is hard, and parenting teens brings about an entirely new set of challenges, from keeping their rooms clean to getting them home before curfew. But, a new study suggests parents who want their teenagers to keep their grades up could have better success if they focus more on rewarding good behavior and less on threatening to punish the bad. According to the report, published in PLOS Computational Biology, British researchers have found that adolescents focus well on positive incentives, but have difficulty staying motivated to avoid penalties. The study shows that teens and adults learn in different ways, according to the study’s lead author Stefano Palminteri, a researcher with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. It suggests that “in some cases positive feedback may have more of an effect than negative feedback on learning” in adolescents.
Teens May Learn Best with Positive Reinforcement
A new study finds that adolescents focus on rewards and are less able to learn to avoid punishment or consider the consequences of alternative actions. University College-London investigators compared how adolescents and adults learn to make choices based on the available information. Investigators tracked the way in which 18 volunteers aged 12-17 and 20 volunteers aged 18-32 completed tasks in which they had to choose between abstract symbols. Each symbol was consistently associated with a fixed chance of a reward, punishment, or no outcome. As the trial progressed, participants learned which symbols were likely to lead to each outcome and adjusted their choices accordingly.
Changing Behavior Through Reinforcement and Punishment: Operant Conditioning
Learning Objectives Outline the principles of operant conditioning.Explain how learning can be shaped through the use of reinforcement schedules and secondary reinforcers. In classical conditioning the organism learns to associate new stimuli with natural, biological responses such as salivation or fear. The organism does not learn something new but rather begins to perform in an existing behavior in the presence of a new signal. Operant conditioning, on the other hand, is learning that occurs based on the consequences of behavior and can involve the learning of new actions.
Parenting Teens: When It Comes To Learning, Positive Reinforcement Trumps Punishment
Teens generally aren’t afraid to defy authority. Generations of parents know this, having tried different strategies for getting their adolescents to do what they ask — often in attempts to keep them safe and help pave a path toward success. Now, a new study shows that rewards, rather than punishments, could be the way to get them to cooperate. Researchers at the University College London asked 18 volunteers aged 12 to 17 and 20 volunteers aged 18 to 32 to complete both a learning task and post-learning task in which they chose between abstract symbols, each associated with a fixed chance of reward, punishment, or no outcome.
I Caught My Teenager Lying - What's Next?
One of the hardest things we as parents face is to decide what to do when we think our teenager is lying to us. It is hard to deal with this because our reactions are typically coloured by emotions such as betrayal and fear. Betrayal because we always thought we would have the trust of our children, and fear because we wonder if this is just the first sign that they might be involved in something dangerous or harmful. Understand Why Your Teen Might Feel the Need to Lie However, it helps to take a few steps back and try to understand the reasons behind why your child might be lying. Understanding the reasons behind the lie will help us as parents decide what the best course of action should be.
Side effects of Positive (Physical) Punishment
A growing body of research has shown that spanking and other forms of physical discipline can pose serious risks to children, but many parents aren’t hearing the message. “It’s a very controversial area even though the research is extremely telling and very clear and consistent about the negative effects on children,” says Sandra Graham-Bermann, PhD, a psychology professor and principal investigator for the Child Violence and Trauma Laboratory at the University of Michigan. “People get frustrated and hit their kids. Maybe they don’t see there are other options.” Many studies have shown that physical punishment — including spanking, hitting and other means of causing pain — can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury and mental health problems for children. Americans’ acceptance of physical punishment has declined since the 1960s, yet surveys show that two-thirds of Americans still approve of parents spanking their kids.
Erikson's Identity vs. Role Confusion in Adolescent Development - Video & Lesson Transcript
Identity vs. Role Confusion Remember Chaya? She's rebelling against her parents, changing before their very eyes.
The Difference between Positive/Negative Reinforcement and Positive/Negative Punishment
February 5, 2013 7:40 pm Published by Kelley Prince M.A., BCBA In Applied Behavior Analysis, there are two types of reinforcement and punishment: positive and negative. It can be difficult to distinguish between the four of these.
Consistency is key to a Child's Long-Term Development
Jacob Lee and Matthew Snodgress There is no one individual who influences the development of a child more than the parent. Every aspect of the child’s progression through life, beginning with their genetic makeup, is greatly influenced, if not completely determined by, the parent figure in the child’s life.
Teen brains may have an advantage — better learning
Teens can get a bad rap for their behavior. They tend to be more sensitive to rewards than to punishments. Indeed, teens tend to seek out rewards more than do adults or young kids.
Operant Conditioning - What it means in Simple Terms.
Reinforcement and punishment are often used as parenting tools to modify children’s behavior. Let’s review the difference between positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, and the difference in outcomes between them. The Difference Between Positive And Negative Reinforcement In behavioral psychology, reinforcement is the introduction of a favorable condition that will make the desired behavior more likely to happen, continue or strengthen in the future1. Because the favorable condition acts as a reward, reinforcement is a reward-based operant conditioning. There are two types of reinforcement: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
A first-hand account of the effects of peaceful parenting from a teen.
I often get questions from parents unconvinced of the effectiveness of my parenting techniques. Fueled by a steady diet of conventional parenting rules concerning time-outs, control, punishment, and praise, as well as personal reflections on their own childhoods, they ask questions like: “Does this stuff really work?”
Positive and Negative Reinforcement for Good Behaviour
By: Beth Morrisey MLIS - Updated: 16 May 2016| *Discuss Children will always need guidance in good behaviour, and it is a parent’s duty to provide this guidance. Parents can model good behaviour and discuss with their children what constitutes good behaviour, but it is helping children act on their own that will allow them to understand what is appropriate and what is not in a variety of situations.
