Have you ever wondered why it is that your son, daughter, relative or friend behaves in the manner that they do? Have you ever wanted to understand why it is that someone reacts they way they do when something happens to them? Negative Reinforcement is a powerful psychological tool that is utilized by all people to help them deal with certain issues they may not be comfortable dealing with. In the world of Applied Behavior Analysis, we study why individuals are using negative reinforcement in certain situations to help them cope with the events at hand.
Let us take a second to define what negative reinforcement is and what it is not. The average person considers negative reinforcement to be a form of punishment that will stop or alter behavior in an individual. The truth is that negative reinforcement will actually increase behavior in an individual so that they can learn to avoid or escape situations they do not want to be in.
Let us take an example of a child that does not want to do their school work while sitting at the table. If the child learns that crying at the table is going to get him away from the table and able to sit by mom in the living room, what is the probability that crying at the table is going to increase? Very high probability that crying will increase... this is negative reinforcement because the child is able to escape being at the table... and the behavior of crying increases over time so that removal from the table continue to happen.
Consider an example of a husband that wants to avoid a disagreement with his wife. If the husband learns that when a disagreements begins and he leaves the home to go the store. Upon his return his wife has cooled down, his behavior of going to the store will significantly increase to avoid the confrontation. This is another form of negative reinforcement because it allows the individual to escape a situation they do not want to be in. The behavior of leaving the home will significantly increase anytime the husband wants to avoid the behavior of the wife, unless the wife recognizes the behavior and changes her response to him leaving. For example, if he leaves and come back and expects her to be cooled down, however she is even more upset, leaving the home now has no value because it caused things to be worse.