You have just been hired as a babysitter for the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe\'

Question

You have just been hired as a babysitter for the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe's 15 children. As the old woman leaves for a night on the town, she tells you that she has three rules regarding the children's playtime: (1) They can play with whatever toys they want, but they have to clean their playroom before bedtime: (2) They should share their toys with each other; and (3) They are not allowed to fight with each other. Using the principles of reinforcement and punishment, devise a strategy to fulfill her three requests. es Short Answer 1

Explanation / Answer

Reinforcement and punishment are core tools of operant conditioning, which are useful in producing or regulating behavior. Reinforcement and punishment either positive (given following a response) or negative (withdrawn following a response). Below are the possible consequences of reinforcement and punishment:

(i) In positive reinforcement, the certain behavior is followed by favorable stimulus. This incentivizes the response and thus increases the frequency of such response.

(ii) In negative reinforcement, response is followed by removal of an unpleasant stimulus. Again, this will increase response frequency.

(iii) In positive punishment, response is followed by an unpleasant stimulus. This unpleasant stimulus will decrease occurrence of such response or behavior in future.

(iv) In negative punishment, response is followed by removal of favorable stimulus. This again will decrease frequency of such response or behavior in future.

Let us consider the case where three requests need to be fulfilled:

1. Children can play with whatever toys they want but they have to clean their playroom before bedtime. Children should be told initially that they can play with toys but it is their responsibility to clean the playroom. Here, two possible responses are either children may clean their playroom or leave it untidy before bedtime.

(a) If children accept the responsibility and keeps playroom tidy before bedtime, then positive reinforcement like offering some sweet as appreciation or comic book can be given. This will increase responsible behavior of children, so that they get reward for accepting responsibility.

(b) If children do not clean their playroom before bedtime and left it untidy, then negative punishment like withdrawing tomorrow's playtime benefits or denying toys next day can be given. This will make children learn no responsibility means no benefits, so behavior of leaving playroom untidy will be decreased.

2. Children should share toys with each other. Initially, children should be instructed toys are to be shared and also joy of sharing to be explained through some story. Possible responses may be:

(a) Children may accept what is explained to them and happily share the toys. Here in this scenario, children should be provided positive reinforcement like extra playtime and chocolate with meals. This will act as reward for their behavior and children will maintain this behavior due to positive rewarding. Some children who did not share initially also will start sharing when they observe reward to those who shared the toys.

(b) If children did not accept to share the toys and started conflict with each other, then negative punishment like reduction in playtime can be given. Also positive punishment like making those children who did not share toys to write their names 100 times will reduce negative behavior.

3. Children should not fight with each other. Children should be explained about harmonious living and encouraged to enjoy the toys and games without clashes or fighting. Possible responses may include:

(a) Children play sharing their toys and enjoy being together. This type of response should be reinforced by positive reinforcement like providing extra toys, cookies, comic books, etc. By this children will learn about gain with harmonious living and fighting or aggressive behavior reduced. Some children might at first got into clashes but later learns to be harmonious, they should be first provided with negative reinforcement like taking off restrictions which are put due to their aggressive behavior.

(b) Children may start getting possessive about toys and aggressive with their peers. This behavior should be reduced by positive punishment like making them do extra home work activities and also by negative punishment like taking back the toys or reducing the playtime for them. This will reduce aggressive behavior.

These are strategies that can be adapted to cultivate desired behavior in children at babysitting.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse Y
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.