Consequences

So far we have gone over the ABC's of behavior and the functions of behavior. Now it is time for us to focus on the "C" in the ABC's of behavior, today we are going to discuss consequences!  Now like we have talked about before, a consequence is any stimulus that immediately follows a behavior.  A consequence can be administered by another person or can occur naturally without being administered by another person.  It is important to note that in order for a consequence to be the most effective it MUST occur within 0-3 seconds of the particular behavior.  Consequences that occur after that time frame may still effect behavior but it will most likely not have as strong as an effect because there has been too much of a delay, or alternate behaviors may have occurred that are not being reinforced.  Now consequences can either increase or decrease the behavior they follow, depending on the type of consequence that are delivered.  There are two main categories of consequences: Reinforcement and punishment, and of those each has two subtypes: negative and positive.

When we think of positive and negative we need to go way back to elementary math class and think of addition and subtraction.  There is both positive and negative reinforcement, as well as positive and negative punishment.  The positive and negative are not denoting something good or bad happening, but rather if a stimulus is being added (positive) or removed (negative). Remember, we can not determine if a consequence is a reinforcer or a punishment, until we see how FUTURE behavior is effected. If the behavior increases then the consequence was a reinforcer, if it decreases then the consequence was a punisher.

• Positive reinforcement:  You add a preferred stimulus after a particular behavior and that behavior increases in the future under similar conditions.
• Negative reinforcement:  You remove an aversive stimulus after a particular behavior and that behavior increases in the future under similar conditions.

• Positive punishment: You add an aversive stimulus after a behavior and that behavior decreases in the future under similar situations.
• Negative punishment: You remove a desired stimulus after a behavior and that behavior decreases in the future under similar situations.

It is important to remember that the type of consequence that is provided must be appropriate the the function of the behavior, and a FUNCTIONALLY EQUIVALENT replacement behavior must also be taught.  Also, remember that we want to use punishment as a last resort, ethically we should exhaust all possible means of reinforcement BEFORE we move to a punishment technique.  Granted this is not always the case when we are parenting our own children, and we must use punishment with discretion. However, in the professional setting punishment is a LAST RESORT.