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Module 6: Control
Department of Psychology, Liberty University
PSYC 365: Psychological Foundations of Learning
Module 6: Control
There are three prominent theories that come with using punishment to alter behavior.
The first prominent theory of punishment is based on observation and was proposed by Estes and
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Skinner. The observation consisted of a controlled stimulus that when paired with a shock will
suppress performance of food-reinforced instrumental behavior (Domjan, 2017). This creates
conditioned suppression when it is ongoing because the shock is an adverse stimulus that creates
fear and causes the animal to freeze which interferes with other affairs. An example of this
would be if my friend’s puppy was barking every time an object or person was walking on the
sidewalk. A shock would be delivered at the time the puppy started to bark to create the fear
response of not barking when an object or person walked by on the sidewalk. The second
prominent theory of punishment is the two-process theory of punishment and is mostly
associated with Dinsmoor. Dinsmoor proposed that organisms learn to escape from the
conditioned aversive stimuli related to the punished response by appealing to another behavior
that conflicts with the punishment activity (Domjan, 2017). This theory is controversial because
it suggests that changes in aversive instrumental conditioning can fluctuate and be explained by
avoidance learning. However, this is difficult to prove because it has a notion that one must
anticipate the organisms experiences prior punishment. Given the information on the two-process
theory of punishment I would not recommend using this theory of punishment for my friend’s
puppy. The third and final prominent theory of punishment is the negative Law of Effect which
is the oldest and originally proposed by Thorndike. This proposal was that positive reinforcement
and punishment are opposite processes. Which means that positive reinforcement would increase
one’s behavior whereas a punishment would weaken the behavior. However, this became
questioned Rasmussen and Newland in 2008 had done a study on college students and the
findings were that punishment has three times the amount of behavior change compared to
reinforcement (Domjan, 2017). With this information, punishment has three times more effect
than reinforcement that would be noted when speaking to my friend on training her new puppy.
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Overall, for punishment to work there needs to be a controlled stimulus that is aversive in
instrumental behavior to be effective training for my friends new puppy.
Biblical Perspective Overcoming Fear
When thinking about fear I think of how challenging that emotion can be when we are in
the moment it can be hard to overcome. Fear has a potential to consume one completely and can
even prevent one from living life to the fullest. However we can look to the bible for comfort
because God lets us know that there is no reason to be fearful. “So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:8-10). In this scripture God is telling us that he is with
us and that he will strengthen and help us when we are feeling fearful. One example that I
personally have from overcoming a fear is when I was in Marine Corps bootcamp, and I was
fearful that I would not be able to finish the crucible but I was able to take a breath and then pray
to God to give me the strength to finish. In the end I finished the crucible and felt proud that I
earned my eagle, globe, and anchor.
References
Domjan, M. (2017) The Principles of Learning and Behavior MindTap - Cengage Learning.
