FREE Practice Question: Negative Reinforcement vs. Positive Reinforcement

Negative Reinforcement vs. Positive Reinforcement

Positive and negative reinforcement are topics that could very well show up on your LMSW or LCSW exam and is one that tends to trip many of us up. Because of our strong associations with the words negative (bad) and positive (good), it is all too easy to be thrown off by these otherwise straightforward questions on the LCSW and LMSW exams. When it comes to reinforcement, it is crucial to keep in mind that negative does not mean bad and positive does not mean good. Let me repeat that: when it comes to reinforcement on the LCSW and LMSW exams, negative does not mean bad and positive does not mean good. In the context of this term, negative reinforcement refers to taking something away and positive reinforcement refers to adding something. Negative=taking something away; Positive=adding something. Because of these associations, people often confuse negative reinforcement and punishment on the exam, despite the fact that these are two very different concepts. Let’s spend a little time looking at these three concepts.

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Negative Reinforcement

When you negatively reinforce a behavior, you are strengthening a response through removing (this is what is meant by negative) adverse stimuli. Example: When your car stops beeping once you put your seatbelt on. This is negative reinforcement because it is removing the noise, which in turn strengthens the desired behavior of putting your seatbelt on. Simply put, removing the unpleasant beeping noise when you put your seatbelt on increases the likelihood you will put on your seatbelt again in the future.

Positive Reinforcement

When you positively reinforce something, you are strengthening a response through adding (this is what is meant by positive) stimuli. Example: A child cleans his room and gets a sticker. You are adding the sticker, which is strengthening the desired response of cleaning his/her room. Giving the sticker is the “positive” part of positive reinforcement. It is not positive because children like stickers; rather, it is positive because we are adding something-the sticker. Simply put, adding the pleasant stimuli makes it more likely the child will clean his room again.

Punishment

Unlike positive and negative reinforcement, which are about strengthening behaviors, punishment seeks to do just the opposite-decrease the frequency of a behavior. Punishment occurs when an undesired consequence is imposed in order to make an unwanted behavior stop. For example, a parent may take away a child's video games because they didn't do their chores. In this case, the unwanted behavior is not doing their chores, and the undesired consequence is taking away a child’s video games. In this case, something (the video games) is being taken away and can therefore be considered negative punishment since we are removing something the child likes. Another example would be a parent adding an extra chore because their child didn't do their chores. In this case, something (the extra chore) is being added and can therefore be considered positive punishment because we are adding something.

It takes some undoing to keep our minds from associating the words positive with good and negative with bad, but it is imperative to do so for purposes of your LCSW and LMSW exams.

Let’s see how you do on a practice question covering positive and negative reinforcement.

Question:

A social worker meets with a 16-year-old girl and her parents due to increasing parental-child conflicts. The parents describe their daughter’s behavior as “out of control” and the daughter describes her parents expectations as “unfair and unreasonable.” The parents explain that they will let their daughter go out with friends on the weekends only if she maintains a 4.0 grade point average. This is best described as an example of:

1. Negative Reinforcement
2. Positive Reinforcement
3. Negative Punishment
4. Positive Punishment

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