A common practice in teaching is using behavior management systems to help keep students on track in the classroom environment and a way for the teacher to manage a large group of students using one main system. In the past, behavior management systems were purely just based on negative reinforcements (losing a reward/privilege or receiving additional work or chores) but have now, over the years, evolved more into systems that use a combination of both positive and negative reinforcements or that try to just solely focus on the positive.

Positive reinforcements are receiving a type of motivating reward for exhibiting the desired behavior or when doing something well.

Negative reinforcement is a penalty for not doing something. For example, if you do not display the desired behavior or complete the assigned task, you can receive negative reinforcement or a “negative consequence”. One of the sources I found online worded the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment perfectly (as they are not the same) and the excerpt is below:

(Note: negative reinforcement is NOT the same thing as “punishment.” Punishment implies that you receive a penalty for doing something you’re not supposed to do — whereas negative reinforcement implies not receiving a penalty for doing something. For instance, if you misbehave and your mom spanks you, that’s punishment: adding a bad stimulus when you did something bad. If you get charged money–or electrically shocked by your Facebook friends—because you don’t exercise, that’s negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement occurs when an aversive stimulus (a ‘bad consequence’) is removed after a good behavior is exhibited. The difference is subtle, but very important.) (Sethi, 2014).

This study also initially found that negative reinforcement was the reinforcer that initially sparked the most habit change at the beginning of the attempt in changing the behavior. This makes sense in why we as a society have believed for hundreds of years (and even beyond just our educational system) why initially negative reinforcement is the more effective way to change behavior. However, after the initial change in behavior, the study found that the participants became resentful of the negative reinforcement and seemingly lost motivation. This is where positive reinforcement needed to come back in and therefore was able to motivate participants again and have them aspire to work for positive rewards. They termed this the “Push-Pull Motivation” where negative can initially get you started but then positive will help keep you going long term (Sethi, 2014).

Sethi, M. (2014, October 19). Positive vs Negative Reinforcement: Which Is More Effective? Retrieved from https://pavlok.com/blog/positive-vs-negative-reinforcement-which-is-more-effective/