472 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
A third outcome of punishment is the spread of its effects. Any stimulus
associated with the punishment may be suppressed or avoided. In our example, the
boy may simply learn to avoid his younger sister, stay away from his parents, or
develop negative feelings toward the paddle or the place where the paddling
occurred. As a result, the boy’s behavior toward his family becomes maladaptive.
Yet this inappropriate behavior serves the purpose of preventing future punishment.
Skinner recognized the classical Freudian defense mechanisms as effective means
of avoiding pain and its attendant anxiety. The punished person may fantasize,
project feelings onto others, rationalize aggressive behaviors, or displace them
toward other people or animals.Punishment and Reinforcement Compared Punishment has several characteris-
tics in common with reinforcement. Just as there are two kinds of reinforcements
(positive and negative), there are two types of punishment. The first requires the
presentation of an aversive stimulus; the second involves the removal of a positive
reinforcer. An example of the former is pain encountered from falling as the result
of walking too fast on an icy sidewalk. An example of the latter is a heavy fine
levied against a motorist for driving too fast. This first example (falling) results
from a natural condition; the second (being fined) follows from human interven-
tion. These two types of punishment reveal a second characteristic common to
punishment and reinforcement: Both can derive either from natural consequences
or from human imposition. Finally, both punishment and reinforcement are means
of controlling behavior, whether the control is by design or by accident. Skinner
obviously favored planned control, and his book Walden Two (Skinner, 1948)
presented many of his ideas on the control of human behavior.Conditioned and Generalized Reinforcers
Food is a reinforcement for humans and animals because it removes a condition
of deprivation. But how can money, which cannot directly remove a condition of
deprivation, be reinforcing? The answer is that money is a conditioned reinforcer.
Conditioned reinforcers (sometimes called secondary reinforcers) are those envi-
ronmental stimuli that are not by nature satisfying but become so because they are
associated with such unlearned or primary reinforcers as food, water, sex, or
physical comfort. Money is a conditioned reinforcer because it can be exchanged
for a great variety of primary reinforcers. In addition, it is a generalized reinforcer
because it is associated with more than one primary reinforcer.
Skinner (1953) recognized five important generalized reinforcers that sustain
much of human behavior: attention, approval, affection, submission of others, and
tokens (money). Each can be used as reinforcers in a variety of situations. Atten-
tion, for example, is a conditioned generalized reinforcer because it is associated
with such primary reinforcers as food and physical contact. When children are
being fed or held, they are also receiving attention. After food and attention are
paired a number of times, attention itself becomes reinforcing through the process
of respondent (classical) conditioning. Children, and adults too, will work for atten-
tion with no expectation of receiving food or physical contact. In much the same
way, approval, affection, submission of others, and money acquire generalized