Benefits Of Reinforcement

Benefits of Reinforcement

Reinforcement is among the many psychological tools that are used for teaching people to do specific actions. The two main kinds of reinforcement include, negative and positive reinforcement. Negative reinforacement attempts to enhance the occurrence of certain behaviors through eliminating unwanted conditions. Positive reinforcement works through rewarding people for actions taken. The benefits of reinforcement are continued below.

1. Depression treatment
In context of depression and anxiety disorders, reinforcement is usually used by a psychologist or therapist for changing how a patient’s thinks. Positive reinforcement is normally applied and this involves rewarding the patients for any positive steps that they might have taken during treatment. Therapists also try to encourage their patients to think positively. When a person has a positive attitude and makes the effort of smiling, they are normally rewarded with enhanced happiness.

2. Stress management
Negative reinforcement allows for the introduction of effective tactics of stress management like breathing exercises. This allows the person with stress to learn how to avoid stress related ailments such as headaches, panic attacks and stomach aches. Actually, the elimination of undesired symptoms is a great example of the benefits that can be achieved using negative reinforcement.

3. Motivation
Positive reinforcement is used for motivating people, especially employees at work. Through setting up rewards for employees who attain certain accomplishments, they will be motivated to work better and increase their effectiveness. Similarly, children who are acknowledged for their good work in their studies are more likely to succeed in life.

4. Encourages good behaviors
The use of negative reinforcements mainly discourages any actions or behaviors that are not acceptable in certain settings. For instance, in schools, punishments are normally set up so as to encourage the students to avoid making mistakes and this encourages good behaviors.
The shortcoming of reinforcement is that it may teach a person to remain inactive, especially if other family members try making the person feel better though cleaning and cooking for them.

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