Poll: Reward or Punishment?

[Soviet Heavy]

In my sociology class today, our teacher proposed this question on Conditioning: Is it better to reward positive actions, or to prevent undesirable actions through punishment?

There are two ways to look at this. For Rewarding good behaviour, it might seem more reasonable to assume this is the better action. But humans are not stupid, we would quickly find a way to manipulate the rewards system for our own benefit, negating the conditioning altogether. This leads to corruption and manipulation.

Punishment acts as a way to prevent an undesirable action, through fear and intimidation. This can have dangerous consequences. It prevents the undesired action, but does not allude to the alternative action which is desired. It also gives the conditioner control over the person, as they dictate what is acceptable and what isn't.

So, manipulation of rewards has the potential to corrupt, while punishment gives one person power over another.

What do you think is the better answer?

 

[Chefodeath]

um...both? That's kind of the idea, you get the best of both worlds...

 

[Hader]

One will be best for some situations, the other for the rest. To apply a reward system to everything won't work well. Same goes for punishment for everything. Rewards are best reinforcement for some things, punishment the best for others.

 

[Paksenarrion]

How about neither? External rewards undermine internal motivation, whereas punishment merely treats us as less than human.

If we are a society kept in check by punishment, civilization will stagnate.

 

[noxymoron19]

Reward. When I was younger and my mom would make me go to bed early. I would stay up even later then I had originally planned. Just to spite her

 

[Kpt._Rob]

Well, as someone who's taken a couple of psychology classes in my time, I can tell you that the book's answer is that, in as far as conditioned behaviors are concerned, rewards work better than punishments.

 

[Astoria]

Well both is best but if you had to choose one I'd say rewards are better. If someone tries to manipulate it you simply stop rewarding them.

 

[Kae]

How about neither? External rewards undermine internal motivation, whereas punishment merely treats us as less than human.

If we are a society kept in check by punishment, civilization will stagnate.

Exactly that, I mean didn't this actually happen in the middle ages? I thought that's why they call it the dark ages

 

[TheTaco007]

How about neither? External rewards undermine internal motivation, whereas punishment merely treats us as less than human.

If we are a society kept in check by punishment, civilization will stagnate.

This.

If you have to bribe someone to do something right, or punish them if they do things wrong, you're not teaching them to do right for the sake of being a good person, you're teaching them to do everything for the wrong reasons, and so then when you aren't there to praise/scold them, they aren't left with any moral obligation to do the right thing.