Glossary
Punishment
What is Punishment?
In psychology, punishment is a consequence that reduces the future likelihood of the behavior it follows. In the behavior-change taxonomy, the technique called punishment means arranging an aversive consequence contingent on an unwanted behavior.
How the technique is defined
The taxonomy describes an intervention's content. Including a technique does not endorse it ethically or establish that it is appropriate. In learning theory, whether a consequence functions as punishment depends on its effect on subsequent behavior, not merely its unpleasantness or intended purpose.
Positive and negative punishment
In operant conditioning, positive punishment adds a consequence; negative punishment removes something valued. Both are defined by a decrease in behavior. Positive and negative mean addition and removal, not good and bad. Negative reinforcement is different: removing a consequence increases the behavior.
Illustrative example
Adding a consequence
Suppose a game adds an unpleasant sound after an incorrect move. That illustrates an intended aversive consequence. To call it punishment in the learning-theory sense, we would need to observe a reduction in the behavior; making a sound unpleasant is not enough.
Removing points
For a matching hypothetical example of negative punishment, suppose the game removes earned points after the same incorrect move, and the player subsequently makes that move less often. Here something valued is removed, and the specified behavior decreases. If it did not decrease, the point loss would not meet the functional definition of punishment.
Reducing that move is a different learning outcome from teaching a correct move. The game could demonstrate the alternative and reinforce its successful use; operant-conditioning accounts distinguish strengthening a desired response from weakening an unwanted one. Neither punishment example establishes that an alternative has been learned, or that all punishments have the same duration or side effects.
Punishment in the behavior change taxonomy
The original BCT Taxonomy v1 definitions identify this as technique 14.2.