The article provides a review of research on the role of punishment in relation to the normalization of retarded persons and points out that, in the natural environment, punishment procedures normally play some part in the determination of social behavior. (IM)

Based on observations of children ages 21-25 months in play groups, investigates reactions of both peers and teachers to behaviors that could be identified and coded as male, female, or neutral. (Author/NH)

This study investigated the therapeutic feasibility of self-administered punishment of imagined behavior. With heavy-smoking males, the imagined-smoking treatment was the only highly effective therapy. It was significantly more effective than the placebo or actual-smoking treatments, and it replicated. (Author)

After finding that self-injurious behavior in two young males with developmental disabilities was negatively reinforced by escape from instructional activities, an intervention provided noncontingent escape on a fixed schedule and differential negative reinforcement of other behavior. Provision of escape, even when noncontingent, resulted in…

This article summarizes and critically analyzes the literature on self-restraint (in which a mentally retarded individual restricts or prevents motion of a body part), particularly its identification, etiology, modification, and relationship to self-injurious behavior. The paper examines the hypotheses of negative reinforcement and stimulus…

Reports on interventions with gangs of youth in Northern Ireland beyond the control of authorities. Recounts how physical abuse or banishment have proven ineffective in curtailing delinquency and offers a case study to exemplify this point. Details the powerlessness of punishment, advocating high expectations and communication over coercion. (RJM)

Several studies identifying establishing operations for negatively reinforced behavior among nine adults with developmental disabilities are reported. After verifying through functional analysis that self-injurious behavior was maintained by escape, some establishing properties of task demands were investigated by systematically altering task…

The present study examined the linkage between pre-adolescent children's depressive symptoms and their preferences for receiving positive vs. negative feedback subsequent to being faced with an experimentally manipulated peer evaluation outcome in real time. Participants (n = 142) ages 10 to 13, played a computer contest based on the television…

It is customary in behavior analysis to distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement in terms of whether the reinforcing event involves onset or offset of a stimulus. In a previous article (Baron & Galizio, 2005), we concluded that a distinction of these terms is not only ambiguous but has little if any functional significance. Here, we…