Effects of Punishment Intensity on Human Operant Behavior

Abstract

In an attempt to develop techniques which might lead to quantitative measures of human conflict behavior, female college students were placed in a free operant situation where responding was concurrently reinforced (with money represented by counter tally) and punished (with electric shock) with increasing severity for successive responses. Ss were able to reset the shock to a low level by making a second response, which resulted in subtraction of counter tallies. Results indicate that as shock intensity increases, total responding decreases, and the average number of responses before reset also decreases. Variations in the magnitude of positive reinforcement failed to have any effects. Several factors which might have been involved were discussed. Suggestions were made for clarifying the role that duration of exposure to shock plays in the situation.