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Psychological Medicine Jul 2022Motivational processes underlie behaviors that enrich the human experience, and impairments in motivation are commonly observed in psychiatric illness. While motivated... (Review)
Review
Motivational processes underlie behaviors that enrich the human experience, and impairments in motivation are commonly observed in psychiatric illness. While motivated behavior is often examined with respect to extrinsic reinforcers, not all actions are driven by reactions to external stimuli; some are driven by 'intrinsic' motivation. Intrinsically motivated behaviors are computationally similar to extrinsically motivated behaviors, in that they strive to maximize reward value and minimize punishment. However, our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie intrinsically motivated behavior remains limited. Dysfunction in intrinsic motivation represents an important trans-diagnostic facet of psychiatric symptomology, but due to a lack of clear consensus, the contribution of intrinsic motivation to psychopathology remains poorly understood. This review aims to provide an overview of the conceptualization, measurement, and neurobiology of intrinsic motivation, providing a framework for understanding its potential contributions to psychopathology and its treatment. Distinctions between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are discussed, including divergence in the types of associated rewards or outcomes that drive behavioral action and choice. A useful framework for understanding intrinsic motivation, and thus separating it from extrinsic motivation, is developed and suggestions for optimization of paradigms to measure intrinsic motivation are proposed.
Topics: Humans; Motivation; Reward; Punishment; Mental Disorders
PubMed: 35796023
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291722001611 -
Journal of Forensic NursingGlobally, it is estimated that more than one billion children experience corporal punishment in the home despite the fact that the use of corporal punishment is...
Globally, it is estimated that more than one billion children experience corporal punishment in the home despite the fact that the use of corporal punishment is associated with a variety of negative consequences for children. The International Association of Forensic Nurses opposes the use of corporal punishment and encourages screening and education on its effects in health and school settings.
Topics: Child; Humans; Punishment
PubMed: 37590947
DOI: 10.1097/JFN.0000000000000433 -
Scientific Reports Jan 2023A fundamental question in social and biological sciences is whether self-governance is possible when individual and collective interests are in conflict. Free riding...
A fundamental question in social and biological sciences is whether self-governance is possible when individual and collective interests are in conflict. Free riding poses a major challenge to self-governance, and a prominent solution to this challenge has been altruistic punishment. However, this solution is ineffective when counter-punishments are possible and when social interactions are noisy. We set out to address these shortcomings, motivated by the fact that most people behave like conditional cooperators-individuals willing to cooperate if a critical number of others do so. In our evolutionary model, the population contains heterogeneous conditional cooperators whose decisions depend on past cooperation levels. The population plays a repeated public goods game in a moderately noisy environment where individuals can occasionally commit mistakes in their cooperative decisions and in their imitation of the role models' strategies. We show that, under moderate levels of noise, injecting a few altruists into the population triggers positive reciprocity among conditional cooperators, thereby providing a novel mechanism to establish stable cooperation. More broadly, our findings indicate that self-governance is possible while avoiding the detrimental effects of punishment, and suggest that society should focus on creating a critical amount of trust to harness the conditional nature of its members.
Topics: Humans; Cooperative Behavior; Punishment; Game Theory; Altruism; Social Interaction
PubMed: 36681708
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-28372-y -
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Oct 2022Bermúdez's "rational framing effects" are consequences of a counterintuitive phenomenon that I call "normative polyphony": the reality that a single action may, with...
Bermúdez's "rational framing effects" are consequences of a counterintuitive phenomenon that I call "normative polyphony": the reality that a single action may, with logical consistency, sustain diverse positive and negative judgments. I show that normative polyphony emerges from "ontological polyphony" - that is, diverse possible framings of relevant details - and illustrate this "polyphony principle" through a reading of Dostoevsky's (1993) .
Topics: Humans; Famous Persons; Judgment; Punishment
PubMed: 36281886
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X2200108X -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Sep 2023
Topics: Humans; Uganda; Homosexuality; Government Regulation; Punishment
PubMed: 37657792
DOI: 10.1136/bmj.p1840 -
Pediatrics Sep 2023The use of corporal punishment in schools is not an effective or ethical method for management of behavior concerns and causes harm to students. The American Academy of...
The use of corporal punishment in schools is not an effective or ethical method for management of behavior concerns and causes harm to students. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that corporal punishment in all school settings be abolished in all states by law and replaced by alternative forms of student behavior management. Corporal punishment remains legal in many public and private schools in the United States and is disproportionately used among Black students and children with disabilities. The aims of this policy statement are to review the incidence of school-based corporal punishment; the negative physical, psychological, and developmental impact of corporal punishment on students; and the need for continued advocacy by pediatricians, educators, and parents to abolish corporal punishment in all schools.
Topics: Child; Humans; Parents; Punishment; Black or African American; Schools
PubMed: 37599648
DOI: 10.1542/peds.2023-063284 -
Current Opinion in Psychology Apr 2022Reward and punishment change the payoff structures of social interactions and therefore can potentially play a role in promoting prosocial behavior. Yet, there are... (Review)
Review
Reward and punishment change the payoff structures of social interactions and therefore can potentially play a role in promoting prosocial behavior. Yet, there are boundary conditions for them to be effective. We review recent work that addresses the conditions under which rewards and punishment can enhance prosocial behavior, the proximate and ultimate mechanisms for individuals' rewarding and punishing decisions, and the reputational and behavioral consequences of reward and punishment under noise. The reviewed evidence points to the importance of more field research on how reward and punishment can promote prosocial behavior in real-world settings. We also highlight the need to integrate different methodologies to better examine the effects of reward and punishment on prosocial behavior.
Topics: Altruism; Humans; Punishment; Reward
PubMed: 34619459
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.09.003 -
Ugeskrift For Laeger Jan 2020
Topics: Humans; Pedophilia; Punishment
PubMed: 32052732
DOI: No ID Found -
PLoS Computational Biology Dec 2022Protection often involves the capacity to prospectively plan the actions needed to mitigate harm. The computational architecture of decisions involving protection...
Protection often involves the capacity to prospectively plan the actions needed to mitigate harm. The computational architecture of decisions involving protection remains unclear, as well as whether these decisions differ from other beneficial prospective actions such as reward acquisition. Here we compare protection acquisition to reward acquisition and punishment avoidance to examine overlapping and distinct features across the three action types. Protection acquisition is positively valenced similar to reward. For both protection and reward, the more the actor gains, the more benefit. However, reward and protection occur in different contexts, with protection existing in aversive contexts. Punishment avoidance also occurs in aversive contexts, but differs from protection because punishment is negatively valenced and motivates avoidance. Across three independent studies (Total N = 600) we applied computational modeling to examine model-based reinforcement learning for protection, reward, and punishment in humans. Decisions motivated by acquiring protection evoked a higher degree of model-based control than acquiring reward or avoiding punishment, with no significant differences in learning rate. The context-valence asymmetry characteristic of protection increased deployment of flexible decision strategies, suggesting model-based control depends on the context in which outcomes are encountered as well as the valence of the outcome.
Topics: Humans; Prospective Studies; Learning; Reinforcement, Psychology; Reward; Punishment
PubMed: 36534704
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010805 -
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of... Jan 2021In his book Coercion and Its Fallout Murray Sidman argued against the use of punishment based on concerns about its shortcomings and side effects. Among his concerns...
In his book Coercion and Its Fallout Murray Sidman argued against the use of punishment based on concerns about its shortcomings and side effects. Among his concerns were the temporary nature of response suppression produced by punishment, the dangers of conditioned punishment, increases in escape and avoidance responses, punishment-induced aggression, and the development of countercontrol. This paper revisits Sidman's arguments about these putative shortcomings and side effects by examining the available data. Although Sidman's concerns are reasonable and should be considered when using any form of behavioral control, there appears to be a lack of strong empirical support for the notion that these potential problems with punishment are necessarily ubiquitous, long-lasting, or specific to punishment. We describe the need for additional research on punishment in general, and especially on its putative shortcomings and side effects. We also suggest the need for more effective formal theories of punishment that provide a principled account of how, why, and when lasting effects of punishment and its potential side effects might be expected to occur or not. In addition to being necessary for a complete account of behavior, such data and theories might contribute to improved interventions for problems of human concern.
Topics: Aggression; Humans; Punishment
PubMed: 33283288
DOI: 10.1002/jeab.653