5 conditions for effective punishments

1. The punishment has to be relative intense.
   The subject should feel it as a punishment)
2. It has to be giving promptly. This is one of the problems with the current law system. There is too much time between the crime  and the punishment.
   The person has to feel that it is related. Even when he/she knows it is related, the brain might not make the connection.
3. It should be given consistent. Some  parents feel bad when they give their children all the time a remark. When it is not given consistent it does not work. In fact when the punishment is not followed, the children (team members) are negatively enforced.
4. The punishment should not be associated with any kind of positive enforcement.
   If a punishment is associated with a positive enforcement, the behavior will increase instead of decrease.
   A patron that happens a lot with children is that people punish their children and immediately after tell them they love the child. They do that out of a kind of remorse or to make the child at ease. When this happens, the punishment had no sense.
   Also when the punishment is the only kind of attention the children or team members get from the parents (leaders)
5. It should not lead to escaping or avoidance behavior.

The combination of these 5 conditions you can hardly get outside a laboratory (Where it was found that these conditions give the best behavior.) That is why punishment hardly get’s the desired result.
Check out other ways of behavior increasing actions and tips for making positive feedback work better.

Also note that “Punishment” is used in the psychological way. I did not write “punishment by hitting” people.

Source:Psychology Marc Brysbaert

I am Yves Hanoulle, your virtual Project coach and you can reach me at yves at my agile training company .net

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