Final answer:
The child doing chores as a consequence of misbehavior is an example of positive punishment, which adds an unpleasant stimulus to decrease behavior. This is different from negative punishment, which removes a pleasant stimulus, and from reinforcement, which aims to increase behavior. Positive reinforcement is often favored over punishment due to the potential negative side effects of the latter. Option b is the answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The scenario presented, where a child misbehaves and his dad makes him do several hours of boring chores, is an example of positive punishment. In operant conditioning, when we refer to positive punishment, we are talking about adding an unpleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior. This is different than reinforcement, which always aims to increase a behavior. The chores are an unpleasant task added to the child's experience to decrease the likelihood of future misbehavior.
Negative punishment, in contrast, would involve taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior. An example could be removing a child's favorite toy or preventing them from participating in a fun activity. It's important to understand that in both instances of punishment, the goal is to decrease unwanted behavior. Whereas in both positive and negative reinforcement, the goal is to increase desired behavior.
While positive punishment can effectively decrease undesirable behaviors, using reinforcement strategies where good behavior is rewarded is often seen as more beneficial. This is because punishment can sometimes have negative side effects such as teaching the child to respond with fear or aggression.