A few fun facts about reinforcement:

1) Reinforcement is a scientific principle of behavior. Saying it doesn't work is like saying there is no such thing as gravity. Behavior only occurs because it is reinforced.

2) There are two types of reinforcement: positive and negative. Positive and negative mean either adding (positive) something or removing (negative) something following the occurrence of behavior. Positive and negative does NOT mean favorable or unfavorable consequences ; simply addition or subtraction.

Both types of reinforcement increase the likelihood of behavior in the future.

An example of positive reinforcement: I see you walk towards me in the morning and smile (behavior), you smile back (stimulus added). Next morning, when I see you, I smile. The behavior of smiling at you occurs again because it was reinforced by you smiling back.

An example of negative reinforcement: I walked into my house and it smells. The smell is coming from the trash. I take the trash out (behavior) and the house no longer smells (stimulus removed). Next time the trash stinks, I take the trash out. The behavior of taking the trash out occurs again because it was reinforced by removing the smell. As you can clearly see from these examples, negative reinforcement is NOT punishment. Punishment is a different scientific principle and, when used correctly, it decreases the likelihood of a behavior in the future.

3) Reinforcement is not bribery. Referring to the examples above, no one was offering me a plea or a deal to influence my behavior. Typically, in bribery, specifically with parenting, a child is engaging in an undesirable behavior and the parent offers a desirable consequence for that child to stop the undesirable behavior. As a result, the child can learn to engage in undesirable behavior in order to get an offer from the parent. To use reinforcement correctly, a parent would wait until the child engaged in the desirable behavior, at the desirable time, and then deliver a reinforcing consequence. The desired behavior would then need to occur again to demonstrate that the consequence was reinforcing.

4) A reinforcing consequence is anything that results in an increase in the behavior in the future. It can be anything (see examples above). People tend to think candies, toys, money, etc., but above the consequences were a smile and the removal of a smell. What's reinforcing to one person is different for another. What's reinforcing one day might not be the next.

5) We only engage in behavior if it is reinforced. Be mindful of your interactions. It is likely that you are reinforcing behaviors you don't want to see happen again. If you don't like a behavior you are doing (e.g. yelling, smoking, gossiping, etc.) or someone else is doing, then you need to identify what is reinforcing that behavior (e.g. why do I keep doing this? what's the immediate pay off?) and change the environment. If you want to start engaging in a new behavior (e.g. exercising more, eating healthy, making your bed, etc.) or get someone else to engage in a new behavior, you will need to analyze the environment to find out what you could use to potentially reinforce that behavior (i.e. makes that behavior more likely to happen again in the future) and make a plan to modify the environment in order to impact that behavior.

6) Lastly, if you are trying to use this scientific principle to teach a new skill or to get a desirable behavior to replace an undesirable behavior, you need to understand how to implement this principle correctly. This scientific principle can seem straightforward and easy to implement, but it is best practice to be educated and know how to do a procedure correctly to avoid making a situation worse.