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Punishment vs. Incentive
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everyday anarchy Offline
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Post: #1
Punishment vs. Incentive

I've just been thinking about this topic and figured it'd make for a good discussion here...
Which do you think would be best for motivating individuals, punishment for not doing the task or incentive for completion?

I personally am in favor of incentive over punishment. I see that incentive motivates individuals much more to do the best they can, while punishment simply pushes individuals to do just good enough of a job to evade punishment.
10-03-2007 10:37 AM
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Suicidal-kun Offline
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Post: #2
 

Both have good points and bad, personally I really don't have a preference, I've been raised on the whole punishment thing and I admit that the threat of having my shit taken away, does make me do work, but the incentive for things would also make me work harder. I guess it just depends on people's personalities, some work well with punishment and others work well with incentive. Though, sometimes neither would work on me, and how far they work is on the person's desires, for example, the only reason, I continue to work under the punishment treatment is because I need the extra boost, without it, I'd probably get only F's because I would be too lazy to do the work, and though I hate school, I'd rather just get it over with, with ok grades, so I can get into an ok college, and get a degree in radiology.
10-03-2007 11:11 AM
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Ahab Offline
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Post: #3
Re: Punishment vs. Incentive

everyday anarchy Wrote:I've just been thinking about this topic and figured it'd make for a good discussion here...
Which do you think would be best for motivating individuals, punishment for not doing the task or incentive for completion?

I personally am in favor of incentive over punishment. I see that incentive motivates individuals much more to do the best they can, while punishment simply pushes individuals to do just good enough of a job to evade punishment.

Agreed. Well, incentive, thats pretty much economics, the study of incentive. Example being Gary Beckers study on rational addiction and such.

"If you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit." - Robert Anton Wilson
10-03-2007 12:02 PM
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Freak Offline
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The punishment and reward system sucks. I mean look at school, it did completely shit for it.

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10-03-2007 01:36 PM
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thewake Offline
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I believe you need to just let people do as they wish, the knowledge or product is it's own reward.

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10-03-2007 01:47 PM
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Will Offline
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Rewards and punishments are the same thing. They're also both incentives; they're called positive and negative incentives respectively.

But if by "incentives" you mean real incentives, like really losing your job or making the amount of money that your service deserves, then incentives are better. The major reward/punishment is the way your parents treat you; they act really annoying when you aren't doing what you're supposed to, and they shut up when you are. You don't really have the option of not doing whatever your parents are encouraging you to do, and the rewards and punishments that parents and teachers use are small and fake.

That came out very sloppily. Do you understand me?
10-03-2007 02:01 PM
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thoughtmaker Offline
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Post: #7
 

i don't like either. i like to do things as their own reward. something done because of a punishment or reward is something that wouldn't be done otherwise and makes people depressed.

however, this system is exactly what our whole system is based on. no wonder people are so unhappy.
10-03-2007 03:31 PM
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goodusername Offline
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Post: #8
 

incentive

Babble babble bitch bitch rebel rebel party party sex sex sex and dont forget the "violence"

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10-03-2007 08:54 PM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Incentives are manipulative. People will always have reasons to do whatever it is they're doing, but many people do things because of incentives that other people have given them... like teachers punishing you for not doing your homework, or your dad bribing you to get an A. All of those incentives are worthless really, because you may get the end result (not being punished, or getting money for that A), but that's all you get. One day of freedom, or some money. If you were doing that same thing because you WANTED to, and found it interesting, and were actually learning from it, you wouldn't need bribes or threats of punishment. It would be its own reward.

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10-04-2007 04:05 AM
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Ahab Offline
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SoulRiser Wrote:Incentives are manipulative. People will always have reasons to do whatever it is they're doing, but many people do things because of incentives that other people have given them... like teachers punishing you for not doing your homework, or your dad bribing you to get an A. All of those incentives are worthless really, because you may get the end result (not being punished, or getting money for that A), but that's all you get. One day of freedom, or some money. If you were doing that same thing because you WANTED to, and found it interesting, and were actually learning from it, you wouldn't need bribes or threats of punishment. It would be its own reward.

And I agree, but that doesnt mean you should blame incentive as a whole.

If you live in a truly free society you should be able to use incentives to get you to where you want to be. Say you're an aspiring muisican in New York City. Do you want to work a janitor job? Probably not, but if itll get you money to move foward and get a Gibson Les Paul to help you practice, that might help you do what you want and get to it. It comes off as wage slavery, but if the benefits outweigh the sacrifices it seems sensible.

Mind you im talking about a truly free society, not the corporatism wage slavery we have now which uses negative incentives (including the right to starve, the right to live on the streets, etc.) to make you a slave to them. I think hirearchies should be a voluntary thing people should be able to leave at any time to where they can do their own thing/start their own individual trade/business.

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10-04-2007 12:15 PM
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youvebeenthunderstruck Offline
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Weswammy Wrote:I believe you need to just let people do as they wish, the knowledge or product is it's own reward.
10-04-2007 12:17 PM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #12
 

Quote:And I agree, but that doesnt mean you should blame incentive as a whole.

If you live in a truly free society you should be able to use incentives to get you to where you want to be. Say you're an aspiring muisican in New York City. Do you want to work a janitor job? Probably not, but if itll get you money to move foward and get a Gibson Les Paul to help you practice, that might help you do what you want and get to it. It comes off as wage slavery, but if the benefits outweigh the sacrifices it seems sensible.

I was blaming other people's incentives... the example you used would be the person's own incentive, not someone trying to manipulate them.

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10-05-2007 07:28 AM
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Ahab Offline
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Post: #13
 

SoulRiser Wrote:
Quote:And I agree, but that doesnt mean you should blame incentive as a whole.

If you live in a truly free society you should be able to use incentives to get you to where you want to be. Say you're an aspiring muisican in New York City. Do you want to work a janitor job? Probably not, but if itll get you money to move foward and get a Gibson Les Paul to help you practice, that might help you do what you want and get to it. It comes off as wage slavery, but if the benefits outweigh the sacrifices it seems sensible.

I was blaming other people's incentives... the example you used would be the person's own incentive, not someone trying to manipulate them.

Oh, right. I was just clarifying that it isn't a bad thing, more of an open letter than specifically to you about how individual freedom should mean entirely voluntary trade and incentives, not brainwashing coporatism or parents trying to punish bad kids or give incentive. The best system, as economists will tell you, is an honor system where the respect is mutual and the only result of bad behavior might be dissapointment from parents, at least for relations with people under 12.

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10-05-2007 08:41 AM
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psychopath Offline
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Re: Punishment vs. Incentive

williamparkar Wrote:School is underway and the kids are settling into their daily routines. By the second week of school, our second grader was getting notes in her daily agenda book.
Day 1 it was simply: “Talking”. So I reminded her that talking was disruptive and asked her not to do it again.

Day 2 it was: “Talkative.” So I said 2 notes in one week!! If you bring home another note, you will lose your outside time after school tomorrow. We had a long talk and she explained to me that she could not help it. The “other people” at her table were talking to her and she just had to respond.

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04-20-2010 09:02 PM
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aaaaaaasd Offline
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Re: Punishment vs. Incentive

Why has the spambot reached 10 posts without being BANHAMMARD? The admins are lazy.
04-21-2010 01:45 AM
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TheOmegaJuggalo Offline
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Re: Punishment vs. Incentive

I think I'm more for incentive on this one. Being in school, I see the system all the time. Though I don't like either one of them all that much.
When a teacher offers an incentive, let's say for getting an A on an assignment, I feel like they're trying to bribe me, and they're trying to do so because they know the assignment is stupid.
When a teacher offers punishment for not completing the same assignment, I feel like they're being assholes and trying to force us to do work that even they think is stupid.
So what I'm saying is that I dislike incentive less. And a reward is always nice anyway. Smile

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04-22-2010 10:46 AM
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SoulRiser Offline
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Re: Punishment vs. Incentive

Quote:When a teacher offers an incentive, let's say for getting an A on an assignment, I feel like they're trying to bribe me, and they're trying to do so because they know the assignment is stupid.
When a teacher offers punishment for not completing the same assignment, I feel like they're being assholes and trying to force us to do work that even they think is stupid.

Hit the nail on the head... you might like this:
http://life.familyeducation.com/punishm ... 29460.html

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04-25-2010 11:00 AM
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