4 Quadrants

Author: Denise Partlow

Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas

There are four quadrants that dog trainers refer back to when thinking about how to approach a specific issue with a dog: it is called the Operant Conditioning Theory. This theory was first described by B.F. Skinner, a behaviorist, as the “intentional actions that have an effect on the surrounding environment” or more easily put, a cause-and-effect relationship.

In Operant Conditioning Theory, the 4 quadrants are:
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment

There is a lot of controversy over these four quadrants and which ones are best to use, but that’s not the focus of this post. I’m just here to explain the definition of these four quadrants because it can be quite confusing to many.

When it comes to the words positive and negative, I like to think of this more of a mathematical term, positive (+) means add and negative (-) means take away.

So let’s look at those quadrants again:

*Positive Reinforcement-I want to reinforce you by adding (+) something you like

*Negative Reinforcement-I want to reinforce you by taking away (-) something that is unpleasant to you

*Positive Punishment-I want to punish you by adding (+) something that is unpleasant to you

*Negative Punishment-I want to punish you by taking away (-) something that you like

Still kind of confusing? No worries, over the next few days we will dive deeper into these quadrants and I will give real life examples that fall into each one.

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