Positive reinforcement

Effects of positive reinforcement!

I have to give credits to my mom-dad and My beloved mentors for encouraging me do various things,explore my interests in this period of lockdown,this blog page is also a result of that encouragement. Back then in last August I wrote my first write-up and considered sending it to my professor Abhra Sir and my mentor RC sir to which I got an amazing feedback :- Very good! Seeing this feedback my mom encouraged me to write blogs on Psychology subject and create awareness regarding mental health. I obviously took this encouragement very seriously and this blog of 13  (Now 14) posts is an ultimate result! My mom positively reinforced & engaged me into something I love and it makes me feel better!

Positive reinforcement is basically small things that make you feel better and make you do something again and again like chocolates, praise, money, talking to friends etc. For example, if you give a kid a chocolate for cleaning a room, he/she will probably clean it again, want a chocolate for doing so again, and this will keep the cycle going but the kid will eventually learn to clean the room.  (Feel free to look up how exactly reinforcement came up after the work of B. F. Skinner and Thorndike). When all of these things that make you happy are not present, you won’t do things you normally do and may become sad. I think, this is maybe what we all need from each other and from ourselves in this lock down- a little bit of positive reinforcement so that we all get the same happy feelings that I did after receiving the feedback on the write-up.

My positive reinforcement was encouragement to write. As a result I was quite happy and enthusiastic after their reply. I felt a small rush of excitement that yes I had something worthwhile to do, my efforts have not gone waste (and surprise that I actually ended up writing something good when I was so bored!) 

As 10 years of school education have hampered my ability to write something without idioms and proverbs as we had marks for that,😂 (which can also be positive reinforcements), I am about to start the next sentence with a proverb. As charity begins at home, later during the day, I told my mom she had made amazing dinner and we appreciate that she is making efforts to cook good food for us to keep us happy. 

I think we can all start by praising people around us and see if it motivates them to do something they wanted to do or continue something good that they have been doing. Maybe that praise won’t mean much to us but it will make immense difference to them. And who said we can’t praise ourselves? Grade yourself on something you are doing to see how you are improving each day, praise yourself when you feel happy, praise yourself even if you do a little something during the day, tell your friends that you are interested in what they are doing and praise them for it. Anything small, big, significant, insignificant, that makes you feel better and may makes others feel better, just think about it and do it. It will be something to do in these days.  

Maybe along with hygiene, corona will teach us what positive reinforcement is and does in real life!

Thank You!

-Kshitija