Forces and Behavior

The idea of “what gets measured gets done” is only partially correct. It would be more correct to say, “what gets rewarded gets repeated.” One of the most thoroughly accepted notions in psychology is the principle that behavior eventually extinguishes if it is not followed by reward.

I was on an airplane and in front of me was a father and his young daughter (she was about 3 years old). When it came time to take off the father worked and forced his daughter to sit down in her seat with her safety belt fastened. The child screamed and yelled. The child wanted out of her seat. As an outside observer, I understood if he let his child out of her seat, the child would learn that the way to get out of her seat is by yelling and screaming. The father gave in and let the child out of her seat and stand up. The flight attendant had other ideas and told the father his child had to be seated.

Let’s look at the behavior and the reward. The father’s behavior of allowing his child to stand in her seat was immediately squelched, and he was forced to follow the rules. Can you imagine what happened the second time the father tried to fasten his child in the seat? The child was more resistant and screamed even louder. The father made the situation worse by giving into the behavior the first time. In other words, the father rewarded the behavior of screaming and yelling.