Punishment

Kazdin (1989) defined punishment as “the

presentation of an aversive event or the removal of a
positive event following a response that decreases the
frequency of that response.” These are the responses
from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a
behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.
Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement
since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a response
rather than increase it. It is an aversive event that
decreases the behavior that it follows.