Question

After a woman trashed the ward of an institution, the behavior analyst required that she make the ward even better and cleaner than before. Relative to the woman's behavior what was the technical name for the procedure or contingency?

Answer 1

Answer:

The technical name is overcorrection.

Explanation:

Overcorrection is a type of punishment applied to modify an unwanted behavior. In the case mentioned in the question, we have what is called restitutional overcorrection. The person who has performed the unwanted behavior is asked to restore things not to their original state, but to an improved state. Imagine a student draws an explicit picture on a blackboard at school. If he is asked to erase not only that board, but all the boards in the school as punishment, that is restitutional overcorrection. It is exactly what happened to the woman. She was not only asked to restore the ward, but to restore it better and cleaner than before.