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punishment

n.

1. a physically or psychologically painful, unwanted, or undesirable event or circumstance imposed as a penalty on an actual or perceived wrongdoer.

2. in operant conditioning, the process in which the relationship, or contingency, between a response and some stimulus or circumstance results in the response becoming less probable. For example, a pigeon’s pecks on a key may at first occasionally be followed by presentation of food; this will establish some probability of pecking. Next, each peck produces a brief electric shock (while the other conditions remain as before). If pecking declines as a result, then punishment is said to have occurred, and the shock is called a punisher. —punish vb.

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Psychology term of the day

February 22nd 2025

Gesellschaft

Gesellschaft

n. a type of society (the literal meaning of this German word) or social group in which people feel relatively isolated from each other. Their relationships are primarily contractual in nature, being guided chiefly by rational self-interest and the logic of the marketplace. Compare Gemeinschaft. [first described in 1887 by German sociologist Ferdinand Julius Tönnies (1855–1936)]