Consequences

Consequences, as the changes or effects that follow behavior, can be viewed from many different perspectives. Knowing them is important. They provide you with a language to guide children in seeing just how much control they have over the world around them. This seeing empowers them and is a key to fostering responsible action. In this section, the focus is on the consequences produced by parents, teachers, and children. However, everyone must be taught to see them. This page does not examine changes that are associated with the behavior, but that have no causal connection to it. Ten perspectives are examined.

Consequences have the power to change how much or how little behavior is performed: they reinforce or punish behavior. This perspective is directly related to the principles of behavior (see VIEWS: Environment page). For example, if the family and school environment reinforces a child’s poem writing (behavior), it will increase over time. If the environment punishes poem writing, it will decrease over time and, perhaps, cease. If the environment both reinforces and punishes the poem writing, it will vacillate, as will the emotions of the child.

The same consequence often works differently on different people. For some it is reinforcing, for others it can be punishing. In other words, the probability of a consequence increasing or decreasing a class of behavior is relative to the individual it impacts. For example, positive statements from her teacher reinforces Verbena. Yet, Ronny pays no attention and does not care much about what his teacher tells him, but he will do anything to care for the classroom pets, of which Verbena wants no part.

From birth to death there is a commonality of consequences that runs through all of us. The expression, "hugs, kisses, caresses, smiles, laughs, and kind words" sums up this common thread of reinforcing consequences. This thread stays with us from birth to death. Knowledge of commonality helps the parent and teacher use many of the same simple consequences to evolve complex behavior. At the same time, there is a commonality of punishing consequences.

As all of us grow, consequences gain or lose the power to increase or decrease behavior. We evolve and in the process the power of certain consequences over our behavior changes. This changing power illustrates the evolution of consequences. Candy for most adults usually does not have the same reinforcing power it once did. But money has most assuredly changed its power over the years. We acquire many new reinforcing and punishing consequences. Yet, we must not lose sight of the commonality of consequences illustrated above.

Consequences take three forms. Restructuring consequences are physical or behavioral changes in the world. Teaching reading changes children into readers. Washing dishes ends in clean dishes. Building produces a home. Making love can conceive a child. An accident can end in injury.

Access consequences are what we can do once a behavior has been performed. After children learn to read, they can read to themselves. Once the dishes are washed, you can use them for the next meal. Once the home is complete, it can be lived in. The new baby accesses life. Injury requires medical care.

Emotional consequences are the internal changes that follow behavior. Although our language of these internal consequences is approximate at best, we all understand the wow of a back-flip, the exhilaration of solving a problem, the high from exercise, the pride from building a home, the rush and relaxation of making love, and the contentment from a fine day’s work. These are the positive emotional consequences.

We also understand the negative, or punishing, ones: the pain from a back-flip done wrong, the frustration from a problem not solved, the anxiety and fear that can accompany making love, and the stress that comes from a day of excessive work.

Restructuring, access, and emotional consequences often occur closely in time, with each contributing to the sum total of the reinforcing or punishing power over behavior. For example, getting dressed changes the person dressing, allows her access to places that require clothes, and can make her feel good. Making love provides a rush and exhilaration, can conceive a child, and may provide access to conversation, further intimacy, or sleeping.

The direction of consequences refers to the emotional, access, and restructuring consequences someone’s behavior provides for others. The child who takes her first steps (walking behavior) giggles, locates herself across the room, and has access to the toys there. Yet, the parents have, because of the child's new behavior, many emotional, access and restructuring consequences as well. The walking behavior shapes the direction of their lives for a long time. On the negative side, the same can be said for the child who gets injured or becomes sick. This behavior produces extensive and long-term emotional, access, and restructuring consequences for parents and other family members.

Reciprocal consequences refers to the back-and-forth direction of consequences between individuals. Suppose parents teach their child to read. The reading reinforces the parents, and the parents in turn reinforce the child with praise and access to other activities. Both the reading and teaching will increase, as will many behaviors connected to learning, parenting and relating. Family members influence and are influenced by one another. This example illustrates mutually positive reciprocal relationship within a family. Coherence, adaptation and survival of the family are promoted. Children and parents come to trust each other.

Yet, reciprocity of consequences need not be and often is not reinforcing. It is at times punishing. Suppose the parent sees the reading as not good enough. Their behavior toward the child still changes, but now it goes from encouragement to degrading remarks and negative body language. These consequences will have the effect of decreasing the joy and desire to access reading. The child no longer wants to participate in reading with the parents and, as a result, the parents negative remarks increase. A negative reciprocal relationship has started and it will undermine the coherence, adaptation, and survival of the family. The culprit is often the error of high standards for new, fledgling behavior. A realistic picture of how behavior evolves, along with realistic standards of acceptance are required of parents and teachers (see TEACHING pages).

Compatible consequences refers to consistently reinforcing or punishing the same classes of behavior by ALL family or classroom members. If Jose "cuts up" (behavior) in class, do all the members—teachers and students—punish this class of behavior, or do some reinforce it or others punish it. If they provide consequences that push the behavior in the same direction (increase or decrease), then they have established compatible consequences.

At home we often see one parent reward and the other punish or ignore the same class of behavior. Chaos ensues. The achievement of compatibility across all family or group members is a necessary step towards building a consistent and effective family or learning environment. The various forms of reinforcing consequences—as the behavior of members—combine, or summate, to increase the chance of that behavior in the future. Compatible punishing consequences for inappropriate behavior do just the opposite. When both reinforcing and punishing compatible consequences are combined effectively, you maximize the chances for coherence within family or group.

The hard question is this: How can ALL family members come to know what classes of behavior to reinforce or punish? This is a major design question for families and classrooms. The FAMILY MEETING page provides a group process; the VALUING pages provides direction within a democratic culture.

The placement of consequences refers to the distance in time from the behavior to the consequences it produces. We are all aware of how very far in the future smoking behavior is from its consequences. However, consequences are often more immediate. When the child takes her first steps, there are many immediate consequences. The child giggles with joy. The parents give big hugs and kisses. Throughout life most of our behaviors need some immediate consequences to keep them going. This is especially true for any newly learned behavior, especially those like reading, writing, and mathematics where no immediate emotional, access, or restructuring consequences occur without parent's or teacher's acknowledging or presenting them (see the TALKING WITH CHILDREN pages).

The schedule of consequences refers to how often a class of behavior is reinforced or punished over some period of time. We ask, do consequences follow after every occurrence, every 10th occurrence, after some "average" number of occurrences, or do they follow every-so-often in time? The schedule is not to be confused with placement. The schedule requires so many instances of behavior or periods of time to pass from consequence to consequence. Placement considers only the time between behavior and consequence. Within home and school, both placement and schedule of consequences are important. If a rule has emerged it is this: for new, fledgling behavior you want to place consequences immediately after behavior and schedule them as often as possible. This rule applies especially when children are learning behavior related to subjects like reading, mathematics, grammar. These are behaviors that do not have "natural" and immediate consequences, as do behaviors like walking or riding a bicycle.

Consequences: Ten Perspectives
1.	Power: Increase or decrease behavior
2.	Direction: Apply to the self and others
3.	Types: Emotional, access, and restructuring changes
4.	Reciprocal: If we give, we often get something back
5.	Compatible: All of us "power" the same behaviors
6.	Evolution: What has "power" changes over time
7.	Relativity: What has "power" for one may not for others
8.	Commonality: Some things have "power" for everyone
9.	Schedule: How often applied to a class of behavior
10.	Placement: Do we get the "power" sooner or later

Knowing the ten perspectives helps you learn to "see" the plethora of consequences that occur in everyday life. You must see them before you can use them to help design the world in which you and your family members want to live. You must see them before you can teach your children to see them and use them to their own and the family's advantage.