Week 1 Assignment 3
Amanda Turner
I came across an article entitled “Automatic Negative Reinforcement: Its Possible
Role in Problem Behavior With Treatment Implications.” The report addresses the fact
that, until recently, it was thought that self-stimulatory and self-injurious behaviors were
due to automatic positive reinforcement. However, the author, Frans van Haaren, PhD,
wrote this research article in order to convey his hypothesis that the aforementioned
problem behaviors may also be due to automatic negative reinforcement. Automatic
negative reinforcement is not the act of punishment, but rather the removal of an external
stimulus due to an individual’s own behavior (Cosgrave, n.d.). This negative
