The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : The power of positive reinforcement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 18, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

The power of positive reinforcement

By Paromita Pain

CHENNAI, AUG. 17. Teenagers and their parents got together the other day to commemorate this year's International Youth Day theme of "Youth and Intergenerational relations".

The United Nations has stipulated that those between the ages of 10 and 24 are the youth population of a country and International Youth Day is celebrated annually on August 12 since 1999 - an occasion to focus on the needs of young people the world over.

To mark the event The Good books store, Abhiramapuram, organised a special session with teenagers and parents called "Looking at self and what you wish to change for a better quality of life". The sessions was conducted by Dr Susan George, a professor at the Women's Christian College and a practising transactional analyst and trainer, specialising in issues related to pre-teens and teens.

Speaking on behaviour and various ways of people to attract attention, she said positive reinforcements helped people adopt manners that would get them positive attention. Sometimes a lot depended on complimenting people unconditionally. Children like to be told that parents loved them simply because of what they were and not the prizes or marks they got. She called it the `unconditional positive'.

When the audience of young people and adults responded, saying, people might be suspicious of sudden `niceties', Dr. Susan said in such situations, consistency was the key. The niceness should not be for a day only. "We must work at it to make it a part of our personality." Issues like anger, sibling rivalry, teachers picking on students and how better communication between parents and children could strengthen family ties, were some of the other important issues discussed.

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