Trantrums & Extinction

There are few worse experiences as a parent than experiencing the frustration of a child whose reaction to the frustration is a temper tantrum. Temper tantrums are a relatively normal part of development. They are often manifested in children because of an inability to deal with emotions in a mature manner. Often, children who throw tantrums do so because they have little ability to verbalize their feelings or vent their frustrations in more appropriate ways. Tantrums can erupt for any number of reasons, from a child being hungry and tired to a mother refusing to buy the kind of cereal or a toy the child wants. While tantrums are more common in young children, they are exhibited by older children and even adults, "The prime tantrum age is toddlerhood�from 14 months to age 3�although tantrums can show up earlier and continue into the preschool years or beyond. Tantrums can be a reaction to a change within a family, such as a move or a divorce; they can be related to illness, or, with an older child, they can become a technique for getting what the child wants" (Christman, 1994, 1).

There are many strategies and theories for coping with tantrums but we will focus on the use of classical conditioning, specifically the concept of extinction. Classical conditioning was pioneered by psychologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was doing work on the digestive system of dogs and noticed they began to salivate when they would see the person who

what she wants may solve the immediate problem, but if she learns that throwing a tantrum will help her get her way, she is bound to try it again" (Ramsburg, 1997, 2). Instead of giving in to a child's demands during a tantrum, the effects of extinction have proven to be quite useful in helping to eliminate tantrum behavior. For example, if parents have a child that throws a tantrum every night when it is time to go to bed and give the child attention, then the child learns that throwing a tantrum elicits them the attention of parents. In other words, the tantrum behavior is reinforced. However, if the parents decide to stop all reinforcement by ignoring the child and letting him or her cry and wail, they would be attempting to extinguish the inappropriate reaction and behavior to bedtime. However, most parents cannot tolerate their child's emotional outbursts and are often more prone to do something that will actually only reinforce the behavior. For example, even spanking a child or some other kind of punishment is viewed as reinforcing the tantrum because even though it is negative attention it still elicits attention from adults by way of a tantrum. Experts warn against punishment because it is an attempt to control th

Category: Psychology - T