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Honest Review of Punished by RewardsMaya McKenzie

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Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes Paperback – September 1, 1999

by Alfie Kohn (Author)

4.6 721 ratings

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Punished By Rewards: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes
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The basic strategy we use for raising children, teaching students, and managing workers can be summarized in six words: Do this and you'll get that. We dangle goodies (from candy bars to sales commissions) in front of people in much the same way we train the family pet. Drawing on a wealth of psychological research, Alfie Kohn points the way to a more successful strategy based on working with people instead of doing things to them. "Do rewards motivate people?" asks Kohn. "Yes. They motivate people to get rewards." Seasoned with humor and familiar examples, Punished By Rewards presents an argument unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"a clear, convincing demonstration of the shortcomings of pop-behaviorism, written with style, humor, and authority," Kirkus Reviews

"Every parent, teacher, and manager should read this book -- and hurry." -- Thomas Gordon, founder of Parent Effectiveness Training

About the Author

ALFIE KOHN's published works include Punished by Rewards, No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Beyond Discipline, and What to Look for in a Classroom. Described by Time as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of educational fixation on grades and test scores," he has traveled across the country delivering lectures to teachers, parents, and researchers.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0618001816
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; 2nd edition (September 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780618001811
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0618001811
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.91 x 1.13 x 8.9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #565,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #170 in Psychology Education & Training (Books)
- #1,838 in Interpersonal Relations (Books)
- #11,484 in Psychology & Counseling

Customer Reviews:
4.6 721 ratings

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Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. He is the author of twelve books and hundreds of articles. Kohn has been described by Time Magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades and test scores.” He has appeared twice on “Oprah,” as well as on “The Today Show,” NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” and on many other TV and radio programs. He spends much of his time speaking at education conferences, as well as to parent groups, school faculties, and researchers. Kohn lives (actually) in the Boston area – and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org.

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Customers find the book provides good ideas and a profound approach to change their mindset. They find it an interesting read and consider it worth the money.

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35 customers mention "Information quality"35 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's information useful and insightful. They say it provides good ideas and a convincing approach to rewards. The book is described as enlightening, profound, and a good reference for teachers.

"Will open new ways of thinking!" Read more

"...It is written clearly and simply enough for parents, teachers and carers to understand...." Read more

"...First, he produced a brilliant book that is highly readable yet scholarly and precise...." Read more

"...but he does raise very interesting and practical points...." Read more

23 customers mention "Value for money"23 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and educational. They say it's worth reading for its content, even though it's a long read. The book is good for beginners and all teachers in today's society.

"...This is a must read for teachers, administrators, and parents." Read more

"I think Alfie Kohn did a great job. First, he produced a brilliant book that is highly readable yet scholarly and precise...." Read more

"...However, it is worth the read for those who want to learn and are open to being challenged on motivations and rewards...." Read more

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Top reviews from the United States

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juho
Really eye opening
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2024
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Will open new ways of thinking!

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pro football games
John is a master of parenting skills
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
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My favorite author of advice for parents and teachers. Kohn walks you through the research and logic behind the reasons behaviorism doesn't work and in fact does the opposite of what we want. This is a must read for teachers, administrators, and parents.

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Clare C
Rewards and Punishment Don't Work
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2007
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I've always been suspicious of the whole system of rewards and punishments as it is always dependent on the mood of the giver/depriver. Particularly as they are evaluating something about the child as acceptable or unacceptable without actually taking the time to understand the behaviour or the underlying need.

Consistency is always a problem too as we are organically inconsistent and therefore prone to be human!

This book spells out exactly the areas that rewards and punishment cause damage, ie in terms of internal emotional effect. It is written clearly and simply enough for parents, teachers and carers to understand.

It is shockingly blunt and often humourous in it's approach and I applaud this. It has shaken me up, particularly in the area of praise where I didn't realise how much I praised in the hope of getting the child to change their behaviour.

Personally I think all parents and teachers should be made to read this book in order to understand the subtle differences between internal and external motivation. I think that 'Time Out' and deprivation and punishment is a form of abuse - an abuse of power.

When witnessing people using such methods I have always had a real feeling that they lack creativity and fall back on all they have known. Well the great news is that there are other ways of parenting and teaching where everyone can feel great and be respectful and self motivated.

After all we are not dogs or rats!

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7 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer
Great for educators
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2024
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When I transitioned from being a traditional teacher to Montessori, one of my training facilitators recommended this book. While I do think there is a time and place for extrinsic rewards, I have seen the pitfalls of rewarding students with trivial little trinkets. Good classroom management comes by building capacity for the intrinsic rewards we receive when learning something new or by being a good, kind person. Students need structure, consistency, empathy, and love instead of stickers and candy. This book also explains how rewards lead to unhealthy competition among students instead of fostering a supportive community of learners. I want them to compete with their own personal best, not each other.

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3 people found this helpful

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BeingBreath
beyond behaviorism
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2012
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In Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn challenges many of the sacred ideas that fuel our modern culture. Despite the widespread use of both punishments and rewards, the evidence is strong that neither approach is very effective at motivating people. From the corporate world to the classroom, the tradition of behaviorism is almost ubiquitous, where gold stars, grades, prizes and even cash are dangled before people under the common perception that doing so will improve their performance.

Research shows that this method is unlikely to bring about lasting change, high quality work, or true attention to the task at hand. In fact, it can do the exact opposite. Many studies show that if we reward people for behavior that they enjoy, they often cease doing it once the reward is taken away. By approaching training with threats and bribes, we interfere with the development of intrinsic motivation and replace it with a focus on external ramifications.This changes the focus from the activity at hand to the end result, which reduces creativity and saps the joy from the work. Even though we may feel better using the carrot than the stick, the reality is that neither approach is truly helpful.

How can this be true, when both rewards and punishments appear to work so well? Studies show that while people can be induced to be more productive for a period of time, this is true only for quantity, not quality. The changes also rarely last, and need to be constantly reinforced with new rewards or punishments in order to induce a new round of temporary change. Rewards can have other effects too. When prizes and rewards are in limited supply, a competitive environment ensues. This can reduce cooperation, mentoring, and teamwork, and even encourage people to game the system to get the reward.

These ideas have great ramifications in the workplace, the classroom, and in the home. Although it may be easier to punish a child who misbehaves, the only thing it teaches the child is the use of power over others. We may think we are making a point about a misbehavior, but the point we are really making is that we have the power, and we are willing to use it. As a result, future thought will focus on how not to get caught rather than on how the situation could have been handled differently.

This is a big problem. Perhaps THE big problem. Mindfuless psychology and Buddhist tradition insist that all of our suffering is caused by not being in the moment. Flow studies demonstrate that optimal experiences are best cultivated through attention and presence. Attention is powerful medicine, and instead of learning to direct it and use it, we are trained to trade it for trinkets.

I have a long way to go to recover from my own submersion in this paradigm, but I am actively engaging in my life in ways that I hope will reduce it's impact. As a parent, I am intimidated by the work ahead of me, weaning off the easy solutions and responding to the moment rather than from habit or convenience. I feel compelled to undertake this journey with my children, however, as the benefits of developing this presence in them far outweigh any temporary relief I may get from a threat or a bribe. Habits can be hard to break, however. Luckily, Kohn ends on an encouraging note, and suggests that even small steps in this direction are better than none. We can wean off punishments, recognize the harm that bribery can do, and perhaps choose our battles more wisely so that we throw down the gauntlet less often. We can invite participation from those we are working with in order to develop better skills at solving our problems with creative cooperation and compassionate communication. Together we can help create a brighter future for us all.

I would recommend this book to parents, teachers, managers and anyone working towards creating a more egalitarian world.

see more of my reviews at: [...]

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

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E. Kant Say
For every teacher and parent.
Reviewed in the United States on January 9, 2024
Verified Purchase
Tells you everything you ever believed about motivating others is dead wrong and makes you feel guilt and remorse for all your sins. Just read it and see how wrong you've been your entire life and how others have treated you like some performing circus animal. But you can change and stop being an abusive teacher or parent. A must read if you strive to become a better human being.

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2 people found this helpful

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Lucas Moreira
Antigo, mas em bom estado
Reviewed in Brazil on June 24, 2023
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Eu já sabia no ato da compra que era usado. Mas me supreendi que veio bonitinho e com essa capa da descrição.
Nem demorou tanto pra chegar.

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Rajarshi Rit
Must read for everybody
Reviewed in India on September 16, 2024
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Must read for everybody

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Jill McPherson
Very insightful
Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2019
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Amazing insight into the obvious determent to controlling people by rewards and punishments. Endless research to back up the findings. A must-read for teachers, business leaders, and parents.

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Jill McPherson

Very insightful
Reviewed in Canada on March 23, 2019
Amazing insight into the obvious determent to controlling people by rewards and punishments. Endless research to back up the findings. A must-read for teachers, business leaders, and parents.

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Prev
Read it so hard it fell apart!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book is great, one every teacher and parent should read, but pretty in-depth and dense.

If you're not going to buy it please take away this message - you *should* actively comment on how you NOTICE your child's hard-work, efforts, abilities, strengths, eg "you've drawn a very colourful picture, tell me about it" "you climbed right up to the top all by yourself!" and it's okay to let your voice and tone speak for your approval, and direct your child to how they might feel "Wow! You must feel so proud of yourself"... However, do try and try as hard as you can not to JUDGE their work with a "well done" "good job" "it's beautiful" or other similar judgy compliment (even though it's a "positive" judgement) - because ultimately you want your child to learn not to rely on other people's praise, even yours, but to assess their own work and to be able to be proud of themselves even when the external praise doesn't come. If not they will never really be satisfied until every last person approves of their work, you want them to be happy with their own approval. You also don't want their brains to get a kick from praise because it will quickly rely on it (praise is essentially verbal/social reward) because it quickly forms a neuro-transmitter addiction - so they slowly lose the ability to feel our human natural internal reward for the things they learn and the things they do since it is overtaken for the need for more addictive external reward. Taken to the extreme you have a kid who only works/learns for money/toys/sweets or whatever, and when these things diminish the effort diminishes.

Also, please take away the idea that is absolutely absolutely beneficial and even essential to tell your child you love them and you are proud of them - just try to keep these unrelated to and separated in time from the things they have just done, as it sends a similar message that you love them because of what they achieve, which gives a message of insecurity "they won't love me if I stop achieving xyz". Your actions, your attention and your look of pride will tell them all they need to know on these occasions - so use these occasions to direct your child's attention to how they might feel IN THEMSELVES, how they should feel self-pride and enjoy their moment.

You can see, I've read and annotated my book to the extent that it fell apart, this is partly because it's a secondhand book (arrived in fine condition) but mostly that I have read the living heck out of it!

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Prev

Read it so hard it fell apart!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2019
This book is great, one every teacher and parent should read, but pretty in-depth and dense.

If you're not going to buy it please take away this message - you *should* actively comment on how you NOTICE your child's hard-work, efforts, abilities, strengths, eg "you've drawn a very colourful picture, tell me about it" "you climbed right up to the top all by yourself!" and it's okay to let your voice and tone speak for your approval, and direct your child to how they might feel "Wow! You must feel so proud of yourself"... However, do try and try as hard as you can not to JUDGE their work with a "well done" "good job" "it's beautiful" or other similar judgy compliment (even though it's a "positive" judgement) - because ultimately you want your child to learn not to rely on other people's praise, even yours, but to assess their own work and to be able to be proud of themselves even when the external praise doesn't come. If not they will never really be satisfied until every last person approves of their work, you want them to be happy with their own approval. You also don't want their brains to get a kick from praise because it will quickly rely on it (praise is essentially verbal/social reward) because it quickly forms a neuro-transmitter addiction - so they slowly lose the ability to feel our human natural internal reward for the things they learn and the things they do since it is overtaken for the need for more addictive external reward. Taken to the extreme you have a kid who only works/learns for money/toys/sweets or whatever, and when these things diminish the effort diminishes.

Also, please take away the idea that is absolutely absolutely beneficial and even essential to tell your child you love them and you are proud of them - just try to keep these unrelated to and separated in time from the things they have just done, as it sends a similar message that you love them because of what they achieve, which gives a message of insecurity "they won't love me if I stop achieving xyz". Your actions, your attention and your look of pride will tell them all they need to know on these occasions - so use these occasions to direct your child's attention to how they might feel IN THEMSELVES, how they should feel self-pride and enjoy their moment.

You can see, I've read and annotated my book to the extent that it fell apart, this is partly because it's a secondhand book (arrived in fine condition) but mostly that I have read the living heck out of it!

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Joan Diaz
Very interesting
Reviewed in Spain on July 18, 2017
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Sucha a great book! Analyze rewards (or punishments) with children and adults either workplace or home. Every step is referenced and followed with deep explanations, I'm not a psichology maybe if you are a professional on this topic is not as deep as you need.

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