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

$27.23  Paperback
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Alfie Kohn

  • Punished by Rewards
  • Punished by Rewards
    Do this and you'll get that. That's how we try to motivate our children and - guess what - it doesn't work!

480 pages
2018
ISBN: 9781328450524

Updated and revised for the twenty-fifth anniversary of publication.

The basic strategy we use for raising children, teaching students, and managing workers can be summarised 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. That's how we try to motivate our children and - guess what - it doesn't work. Alfie Kohn is here to tell you why. In this brilliant book, he dissects the whole idea of "carrot and stick" discipline.

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, i.e. building self-esteem and teaching self-discipline. "Do rewards motivate people?" asks Kohn. "Yes. They motivate people to get rewards." Seasoned with humour and familiar examples, Punished By Rewards presents an argument unsettling to hear but impossible to dismiss.