Theory developed by Jerry Patterson at the Oregon Social Learning Center and empirically validated. It explains how a parent and child control each other's behavior through their stimuli and responses, and negative reinforcement. Children learn how mildly negative behaviors, such as running around, attract reprimand and attention from a parent.
The child recognizes that escalating the behavior will reap more attention from the parent, even if it is delivered via a sterner reprimand. The negative spiral continues leading the parent inadvertently to reinforce the child’s poor behavior. Parents can be taught to manage this process, for example by overlooking the negative and rewarding the positive in the children's behavior.