what is the basis of the reinforcement theory

Full Answer

What is the fundamental premise of reinforcement theory?

The basic premise of the theory of reinforcement is both simple and intuitive: An individual’s behavior is a function of the consequences of that behavior. You can think of it as simple cause and effect. If I work hard today, I’ll make more money. If I make more money, I’m more likely to want to work hard.

What is an example of reinforcement theory?

They are:

• Fixed interval: Reinforcing a person’s behavior after a fixed number of responses. ...
• Variable interval: Reinforcing a person’s behavior after a specific number of responses has occurred. ...
• Fixed ratio: Reinforcing a person’s behavior after an unpredictable period has elapsed. ...

More items...

Which is an example of reinforcement theory?

The Reinforcement Theory of Motivation

• Types Of Reinforcement In Organizational Behavior. Managers shoulder the additional responsibility of motivating and inspiring their teams to perform better.
• Using The Reinforcement Theory In The Workplace. For the successful implementation of the Reinforcement Theory, you need to incorporate both positive and negative reinforcement.
• Conclusion. ...

What is the definition of reinforcement theory?

Reinforcement Theory Definition. Reinforcement theory, an important concept in the branch of psychology known as 'behaviourism', describes "a contingency between an operant behaviour and an environmental consequence, suggesting that the response and the consequence are two distinct classes of events" (Pierce & Epling, 1999). Reinforcement Theory Description *

What is reinforcement theory based on?

The Reinforcement Theory was proposed by B.F. Skinner and his associates. It is based on the concept of “Law of Effect”, i.e., the behavior of individual towards positive consequences tends to repeat, but the behavior of individual towards negative consequences tends not to repeat.

What are the 3 basic elements of reinforcement theory?

Reinforcement theory has three primary mechanisms behind it: selective exposure, selective perception, and selective retention.

What is basic reinforcement?

Basic reinforcement is modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP): a set of environment and agent states, S; a set of actions, A, of the agent; is the probability of transition (at time ) from state to state under action .

What is the theory of social reinforcement?

Reinforcement Theory proposes that social behavior is governed by external events (events outside the human psyche). The basic premise is that people will more likely perform a specific behavior if it is followed directly by the occurrence of something pleasurable or by the removal of something aversive.

What are 4 types of reinforcement theory?

There are four types of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, extinction, and punishment.

What is reinforcement theory of Skinner?

Along with his associates, Skinner proposed the Reinforcement Theory of Motivation. It states that behavior is a function of its consequences—an individual will repeat behavior that led to positive consequences and avoid behavior that has had negative effects. This phenomenon is also known as the 'law effect'.

What are the strategies of reinforcement theory?

Positive Reinforcement: Adding something pleasant or desirable (e.g., toy, food, attention) to make a target behavior more likely to occur. Negative Reinforcement: Taking something unpleasant or undesired away (e.g., aspirin to relieve a migraine) to make a target behavior more likely to occur.

What is the purpose of reinforcement psychology?

Reinforcement tames unwanted behavior or encourages acceptable behavior. In behavioral psychology, reinforcement is a technique that is responsible for learned behavior. Reinforce means to strengthen or to encourage.

What is reinforcement in behaviorism?

Reinforcement can include anything that strengthens or increases a behavior. 3 In a classroom setting, for example, types of reinforcement might include giving praise, letting students out of unwanted work, or providing token rewards, candy, extra playtime, or fun activities.

What is reinforcement theory in criminology?

The differential reinforcement theory is the idea that people are likely to continue behaviors that are reinforced and less likely to continue behaviors that are not. The two tools that can be used to modify behavior are punishments and reinforcement.

Who introduced reinforcement theory?

Reinforcement theory of motivation was proposed by BF Skinner and his associates. It states that individual's behaviour is a function of its consequences.

What is reinforcement model?

The Reinforcement Model refers to positive reinforcement, not negative. The key difference being that positive reinforcement presents a rewarding stimuli to a learner after a behavior is completed. Negative reinforcement removes a positive stimuli when a negative behavior is expressed.

What are the three components of process theory?

The process theory includes three components: the organizational plan, the service utilization plan, and specifications of their outputs (Rossi et al., 1999).

What are the types of reinforcement theory?

They are:Fixed interval: Reinforcing a person's behavior after a fixed number of responses. ... Variable interval: Reinforcing a person's behavior after a specific number of responses has occurred. ... Fixed ratio: Reinforcing a person's behavior after an unpredictable period has elapsed.More items...•

What are the forms of reinforcement in the principle of behaviorist theory?

There are different types of positive reinforcements. Primary reinforcement is when a reward strengths a behavior by itself. Secondary reinforcement is when something strengthens a behavior because it leads to a primary reinforcer. Examples of behavior modification therapy include token economy and behavior shaping.

What is selective exposure?

Basically, this theory states that people do not like to have previously-held beliefs challenged.

What is the OB Mod approach?

The OB Mod Approach is an important aspect of the reinforcement theory that provides a problem-solving, analytical, and action-oriented approach to identifying and managing performance-related behaviors in organizations (Luthans & Stajkovic, 1999).

What is the best setting for reinforcement theory?

Politics. Politics provides an excellent setting for the study of reinforcement theory. The statistics on undecided voters indicate that most people have pre-existing beliefs when it comes to politics . Relatively few people remain undecided late into high-profile elections.

What is reinforcement theory?

Jump to navigation Jump to search. Reinforcement theory is a limited effects media model applicable within the realm of communication. The theory generally states that people seek out and remember information that provides cognitive support for their pre-existing attitudes and beliefs.

Why are undecided voters frequent message targets?

Part of the reason why undecided voters are frequent message targets can be found in reinforcement theory. Reinforcement theory predicts that people with already developed opinions will selectively attend to and cognitively incorporate information that supports their own views.

What is operant conditioning theory?

Quite simply, this theory notes that a behavior will continue with a certain level of frequency based on pleasant or unpleasant results.

Which research found that voters most often selectively misperceive a candidate's position on an issue rather than

Sherrod's (1971) research found the third option to occur with the greatest frequency: he found that voters most often selectively misperceive a candidate's position on an issue rather than either change one's own view or relegate the issue to a status of lesser importance.

The Basic Idea

TDL is an applied research consultancy. In our work, we leverage the insights of diverse fields—from psychology and economics to machine learning and behavioral data science—to sculpt targeted solutions to nuanced problems.

History

Earlier developments in the field of conditioning focused on simply the association between stimuli and the influence it has on involuntary responses. You likely know Pavlov’s dogs, who started to salivate when they heard the sound of his assistant’s footsteps, long before the food was in front of them.

People

A Russian physiologist known for his early research on classical conditioning. Pavlov did significant research in behaviorism – the systematic study of behaviors – and conditioning.

Consequences

Reinforcement theory can be a powerful way to promote positive behavior and is thus important to any team or organization. It is often used to achieve a team’s objectives, such as enhancing productivity or improving communication.

Controversies

Skinner was averse to examinations of the mind, discussions of goals, and internal motivations. 3 This perspective itself is a major point of disagreement in the psychology community, since it eliminates a whole angle of looking at behavior.

Case Studies

While seat belts in cars have been mandatory since 1960, it was initially difficult to ensure that the mandate was being followed. 6 After years of figuring out the best way to enforce the rule, the seat belt reminder sound found its way into most cars.

Sources

Skinner, B. F. (1937). Two Types of Conditioned Reflex: A Reply to Konorski and Miller. Journal of General Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 1, 272-279.

What is reinforcement theory?

Skinner outlined the most complete program based entirely on his concept of the discriminated operant. His account distinguished between the behavior of speakers and listeners, parsing their interactions in terms of discriminative stimuli, responses, and social reinforcers. Skinner identified contingencies operating in processes analogous to naming, requesting, and the grammatical processes such as assertion. The account was initially severely criticized by linguists but it continues to be influential and to provoke research. At the heart of the controversy was the question first raised in the opposing views of Descartes and Locke: Is language a unique accomplishment of humans or is it the result of social contingencies of reinforcement?

What is SLT theory?

SLT is the product of theoretical ideas, which cut across the disciplinary boundaries of sociology and psychology. The general notion that learning plays a pivotal role in the development of criminal and delinquent behavior can most directly be traced back to the works of sociologist Edward Sutherland, whereas the details of the learning process can be found in the writings of behavioral psychologists, most notably of which include B.F. Skinner. In a deductive theoretical integration effort in 1966, Robert Burgess and Ronald Akers took on the task of folding the central ideas of differential association theory into the broader principles of operant conditioning; their efforts resulted in the formation of a new theory known as differential association-reinforcement theory (see Burgess and Akers, 1966 ).

What is differential association reinforcement theory?

In addition to maintaining an emphasis on social interaction and definitions as critical to the learning process, differential association-reinforcement theory clearly draws attention to the importance of reinforcement for learning criminal behavior.

How is criminal behavior learned?

1. Criminal behavior is learned according to the principles of operant conditioning. 2. Criminal behavior is learned both in nonsocial situations that are reinforcing or discriminative and through that social interaction in which the behavior of other persons is reinforcing or discriminative for criminal behavior.

What are some examples of vulnerability factors?

In contrast, examples of immunities include high selfperceived social competence, the availability of a confidant, and effective coping skills.

What are the language skills of apes?

The interpretation of these experiments continues to be controversial, but the apes have demonstrated rudimentary language competencies such as symbolic behavior, grammar, comprehension, and verbal exchanges between themselves. Reinforcement is also apparent in the language learning of typical children.

What is the end result of environmental changes?

More specifically, depression is conceptualized as the end result of environmentally initiated changes in behavior, affect, and cognitions. Whereas situational factors are important as “triggers” of the depressogenic process, cognitive factors are critical as “moderators” of the effects of the environment. Figure 15.1.

What is reinforcement theory?

Reinforcement theory, an important concept in the branch of psychology known as 'behaviourism' , describes "a contingency between an operant behaviour and an environmental consequence, suggesting that the response and the consequence are two distinct classes of events" (Pierce & Epling, 1999).

How can reinforcement theory be applied to the workplace?

Reinforcement theory can be applied by managers in the workplace to produce better performance and behaviour among employees. The strengths and weaknesses of reinforcement principles are discussed and case evidence and advice on practical implementation is provided.

Overview

Selective exposure

The primary basis for the selective exposure assumption can be located within cognitive dissonance theory, although contemporary work (Knobloch-Westerwick, 2014) draws on numerous theories. Basically, this theory states that people do not like to have previously-held beliefs challenged. When individuals encounter information that is discrepant from their own opinions, they seek to resolve the resultant disharmony somehow. People in general do not like t…

Politics

Selective perception

Selective retention

OB Mod Approach

See also