Negative Reinforcement

In organizations acts are committed or omitted. For commission of desired acts a reward is given while rewards can also be given for displaying behaviour by terminating undesired consequences. Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response.  Imagine a teenager who is nagged by his mother to take out the garbage week after week.  After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he finally one day performs the task and to his amazement, the nagging stops.  The elimination of this negative stimulus is reinforcing and will likely increase the chances that he will take out the garbage next week.

Positive Reinforcement

Positive re-enforcement is institution of reward for a particular desired behaviour. The intensity of reward must stimulate a desired behaviour. The examples above describe what is referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver.

BASIC REINFORCEMENT STRATEGY

The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to refer to anything stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response. For example, if you want your dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. The dog will eventually come to understand that sitting when told to will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcing because he likes it and will result in him sitting when instructed to do so.

There are four types of reinforcement: positive, negative, punishment, and extinction. We’ll discuss each of these and give examples.

PRINCIPLE OF REINFORCEMENT

Reinforcement theory is the process of shaping behavior by controlling the consequences of the behavior. In reinforcement theory a combination of rewards and/or punishments is used to reinforce desired behavior or extinguish unwanted behavior. Any behavior that elicits a consequence is called operant behavior, because the individual operates on his or her environment. Reinforcement theory concentrates on the relationship between the operant behavior and the associated consequences, and is sometimes referred to as operant conditioning.

Hence Reinforcement is the process by which certain type of behaviour is strengthened.

4. Social Learning – behavioural approach

Social learning approach is a behavioural approach. The approach basically deals with learning process based on direct observation and the experience. It is achieved while interacting with individuals. In social learning people observe, alter and even construct a particular environment to fit in the social behavioural pattern. Individuals learn a great deal from watching attractive models and they copy their behaviour and display the same.

Children copy the behaviour of their parents, adults, and copy cinema actors/actresses in various styles. Social learning is practiced in organizations by observing various cultural, and social practices. This phenomenon is distinctly visible in defence services where cadets opt for a particular regiment based on the performance of their instructors (role model). In industrial organizations leader must display a role model so that subordinates copy the style of functioning. An appropriate behaviour can be predicted that would contribute towards achieving higher individual satisfaction level and organizational goals. The influence of model is central to the theory of Social Learning. 

3. Cognitive Theory – Cognitive Approach

Edward Tolman was recognized as pioneer of Cognitive Theory. The theory consists of relationship between environmental (cognitive) cues and expectations. He used white rat in his psychological experiment of Cognitive theory. He found that the rat could run through critical path with particular intention of getting food (goal/objective). In the experiment,

Tolman established certain choice points where expectations were established. The rat learned cognitive cues at various choice points, which would raise its expectation to move forward to the objective (food). Thus the rat turned to acquire food, based on relationship of Cues and Reward or expectations. This theory was later applied on human resources where incentives were related to higher performance.

2. OPERANT CONDITIONING

B. F. Skinner introduced operant conditioning, the process by which organisms learn to behave in certain ways by noticing the consequences of their behaviors. Skinner referred to behavior as operant because it operates on the environment to produce consequences. Conditioning is another word for a change in the likelihood of a behavior. So in operant conditioning, response becomes more or less likely to occur, depending on its consequence

Operant -------------consequence---------behavior modification

(behavior)…………….consequence----------conditioning (behavior more likely)  

                                                                                                (Behavior less likely)

Skinner defined reinforcement as any stimulus that increases the likelihood of a prior response. Reinforcement can be either positive or negative, but both result in strengthen a prior response.

Operant------------reinforcement------------------------conditioning (behavior more likely)

In operant conditioning, punishment is any stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a prior response. There are two types of punishment positive and negative.

Operant------------punishment-----------------------conditioning (behavior less likely)

Don’t confuse negative reinforcement with punishment. Reinforcement always leads to an increase in behavior, and punishment always leads to a decrease in behavior.

Students often confuse the terms positive and negative. These terms have nothing to do with good or bad but with procedures giving or taking something away.

For example, if a passenger waiting for the train in a railway station puts a ten paisa coin (R) in the weighing machine (S) nothing happens (consequence). However, if he interest one rupee (R) in the machine (S) he gets the weight card (consequence).

Operant Conditioning has greater impact on learning as compared to Classical Conditioning.