Question

3. B.F Skinner looked at the relationship between motivation and the
environment and how we interact with others at work. Reinforcement
theory, discuss the four types of reinforcement and give examples.

Answer 1

Discuss the four types of reinforcement and give examples.

There are four primary approaches to reinforcement theory:

(1)positive reinforcement: Positive reinforcement means giving something to the subject when they perform the desired action so they associate the action with the reward and do it more often. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus.

Example:A mother gives her son praise (reinforcing stimulus) for doing homework (behavior).

(2)negative reinforcement: In negative reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus.

Example: Bob does the dishes (behavior) in order to stop his mother's nagging (aversive stimulus).

(3)positive punishment: Positive punishment is adding something to the mix that will result in an unpleasant consequence. The goal is to decrease the likelihood that the unwanted behavior will happen again in the future.

Example: A child picks his nose during class (behavior) and the teacher reprimands him (aversive stimulus) in front of his classmates.

(4)negative punishment: Negative punishment is the part of reinforcement, which also focuses on decreasing the rate of any specific undesired behavior from an individual. The concept works by removing a certain favorite or desired item from the individual's life.

Example: Losing access to a toy; losing reward tokens