[转帖]Reinforcement theory

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Reinforcement theory, associated with the psychologist B F Skinner and others, shows how the consequences of past behavior affect future actions in a cyclical learning process. This process may be expressed as follows:

Stimulus - Response - Consequences – Future Response:

On this view, the individual’s own voluntary behavior (response) to a situation or event (stimulus) is the cause of specific consequences. If those consequences are positive, the individual will in the future tend to have similar responses in similar situations. If those consequences are unpleasant, the individual will tend to change his or her behavior in order to avoid them. For example, people may be likely to obey the law and a manager’s legitimate instructions because they have learned at home and at school that disobedience leads to punishment. The other side of the coin is that people try to meet goals at work because they have learned that they stand a good chance of being rewarded. This is known as the law of effect. Reinforcement theory involves people’s memory of past stimulus response – consequences experiences. According to reinforcement theory, a person is motivated when he or she responds to stimuli in consistent patterns of behavior over time. Reinforcement theory, like expectancy theory, is a way to link motivation and behaviors. At Wal-Mart, executives’ willingness to act on associates’ suggestions serves as reinforcement that can then effect elicit further suggestions from associates. Thus making suggestions is a reinforced behavior.

Behavior Modification: Behavior modification uses reinforcement theory to change human behavior. Thus, a manager who wishes to change employee behavior must change the consequences of that behavior. Someone who is frequently late, for example, might be motivated to come in on time (a behavior change) if the manager expresses strong approval for each on time or early appearance (change of consequences), rather than ignoring on-time arrival. Lateness may also be stopped by expressing strong disapproval of the late arrival time if the managers had previously been ignoring the late arrivals.

There are four common methods of behavior modification. In positive reinforcement, desirable behaviors are encouraged, or reinforced by positive consequences, such as a raise or praise. In avoidance learning, employees change their behavior to avoid unpleasant consequences, such as criticism or a poor evaluation. To stop a behavior, a manager can use extinction, the absence of reinforcement. Suppose a manager’s laxness at staff meetings has reinforced the employees’ behaviors of coming late to the meetings and wasting time making jokes. To stop this behavior, the manager could start meetings on time and ignore jokesters. A manager could also resort to punishment – the application of negative consequences. Common examples of punishment range from criticism to reduced pay and to dismissal. W Clay hammer has developed a six rule formula for using behavior modification as shown. (Hammer refers to employees as “subordinates”).

You will probably not be surprised to learn that reinforcement theory has received its share of criticism. To many people, the idea of “behavior modification” is disturbing since it implies that individual behaviors can be controlled by a person’s past experiences and present environment. This seems to challenge deeply held beliefs that human beings freely choose how to act. Some perspective on this debate comes from a research study conducted in the early 1970s, which investigated the importance of having a sense of control. This study has become known as the “button experiments”.

This set of experiments, by researchers David Glass (not the CEO of Wal-Mart) and Jerome Singer and their colleagues suggest that while people will do as they are told, they perform much more productively if they have some control over their situation. In one experiment, subjects were divided into two groups and told to perform a series of boring and repetitive tasks, some of which were impossible to complete. There was background noise consisting of people speaking Spanish and Armenian, machines roaring and grinding and a clicking typewriter. One group was given a button that would shut off the noise and was told to feel free to use it but only if the noise became too great to bear. The other group was given no button.

As expected, the group with the button outperformed the group without the button by a large margin: Members tried to solve five times the number of insoluble puzzles and had fewer errors in the repetitive tasks. But no one in the group ever used the button. It was enough for them to know that they had control and could exercise it if need be. Think about the applicability of this idea to the value of empowering employees; is quality likely to improve when employees have a sense of control?

英文好的兄弟给翻译翻译，哈哈，很棒的理论，以后经常交流：）

小编梅子

GOOGLE翻译的：

强化理论，与心理学家斯金纳和其他高炉，显示了如何造成的后果过去的行为影响到今后的行动周期性的学习过程。这个过程可能是表示如下：

刺激-反应-后果-未来的答复：

按照这种观点，个人的自愿行为（反应）的情况或事件（刺激）引起的具体后果。如果这些后果是积极的，个人将在今后往往有类似的反应，类似的情况。如果这些不愉快的后果是，个人往往会改变他或她的行为，以避免它们。例如，人们可能会遵守法律和管理人员的合法指令，因为他们已经学会在家庭和学校的不服从导致的惩罚。在另一面是，人们尽量满足目标的工作，因为他们已经了解到，他们站在一个很好的机会被奖励。这就是所谓的法律效力。强化理论涉及人们的记忆中过去的刺激反应-后果的经验。根据强化理论，一个人的动机时，他或她回应刺激一贯的行为模式随着时间的推移。强化理论，期望理论一样，是一种以链接的动机和行为。在沃尔玛，管理层的意愿行事Associates的建议作为加强效果，然后再征求意见同伙。因此建议是加强行为。

行为矫正：行为矫正使用强化理论改变人类行为。因此，经理谁希望改变员工的行为必须改变产生的后果的行为。有人谁经常晚，例如，可能是出于对未来的时间（一行为改变）如果经理对此表示强烈批准为每个时间或提前出现（变化的后果） ，而不是无视准时到达。晚也可停止表示强烈不满迟到的时间，如果管理人员曾无视迟到。

有四个常见方法的行为矫正。积极加固，可取的行为感到鼓舞，或加强了积极的影响，如提高或赞扬。在回避学习，员工改变他们的行为，以避免不愉快的后果，如批评或一个贫穷的评价。要停止这种行为，管理者可以使用灭绝，缺乏增援。假设某经理的腹泻在工作人员会议，加强了员工的行为来晚了会议，并浪费时间使笑话。为了制止这种行为，经理会议上可能会开始的时间，而忽略jokesters 。管理员还可以诉诸惩罚-应用消极后果。常见的例子惩罚范围从批评减少工资和解雇。 W粘土锤制定了六项规则公式使用行为矫正所示。 （锤指雇员为“下属” ） 。

你大概会不会感到惊讶地得知，强化理论已收到其份额的批评。对许多人的想法“行为矫正”令人不安的是，因为它意味着，个人行为可以控制一个人的过去的经验和目前的环境。这似乎挑战根深蒂固的信仰，人类自由选择如何行动。有些观点来自本次辩论的研究进行的研究在1970年代初期，该调查的重要性，有意识的控制。这项研究已成为众所周知的“按钮实验” 。

这组实验中，研究人员大卫格拉斯（不首席执行官沃尔玛）和杰罗姆辛格和他们的同事表明，虽然人们会因为他们被告知，他们的表现更加富有成效如果他们有一定的控制他们的处境。在一项实验中，受试者分为两组，并告诉执行了一系列的枯燥，重复的任务，其中有些是不可能完成。有背景噪音的人组成的讲西班牙语和亚美尼亚，机器轰鸣和研磨和点击打字机。其中一组是一个按钮，将关闭的噪音和被告知随时使用它，但只有在成为噪音过大负担。另一组是没有任何按钮。

正如预期的那样，同组的按钮，超过该集团的按钮大幅度：成员试图解决的5倍多的不溶性难题，并减少错误的重复的任务。但是，没有人在该集团使用过的按钮。这是足以让他们知道，他们已经控制和可以行使它如果需要的话。想想适用性的这一想法的价值，增强员工的质量有可能改善雇员时有意识的控制？