UNIT II
MOTIVATION
Q1) What is motivation?
A1) The term motivation is derived from the word ‘motive”. The word ‘motive’ as a noun means an objective, as a verb this word means moving into action. Therefore, motives are forces which induce people to act in a way, so as to ensure the fulfilment of a particular human need at a time. Behind every human action there is a motive. Therefore, management must provide motives to people to make them work for the organization.
Motivation may be defined as a planned managerial process, which stimulates people to work to the best of their capabilities, by providing them with motives, which are based on their unfulfilled needs.
“Motivation means a process of stimulating people to action to accomplish desired goods.” —William G. Scott
“Motivation is the process of attempting to influence others to do your will through the possibility of gain or reward.” — Flippo
Motivation is, in fact, pressing the right button to get the desired human behaviour.
Motivation is no doubt an essential ingredient of any Organisation. It is the psychological technique which really executes the plans and policies through the efforts of others.
Q2) What are the sources of motivation?
A2) Some psychologists have explained motivation in terms of personal traits or individual characteristics. Other psychologists see motivation more as a state of temporary situation. Some explanations of motivation rely on internal, personal factors such as needs, interests and curiosity. Other explanations point to external factors such as rewards, punishments, social pressure and so on.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within, while extrinsic motivation arises from external factors. When one is intrinsically motivated, he/she engages in an activity because he/she enjoys it and gets personal satisfaction from doing it. When one is extrinsically motivated, he/she does something in order to gain an external reward.
Intrinsic motivation is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities. When we are intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives or punishments because the activity itself is rewarding. On the other hand, if we do something in order to earn a grade, avoid punishment or for some other reason that has very little to do with the task itself, then it is known as Extrinsic motivation.
Recently, the notion of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as two ends of a continuum has been challenged. An alternative explanation is that just as motivation can include both trait and state factors, it can also include both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic and extrinsic tendencies are two independent possibilities and at any given time, we can be motivated by some of each.
Practical sources of motivation at work and at home-
1. Environment: Some writers like to write in a very silent environment while others may prefer a public place. Generally, a well-lit, well-conditioned and moderately spacious room is a great environment for motivation at work.
2. Necessity: This is the lowest form of motivation. It is the motivation derived from the necessity of survival- the need to have food, cloth, and shelter. Although this is the least source of motivation, it is very powerful. When hungry, people can do crazy things. As an individual move up the Maslow’s pyramid, his necessities change. When it is necessary for a man to obtain an education in order to escape poverty, he will work harder to gain admission into college.
3. Fear: The fear of being in the same place for a long time is one of the most powerful factors for the unprecedented surge in the wealth distribution among millennial.
4. Revenge: It is often said that the best form of revenge is a massive success. Some of us, at some points in our lives, have been told that we cannot amount to anything worthwhile in life. This has been the motive behind some of the most powerful feats and records in recent times.
5. Vanity: Well, this often gets a bad rap. However, vanity can be a good source of motivation. Many people are highly concerned about how others perceive them. For example, a salesman is often judged by his appearance. Therefore, he may go an extraordinary length to look good to others. To achieve this, he may have to spend hours at the gym, buy expensive suits and have lunch at expensive restaurants.
6. Proving doubters wrong: As entrepreneurs, many people may not believe in our ideas and visions. However, a man who has developed sufficient conviction in his ideas and vision will be motivated to prove haters wrong.
7. Being of Service: This is intrinsic. Many entrepreneurs start businesses because they want to work directly with clients. They want to have a personal connection with their customers and feel that their businesses are impacting people and changing lives. They find being of service rewarding and highly motivating.
9. Mastery: This is perhaps the purest of motivation. This is the end goal of motivation. You may not start here but, if you are motivated enough, you will move past vanity, competition, and revenge, into mastery. Motivation driven by mastery brings an individual into a state of peak performance.
10. Knowing the Why: When the road gets tough and it seems the big picture is fading, knowing the reason you got started in the first place may be the only source of motivation you need. In the midst of multiple distractions, you may lose the essence of your actions. However, knowing your why will enable you to cut through several distractions, dejections, and disappointments.
Motivation can come from anywhere. As a matter of fact, it is better to be motivated by negative factors like regrets and fear, than to live life lethargically. When you embrace all sources of motivation, not only do you have improved confidence, your competence is enhanced.
Q3) Discuss Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory of Motivation.
A3) It is probably safe to say that the most well-known theory of motivation is Maslow’s need hierarchy theory Maslow’s theory is based on the human needs. Drawing chiefly on his clinical experience, he classified all human needs into a hierarchical manner from the lower to the higher order.
In essence, he believed that once a given level of need is satisfied, it no longer serves to motivate man. Then, the next higher level of need has to be activated in order to motivate the man.
1. Physiological Needs:
These needs are basic to human life and, hence, include food, clothing, shelter, air, water and necessities of life. These needs relate to the survival and maintenance of human life. They exert tremendous influence on human behaviour. These needs are to be met first at least partly before higher level needs emerge. Once physiological needs are satisfied, they no longer motivate the man.
2. Safety Needs:
After satisfying the physiological needs, the next needs felt are called safety and security needs. These needs find expression in such desires as economic security and protection from physical dangers. Meeting these needs requires more money and, hence, the individual is prompted to work more. Like physiological needs, these become inactive once they are satisfied.
3. Social Needs:
Man is a social being. He is, therefore, interested in social interaction, companionship, belongingness, etc. It is this socializing and the feeling of belongingness that drive individuals to work in groups, especially the older people.
4. Esteem Needs:
These needs refer to self-esteem and self-respect. They include such needs which indicate self-confidence, achievement, competence, knowledge and independence. The fulfillment of esteem needs leads to self-confidence, strength and capability of being useful in the organization. However, inability to fulfill these needs results in feelings like inferiority, weakness and helplessness.
5. Self-Actualization Needs:
This level represents the culmination of all the lower, intermediate, and higher needs of human beings. In other words, the final step under the need hierarchy model is the need for self-actualization, self- fulfillment.
The term self-actualization was coined by Kurt Goldstein and means to become actualized in what one is potentially good at. In effect, self- actualization is the person’s motivation to transform perception of self into reality.
According to Maslow, the human needs follow a definite sequence of domination. The second need does not arise until the first is reasonably satisfied, and the third need does not emerge until the first two needs have been reasonably satisfied and it goes on. The other side of the need hierarchy is that human needs are unlimited.
However, Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is not without criticisms.
The main criticisms of the theory include the following:
1. The needs may or may not follow a definite hierarchical order. So to say, there may be overlapping in need hierarchy. For example, even if safety need is not satisfied, the social need may emerge.
2. The need priority model may not apply at all times in all places.
3. Researches show that man’s behaviour at any time is mostly guided by multiplicity of behaviour. Hence, Maslow’s preposition that one need is satisfied at one time is also of doubtful validity.
4. In case of some people, the level of motivation may be permanently lower. For example, a person suffering from chronic unemployment may remain satisfied for the rest of his life if only he/she can get enough food.
Notwithstanding, Maslow’s need hierarchy theory has received wide recognition, particularly among practicing managers. This can be attributed to the theory’s intuitive logic and easy to understand. One researcher came to the conclusion that theories that are intuitively strong die hard.
Q4) Discuss Mc. Gregor’s Participation theory.
A4) Douglas McGregor formulated two distinct views of human being based on participation of workers. The first basically negative, labeled Theory X, and the other basically positive, labeled Theory Y.
Theory X is based on the following assumptions:
1. People are by nature indolent. That is, they like to work as little as possible.
2. People lack ambition, dislike responsibility, and prefer to be directed by others.
3. People are inherently self-centered and indifferent to organizational needs and goals.
4. People are generally gullible and not very sharp and bright.
On the contrary, Theory Y assumes that:
1. People are not by nature passive or resistant to organisational goals.
2. They want to assume responsibility.
3. They want their organisation to succeed.
4. People are capable of directing their own behaviour.
5. They have need for achievements.
McGregor tried to draw the fencing within which a person in the organization is usually seen to behave. The fact remains that no one would actually belong either to theory X or theory Y. In reality, he/she shares the traits of both. What actually happens is that man swings from one set or properties to the other with changes in his mood and motives in changing environment.
Q5) Discuss Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory.
A5) The psychologist Frederick Herzberg extended the work of Maslow and proposed a replacement motivation theory popularly referred to as Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene (Two-Factor) Theory. Herzberg conducted a widely reported motivational study on 200 accountants and engineers employed by firms in and around Western Pennsylvania. He asked these people to explain two important incidents at their jobs:
(1) When did you feel particularly good about your job, and
(2) When did you feel exceptionally bad about your job?
He used the critical incident method of obtaining data.
The responses, when analyzed, were found quite interesting and fairly consistent. The replies respondents gave once they felt good about their jobs were significantly different from the replies given once they felt bad. Reported good feelings were generally related to job satisfaction, whereas bad feeling with job dissatisfaction. Herzberg labeled the work satisfiers motivators, and he called job dissatisfies hygiene or maintenance factors. Taken together, the motivators and hygiene factors have become referred to as Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation.
The maintenance/ hygiene factors according to Herzberg are:
The motivational factors are:
According to Herzberg, the removal of dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job satisfying. He believes in the existence of a dual continuum. The opposite of ‘satisfaction’ is ‘no satisfaction’ and therefore the opposite of ‘dissatisfaction’ is ‘no dissatisfaction’.
According to Herzberg, today’s motivators are tomorrow’s hygiene because the latter stop influencing the behaviour of persons once they get them. Accordingly, one’s hygiene could also be the motivator of another.
However, Herzberg’s model is labeled with the subsequent criticism also:
1. People have a tendency to take credit themselves when things go well. They blame failure on the external environment.
2. The theory basically explains job satisfaction, not motivation.
3. Even job satisfaction isn't measured on an overall basis. It is not unlikely that an individual may dislike a part of his/ her job, still thinks the job acceptable.
4. This theory neglects situational variable to motivate an individual.
Because of its ubiquitous nature, salary commonly shows up as a motivator also as hygiene.
Q6) Discuss David McClelland’s Three Need theory.
A6) David McClelland was an American Psychologist who developed his theory of needs or Achievement Theory of Motivation which revolves around three important aspects, namely, Achievement, Power and Affiliation. This theory is also known as the Acquired Needs as McClelland put forth that the specific needs of an individual are acquired and shaped over time through the experiences he has had in life. This motivation theory states that the needs for achievement, power and affiliation significantly influence the behavior of an individual, which is useful to understand from a managerial context.
This theory can be considered an extension of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory. As per McClelland, every individual has these three types of motivational needs irrespective of their demography, culture or wealth.
Need for Achievement
This is the drive to excel, to achieve in relation to a set of standard, and to strive to succeed. It is a behavior directed towards competition with a standard of excellence. According to McClelland, people with a high need for achievement perform better than those with a moderate or low need for achievement.
Need for Power
The need for power is concerned with making an impact on others, the desire to influence others, the urge to change people, and the desire to make a difference in life. People with a high need for power are people who like to be in control of people and events. This gives ultimate satisfaction to man.
Need for Affiliation
The need for affiliation is defined as a desire to establish and maintain friendly and warm relations with other people. The need for affiliation, in many ways, is similar to Maslow’s social needs.
McClelland’s theory can be applied to manage the corporate teams by being identifying and categorizing every team member amongst the three needs. Knowing their attributes may certainly help to manage their expectations and running the team smoothly.
Q7) Discuss Vroom’s Expectancy theory.
A7) Vroom’s model is based on the belief that motivation is determined by the nature of the reward people expect to get as a result of their job performance. People will be highly motivated if they are made to believe that if they behave in a particular way, they will receive a certain type of outcome according to their personal preference.
There are three variables in Vroom’s model given in the form of an equation. If any of the variables is zero, the probability of motivated performance tends to be zero.
MOTIVATION= VALENCE x EXPECTANCY x INSTRUMENTALITY
All these variables are explained below:
Vroom’s theory became very popular and became an alternative to content theories. According to him, those were inadequate explanations of the complex process of work evaluation. This model, however, is a step in the right direction, but from practical point of view, it does not help managers in solving the complex motivational problem.
Q8) Discuss ERG Theory of motivation.
A8) To bring Maslow’s need hierarchy theory of motivation in synchronization with empirical research, Clayton Alderfer redefined it in his own terms. His rework is called as ERG theory of motivation. He recategorized Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into three simpler and broader classes of needs:
Existence needs- These include need for basic material necessities. In short, it includes an individual’s physiological and physical safety needs.
Relatedness needs- These include the aspiration individuals have for maintaining significant interpersonal relationships, be it with family, peers or superiors, getting public fame and recognition. Maslow’s social needs and external component of esteem needs fall under this class of need.
Growth needs- These include need for self-development and personal growth and advancement. Maslow’s self-actualization needs and intrinsic component of esteem needs fall under this category of need.
The significance of the three classes of needs may vary for each individual.
ERG Theory states that at a given point of time, more than one need may be operational. ERG Theory also shows that if the fulfilment of a higher-level need is subdued, there is an increase in desire for satisfying a lower-level need.
According to Maslow, an individual remains at a particular need level until that need is satisfied. While according to ERG theory, if a higher- level need aggravates, an individual may revert to increase the satisfaction of a lower- level need. This is called frustration- regression aspect of ERG theory. For instance- when growth need aggravates, then an individual might be motivated to accomplish the relatedness need and if there are issues in accomplishing relatedness needs, then he might be motivated by the existence needs. Thus, frustration/aggravation can result in regression to a lower-level need.
While Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is rigid as it assumes that the needs follow a specific and orderly hierarchy and unless a lower-level need is satisfied, an individual cannot proceed to the higher-level need; ERG Theory of motivation is very flexible as he perceived the needs as a range/variety rather than perceiving them as a hierarchy. According to Alderfer, an individual can work on growth needs even if his existence or relatedness needs remain unsatisfied. Thus, he gives explanation to the issue of “starving artist” who can struggle for growth even if he is hungry.
Implications of the ERG Theory:
Managers must understand that an employee has various needs that must be satisfied at the same time. According to the ERG theory, if the manager concentrates solely on one need at a time, this will not effectively motivate the employee. Also, the frustration- regression aspect of ERG Theory has an added effect on workplace motivation. For instance- if an employee is not provided with growth and advancement opportunities in an organization, he might revert to the relatedness need such as socializing needs and to meet those socializing needs, if the environment or circumstances do not permit, he might revert to the need for money to fulfil those socializing needs. The sooner the manager realizes and discovers this, the more immediate steps they will take to fulfil those needs which are frustrated until such time that the employee can again pursue growth.
Q9) Define Perception and state its features.
A9) Perception may be defined as a cognitive process by which people attend to incoming stimuli, organize and interpret such stimuli into behaviour.
According to Stephen P. Robbins, perception is “a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.”
In simple words, perception means perceiving i.e. giving meaning to the environment around us. It is perceiving of objects what we are faced with.
Different individuals have different thinking styles, beliefs, feelings and objectives etc. and almost every individual behaves accordingly. Just because of these factors different people take different meaning for the same things. For some, a particular thing is right where as for some it is totally wrong. How we take things, what is our point of view, how we look at things is perception.
Features of Perception
1. Intellectual process through which a person selects the data from the environment, organizes it and obtains meaning from it is perception.
2. It is a basic cognitive or psychological process. People’s actions, emotions, thoughts or feelings are triggered by the perception of their surroundings.
3. It is a subjective process.
Q10) What are the components of perception?
1. Stimuli: The receipt of information is the stimulus, which results in sensation. Knowledge and behaviour depend on senses and their stimulation. The physical senses used by people are vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Intuitions and hunches are known as the sixth sense. These senses are influenced by a larger number of stimuli, which may be action, information, consideration and feelings, etc.
The stimuli may be in the form of objects or physical commodities. The human body itself is developed through the acceptance of the stimuli. The mind and soul are the victims of these stimuli occurring in the surroundings of the people. The family, social and the economic environment are important stimuli for the people. The physiological and psychological functions are the result of these stimuli.
The intensive and extensive forms of stimuli have a greater impact on the sensory organs. The physical work environment, sociocultural environment and other factors have certain stimuli to influence the employee’s perception. In all, the perception begins only when people deal with stimuli; that is, stimulating factors give information about the situation.
2. Attention: People selectively attend to stimuli. Some of the stimuli are reacted to while others are ignored without being paid any attention. The stimuli that are paid attention depend purely on the people’s selection capacity and the intensity of stimuli. Educated employees pay more attention to any stimuli, viz., announcement of bonus, appeal for increasing productivity, training and motivation. The management has to find out suitable stimuli, which can appeal to the employees at the maximum level.
If the attention of the employees is not drawn, the organization cannot expect proper behaviour from the employees. An organization should be aware of all those factors, which affect the attention of the employees. During the attention process, sensory and neural mechanisms are affected and the message receiver becomes involved in understanding the stimuli. Taking employees to the attention stage is essential in an organization for making them behave in a systematic and required order.
3. Recognition: After paying attention to the stimuli, the employees try to recognize whether the stimuli are worth realizing. The messages or incoming stimuli are recognized before they are transmitted into behaviour. Perception is a two-phase activity, i.e., receiving stimuli and translating the stimuli into action. However, before the stage of translation, the stimuli must be recognized by the individual.
The recognition process is dependent on mental acceptability. For example, if a car driver suddenly sees a child in front of his running car, he stops the car. He recognizes the stimuli, i.e., the life of the child is in danger. His mental process recognizes the danger after paying attention to the stimuli. If he does not pay attention to the stimuli, he cannot recognize the danger. After recognizing the stimuli, he translates the message into behaviour.
4. Translation: The stimuli are evaluated before being converted into action or behaviour. The evaluation process is translation. In the above example, the car driver after recognizing the stimuli uses the clutch and brake to stop the car. He has immediately translated the stimulus into an appropriate action. The perception process is purely mental before it is converted into action. The conversion is translation. The management in an organisation has to consider the various processes of translating the message into action. The employees should be assisted to translate the stimuli into action.
For example, the announcement of bonus should be recognized as a stimulus for increasing production. The employee should translate it into appropriate behaviour. In other words, they should be motivated by the management to increase productivity. During the translation period, psychological mechanism commonly known as sensory and mental organs is affected. They influence perception. The incoming stimuli are interpreted and perception is developed.
5. Behaviour: Behaviour is the outcome of the cognitive process. It is a response to change in sensory inputs, i.e., stimuli. It is an overt and covert response. Perceptual behaviour is not influenced by reality, but is a result of the perception process of the individual, his learning and personality, environmental factors and other internal and external factors at the workplace.
The psychological feedback that may influence the perception of an employee may be superior behaviour, his eye movement, raising of an eyebrow, the tone of voice, etc. The behaviour of employees depends on perception, which is visible in the form of action, reaction or other behaviour. The behavioural termination of perception may be overt or covert.
The overt behaviour of perception is witnessed in the form of physical activities of the employees and covert behaviour is observed in the form of mental evaluation and self-esteem. The perception behaviour is the result of the cognitive process of the stimulus, which may be a message, or an action situation of management function. Perception is reflected in behaviour, which is visible in different forms of employees’ action and motivation.
6. Performance: Proper behaviour leads to higher performance. High performers become a source of stimuli and motivation to other employees. A performance-reward relationship is established to motivate people.
7. Satisfaction: High performance gives more satisfaction. The level of satisfaction is calculated with the difference in performance and expectation. If the performance is more than the expectation, people are delighted, but when performance is equal to expectation, it results in satisfaction. On the other hand, if performance is less than the expectation, people become frustrated and this requires a more appealing form of stimulus for developing proper employee work behaviour and high performance.
It is essential to understand the factors that influence the perception process and mould employees’ behaviour towards the corporate objectives and self-satisfaction. Individuals observe several stimuli every day. They confront these stimuli, notice and register them in their minds, interpret them and behave according to their background and understanding.
Employees confronted with stimuli select only a few stimuli of their choice and leave other stimuli unattended and unrecognized. Factors influencing the selective process may be external as well as internal, organizational structures, social systems and characteristics of the perceiver.
Q11) What are the factors that influencing the perception process?
A11) Factors which affect perception relate to the perceiver, the perceived or target and situation. All these factors are of two kinds-
1. Internal (Endogenous) Factors
2. External (Exogenous) Factors.
Let us discuss these in details below:
1. Internal Factors
These are the personal characteristics of the individuals. These include the following-
(i) Needs and Desires: Individuals perception is basically determined by their inner needs and desires. Different needs result in different stimuli. Similarly, people select different items to satisfy their needs.
(ii) Personality: Personality of the perceiver also affect what is intended or perceived in the given situation.
(iii) Belief: A person’s belief has direct impact on his perception. It is very difficult for an individual to think beyond his personal beliefs because most of the times people go as per their beliefs and they perceive in the same manner.
(iv) Past Experience: People’s perception is greatly influenced by their past experiences. A person, having good experience in past will perceive accordingly and vice versa.
(v) Current Psychological State: Current psychological or emotional state of people plays an important role in perception. Present position of the person defines how a person will perceive thing. Like, a person in a good mood will perceive in a different manner as compared to a person who is not in a good mood.
(vi) Expectations: Again, expectations are major players in deciding how a person will perceive. Expectations are related with the state of anticipation of particular behaviour from a person. E.g. If a person thinks that Mr. X will never do anything good to him then even if Mr. X is right that person will always remain under an impression that Mr. X is wrong.
2. External Factors
The external factors relate to what is to be perceived and the situation. These are discussed below:
(i) Size- The bigger is the size of the perceived stimulus, the greater the possibility that it is perceived & vice versa. People tend to understand things better when it is explained in a clearer manner and they understand the same accordingly.
(ii) Intensity- More intense the external stimulus is, the more likely it is to be perceived e.g. a loud sound, bright colour etc. is more likely to attract attention than a soft sound or relatively dull colour.
(iii) Repetition: Repeated external stimulus is more attention getting than a single one.
(iv) Frequency- The greater the frequency of repetition of things, the greater will be the perceptual selectivity. This is also in accordance with the repetitive theory of learning.
(v) Status- Perception is also influenced by the status of the perceiver. High status people can have greater influence on perception of an employee as compared to low status people.
(vi) Contrast- The stimulus which is in contrast with the surrounding environment attracts more attention as compared to the stimuli that blends in.
Q12) Discuss learning and Behaviors Reinforcement.
A12) Learning is a key process in human behaviour. Learning refers to the modification of behavior through practice, training and experience. It means change in behavior, attitude due to education and training, practice and experience. If we compare the simple, crude ways in which a child feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behaviour, his skills, habits, thought, sentiments and the like- we will know what difference learning has made to the individual.
According to E.R. Hilgard, “Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of a prior experience.”
In the words of Stephen P. Robbins, Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience.
Schedule of Reinforcement:
Reinforcement is defined as a consequence of that follows a response that increases (or attempts to increase) the likelihood of that response occurring in the future. In this lesson, we will focus on the schedules of reinforcement. When and how a consequence is reinforced is critical to the learning process and the likelihood of increasing a response. A schedule of reinforcement acts as a rule, stating which instances of a behavior will be reinforced. Sometimes an instance will be reinforced every time they occur. In other cases, reinforcement might only happen sporadically or through scheduled occurrences.
A schedule of reinforcement is a protocol or set of rules that a teacher will follow when delivering reinforcers. The “rules” might state that reinforcement is given after every correct response to a question; or for every 2 correct responses; or for every 100 correct responses; or when a certain amount of time has elapsed.
There are two categories of reinforcement schedule: Continuous Schedule and Intermittent Schedule. A continuous schedule of reinforcement (sometimes abbreviated into CRF) occurs when reinforcement is delivered after every single target behavior, whereas an intermittent schedule of reinforcement (INT) means reinforcement is delivered after some behaviors or responses but never after each one. Continuous reinforcement schedules are more often used when teaching new behaviors, while intermittent reinforcement schedules are used when maintaining previously learned behaviors (Cooper et al. 2007).
Continuous Schedule of Reinforcement (CRF):
In a continuous reinforcement schedule the desired behavior is reinforced each and every time it occurs. This continuous schedule is used during the first stages of learning in order to create a strong association between the behavior and the response. Overtime, if the association is strong, the reinforcement schedule is switched to a partial reinforcement schedule. The advantage to continuous reinforcement is that the desired behavior is typically learned quickly. However, this type of reinforcement is difficult to maintain over a long period of time due to the effort of having to reinforce a behavior each time it is performed. Also, this type of reinforcement is quick to be extinguished.
Partial/ Intermittent Schedules of Reinforcement:
In a partial reinforcement schedule the response is reinforced only part of the time. This may also be referred to as an intermittent reinforcement schedule. The advantage here with a partial reinforcement schedule is it's more resistant to extinction. The disadvantage is that learned behaviors take longer to be acquired. Once the response is firmly established, a continuous reinforcement schedule is usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule. In partial (or intermittent) reinforcement, the response is reinforced only part of the time. Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly with partial reinforcement, but the response is more resistant to extinction. Partial schedules reduce the risk of satiation once a behavior has been established. If a reward is given without end, the subject may stop performing the behavior if the reward is no longer wanted or needed.
There are four basic types of intermittent schedules of reinforcement and these are:
1) Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule.
2) Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule.
3) Variable-Ratio (VR) schedule.
4) Variable-Interval (VI) schedule.
Fixed-Ratio Schedule (FR):
Fixed-ratio schedules are those in which a response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses. This schedule produces a high, steady rate of responding with only a brief pause after the delivery of the reinforcer. An example of a fixed-ratio schedule would be delivering a food pellet to a rat after it presses a bar five times. A fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement means that reinforcement should be delivered after a constant or “fixed” number of correct responses.
Variable-Ratio Schedule (VR):
Variable-ratio schedules occur when a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule creates a high steady rate of responding. Gambling and lottery games are good examples of a reward based on a variable ratio schedule. In a lab setting, this might involve delivering food pellets to a rat after one bar press, again after four bar presses, and then again after two bar presses.
When using a variable-ratio (VR) schedule of reinforcement the delivery of reinforcement will “vary” but must average out at a specific number. Just like a fixed-ratio schedule, a variable-ratio schedule can be any number but must be defined.
Fixed-Interval Schedule (FI):
Fixed-interval schedules are those where the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. This schedule causes high amounts of responding near the end of the interval but slower responding immediately after the delivery of the reinforcer. An example of this in a lab setting would be reinforcing a rat with a lab pellet for the first bar press after a 30-second interval has elapsed.
A fixed-interval schedule means that reinforcement becomes available after a specific period of time. A common misunderstanding is that reinforcement is automatically delivered at the end of this interval but this is not the case. Reinforcement only becomes available to be delivered and would only be given if the target behaviour is emitted at some stage after the time interval has ended.
Variable-Interval Schedule (VI):
Variable-interval schedules occur when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed. This schedule produces a slow, steady rate of response. The variable-interval (VI) schedule of reinforcement means the time periods that must pass before reinforcement becomes available will “vary” but must average out at a specific time interval. Again, the time interval can be any number but must be defined.
Just like a fixed-interval (FI) schedule, reinforcement is only available to be delivered after the time interval has ended. Reinforcement is not delivered straight after the interval ends, the child must emit the target behaviour after the time interval has ended for the reinforcement to be delivered.
Deciding when to reinforce a behavior can depend on a number of factors. In cases where we are specifically trying to teach a new behavior, a continuous schedule is often a good choice. Once the behavior has been learned, switching to a partial schedule is often preferable.
In daily life, partial schedules of reinforcement occur much more frequently than do continuous ones. For example, if we received a reward every time we showed up to work on time, over time, instead of the reward being a positive reinforcement, the denial of the reward could be regarded as negative reinforcement. Instead, rewards like these are usually doled out on a much less predictable partial reinforcement schedule. Not only are these much more realistic, but they also tend to produce higher response rates while being less susceptible to extinction.
