(Week 3) Comprehensive Guide to Classical and Operant Conditioning, Social Learning, and Reinforcement Strategies

Classical Conditioning

Repeated exposure to a stimuli followed by a more intense stimuli that can cause you to treat the first stimuli as if it's the second stimuli.

Classical Conditioning Extinction

Being openly exposed to a stimuli repeatedly, causes you to respond to it less (Getting used to it).

Operant Conditioning

Behaviour's consequences influence the likelihood of behaviour re-occurring.

Drive

Internal state of disequilibrium; it is a need of felt (The Drive to pursue something).

Habit

Experienced bond or connection between stimulus and response.

Reinforcement or Reward

The feedback individuals receive as a result of action.

Social Learning Theory

The process of molding behaviour through reciprocal interaction of a person's cognitions, behaviour and environment.

Reciprocal Determinism

People control their own environment as much as the environment controls people.

Attention

Paying attention to the thing to learn.

Retention

The process by which what you have noticed is encoded in your memory.

Reproduction

Involves the translation of what was recorded in your mind into overt actions or behaviours.

Incentives

The process of being acknowledged for your work stimulates you to retain more and doing more work.

Vicarious Learning

Learning that takes place through the imitation of other role models.

Modeling

Demonstrates the desired behaviour (Ex. Using an individual to demonstrate the ideal).

Vicarious Conditioning

Learning from seeing/Hearing about others being conditioned.

Shaping

The process of improving performance incrementally, step by step.

Positive Reinforcement

Presenting someone with an attractive outcome following a desired behaviour.

Avoidance Learning (Negative Reinforcement)

Seeking to avoid an unpleasant condition or outcome by following a desired behaviour.

Extinction

Undesired behaviour will decline as a result of a lack of positive reinforcement.

Punishment

The administration of unpleasant or adverse outcomes as a result of undesired behaviour.

Piecework

Pro: Immediate Reinforcement; Con: Complexity of Supervision.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

Pro: Aligns employee goals with organization; Con: Individual behaviour has weak tie to stock gains.

Profit Sharing

Pro: Aligns with employee goals even closer to those of organization; Con: Labour unions may profit risk that is carried by the ones with higher earnings.

Gainsharing

Dividing financial gains from improved productivity: Pro: Motivates Change; Con: Gains are often difficult to calculate.

Skill-Based Pay

Pro: Flexible workforce; Con: Expensive and measurable skills.

Merit-Based Bonuses

Pro: Makes merit pay seem bigger (larger sum of money); Con: Often perceived as arbitrary or based on factors other than productivity.

Formal Recognition Programs

Employee of the Month Banner etc.

Behavioural Self-Management

The process of modifying one's own behaviour by systematically managing cues, cognitive processes, and contingent consequences.