Reinforcement theory is an important motivation theory of behavior change put forward by Skinner, a professor of psychology at Harvard University. He believes that people are like a "black box", and the inner psychological state is like something in a black box that is unknowable. Therefore, he put forward that it is not necessary to understand people's internal state and psychological process to control and predict people's behavior, but only to study and explain the formation mechanism of people's behavior, and to control behavior through control reinforcement, so that necessary behaviors can be repeated and strengthened, and unimportant behaviors can be weakened or disappeared.
Skinner regards reinforcement as a means to enhance the probability of a certain reaction and behavior, and it is an essential key factor to maintain and shape behavior. Using reinforcement to transform behavior can generally be divided into the following four ways:
1. Positive reinforcement refers to a behavior transformation mode in which civil servants use stimulus factors to feel that they have met certain needs, so as to consolidate and strengthen this behavior and make it happen again and increase. Positive reinforcement is also called positive reinforcement, and the incentive factors include praise, appreciation, recognition, promotion, salary increase and assignment of more meaningful work. When using positive reinforcement, we should pay attention to the following points: (1) The selected reinforcement should be appropriate, attractive and enlightening to the reinforced object. (2) reinforcement should have a clear purpose and pertinence, so that the strengthened person can know the encouraged and hoped behavior.
2. Negative reinforcement means that after the behavior required by a bad organization and organizational goals occurs, some unpleasant and annoying events or environments are immediately eliminated by using certain stimulating factors, and the possible consequences of some non-conforming behaviors or poor performances are informed in advance, and civil servants are required to act in a permitted way to avoid bad consequences, which not only reduces or eliminates the consequences of bad behaviors, but also increases the possibility of repeated behaviors that meet the requirements. Therefore, negative reinforcement is consistent with positive reinforcement, and it is not a punishment. For example, civil servants who are late for work will be criticized; If you go to work on time, you won't be criticized. When negative reinforcement is applied to encourage a certain behavior by eliminating the bad influence, it can only be eliminated when the behavior appears, which can be effective and make the strengthened person understand the connection between the behavior and the latter.
3. Punishment refers to a way of behavior reform that makes the actor feel pain or unhappiness with some stimulating factors after a certain behavior occurs, thus expressing opposition and negation to this behavior, thus reducing and eliminating the possibility of these behaviors. Stimulating factors include criticism, salary reduction, fines, demotion and other mandatory and threatening results.
4. Natural regression refers to the behavior transformation mode of canceling the reinforcement of some behaviors of members, or ignoring them after the behavior occurs, neither giving positive reinforcement nor negative reinforcement, so that they feel that their behaviors are not recognized or recognized, thus making this behavior slowly and naturally disappear. The subordinate flatters the superior. If the superior ignores him for a long time, the subordinate will stop flattering him if he gets bored. For another example, if a civil servant does a good deed and his superiors and colleagues are ungrateful, the act of doing good deeds will naturally disappear.