Why does one person exhibit certain behaviors and another doesn't?
Perhaps you get excited every time a text alert dings because you associate that noise with an update from a loved one. But a friend who’s stressed at work might hear that same sound and feel dread, assuming it’s another task to add to their to-do list.
Many ideas, including experimenter Ivan Pavlov's classical conditioning theory, demonstrate that triggers drive certain human behaviors — like how a text notification might drive you to check your phone. But those theories don’t explain everything. If triggers made everyone behave the same way, then everyone would check their phones immediately after hearing a notification and have the same emotional response. And that’s just not the case.
Consequences are the missing piece in the theoretical puzzle. You associate notifications with positives, and your friend relates them to stress. That’s because you get a reward, and your friend receives more work.
Enter the principles of operant conditioning theory. This conditioning type accounts for consequences’ role in molding behaviors, explaining why people don’t act the same when certain triggers arise. When you understand how positive or negative results affect your actions, you gain insights into how to find motivation wherever you go.
What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning, which some call instrumental conditioning, suggests that rewards and punishments motivate human behaviors. If you get a perk for demonstrating desirable behaviors, you’ll likely repeat the action that led to the reward. But if you receive a negative consequence, you’ll avoid the undesirable behavior that provoked it.
Here’s a workplace operant conditioning example to clarify the idea. Imagine your company offers a quarterly bonus if you meet performance metrics. You meet the mark and receive the reward — a bonus and praise from your manager. This encourages you to put in the same effort next month.
Operant conditioning theory explained
Not wanting to experience negative consequences makes sense, as does working hard to receive a reward. It’s natural to want to avoid pain and seek pleasure. But the formation of this psychological theory took years of experimentation and research.
Behaviorist B.F. Skinner described operant conditioning as behavior controlled by its consequences. Through his experiments with rats, Skinner found that the animals could learn to avoid a negative punishment. From there, he posited that reinforcement schedules — rules that define the cadence of a consequence — drive learning and, in turn, changes in behavioral patterns.
If you get a bonus every time you meet a metric, you change your behaviors to achieve that goal. This response is what Skinner would call a “reinforcer.” But not all consequences drive behavioral change the same way. Here’s more on the three categories of responses, according to the theory of operant conditioning Skinner proposed:
Neutral responses
Neither positive nor negative, a neutral stimulus doesn’t drive a reaction or motivate behavioral modifications. If you don’t receive rewards or punishment for the quality of your work, you aren’t likely to improve or avoid it.
Reinforcers
Reinforcers are positive or negative consequences that motivate you to continue or achieve a target behavior. These further split off into primary reinforcers (innate, like quenching thirst) and secondary reinforcers (external, like earning validation).
If you receive a bonus for hard work, which is a positive reinforcer, and less responsibility after you fail to meet deadlines, which could be a negative reinforcer, both scenarios can push you to keep making an effort. You continue working hard for the bonus and put in the effort to improve to maintain your role and responsibilities.
Punishers
Punishers dissuade you from repeating undesirable behavior, and there are both negative and positive punishments. Negative ones remove a positive stimulus to drive change, and positive ones add an aversive stimulus, which means it’s something you want to avoid.
Imagine you’re a freelance management consultant. When you offer a service that none of your prospective clients purchase, you decide to stop providing that service. You didn’t get the results you’d hoped for, whether that was client interest or financial gain. This is an example of negative punishment because you’re removing the possibility of a positive outcome — any future client interest.
Positive punishment applies in situations with clear negative consequences. If your consulting business gets a bad review after you submit a late deliverable, that’s positive punishment. It isn’t positive because it’s good, but because the review is an aversive stimulus.
Extinction
Extinction is when positive and negative reinforcements or punishments no longer govern your behavior. This can lead you to reverse good behaviors when there are no longer rewards, or go back to undesirable behaviors when there are no longer consequences.
If a manager gives shout-outs in their weekly meeting to give kudos to employees going above and beyond, but stops doing so, those employees might stop putting in the extra effort. Without positive reinforcement, they don’t have the motivation to do more than the minimum.
Respondent versus operant behavior
In operant conditioning theory, behavioral change depends on learning. If a friend stops reaching out to you after you always cancel plans with them, you’ll have to learn how to change your ways to improve outcomes, which is a choice you make. But not all behaviors are conscious — that is, operant.
Some behaviors just happen. They’re involuntary knee-jerk reactions, and Skinner separated these involuntary respondent behaviors from the operant ones in his conditioning theory. A respondent behavior is automatic and often comes in the form of an emotion. If you’ve experienced some negative performance reviews, you might feel anxious about your next one even if you’ve been performing well and will receive praise.
It's important to note this distinction when considering operant conditioning and its real-life applications. Changes like boosting the quality of your work or committing to arriving at a friend’s house on time take learning and practice. And if you’re trying to encourage others to make changes, remember that people can’t develop new behaviors overnight or automatically.
Benefits of operant conditioning at work
Operant conditioning in psychology is a theory that helps people better understand human behavior. But if you’re wondering how to motivate and encourage yourself or the people in your workplace, you’re likely interested in implementing the idea in practice.
Sometimes, getting teammates to do their best requires reinforcement. Intrinsic motivations wane, people burn out, and organizations don’t always show gratitude for the work people do. Using operant conditioning can give people the incentive they need to perform. Here are the benefits:
1. Builds accountability in team projects
Teamwork may make the dream work, but only when everyone pulls their weight. Operant conditioning practices, like rewarding individuals for high-quality deliverables or creating team goals to encourage holistic participation, can encourage everyone to do their part well.
2. Facilitates learning
Consistent reinforcement can help employees enjoy learning new processes. Adopting a new customer relationship management tool might be confusing and slow, but it might give team members the assistance they need to make more sales and perform better on the job. Keeping those rewards in mind encourages them to put more effort into learning.
3. Encourages fairness
When the same people receive rewards every time, it can cause friction in a group and demotivate those who haven’t received the same attention. Creating clear, fair systems for operant conditioning practices can mitigate potential biases and show everyone what they can do to earn rewards. If you establish consistent team-wide perks and clearly communicate and apply these policies, everyone can see the potential impacts of their work.
Positive reinforcement at work
Positive reinforcement feels good — and there’s a scientific reason why. When you receive a reward, your dopamine levels spike, and your happy hormones bring you pleasure, motivation, and satisfaction. When you receive consistent rewards at work, you may enjoy your role more and find the motivation to do well.
If you’re a leader looking for ways to use positive reinforcement or just want to know how it can apply in the workplace, here are some methods to try:
Showing approval
Let strong team members know they’re performing well. Send a thank you note for a job well done or tell them you recognize their efforts or see improvements. Someone may not know they’re making a positive impact unless you take the initiative to tell them, and once you do, they might do even better.
Perks
Extrinsic motivation perks like bonuses, time off, and positive feedback can all motivate employees. Set clear goals and establish metrics to track them. Offer salespeople bonuses for bringing in a new client or helping the company generate a certain amount of income. Be sure to equip people with the tools — like training or software — they need to reach the goal, helping them feel confident they can succeed.
Team-building activities
Positively reinforce excellent team performance by incentivizing the group. If the cohort meets a goal, offer a day off or an enjoyable off-site event, like a Friday afternoon restaurant outing. These incentives encourage individual accountability and teamwork when everyone wants to pitch in to reach the shared goal. And the team-building activity itself can promote stronger social bonds and respect among the group.
Negative reinforcement at work
Negative reinforcement sounds like a bad thing, but it aims to drive positive behaviors. This technique doesn’t have to include punishment. The goal is to propel change for the better by motivating people to avoid uncomfortable situations or consequences — not bringing those consequences upon them.
Take the example of a struggling sales team. The leader might ask them to meet every Friday afternoon for additional training sessions. While helpful, these meetings might be a drag, especially at the end of the week when people would rather go home. But when the team improves their numbers, they won’t have to attend the sessions anymore, reinforcing the positive changes they’re making.
Punishment at work
Punishment can be an effective tactic in the workplace when leaders use it to maintain standards and policies. But it could easily make employees feel bad about themselves or add unnecessary tension, so use it with caution. Involve discipline only in serious situations that deserve consequences.
The following examples demonstrate common workplace penalties:
- Giving an employee who repeatedly arrives late a warning
- Terminating an employee who has severely disrespected the company’s rules or values
- Delivering a written warning to an employee for breaking a rule, like exhibiting unprofessional behavior with clients or misusing company equipment
- Putting an employee on probation until they improve performance
- Demoting an employee who isn’t meeting the company’s leadership standards
Schedules of reinforcement
Operant conditioning runs on a reinforcement schedule. That means reinforcement must happen on a cadence, and happen more than once, to be effective. People should know what rewards to expect and when so they can change their behaviors accordingly.
Establishing a schedule of reinforcement is especially important in the workplace because it keeps reward systems or punishments fair. It wouldn't be effective if some employees earned a shout-out after submitting a deliverable early and others didn’t.
There are several effective ways to set a rhythm for reinforcement, including:
Fixed ratio reinforcement
A fixed ratio schedule depends on a behavior happening a determined amount of times. For example, a salesperson may get an afternoon off after hitting 500 successful calls.
Fixed interval reinforcement
A fixed interval schedule applies reinforcements that happen at specific times. Yearly or monthly bonuses are an excellent workplace example, as are quarterly off-sites for high-performing teams.
Continuous reinforcement
In a continuous reinforcement schedule, recipients get a reward anytime they meet a particular mark. If you pat yourself on the back any time you finish your daily to-do list, you’ve practiced continuous reinforcement.
Variable ratio reinforcement
A variable ratio schedule refers to unpredictable reinforcement cadences. This reinforcement style is common in the workplace, especially in settings where there’s an element of chance in employee success. A salesperson doesn’t know upon entering a pitch meeting if they’ll sign the client, but they will occasionally. They won’t reap the rewards every time, whether that’s a monetary perk or a personal sense of satisfaction.
Variable interval reinforcement
Variable interval schedules describe rewards or consequences that don’t happen at certain times. If a team knows their sales lead could monitor their calls without prior warning, this act may push employees to consistently do their best work. A manager sending out a thank-you note at an unexpected time is also a good example.
Reinforcement isn’t one-size-fits-all
The idea of operant conditioning provides a valuable basis for understanding how rewards and consequences affect wanted or unwanted behavior. This learning theory, derived from observations of animal behaviors, explains exactly why positive and negative reinforcement and punishments can incite change.
While the word “positive” might make it sound like a good idea, this type of reinforcement isn’t always the right choice — nor is punishing an employee who’s broken the rules an inherently harmful practice. Asking employees to attend a “boring” meeting that ups their skills does good, as does firing a colleague causing harm to the organization or others. Use the lessons of operant conditioning theory to make the right decision on how to reinforce behaviors depending on the situation.
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