Unit 8 Replies Program Design and Evaluation

I don’t understand this Psychology question and need help to study.

Review two of your classmates’ posts to assess the following:

• Critique your peer’s description of the matching law. Is it accurate? Include your own examples to help illustrate this concept.
• Include additional suggestions that your peer may have left out to increase maintenance and buy-in from others.

Peer 1

The matching law is when people make their behaviors fit to the tasks that have the better reinforcement of them. Behavior follows the relative frequency of reinforcement (Daniels, 2016). If a small amount of reinforcement is given for one task the employee is more likely to choose the next task that has better/ more reinforcement. When new types of reinforcement are introduced within a company there is a chance that no one will want to participate in the previous initiatives put forth. Matching law is very predictive and is very helpful with technological advances in the workplace.

Technology is ever changing in the workplace. Technology can help a company be more organized, produce more product, and train employees among many other things. Technology can help the company in many ways but it can also be distracting to employees. Such as cell phone usage when the employee should be working. Sometimes people get too dependent on technology and when the tech goes down employees do not know how to function as well. Technology can also be used for reinforcement it just depends on the situation.

Humble behaviorism is being humble to others work and criticism (Neuringer, 1991). By being open minded, willing to see others point of view, support diversity and be open for criticism allows multiple behaviorists to work together and build up each other’s ideas. This allows for the field to grow more. Each discipline should be working together to understand behaviorism more efficiently. Reciprocation and humble behaviorism allow many disciplines to work together in order to come up with the best behaviorism techniques to use now and in the future to better behavior.

References

Daniels, A. (2016). Bringing out the best in people: How to apply the astonishing power of positive reinforcement. 3rd Edition. McGraw Hill education. Retrieved from: https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781260462326/cfi/6/4!/4/4/2/2@0:51.8

Neuringer, A. (1991). Humble behaviorism. The Behavior Analyst, 14(1), 1–13.

Peer 2

Matching law helps to manage behavior that is affected by technological advances in the workplace. It involves the response or target behavior, the highest rate known, reinforcers, the target on on-task behavior or response, and the reinforcement for behavior other than that of the on-task behavior. (Daniels, 2016)

Technology plays a role in the workplace. Technology can be used to help train employees for their job. Technology can also be used to enable employees to learn quickly, perform at high rates, and retain what they learned for long periods of time. (Daniels, 2016) However, technology can also reduce the natural positive reinforcement in jobs. The behaviors that are in jobs now, typically have daily reinforcement. Each day, tasks have visible completion that is reinforcing to employees. Once, modern machines take over, these tasks may be done without the help of humans. (Daniels, 2016)

According to Neuringer, humble behaviorism can refer to “tentativeness of theoretical and methodological positions, willingness to consider alternative views, support for diversity, and openness to criticism.” (Neuringer, 1991 p. 1) Humility should be a goal of for behavioral researchers. By practicing humble behaviorism and humility, the effectiveness of a behaviorists can increase. This can also reduce the threat of behavioral research that is perceived by those in society. (Neuringer. 1991) Practicing reciprocation and humble behaviorism could diffuse fights within the sub-disciplines of psychology. By diffusing the fights, the sub-disciplines will be able to work together towards common goals. This can also motivate research by allowing researchers to “identify and admit their own ignorance and error.” (Neuringer, 1991 p.1)

References:

Daniels, A. (2016) Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement. [Purdue University Global Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781260462326/

Neuringer, A. (1991). Humble behaviorism. The Behavior Analyst, 14(1), 1–13.