Reinforcement. What Is It and How Can We Use It Most Effectively?
“What gets reinforced, gets repeated”
This is a popular and catchy quote. Simply reinforce and, wah-lah, the behavior continues the way we want it to. But what does reinforcement mean and how does it apply to athletes or teams?
We can start by understanding that reinforcement is a consequence and is used to INCREASE or MAINTAIN a desired behavior.
There are two ways to utilize reinforcement as a consequence:
- Positive
- Negative
Positive reinforcement is arguably the most common concept thrown around by motivational speakers, books on culture, mental skills coaches, and any other “feel good” medium. However, it may also be the most misunderstood concept in terms of behavior.
A common held belief is that positive reinforcement means showering an individual with praise. The belief being that if we’re “positive” then an individual will continue acting in a manner that is acceptable or productive. This comes in the form of phrases such as, “Way to go,” “Wow, that was great,” “Amazing job!”, to name a few.
Although this is a TYPE of positive reinforcement (adding attention/acknowledgement) it is not the end all. Maximizing the benefits for positive reinforcement requires the understanding of a few key points:
Positive Reinforcement means ADDING something desired to increase/maintain the desired behavior.
Like all coaches, Coach Dan wanted his players to play hard regardless of the environment. It didn’t matter if an individual was playing poorly, the team was losing, or the overall circumstances didn’t favor his group. Coach Dan just wanted his players hustling and giving forth their “best effort” at all times.
Sammy Starplayer was on Coach Dan’s team. More than anything, Sammy wanted to play and hated coming out of the game for any reason. However, Sammy didn’t always play hard. When the going got tough, he would usually decrease the effort and give up. This would result with Coach Dan taking him out of the game.
One particular night, Sammy was having a poor game. He was missing all his shots and the player he was guarding led both teams in scoring. To make matters worse, his team was getting blown out. But instead of quitting as he normally did, Sammy continued to play with the effort Coach Dan wanted. In response to Sammy’s behavior, Coach Dan left him in the game after he taken all the other starters out. Coach D KNEW how bad Sammy wanted to play every minute and wanted to reinforce the hustle with ADDED playing time.
From that moment forward, Sammy continued to play hard regardless of the circumstance. The desired behavior (hustle) was positively reinforced (added playing time) the appropriate way.
What’s being added MUST actually be desired by the individual receiving the reinforcement (not assumed).
Johnny Gogetter was a hard working player. He was the first one to practice and last to leave. He had perfect class attendance and was the first one to give a high five to a teammate for performing well. He was also the first one to encourage a teammate during times of struggle. More than anything, Johnny simply loved being a part of the team and would do anything to be “one of the guys.” He was the player that his coach wished the rest of the team was like.
At the midpoint of the season, the team was playing poorly. The players were disenchanted and the overall climate surrounding the team was gloomy. So, coach decided he would acknowledge the hard work and attitude of Johnny in front of the team. The coach believed this would be a great opportunity to give Johnny well-deserved acknowledgement, but more importantly reinforce behaviors he wanted the rest of the team to follow.
Interestingly, though, Johnny started withdrawing from his usual “good teammate” behaviors. His encouragement to others decreased. His high fives disappeared. Why was this happening? The coach couldn’t think of why Johnny was not behaving in the same way. Hadn’t the coach just acknowledged him by praising him in front of his team?
What the coach didn’t realize is that Johnny HATED being the center of attention. The last thing he wanted was an example made of him. It was embarrassing. Although the coach was saying nice things and made a point of how Johnny was the model teammate/player on the team, the ADDED attention was a deterrent. The coach assumed public acknowledgement would be welcomed by any player, but he was wrong. Rather than reinforcing the behavior, it was actually PUNISHED. Johnny did not want to engage in the encouragement, high fives, and supportive behavior to his teammates any more because he did not want the coach to publicly acknowledge him.
“The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount” BF Skinner
Fully understanding what motivates a player is the key to utilizing positive reinforcement. We can add attention, gifts, playing time, etc. all we want, but if it’s not truly desired by the individual, it’s all for not. This is where simply saying “nice things” misses the mark. We need to make sure we are feeding the reinforcement system desired by each individual.
Negative Reinforcement is less recognized as positive, yet still carries the same weight when utilized appropriately. Again, something you may already do, but the field of Applied Behavior Analysis has labeled it accordingly.
When using negative reinforcement, you are now looking to SUBTRACT something non-desired from the individual to INCREASE/MAINTAIN a desired behavior. Example below:
Sally was an incredible student and exceeded her school and teams GPA requirements. However, the team had to attend 10 hours of study hall per week. Sally HATED it! Her attention to the material she was studying was much greater when she worked on her own time frame and in environments that had more background noise. Needless to say, she didn’t want any part of the team study hall requirement.
After her third straight semester of exceeding the academic expectations, her coach decided to SUBTRACT her study hall obligation in effort to maintain Sally’s exceptional behavior (class attendance/academic success). This thrilled Sally and further motivated her to continue on her path of academic prowess.
Similar to the points made about positive reinforcement, we need to make sure we are subtracting non-desirable things from the individual. If not, and we actually take away something desired, we will potentially be working against ourselves (punishing).
In addition, we need to keep in mind that what’s reinforcing to one, may not be to another. Using a previous example, public acknowledgement may motivate and inspire some, while being embarrassing/humiliating to others. Taking a deep dive into understanding our players (or staff members) motivations and functions of behavior allows us to best utilize reinforcement. Knowing what and when to add/subtract will pay dividends when looking to increase/maintaining desired behaviors.
This may seem like a lot of work. IT IS! Coaching, managing, and LEADING people takes time and tact. This is not the time to make assumptions or project our individual wants/needs onto other individuals. In order to properly use any consequence in effort to change behavior, we need have a deep understanding of the individual:
- What is the Function of their Behavior?
- What are their Preferences?
- In what Contexts do certain behaviors occur?
- What is their History of Reinforcement?
How much time are you really putting in to understand those you influence? It is our hope that these concepts of reinforcement help sharpen your sword and increase the impact you have on those around you. The digging may take awhile, but the gold at the bottom will be well worth it!
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