1

Chapter Two

Foundation of Individual Behavior

and Learning in an Organization
Perception

Attitudes

Personality

Learning
1. Perception
Defined as “a process by which individuals organize and interpret their
sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment
Perception is outcome of sensation and is much broader in its nature.
Perception involves:
observing data,
selecting, and
organizing the data based on sensory reflects and interpreting the
same as per personality attributes of the perceiver.
Perception as the selection and organization of material which
stems from the outside environment at one time or the other to
provide the meaningful entity we experience”.

 That is why no two individuals can perceive an employee in the

same way.

For one efficient

For others useless

 Perception clarifies the following:
People’s actions, emotions, thoughts and feelings are triggered by
their perceptions of their surroundings.

It is the intellectual process by which a person access the information

for the environment, organize it and obtain the meaning from it.

It is the phase of operation that takes place after the information
being received by one that is well high indistinguishable from it.

It is the basic cognitive or psychological process. The manner in which

a person perceives the environment affects his behaviour.
 Factors Influencing Perception
1. The perceiver,

2. The perceived or target, and

3. The setting/situation.
 1.Perceiver:
When an individual looks at the object and attempts to interpret
the same, what he or she sees it is largely influenced by the
personal characteristics.

Perception is a matter of attitude that can be positive or negative.

Perceiver
Motive
Interest
Past experience
Expectations
 Factors Influencing Perception…
The major characteristics of the perceiver influencing perception are:

 Attitude: that can be positive or negative

 Motive: unsatisfied needs which exerts or uses considerable influence on

perception.

 Interest: persons liking for a particular thing in an individual.

 Past experience: i.e. young employee takes time to understand the object &
situation.

Experienced employee understand objects quickly & correctly.

2. The Perceived or Target:

 Objects, events that are similar to each other tend to group together
and have a tendency of perceiving them as common group.

The major characteristics of the target influencing perception are:

 Physical appearance: plays a big role in our perception of others.

The target’s physical features like height, weight, estimated age, race
and gender tend to be contrasted with the norm, that are powerful, or
that are new or unusual / rare.
 Factors Influencing Perception…
 Verbal communication: from targets also affects our perception of them.
We listen to the topics they speak about, their voice tone, and their accent and
make judgments based on this input.
 Non-verbal communication: The perceiver deciphers eye contact, facial
expressions, body movements, and posture all in an attempt to form an
impression of the target.
 Objects: As a result of physical or time proximity, we often put together objects
or events that are unrelated.
The greater the similarity, the greater the probability we will tend to perceive
them as a group.
 Factors Influencing Perception…
3. The Situation:
Change in situation leads to incorrect perception about a person.

The factor that influence the perception are:

 Time: A person decked up for party may not be clear or

noticeable but the same dress in office would be observed or
noticed distinctly, though the person has not changed.
 Factors Influencing Perception…
 Work setting: You would have very frequently heard people say that
their manager is different during working hrs and 180 degree
opposite in social setting

 Social setting: In fact person is the same but the perceiver perceives
the manager as per business like setup while on work, while the
person is observed on a private or a personal platform when
meeting him in the club or at home. i.e. automobile salesperson.
 Attribution Theory of Perception:
This theory is concerned with how individuals perceive the information
they receive, interpret events, and how these form causal judgments.

 we come across people with whom we interact.

 Motives,
 intentions,
 belief and
attitude of people have an impact as to how they behave
 Attribution Theory of Perception:
Perception about the people is greatly influenced by the
assumption we make about a person and not by reality

Two factors

externally
internally
caused
caused behavior
behavior
 Attribution Theory of Perception:
There are two factors, which has an impact on human behaviour.

1) Internally caused behaviour/dispositional:

people infer or assume that an event or a persons behaviour is due to personal factors
such as traits, abilities and feelings.

2) Externally caused behaviour/situational:

people infer or assume that an event or a persons behaviour is due to situational factors.
Determination of Perception:

1. Distinctiveness or uniqueness:

Example-of X worker coming late for duty.

If usual, it is attributed to internal factor on which X has full control.

When unusual or uncommon then it can be attributed to external factors.

 If the external factors are high, then late coming should not be attributed to the

individual behavior.
2. Consensus or agreement:
This factor refers to group behavior.

If the entire group taking the same way came late on duty, the action is attributed to

external factors.

But by some chance if X only was late then the causation would be internal.

3. Consistency:

If the behavior of Mr. X is consistence that is if he is consistently coming late then
attribution should be to internal factors.

If X came late once in a while the causation would be low and attributed to external
factors.
 Attribution errors:
 Fundamental attribution error.

 The tendency to under estimate the influence of external factors and over estimate the influence of internal
factors or personal factors

 Example, Fall in sales of a commodity is generally attributed to inefficiency of sales force rather than market
trend, recession or innovative product launched by the competitor.

 Self-serving bias error:

 Caused by the individuals who tend to attribute their own success to internal causation like ability, hard
work and self-worth and the failure, to external factors like Luck.

Aspect/features of Personality That Influences Perceptions

Costello, Zalkind (1962) and Hamacheck (1971) indicate the following r/ship b/n personality factors and
perception.

 Secured person perceives others as warm individuals.

 Aspect of Personality that Influences Perceptions…
Thoughtful individuals do not perceive situation in terms of black & white (single piece
of evidence) but understand that there can be different shades of grey, old or age.

Self-accepting people perceive others liking and accepts others easily.

Those who are not self-accepting tend to distrust others.

People tend to perceive others more accurately when they are more alike than if they
are different from those who are being perceived.
 Common Errors While Judging Others
1) Prejudice (armful) and Discrimination: it refers to a person’s predetermined negative
attitudes towards people based on some group identity. not based on objective facts or
reality but on biased belief systems. Discrimination is the result of prejudicial attitudes

2) Selective Perception: People selectively interpret what they see based on their attitude,
interest, background and experience.

3) Halo Effect: It refers to judging individual based on single characteristics, such as

intellectual ability, sociability and appearance.
4) Projection: You assume a person based on your own traits and not what he actually
possesses. If you were hard working and dependable you would expect others to be so.

5) Contrast Effect: We do not evaluate a person in isolation. Our reaction to one person is
relative to the other.

6) Stereotyping: we often tend to classify people and events into already known
categories.

Example:- we generally perceive man as executive and woman as secretary.

 Methods to overcome such biases in perception
The pitfalls listed above can be minimized by enhancing perceptual skills by
consciously putting effort in the following activities:

Knowing and perceiving oneself accurately

Being empathic

Having positive attitudes

Enhancing one’s self-concept

Making a conscious effort to avoid possible common biases in perception.

Open communication

Avoiding Attributions
 Methods to overcome such biases in perception…
A Managerial Checklist for Diagnosing Perceptual Biases
Managers can use the following checklist to help prevent perceptual biases.

 What current state of mind and moods generally bias our objective?

 What biases generally influence our perceptions and attributions regarding particular types of decisions?

 What additional information is needed to correct and/or change our potential biases in our decisions?

 What written policies and/or procedures can be designed and used to decrease individual and group
biases?

 Are we thinking & acting parochially and/or ethnocentrically in our decisions, or do we think and act
globally?

 How do our personality styles influence how ethically or unethically we perceive and assign fair and just
causes to events and behaviours?
 Attitude
Definitions of Attitude

 According to G.W. Allport, “Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness organized
through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon individual’s response
to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

 According to Katz and Scotland, “Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an

object or symbol of that object in a certain way”.

 Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness organized through experience,

exerting/using a directive or dynamic influence upon individual’s response to all objects
and situations with which it is related.
 Attitude…
 Attitude is an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and
cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual’s world.

 Attitude is a tendency or predisposition to evaluate an object or symbol of that object in

a certain way

 In simple words, an “attitude” is an individual’s way of looking or point of view at

something.

 People have attitudes regarding almost everything such as religion, politics, cloth,
music, food.
2.2 Characteristics of Attitude
1) Valence: It refers to the magnitude of degree of favorableness or favorableness
toward the event.

While measuring attitudes we are basically concerned with the valence.

2) Multiplicity: It refers to the number or elements constituting attitude.

3) Relation to Needs: Attitudes can also vary in relation to the needs they serve. Exam.

Attitude of an individual toward the pictures may serve only entertainment needs.

4) Centrality: This refers to the importance of the attitude object to the individual.
 2.2 Characteristics of Attitude…
The characteristics of Attitude are as follows:
a. Attitude has an object: an object, which is liked or disliked, favored or
disfavored; or evaluated as negative or positive.
The object can be a thing, an idea, a person, or a situation.
b. Attitudes are learnt: Attitude is not an inborn phenomenon.
We acquire them through social interaction.
c. Attitude is never neutral: It can be either positive or negative, favorable or
unfavorable. Thus, it is always colored with some sort of emotion. A neutral
view is said to be the opinion.
d. Attitudes are more or less stable: are relatively stable, consistent and
permanent. But that does not mean that attitudes are absolute and fixed
stages of readiness or are rigid, and hence not liable to change.

Components of Attitude
A person’s attitude comprises of three components
1) Cognitive component
related to value statement
It consists of belief, ideas, values other information that an individual may
possess or has faith in.
 Exam. Quality of working hard is a value statement or faith that a manager may
2) Affective( feeling) component:

Related to person’s feelings about another person, which may be positive,

negative or neutral.

It is an expression of feelings about a person, object or a situation.

I like Fenet because she is hardworking.

3) Behavioral component:

Related to impact of various situations or objects that lead to individual’s behavior.

Cognitive and affective components are bases for such behavior.

2.2.4 Functions of Attitude: -
According to Katz, attitude serves the following important functions:
1. Adjustment Function.
This function is based on the hedonistic principle, which means people strive to
maximize the rewards and minimize the penalties in their external environment. i.e.
pretending to study while parents are watching, ordering the same food as others…
2.The ego-defensive function.
People normally spend a great deal of their energies in the process of learning to live
with themselves.
 Attitudes serve the function of defending self image. i.e. a smoker trying to justify his
bad habit.
3.The value-expressive function.
not only gives clarity to self-image but also bring that self-image closer to the heart’s
desire. i.e. enticing friends buy your favorite phone.
4.The Knowledge function.
based on the need for understanding and making sense of the world.
Exam. certain attitudes that are suitable to a situation are retained and an employee
discards those, which are unsuitable or outdated.
 Attitude Formation and Change
A person’s beliefs about an object and the amount and type of information the person
has about the object contribute to the formation of an attitude.
Kolasa classified attitude changes into two groups;
I. Congruent change: means a movement in the same direction;
Exam. less serious and idle worker may be converted into a more efficient and serious
worker by resorting to attitude change.
II. Incongruent attitude: is change resorted to other end of the continuum.
 For example, turning dislike into like, favorable into unfavorable, etc.
 2.2.7 Types of Attitude
1) Job satisfaction: Job satisfaction is related to general attitude towards the job.
A person having a high level of satisfaction will generally hold a positive attitude while
dissatisfied people will generally display negative attitude towards life.
2) Job involvement: Job involvement refers to the degree to which a person identifies

himself (psychologically) with his job, actively participates and considers his perceived

performance level important to self-worth.

Higher the job satisfaction, lower will be absenteeism and employee turnover.
3) Organizational commitment: refers to degree to which an employee identifies himself
with the organizational goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

 He wants to “belong” to the organization and take an active part in its functioning.
Absenting or resigning from the job versus job satisfaction is a predictor of organizational
commitment.

Attitude and Consistency

As stated earlier that the attitude of an individual is not visible but is reflected through
his behavior as a mirror of his attitude.
It is seen that people seek consistency among their attitudes or between
attitude and behavior.

They seek to reconcile their attitudes and align their attitudes with behavior so
that it is rational and consistent.

If there is inconsistency between attitude and behavior, outside forces act
upon an individual, which leads to attaining of equilibrium state, thus
consistency is achieved.

 For example an individual may buy an old car while praising the new model.
Reconciliation like, ‘why invest more for a new model’, or ‘the old model is as
efficient as the new one, because the same had been sparingly used’.
 Personality
Definition
Personality is a very complex and multidimensional construct of a human being. No
common definition of personality has so far been arrived at.
“Personality is a dynamic organization within an individual of those psychological
systems that determines his unique adjustment with the environment.
According to Gluck, “Personality is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a
person that influences his or her behaviour toward goal achievement.
 Determinants to Personality
 Nature (Heredity)
 genetic factors, which play a part in determining certain aspects of what
we tend to become.
 Situation: people interact with no of problem in a given situation
It is subject to change and hence fluid in nature
need to recognize the person-situation interaction
Environment
Every individual is born and brought up in a particular environment.
Environment leaves an imprint on the personality of an individual.
 Determinants to Personality…

 Culture. The cultural values we are surrounded by significantly tend to

shape our personal values and predisposition Ex. Western and
central/Eastern
 Family Background.
 socio-economic status of the family,

birth order,
 education of the parents influence the shaping of personality to a considerable extent
 Jung’s Psychological Functions
Carl Jung (1923) identified four psychological functions;
 used in gathering and evaluating information.
 sensation,

 intuition, It is important for used to gather information

 thinking, and
 feeling. It is important for Evaluating or judging the situation
 Individuals are strong in either sensation or intuition while gathering
information.
 Individuals are strong in either thinking or feeling while evaluation or
processing the information.
 Sensation and Intuition:

Sensation types Intuition types

 facts and details in the
 through global
environment in a very
visualizations of what the
methodical fashion
scene depicts
 depends on a lot of information
to assess the situation, is  relies on hunches and
pragmatic and down to earth nonverbal cues
 Thinking and Feeling:

Thinking types Feeling types

 People evaluate and make  in a more personal and
judgments either in impersonal subjective fashion

and objective fashions  places much reliance on human

 person makes systematic inquiry, feelings and emotions, is very

empathic, sentimental, and tries
is unemotional, and highly
to “read between the lines”
analytical and rational in making
while evaluating situations
judgments
 Thinking and Feeling:
thinking types… feeling types…
 feel comfortable when logic  enjoy pleasing others, dislike
and good analysis are the telling people unpleasant
bases of decision making and things, and heavily emphasize
such individuals are generally the human aspects of dealing
unemotional and not very with organizational matters
sensitive to the feelings of
others.
Sensation-Thinkers:
Managers with these predispositions create effective structures for organizations, which
insure stability.
They are rarely wrong with their facts and they are dependable leaders.
 Some of their weaknesses include extreme impatience with delays and imperfections and
their ineffectiveness when quick changes are necessary since they are unable to act quickly.

Intuitive-Thinkers:
Managers with these predispositions are the proactive change masters.
 see relationships among the various goals and activities and
 build new systems giving much thought to the effects of their ideas on operating
effectiveness.
main weakness -insensitive to the feelings of others and are likely to face difficulty in handing
interpersonal relations.
Sensation-Feelers:
Manager with these orientations is pragmatic( practical) and can deal with the problems
they confront in a very systematic fashion.
They have the cooperation of the people working for them, and they know how to
effectively use available resources rather than “fight the system”.
 main weakness is that they are unable to conceptualize a new scheme of things and hence the status quo
may prevail in the system.

Intuitive-Feelers:
Managers who are intuitive-feelers very effective in-group settings where new ideas are
to be formulated to move the organization towards success. good mentors, developing
their subordinates personally and professionally.
 Weakness:-basing certain decisions on personal likes or dislikes rather than on objective criteria, and
spending too much time seeking approval from others.
Organization-Based Personality Attribute
a) Locus of Control
 The degree to which people believe that they are masters of their own fate.
 which determines whether an individual’s control events or the events control the
individuals.

 External Locus of Control:

 Internal Locus of Control:  Person having dominant external locus of
 believe that they can manipulate events control believe that what happen to them is
to their advantage and capable of controlled by outside forces such as luck or
deciding their fate chance.
b) Type - A and Type - B Characteristics:
describes how a person behaves in his life and work.

Type-A individuals are characterized

as:-
Type-B individuals are characterized
 compulsive and obsessive, as:-
 impatient and irritable,  more methodical in getting tasks
 high achievers, perfectionists, accomplished, more relaxed and
 very competitive, laid back, and more patients with
 quick movers, and very time others.
conscious.
 Matching Personality and Job
1. Achievement Orientation:
 Every person possesses need to achieve (nAch) phenomenon in his
personality (high degree nAch or low degree nAch).
 A person who possesses high nAch displays very dominant personality
 Very ambitious, hard working and fixes his goal at a very high level and strives to
achieve the same.
 Undertakes a task which is neither easy nor tough
 Are good organizers, efficient managers
 Sports persons, sale persons are generally high achievers as they strive to achieve
extra point.
 Matching Personality and Job…
2. Authoritarianism:
 Authoritarianism theory is related with status & power

 The theory states that there should be status and power different between people in
the organization (people who will have more power and authority hence more
authoritative and people with low power and authority hence minimum degree of
being authoritative)
 Person who possesses high authoritarian:
 Intellectually rigid, they display varied behavior patterns

 Submissive/passive to superiors (seniors) and exploitative or unfair to

subordinates. Resist change and display insensitivity/selfishness in dealing with
people. They are task oriented
 Matching Personality and Job…
3. Theory of Machiavellianism:
Niccole Machiavelli introduced theory of Machiavellianism
Refers to the degree to which an individual is pragmatic and maintains emotional distance with
co-workers while accomplishing any task.

Those who practice this believes in “end justifies means”

A person having High Machiavellianism generally displays variety of personality traits:

 Manipulation, win more, and persuade others to do a work while they do not get persuaded by
others.

 They generally display in face-to-face situation where there are minimum rules and have enough
space for manoeuvre or work.
 Matching Personality and Job…
 They have high bargaining skills and believe in giving substantial rewards to subordinates
on accomplishment of tasks. They are highly productive.
 Machiavelli believed in one doctrine, that a work must be finished whatever be the means.

4. Self-Esteem:

Refers to individuals’ degree of liking or disliking himself

People’s self-esteem has to do with their self-perceived competence and self-image.

Plays an important moderating role in areas such as emotional and behavioural

responses and stress of organizational members

Employees with high self-esteem:

 Matching Personality and Job…
 Feel unique, competent, secure, empowered and connected to the people around them.

 Take more risk in job selection and take up unconventional assignments.

 Employees possessing low self-esteem:

Display dependency, seek approval from others for their decisions

Do not take unpopular stand, which may lead to displeasing others

5. Self-Monitoring:
 A trait that measures an individual’s ability to adjust behaviour to external, situational
factors.
 Matching Personality and Job…
 A person must always examine efficiency & attribute it to his behaviour with
subordinates & improve upon it.

 This quality displays high degree of adaptability and high sensitivity of an individual.

 A person possessing self monitoring trait is likely to behave differently in different

situation.

6. Risk Taking:
 A person’s willingness to take chances or risks.

 The tendency to assume or avoid risk has been shown to have an impact on how long it
takes managers to make a decision and how much information they require before
making their choice.
 Learning
Definition of Learning
The process of being modified more or less permanently by what happens in the world
around us, by what we do or what we observe.

The process by which an activity originates or is changed through reacting to an

encountered situation.

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour which occurs as a result of

experience.

Is a change in performance or modification in behaviour through conditions such as

activity, training and experience.
 Characteristics of Learning
 Is an inferred process that is believed to influence behaviour,

 It results in a relatively permanent change in behaviour,

 It is only one of several factors that influence behaviour,

 Some behaviours (genetic/inheritance) are not learned, nor are they

capable of change through learning,

 There is distinction between changes in behaviour that occur as matter of

learning and those that occur because of maturation or aging,

 The practice of learning must be reinforced in order to occur.

 Learning…
In general,

Learning is process and not a product,

Learning is improvement,

Learning is maturation,

Learning is adaptation and

Learning is attaining proficiency.

 Learning…Types of Learning
1) Classical Conditioning – behaviourist theory
Van Pavlov a Russian psychologist who won Nobel Prize introduced classical
conditioning theory. The experiment envisaged imagined dog as a subject.

Pavlov carried out this experiment in three sequential stages.

 In stage one; he presented meat (unconditional stimulus) to the dog.

He noticed a great deal of salivation (unconditional response)

 In stage two, he only rang up the bell (neutral stimulus), the dog had no salivation.

 In stage three, Pavlov accompanied the offering of meat to along with ringing up of bell.
After doing this several times, Pavlov rang up only bell (without offering of meat).
 Learning…
This time the dog salivated to the ringing up of bell alone / by yourself.

Pavlov concluded that the dog has become classically conditioned to salivate (response) to the
sound of the bell (stimulus).

2) Operant/Instrumental Conditioning

 Originated by an American psychologist, B.F. Skinner who experimented with rats & pigeons

He felt that more complex behaviour couldn’t be explained by Classical Conditioning concept.

He states that most human behaviour operates based on the environment.

Operant Conditioning is concerned primarily with learning as a consequence of Response -

Stimulus behaviour (R-S).
 Learning…
 In his concept “response” is first evaluated out of many stimuli, which is environmental in
nature. Behaviour is a function of consequences. It is voluntary in nature.

 Reinforces: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behaviour being
repeated. Reinforces can be either positive or negative.

 Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behaviour being
repeated. Punishment weakens behaviour.

Operant Conditioning has greater impact on learning as compared to Classical Conditioning.

3) Cognitive Theory – Cognitive Approach/latent learning

 Edward Tolman, an American psychologist was recognized as pioneer/innovator of this theory.

 Learning…
The theory consists of relationship between environmental (cognitive) cues and
expectations.

He used white rat in his psychological experiment.

He found that the rat could run through critical path with particular intention of
getting food (goal/objective).

 In the experiment, Tolman established certain choice points where expectations

were established.

The rat learned cognitive cues at various choice points, which would raise its
expectation to move forward to the objective (food).
 Learning…
Thus the rat turned to acquire food, based on relationship of Cues and Reward or expectations.

This theory was later applied on human resources where incentives were related to higher
performance.

4) Social Learning – behavioural approach

 Social learning approach is a behavioural approach developed by Albert Bandura, Canadian-born American
psychologist.

 The approach basically deals with learning process based on direct observation and the experience.

 It is achieved while interacting with individuals.

 In social learning people observe, alter and even construct a particular environment to fit in the social
behavioural pattern.

 Individuals learn a great deal from watching attractive models and they copy their behaviour and display the
same.
 Strategies of reinforcement, punishment and extinction
1) Continuous Schedule

Continuous reinforcement reinforces the desired behaviour of an individual in the

organization.

When a worker is required to do a particular assignment and if he does it on time he

should be rewarded.
 He would continue to display the same behaviour every time with the expectation of reward.

 When the reinforcement (reward) is withdrawn the individual is unlikely to do the job on time.

It is important to lay down policy in this respect so that employees achieve higher
productivity by displaying desired (standard) behaviour.
 Strategies of reinforcement, punishment and extinction…
2) Partial Reinforcement Schedule
In partial reinforcement every positive act of individual is not reinforced (rewarded).

In this schedule individual’s behavior is reinforced after a long gap and his accumulated
behavior is rewarded.

This schedule has a fair chance of individual behaving in a positive/desired manner as

s/he feels that sooner or later the work would be recognized.

Partial reinforcement has a wide application in the organizations reinforcement.

It can be classified into four categories:

 Strategies of reinforcement, punishment and extinction…
Partial reinforcement :
I. Fixed Interval Schedule

II. Variable Interval Schedule

III. Fixed Ratio Schedule

IV. Variable Ratio Schedule

3) Reinforcement
There are four types of re-enforcement namely Positive, Negative, Punishment and Extinction.

I. Positive Re-enforcement

Positive re-enforcement is institution of reward for a particular desired behaviour.

The intensity of reward must stimulate a desired behaviour.

 Strategies of reinforcement, punishment and extinction…
II. Negative Reinforcement

 In organizations acts are committed or omitted.

 For commission of desired acts reward is given while they can also be given for
displaying behavior by terminating undesired consequences

 Both, positive & negative reinforcements are for strengthening desired behavior.

 In the later case of reinforcement employees work in such a way that they do not invite
negative comments or reprimand (warrning) from superiors.

 In work places, parking of vehicle at right places, following instructions on training,

abiding by safety regulations, assisting employees in performance of their duty are the
forms of negative reinforcement.
 Strategies of reinforcement, punishment and extinction…
III. Punishment
Is awarded to an individual for undesired consequences of behaviour.
 It can be reduction of salary, non-granting of increment, fine and even removal from service. Used by
organizations for corrective or modification of individual behaviour.

Characteristics:
 Corrective in nature and not punitive,

 Acts as deterrence to other individuals,

 Should not be given collectively to a group,

 Awarded to those who are habitual of undesired behaviour,

 The gravity/scale of punishment will depend upon the nature of behaviour displayed by an individual,

 Should be used sparingly (carefully), not routinely (regularly),

 Should focus on an act, not the subject person.

Strategies of reinforcement, punishment and extinction…
IV. Extinction

 Refers to withdrawing of reinforcement or reward so that the happening becomes less

frequent and ultimately dies off.

 For example,

Students who are given extra coaching develop increased dependency on coaching. If
this facility (reinforcement) is withdrawn, it is with the aim of modifying behaviour by
extinction, so that the students form the habit of self-study (behaviour modification)

 Ignoring an individual in organization for his unsuitable behaviour or ignoring a lazy

person in a group is some of the forms of extinction.
End of Chapter One