Micro Praise in psychology

 

A Note of Praise 2024
Geoffrey W Sutton & Bing AI

Micro praise is a term for small units of praise. The power of positive praise appears as a two-way benefit. The receiver appreciates the compliment and the giver feels uplifted too.

A finding from Gallup makes an important point.

Considering the power of team-level recognition, it's alarming that no more than a third of western European and U.S. employees, according to recent Gallup research, strongly agree that their organization recognizes team achievements (33% in the U.K., 33% in Germany, 25% in the U.S., 24% in Spain and 19% in France).

Erica Boothby and Vanessa Bohns (2021) found that people underestimate the value of complimenting others.

Kakinuma and others (2020) observed that praise has a positive impact on effort but praise focused on ability has a negative impact. In their own studies, they found that those who offered ability-focused praise negatively impacted those who gave praise. When combined with previous studies, it appears that praising a person's ability doesn't work well for either the giver or the receiver.

Psychologist David Myers  summarized recent research on micro praise and gave a personal example. He benefitted from a note from billionaire Rich DeVos. Myers responded to the compliment by inviting DeVos to coffee. DeVos invested in his efforts to promote the use of hearing loops to help the hearing impaired. His post inspired this post.

In summary, micro praise has the potential to strengthen effort and encourage the giver as well. Thus, in some cases, micro praise functions as a positive reinforcer. Of course, if the praised effort declines, then the characteristics of the praise and situational factors should be examined.

Potential applications of two-way praiseworthy moments and a path to an uplifting culture.

Student <> teacher at all levels of education

employee <> supervisor

spouse <> spouse

parent <> child

friend <> friend

person <> person

Cite this post

Sutton, G. W. (2024, January 4). Micro praise. Psychology Concepts and Theories. Retrieved from https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2024/01/micro-praise.html

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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Negative Reinforcer, Reinforcement

 A negative reinforcer is a stimulus that results in an increase in behavior when it is removed following a specific behavior.

The procedure of removing the stimulus and the resulting increase in behavior is called negative reinforcement. Reinforcement means to strengthen. The connection between the behavior and the reinforcer is strengthened when the behavior regularly increases contingent on the removal of the stimulus. 

Negative Reinforcement is often confused with punishment even among graduate students. The term negative in the phrase negative reinforcement is used in a mathematical sense of subtracting a stimulus form a situation. The removal of the negative reinforcer is symbolized as S- or Sav where S = stimulus and - means subtraction. The av = aversive. 

Negative reinforcement is contrasted with positive reinforcement.

Key words: negative reinforcer, negative reinforcement, aversive stimulus, behavioral psychology

Example:

A child has a habit of screaming when they do not get their way. A parent gives in to the child to end the aversive screaming behavior. If the removal of screaming behavior is routinely followed by getting parent permission then the aversive stimulus of screaming functions as a negative reinforcer for the parent's permission giving behavior.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease is a proverb illustrating an observation that an aversive situation results in desirable behavior. An employee who routinely complains about a work situation may activate administrative behavior to rectify a problem in order to end the aversive stimulus of complaining. Of course, an administrator could choose to fire the employee so, what works in a lab won't always work in real life settings.

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

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You can read many published articles at no charge:

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Positive Reinforcer and Reinforcement

A positive reinforcer is a stimulus that follows a behavior and results in the probability that the behavior will increase in the future.

The procedure of presenting a positive reinforcer following a behavior is called positive reinforcement. The psychological concept of reinforcement means the word in general use, that is, reinforcement means to strengthen. Thus, positive reinforcement strengthens the behavior-reinforcer connection.

The concept of positive is derived from mathematics and is not necessarily linked to feelings. That is, positive means a stimulus has been added as a contingency such that when a specific behavior occurs, the organism experiences the positive reinforcer and is likely to emit the same behavior again.

In symbols, a positive reinforcer is a stimulus with a plus sign thus, S+.

Positive reinforcers may be primary or secondary. A primary reinforcer is close to a natural reinforcer such as food and sleep. A secondary reinforcer may be points or money, which may be used to obtain a primary reinforcer.

Positive reinforcement is contrasted with  negative reinforcement.

Rewards vs. Reinforcers

Rewards may or may not function to increase behavior. For example, a restaurant business may offer a loyalty reward to customers hoping to increase return business; however, if the customer does not like the reward item, then the desired behavior has not been reinforced. In fact, the reward may function as punishment if the customer leaves for a better reward system.

Key words: Positive reinforcer, positive reinforcement, reinforcing stimulus, behavioral psychology, behavioral counseling, cognitive behavioral psychology

Example:

A child completes cleaning their room. A parent observes the activity and on completion adds a point to a weekly chart. After an agreed upon number of points, the child can exchange points for preferred activities. If cleaning behavior increases when points are earned then the points are positive reinforcers.

If the points do not work, they may be called neutral reinforcers. If the points result in a decrease in cleaning up behavior then the cleaning behavior has been punished by definition.

Please check out my website   www.suttong.com

   and see my books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Also, consider connecting with me on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton