Reinforcement History as a Determinant of Self-Reinforcement

Self-reinforcement: An assessment of external influences

“…They maximized their payoff with the least efforts possible. Hence these findings are similar to those reported by Bass (1972), Jones and Evans (1980), and Winston et al (1978), who found that children lowered their standards for self-reward while increasing their rate of self-reward behavior. Their subjects also " t e n d e d .…”

“…These differences in definition may well lead to sources of difficulty and uncontrolled variance in the actual application of these techniques. For example, in those situations where large amounts of external demand are presented via experimenter's instructions, results have been shown to produce maximum amounts of change in desired behavior (Brownell et al, 1977;Bandura and Perloff, 1967), whereas in situations where lesser amounts of external demand are present (Bass, 1972;Jones, 1980;Winston et al, 1978), desired behavior change is much tess extensive.…”

Levels of self and external influence in self-reward

“…This proposal is consistent with the suggestion by Kanfer, Cox, Greiner, and Karoly ( 1974") that self and external influence of reinforcers occurs on a continuum, rather than dichotomously. And, other researchers have suggested that self-reinforcement procedures are most generalizeable to self-control when the reward is self-managed (Bass, 1972), freely available (Bass, 1972;Skinner, 1953)> self-applied (Thoresen & Mahoney,197^)i and self-chosen (Weiner & Dubanoski, 1975 and self-application of reinforcers (see Glynn & Thomas,197^) and an awareness of the benefits of changing the target response (Champlin & Karoly, 1975)• To date, although several self-reward procedures have been iden tified as components of self-control in isolated studies, no study has combined the components. The present study will attempt to do so.…”

“…In addition, no consistent definition of self-reward or selfpunishment has been used across the various laboratory analogue stud ies, Hence, in the following review, self-reward and self-punishment are defined as the application of an appetitive or aversive stimulus following a response. The stimulus may be self-selected, selfadministered, or self-managed (e.g., Bass, 1972;Skinner, 1953;Thoresen & Mahoney, 197^;Weiner & Dubanoski, 1975)• Self-applied consequences in laboratory analogue studies have included tangible (e.g., candy), conditioned (e.g., a green light), and covert (e.g., self-commendation and self-criticism) stimuli (Weiner & Dubanoski, 1975;Dorsey, Kanfer & Duerfeldt, 1971;Haynes & Kanfer, 1971;respectively). In the present review, the terms reinforcer and reward are used synonymously.…”

Levels of self and external influence in self-reward

“…This proposal is consistent with the suggestion by Kanfer, Cox, Greiner, and Karoly ( 1974") that self and external influence of reinforcers occurs on a continuum, rather than dichotomously. And, other researchers have suggested that self-reinforcement procedures are most generalizeable to self-control when the reward is self-managed (Bass, 1972), freely available (Bass, 1972;Skinner, 1953)> self-applied (Thoresen & Mahoney,197^)i and self-chosen (Weiner & Dubanoski, 1975)• Lopatto and Williams (197&) have suggested that not all selfreward is self-control. Various studies have proposed that selfreward demonstrates self-control only when the procedure involves self-assessment; self-recording; self-selection, self-management, and self-application of reinforcers (see Glynn & Thomas,197^) and…”