People seldom continue to do things that do not provide positive reinforcement, either through external reward or internal satisfaction. In addition to its effect on the continuation of a particular behaviour, extinction can also have an emotional impact. We could predict, for example, with an excellent chance of being correct, that an employee will become surely, will complain more than before, or will have problems getting along with his co-workers. Emotional behaviour usually accompanies extinction when reinforcement or punishment is withheld. Parents often extinguish behaviours unintentionally when they pay attention only when the children are behaving poorly. If parents pay little or no attention when the children are behaving appropriately, they in a sense put the behaviour on extinction. A child who wants attention- a reward- from the parents may be willing to endure what the parents think is punishment to get it. So, in the long run, those parents might be reinforcing inappropriate behaviour; yet it happens all the time. This phenomenon is also very common in the world of work. For example, a manager's work/group had responded well to a high task-low relationship, dealing firmly with inappropriate behaviour. Now suddenly this style is not achieving results, and followers are being disruptive and making unreasonable demands. Positively reinforcing inappropriate behaviour generally results in more unwanted behaviour.
What do people need to continue working for internal satisfaction?
