Self-Reinforcement: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

Abstract

How behavior is viewed determines which facets of human functioning are studied most thoroughly and which are ignored or disavowed. Conceptions thus delimit research and are, in turn, shaped by findings from paradigms embodying that particular view. Theorists who exclude self-regulatory functions from their concept of human poten tialities restrict the scope of their research to external influences on behavior. Detailed analysis of behavior as a function of external consequences provides confirmatory evidence that behavior is indeed subject to external control. However, limiting the scope of scientific inquiry not only yields redundant results but, by disregarding other signifi cant determinants and processes, it can reinforce a truncated image of human nature. From the perspective of social learning theory (Bandura, 1976), people are seen as capable of exercising some control over their own behavior. Among the various self regulatory phenomena that have been investigated within this framework, self reinforcement occupies a prominent position. In this process, individuals regulate their behavior by making self-reward conditional upon matching self-prescribed standards of performance. Acknowledgement of self-regulatory processes has added a new dimen sion to experimental analyses of reinforcement. Results of such studies have provided the impetus for extending the range of reinforcement practices in programs designed to effect personal change. Interest was shifted from managing behavior through imposition of contingencies to developing skills in self-regulation. In the latter approach, control is vested to a large extent in the hands of individuals themselves: They set their own goals, they monitor and evaluate their own performances, and they serve as their own reinforc ing agents (Goldfried and Merbaum, 1973; Mahoney and Thoresen, 1974). The present paper discusses some major substantive issues in the conceptualization of self reinforcement.