Concept Definition: Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is one of the key concepts in behavior analysis, a field within psychology. Positive reinforcers are something like rewards, or things we will generally work to get. However, the definition of a positive reinforcement is more precise than that of reward. Specifically, we can say that positive reinforcement has occurred when three conditions have been met:

• A consequence is presented dependent on a behavior.
• The behavior becomes more likely to occur.
• The behavior becomes more likely to occur because and only because the consequence is presented dependent on the behavior.