General Education Development (GED) Practice Exam

Positive reinforcement is utilized when employees receive rewards for displaying positive behaviors. This approach involves providing a reward or positive stimulus following a desired behavior, which increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated in the future. For instance, if an employee completes a project ahead of schedule and receives praise or a monetary bonus as a result, this reward serves to reinforce the productive behavior, encouraging the employee to maintain or enhance their level of performance.

In contrast, the other options involve different concepts: negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus to strengthen a behavior, punishment introduces an unpleasant consequence to reduce an undesired behavior, and extinction refers to the removal of reinforcement, leading to a decrease or elimination of a behavior. These alternatives do not involve directly rewarding positive actions, which differentiates them from positive reinforcement.