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B.F. Skinner -

In psychologist B.F. Skinner’s 1938 book ‘Behavior of Organisms,’ Skinner states that people aren’t driven by their internal state, instead humans are motivated to act on the basis of environmental events, namely: deprivation, satiation, and aversive stimulation.

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Deprivation -

Deprivation is a state of not having access to a stimulus for a certain period of time. During that period without, the value of that ‘thing’ garners much greater value. This may drive individuals to perform the behaviors necessary to gain access to that ‘thing.’

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Example -

For example, if you’ve been avoiding eating sweets or other sugary items, but your colleague brings a cake to the office, you grab a piece because it is presented and accessible to you.

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Satiation -

Satiation, on the other hand, is more or less the opposite of deprivation. It is a state of continued access to a particular stimulus. Therefore, because of constant access, the value of a ‘thing’ decreases, and therefore, you may not engage in any specific behavior to gain access to that ‘thing.’

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Example -

For example, you have a hefty amount of leftover cake from your birthday party. Instead of finishing the cake in one go, you have a slice every day. When your colleague brings a cake to the office, you don’t grab a piece because you’ve been eating cake every day since your birthday.

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Aversive stimulation -

Aversive stimulation is behavior that produces some sort of avoidance of a stimulus. It can be a response to an external stimulus that we do not control or a conditioning process that we repeat to produce a particular outcome.

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Example -

For example, if you are someone that seeks cake on a daily basis, but you’re trying to avoid sweets, you may grab a piece of fruit every time that you have a craving for cake. You may perform this behavior to move toward the desired outcome of not eating cake.

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Continous development -

Incentive theory didn’t stop at Skinner. Other psychologists have continued to develop the theory and test its assumptions.

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Job satisfaction -

Frederick Herzberg furthered the theory by identifying the "two-factor incentive theory," which was based on his study to identify what provided or restricted a sense of job satisfaction.

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Motivators and hygiene -

Herzberg identified two factors: motivators and hygiene. Motivators include things like job advancement and recognition, while hygiene refers to salary and working conditions.

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How you perform -

You might be naturally motivated to seek particular outcomes, which may drive how you perform or behave in a work setting.

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Bonus -

For example, if your employer offers a bonus if a particular target is achieved, you may be motivated to hit that target in exchange for the promised bonus.

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Unwanted penalty -

In contrast, your employer may require you to hit a particular target on a weekly basis and if that target isn’t reached, you may face a pay decrease or another unwanted penalty.

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Different incentives -

Different employers may offer different incentives that cater to the particular motivation of an employee. For example, some employees may be driven by salary increases, while others may be driven by a desire to avoid termination.

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Outside incentives -

This is the essence of incentive theory. Not only are we driven by outside incentives, but we are pulled more towards actions that lead to external rewards and tend to avoid behavior that may produce negative consequences.

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Reinforcement -

This aspect of incentive theory can be correlated to operant conditioning, in which people behave in certain ways to seek either reinforcement or avert some sort of penalization.

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School setting -

Children often experience this behavior in a school setting. They may study to achieve good grades and, therefore, receive positive feedback from their teachers.

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Rewards must be attainable -

The principle of incentive theory is that rewards in themselves must be attainable. Therefore, if a child knows that a teacher never gives a grade over 80%, they may not be motivated to study as they consider their goal unachievable.

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Unpleasant but driven towards a result -

Similarly, there may be certain behaviors that are unpleasant, but drive toward a particular result. For example, if you’re a smoker, but want to avoid the possibility of developing lung cancer, you may work toward quitting smoking despite the fact that you enjoy it and quitting is difficult and uncomfortable. 

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Other examples -

In going through these examples, you may come up with a number of other examples from your own life and experiences where you can identify how your behavior was either to seek a reward or to avoid something unpleasant.

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New Year’s resolutions -

When we think about our New Year’s resolutions, we can use incentive theory to identify the kind of behaviors that could bring us closer to our objectives.

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Financial flexibility -

For example, if you want to achieve greater financial flexibility, one of your objectives may be to obtain a new position at your job that brings in a higher salary.

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Behaviors -

In order to achieve that objective, you may identify a series of behaviors that drive you toward those goals. This can be something like taking on new tasks, offering to work overtime hours, or volunteering to do the more tedious assignments.

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Rewards -

The more your employer recognizes you doing these tasks, the more motivated you may feel to continue doing them. Coupled with rewards, such as regular praise, you may feel motivated to continue this kind of behavior.

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Positive incentives -

Of course, praise is not the reward that you're seeking when the goal is financial flexibility, but it may be part of a series of positive incentives that can drive you toward your desired outcome.

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Seeking alternatives -

Alternatively, if you conduct all those new tasks and behaviors and are not receiving recognition from your employer, you may be motivated to seek another job or come up with a plan that may better fit your objective.

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Incentive must exist -

The incentive must exist for the motivation and drive to continue. Therefore, some sort of either positive or negative consequence will inform behavior, according to incentive theory.

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Identify reward -

To move towards making your New Year’s resolutions achievable using incentive theory you can identify a reward that motivates you to take action.

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Other steps -

Other useful steps are to use visualization techniques to imagine what it would feel like to have the reward and set a realistic timeline that will allow you to achieve it.

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Different incentives -

Different employers may offer different incentives that cater to the particular motivation of an employee. For example, some employees may be driven by salary increases, while others may be driven by a desire to avoid termination.

See also: The science of habits: Change is easier than you think

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