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underpayment inequity

in industrial and organizational settings, an employee’s perception that he or she is being paid less than is fair, especially in comparison to coworkers. This can lead to dissatisfaction and tension and, in some cases, to lowered productivity. Compare overpayment inequity. See equity theory.

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Psychology term of the day

February 17th 2025

chaining

chaining

n. an operant conditioning technique in which a complex behavioral sequence is learned. Animals, both human and nonhuman, can be taught to perform relatively elaborate sequences of activities by this method, which makes primary reinforcement contingent on the final response in the series. In backward chaining, the final response is taught first. Once established, the stimulus for that response becomes a conditioned reinforcer that is used to reinforce the next-to-last response in the chain; this stimulus is then used to reinforce another response. The chain is thus taught backward, one response at a time. In forward chaining, the chain is taught by reinforcing the first step in the sequence, then the second, and so on until the entire sequence is learned. Also called behavior chaining.