Skinner is a radical behaviorist and determinist who proposed that human behavior is controlled by objective observable factors such as environmental conditions and genetic factors. He suggested that human behavior can be classified into two types: respondents and operants.
What is Skinner's theory of behaviorism?
Skinner decided to be a behaviorist even before he entered graduate school. Skinner contended that human behavior follows principles that are basically the same as those that apply to animal behavior. Skinner's theory tries to interpret and explain human behavior.
What is Skinner's view of the environment?
He wishes for a utopian society where people are taught how to arrange the environment so that the probability of correct or satisfying solutions are increased. Skinner's view is high on causality, believing that behavior is caused by a history of reinforcements and the species' contingencies for survival.
What did Skinner believe about the future of humanity?
According to Skinner, the future of humanity depended on abandoning the concepts of individual freedom and dignity and engineering the human environment so that behavior was controlled systematically and to desirable ends rather than haphazardly. In the laboratory, Skinner refined the concept of operant conditioning and the Law of Effect.
What was Skinner’s experiment?
The stereotype of a bespectacled experimenter in a white lab coat, engaged in shaping behavior through the operant conditioning of lab rats or pigeons in contraptions known as Skinner boxes comes directly from Skinner’s immeasurably influential research.
What was the main idea behind Skinner's behavioral perspective?
B. F. Skinner was one of the most influential of American psychologists. A behaviorist, he developed the theory of operant conditioning -- the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again.
What is behaviorism and how important is the environment in this theory?
Behaviorism focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. This learning theory states that behaviors are learned from the environment, and says that innate or inherited factors have very little influence on behavior.
What is behaviorism according to Skinner?
Skinner (1904–90) was a leading American psychologist, Harvard professor and proponent of the behaviourist theory of learning in which learning is a process of 'conditioning' in an environment of stimulus, reward and punishment.
What is learning according to Skinner?
Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual's response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a math problem.
How does the environment affect human behavior?
The environment can facilitate or discourage interactions among people (and the subsequent benefits of social support). For example, an inviting space with comfortable chairs and privacy can encourage a family to stay and visit with a patient. The environment can influence peoples' behavior and motivation to act.
What is the relationship between human behavior and environment?
Human behaviour can either make or break, protect or destroy his environment. Man grows in the environment and lives in the environment. It is just like a mother to him. But many a times be tries to destroy his own mother i.e., his environment either due to lack of knowledge and awareness or due to ignorance.
What are the theories of environment?
What are the best theories of Environmental Behaviour Change?Ajzen s Theory of Planned Behaviour. ... Andreasen s Social Marketing model. ... Gifford s Social Dilemma System model. ... Roger s Diffusion of Innovations theory. ... Stern s Value Belief Norm (VBN) theory.
What are the theories of environmental psychology?
Various theories have been developed in environmental psychology: arousal theory, environmental load, adaptation level theory within a behaviorist and determinist paradigm; control, stress adaptation, behavioral elasticity, cognitive mapping, and environmental evaluation within an interactionist paradigm; and behavior ...
How did Skinner's theory impact society?
(2005) observes that Skinner’s findings have influenced the manner in which parents raise their children. Skinner’s principles can be used to extinguish undesirable behavior in children through differential reinforcement of other behavior. Through positive reinforcement, children can be induced to engage in socially desirable behavior. Gewirtz and Martha (1992) commend Skinner for making a great contribution in the advancement of our understanding of basic psychological processes. Specifically, operant learning has been used in the study of infant perception and learning and this has helped to improve the parent-infant interaction.
How did Skinner's theory help animals?
Skinner illustrated his operant conditioning theory by use of laboratory equipment that is commonly referred to as “Skinner box”. This box is used to train animals to act in a certain way to influence their behavior. When the behavior has an effect on the environment, the outcome acts as reinforcement, increasing the likelihood of that behavior occurring again. In Skinner’s experiment, a food-deprived rat was placed within a box which had a lever and allowed to act in a variety of random ways. Over the course of time, the random actions might involve pressing the bar and this will cause a food pellet to drop into the box. As such, the rat’s behavior will have affected the environment and the food will act as reinforcement. The odds of this behavior occurring again will increase and when it occurs again, it is reinforced. The reinforcer is the desirable consequence of an act that therefore increases the changes that the act will recur. Skinner also introduced a procedure termed shaping where the behavior of a subject is deliberately shaped to achieve the desired behavior. Engler (2008) observes that through shaping, Skinner was able to influence animals to perform unique and remarkable feats. Skinner used public demonstrations of behavioral engineering to demonstrate the effectiveness of positive reinforcement.
What did Skinner argue about free will?
In the book, Skinner argued that free will should not be a factor in governing human behavior since all human behavior can be explained through the principles of operant conditioning. Skinner made contributions that were both profound and practical in the field of applied behavioral analysis.
What is the theory of personality?
The four main theories of personality are “trait, psychoanalysis, behavioral, and humanistic views”. B.F. Skinner is a behavior and learning theorist who is well known for emphasizing experience and learning as the primary forces that shape human behavior (Engler, 2008). Skinner’s theory of personality is referred to as radical behaviorism and it proposes that all human behavior is caused by a desire to attain positive reinforcement or avoid punishment. He developed the operant principles to explain personality by demonstrating that behavior results from past learning and current perceptions. Skinner is rightfully regarded as an originator and founder in the field of applied behavior analysis (Morris, Smith, & Deborah, 2005).This paper will engage in an in-depth review of Skinner and his contributions to behavioral analysis. It will begin by offering a brief introduction to the theorist and proceed to discuss his most prominent works on personality.
How is language learned?
He proposed that language is learned through reinforcing and shaping of operant behavior. At the onset, the young infant emits spontaneous sounds that are “not limited to the sounds of its native tongue but represent all possible languages” (Engler, 2008, p.221). In the early stages, the infant receives reinforcement through smiles and laughter for simply babbling. Later on, the child is reinforced for making sounds that closely resemble meaningful words. Finally, the child receives reinforcement for making meaningful speech.
What is Skinner's goal?
Skinner maintained that the goal of scientific psychology is to predict and control behavior . Delprato and Midgley (1992) document that Skinner was opposed to deductive methods and he instead obtained empirical data first and then used induction to derive general principles between events. Skinner was curious as to what causes men to behave as they do and he wanted to know if these causes could be discovered, analyzed, and therefore predicted to the extent that one could manipulate them and therefore control behavior (Skinner, 1980). He argued that by focusing on the inner motivation that could not be observed or measured, a deeper understanding of human behavior could not be developed.
How is behavior developed?
Behavior is developed through learning with behavior that is accompanied by satisfaction becoming more established. Skinner also introduced the concept of reinforcement where reinforcement is “anything that increases the likelihood of a response” (Engler, 2008, p.219).
What did Skinner believe about psychology?
Watson’s philosophy of psychology called behaviorism, which rejected not just the introspective method and the elaborate psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung, but any psychological explanation based on mental states or internal representations such as beliefs, desires, memories, and plans. The very idea of “mind” was dismissed as a pre-scientific superstition, not amenable to empirical investigation. Skinner argued that the goal of a science of psychology was to predict and control an organism’s behavior from its current stimulus situation and its history of reinforcement. In a utopian novel called Walden Two and a 1971 bestseller called Beyond Freedom and Dignity, he argued that human behavior was always controlled by its environment. According to Skinner, the future of humanity depended on abandoning the concepts of individual freedom and dignity and engineering the human environment so that behavior was controlled systematically and to desirable ends rather than haphazardly.
What did Skinner do in the laboratory?
In the laboratory, Skinner refined the concept of operant conditioning and the Law of Effect. Among his contributions were a systematic exploration of intermittent schedules of reinforcement, the shaping of novel behavior through successive approximations, the chaining of complex behavioral sequences via secondary (learned) reinforcers, and “superstitious” (accidentally reinforced) behavior.
What is the future of humanity?
According to Skinner, the future of humanity depended on abandoning the concepts of individual freedom and dignity and engineering the human environment so that behavior was controlled systematically and to desirable ends rather than haphazardly.
Who is the most famous psychologist of the 20th century?
B.F. Skinner was ranked by the American Psychological Association as the 20th century’s most eminent psychologist.
What did BF Skinner feel about behavior?
In the 1920s, classical conditioning was the emphasis of behaviorism theory, but BF Skinner felt like the answers provided were too simplistic. This led him to develop his theory on operant conditioning. What is an operant?
What is the purpose of BF Skinner's behaviorism theory?
There is no desire to change. The BF Skinner behaviorism theory helped to show that feelings, behaviors, and actions are interconnected.
How does Skinner define operant conditioning?
Skinner defined operant conditioning by the ability of a person to change their behavior based on the use of a reinforcement. If the reinforcement is given after a desired response, then the mind can train itself to repeat a behavior to anticipate a similar result in the future.
How many types of responses did Skinner identify?
Based on the responses that Skinner could observe through his process of operant conditioning, he was able to identify three specific types of responses or operants that can follow a behavior.
What is operant behavior?
What is an operant? It is an intentional action that effects the surrounding environment or society. The BF Skinner behaviorism theory looks to identify the actions that are taken to identify why some operant behaviors are more common than others.
What did BF Skinner do to the rat?
BF Skinner developed a box which contained a lever on the side of it. He would then place a rat inside the box. Whenever the rat interacted with the lever, either intentionally or unintentionally, a piece of food would drop into the box for the rat to eat. After a few times of being placed in the box, every rat would learn to go straight to the lever so they could get food right away.
Why do employers use operant conditioning?
Employers use them to keep employees productive and following corporate procedures. Skinner showed that it wasn’t just humans who were susceptible to operant conditioning.
What was Skinner's contribution to science?
I have always believed that Skinner’s main contribution to science is his laboratory research. It is surely one of the most important contributions to 20th-century psychobiology. Studying behavior in single organisms in real time was a huge advance.
Is Skinner's rhetoric incidental?
Skinner’s rhetoric simply evades these complexities. But they are not incidental. Until we understand not just the psychological but the political and economic forces that drive social change, we cannot know even what our aims should be much less just how to attain them.
What did Skinner believe about psychology?
Skinner believed that human behavior , like any other natural phenomena, is subject to the laws of science, and that psychologists should not attribute inner motivations to it.
What did Skinner believe about unconscious behavior?
Skinner believed that most of our behavior is unconscious or automatic and that not thinking about certain experiences is reinforcing. Skinner viewed dreams as covert and symbolic forms of behavior that are subject to the same contingencies of reinforcement as any other behavior. E. Control of Human Behavior.
How does operant conditioning work?
With operant conditioning, reinforcement is used to increase the probability that a given behavior will recur. Three factors are essential in operant conditioning: (1) the antecedent, or environment in which behavior takes place; (2) the behavior, or response; and (3) the consequence that follows the behavior. Psychologists and others use shaping to mold complex human behavior. Different histories of reinforcement result in operant discrimination, meaning that different organisms will respond differently to the same environmental contingencies. People may also respond similarly to different environmental stimuli, a process Skinner called stimulus generalization. Anything within the environment that strengthens a behavior is a reinforcer. Positive reinforcement is any stimulus that when added to a situation increases the probability that a given behavior will occur. Negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior through the removal of an aversive stimulus. Both positive and negative reinforcement strengthen behavior. Any event that decreases a behavior either by presenting an aversive stimulus or by removing a positive one is called punishment. The effects of punishment are much less predictable than those of reward. Both punishment and reinforcement can result from either natural consequences or from human imposition. Conditioned reinforcers are those stimuli that are not by nature satisfying (e.g., money), but that can become so when they are associated with a primary reinforcers, such as food. Generalized reinforcers are conditioned reinforcers that have become associated with several primary reinforcers. Reinforcement can follow behavior on either a continuous schedule or on an intermittent schedule. There are four basic intermittent schedules: (1) fixed-ratio, on which the organism is reinforced intermittently according to the number of responses it makes; (2) variable-ratio, on which the organism is reinforced after an average of a predetermined number of responses; (3) fixed-interval, on which the organism is reinforced for the first response following a designated period of time; and (4) variable interval, on which the organism is reinforced after the lapse of various periods of time. The tendency of a previously acquired response to become progressively weakened upon nonreinforcement is called extinction. Such elimination or weakening of a response is called classical extinction in a classical conditioning model and operant extinction when the response is acquired through operant conditioning.
How does the environment control behavior?
Ultimately, all of a person's behavior is controlled by the environment. Societies exercise control over their members through laws, rules, and customs that transcend any one person's means of countercontrol. There are four basic methods of social control: (1) operant conditioning, including positive and negative reinforcement and punishment; (2) describing contingencies, or using language to inform people of the consequence of their behaviors; (3) deprivation and satiation, techniques that increase the likelihood that people will behave in a certain way; and (4) physical restraint, including the jailing of criminals. Although Skinner denied the existence of free will, he did recognize that people manipulate variables within their own environment and thus exercise some measure of self-control, which has several techniques: (1) physical restraint, (2) physical aids, such as tools; (3) changing environmental stimuli; (4) arranging the environment to allow escape from aversive stimuli; (5) drugs; and (6) doing something else.
What are the two types of conditioning Skinner recognized?
Skinner recognized two kinds of conditioning: classical and operant.
What does Skinner believe?
Skinner believed that human behavior, like any other natural phenomena, is subject to the laws of science, and that psychologists should not attribute inner motivations to it.
How is behavior shaped as a species?
As a species, our behavior is shaped by the contingencies of survival; that is, those behaviors (e.g., sex and aggression) that were beneficial to the human species tended to survive, whereas those that did not tended to drop out. Discuss Skinner's views on inner states and complex behavior.
What is Skinner's theory?
Skinner’s theory is very popular in schools and other contexts where people engage in destructive behaviors. The assumption is that destructive behaviors like behavioral problems or addictions are due to these behaviors receiving reinforcement. Behavior modification is a popular approach to helping people learn healthy behaviors.
What is Skinner's theory of personality?
Skinners Theory of Personality. B.F. Skinner was part of the Behaviorist “school” of psychology. While other theorists considered human psychology as a complex system of varied influences, Skinner believed the human psyche was not far removed from the cognitive processes found in other animals. Namely, human behavior is a product ...
What is behavior modification?
Behavior modification recognizes the factors that often interfere with learning and that current reinforcement relationships need to be broken. Modification plans often involve encouragement, creating small steps, providing clarity about desirable behavior, and the use of effective reinforcement schedules to establish desirable behavior.
What is negative reinforcement?
Negative reinforcement motivates behavior in the attempt to remove or avoid some undesirable effect. Removing the rewards or introducing punishment tends to extinguish behavior. Radical behaviorism discounts the influence of perceptions and emotions in behavioral decisions.
What are the factors that Skinner believed interfered with?
The factors include: FEAR, EXCESSIVE COMPLEXITY, CONFUSION, and a LACK OF REINFORCEMENT. Skinner’s theory is very popular in schools and other contexts where people engage in destructive behaviors.
Who rejected the idea of personality?
Skinner rejected the notion of human personality and the mind engaging in unconscious activities as touted by Sigmund Freud. He also rejected the idea of trait theory in explaining personality since trait theory implies inner tendencies to prefer certain behaviors to other behaviors based on internal presets rather than environmental influence.
What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning means that reinforcement operates or manipulates behavior. Reinforcement schedules are critical to operant condition. Continuous Reinforcement (CR) provides constant reinforcement for desired behavior. CR is difficult to maintain and the behavior tends to lose intensity over time.
What did Skinner believe about the environment?
Skinner was a determinist, believing people are not free but controlled by the environment; when people "control their lives" they do so by manipulating their environment to reflect change on themselves. Skinner believed that people are capable of reflecting on their own nature and this behavior can be observed and studied.
What is Skinner's view on behavior?
Skinner's view is high on causality, believing that behavior is caused by a history of reinforcements and the species' contingencies for survival.
Why is reinforcement used?
reinforcement is used to increase the probability that a given behavior will recu r. Skinner believed that most human behaviors and learned this way.
What did Skinner hope people could be?
Skinner hoped people could be trustworthy, understanding, and empathetic but humans are not by nature good.
What did Skinner believe about the human nature?
Skinner's view of human nature is highly optimistic, believing that humans are very adaptable and learn to live harmoniously with their environment.
Why did Skinner believe that prediction, control and description are possible in scientific behaviourism?
Skinner believed that prediction, control and description are possible in scientific behaviourism because a behaviour is both determined and lawful, it is determined by certain identifiable variables and follows finite lawful principles. Conditioning.
Why is Skinner's argument important?
Because the purpose of science is to predict and control, Skinner argued that psychologists should be concerned with determining the conditions under which human behavior occurs. By discovering these conditions, psychologists can predict and control human behavior. Characteristics of Science.
How does Skinner's theory of personality differ from Albert Bandura's theory of personality?
Skinner theory of personality differ with Albert Bandura social cognitive theory in that it specified that a behavior was only as a reaction of environmental stimuli while social cognitive theory state that behavior of an individual can be modified by external stimuli while putting into consideration the fact that learning can take place through copying. Albert Bandura also state that learning also take a cognitive perspective.
Which theory put more stress in the fact that environment, behavior and cognition work together and hence wield important influence?
The theory put more stress in the fact that environment, behavior and cognition work together and hence wield important influence among each other (Travers 2001). In personality development, Albert Bandura came to a conclusion that environment causes behavior while on the other hand behavior causes environment.
What is the difference between self administered and vicarious reinforcement?
Vicarious reinforcement involves observing someone receive a reward or punishment for behavior similar to his/her own behavior. Self administered reinforcement is whereby a person evaluates his/her own performance with self honor or criticism (Zillman and Bryant 2001). Therefore, a given behavior in a specific situation will bank on the likely result. According to Bandura social cognitive theory, behaviorism is based on the concept that development is cultured and is subjective to environmental factors.
What is the theory of personality?
B. F Skinner came up with Skinner’s theory of personality. According to the theory, differences in individual behavior are as a result of different kinds of learning experience different people encounter. Some of the behavior pattern may be learned through direct experience (direct reinforcement) while others are through observational or sensational learning. Reinforcement plays a major role in shaping the expression of the learned behavior. Reinforcement takes three shapes. Direct reinforcement involves social approval or disapproval and tangible rewards.
What is Albert Bandura's theory?
Albert Bandura’s idea about the role of society concerning the development of personality and any developmental stage in cognitivism, behavior is guided by cognitions about the world. The cognitive theories are personality theories which stress on cognitive processes like thinking and offering judgment. Bandura’s theory further draws the importance ...
How is reinforcement learned?
Some of the behavior pattern may be learned through direct experience (direct reinforcement) while others are through observational or sensational learning. Reinforcement plays a major role in shaping the expression of the learned behavior. Reinforcement takes three shapes.
How are the two theories similar?
The two theories are similar in stating that the environment shape learning and the behavior of an individual from childhood stage to adulthood stage (Travers 2001). Both theories recognize the significance of reinforcement in learning and behavior.
What are the three concepts of Skinner's system?
To understand the processes involved in the selection of innate and acquired behavior, we turn to three other concepts in Skinner's system: temporal gaps, changed organisms, and causal chains.
How did Skinner account for innate and acquired behavior?
Instead of instincts and habits, Skinner accounted for innate and acquired behavior by appealing to contingencies of selection (see Skinner, 1981 ). In his words:
What is Eibl-Eibesfeldt's question?
Eibl-Eibesfeldt raises a question about the product [of phylogenic and ontogenic contingencies]. Both kinds of contingencies change the organism–“the wiring of the neuronal networks.” Phylogenic contingencies do so in i way involving the genome, ontogenic contingencies in a different way, individual organism. (Skinner, in Catania & Harnad, 1988, p. 422)
What are the two domains of Skinner's theory?
Here, Skinner seems to have distinguished between two domains— behavioral and biological. In the behavioral domain, phylogenic and ontogenic contingencies differ in what they select-innate and acquired behavior, respectively. In the biological domain, phylogenic contingencies also select genes, whereas what ontogenic contingencies select or how they operate on the organism was left unspecified by Skinner, at least in the passage above. Nonetheless, we tentatively conclude (and later, try to argue) that, for Skinner, ontogenic contingencies operate on the organism biologically, for example, neurologically (e.g., Skinner, in Catania & Harnad, 1988, p. 422). Discussing the role of the biological organism in the analysis of behavior may further clarify Skinner's version of the nature-nurture dichotomy, to which we now turn.
How are ontogenic contingencies linked to current or future acquired behavior?
Likewise, ontogenic contingencies are linked to current or future acquired behavior by causal chains. These chains, however, consist of a sequence of events occurring within an individual's behavioral history: An organism is exposed to ontogenic contingencies, ontogenic contingencies select acquired behavior and change the organism biologically (e.g., neurologically), and the biologically changed organism is therefore more likely than its earlier self to engage in certain acquired behaviors under particular conditions. The changed organism is the middle link in a causal chain. That is, the biological organism bridges the temporal gap between (a) ontogenic contingencies, which operate in the behavioral history of the individual, and (b) the current or future acquired behavioral repertoire of the individual.
How are phylogenic contingencies linked to innate behavior?
Remote phylogenic contingencies are linked to current or future innate behavior by causal chains. The chains consist of a sequence of events occurring over a species' evolutionary history: Organisms are exposed to phylogenic contingencies; phylogenic contingencies select innate behavior and genes; genes are replicated, leading to the development of biological organisms that, as current members of a species, are biologically different from other, past members; and the current biological organisms are more likely than their predecessors to engage in certain innate behaviors under particular conditions. The replicated genes and the biological organisms are the middle links in a causal chain. That is, replicated genes and the biological organisms to which they give rise (i.e., the organisms' biological structures and functions) bridge the temporal gap between (a) phylogenic contingencies, which operate in the evolutionary history of the species, and (b) the current and future innate behavioral repertoire of the members of the species.
What are the two types of contingencies Skinner used to explain his theory of nature-nurture?
In exploring Skinner on the nature-nurture dichotomy, we first discuss his ultimate explanations for innate and acquired behavior: phylogenic and ontogenic contingencies. Second, we explore the ways in which he distinguished between these two sets of contingencies, that is, in terms of temporal relations, consequences, and what is selected. Third, we consider the concepts he invoked when explaining the control of innate and acquired behavior by phylogenic and ontogenic contingencies: temporal gaps, changed organisms, and causal chains. Throughout, we use the term “innate” broadly, referring to everything that, from Skinner's perspective, is considered inborn, for instance, respondent and operant conditionability, unconditioned eliciting stimuli and elicited responses, releasers and released behavior, and primary positive and negative reinforcers (see, e.g., Michael, 1985, pp. 101-102; Skinner, 1969, pp. 201-202).
Abstract
Introduction
Brief History of Bf Skinner
Skinner and Radical Behaviorism
The Principle of Operant Conditioning
- Skinner’s most influential work was in his operant conditioning principle. He proposed and effectively demonstrated that animal behavior and human behavior was caused by a desire to attain positive reinforcement or avoid punishment. Skinner divided behaviors into two main types: respondent and operant. The respondent behavior is the automatic respo...
Societal Impacts of Skinner’s Work
Criticism of Skinner’s Theory
Discussion and Conclusion
References