B. F. Skinner's Theory: Determinism Or Free Will

Throughout any day of ones life they make decisions that can impact the future for them and others, but is there determinism or free will behind the choices? In life many will make decisions that they feel are their own free will and some will make decisions and say it was a result of the environment they are in and that due to something that previously happened to them was a result in their purposeful choice or intention. Determinism is something that everyone lives with on a daily basis and shows how the environment has had influence on one’s live. Determinism is the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Using determinism is something that is used in the process of making the choice, however it is something that usually cannot be controlled by a person before the action takes place. Free will is the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one 's own discretion. Some say that free will is how purposeful choices and intentions are made and that the environment does not have such a large affect that we think it does. …show more content…
Skinner play a huge role in behaviorism and his theories are based on operant conditioning which is when behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the tendency to repeat the behavior in the future. This was shown when using the “Skinner Box” it showed that the mice would press down on the bar for the food and that altered the behavior of the mice within the environment the mouse was in. When the food was no more the mouse adjusted their behavior accordingly to stop pressing down on the bar. That example reflects a little of part of evolution and how the mouse evolved its behavior to get the food, but then when it ran out it then had to modified the behavior again. This shows that the environment plays a role on the mind and that to survive the mouse figured out how to live in the