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22 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back

Precursors to Skinner's Scientific Behaviorism

Thorndike's law of effect stated that responses followed by a satisfier tend to be learned. Watson argued that psychology must deal with the control and prediction of behavior and that behavior—not introspection, consciousness, or the mind—is the basic data of scientific psychology.
Philosophy of Science
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
Skinner held that science has three principal characteristics: (1) its findings are cumulative, (2) it rests on an attitude that values empirical observation, and (3) it searches for order and reliable relationships.
Operant Conditioning
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. Different histories of reinforcement result in operant discrimination, meaning that different organisms will respond differently to the same environmental contingencies. 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 Human Organism
Skinner believed that human behavior is shaped by three forces: (1) natural selection, (2) the evolution of cultures, and (3) the individual's personal history of reinforcement, which we discussed above.
Natural Selection
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.
Cultural Evolution
Those societies that evolved certain cultural practices (e.g. tool making and language) tended to survive. Currently, the lives of nearly all people are shaped, in part, by modern tools (computers, media, various modes of transportation, etc.) and by their use of language. However, humans do not make cooperative decisions to do what is best for their society, but those societies whose members behave in a cooperative manner tended to survive.
Inner States
Skinner recognized the existence of such inner states as drives and self-awareness, but he rejected the notion that they can explain behavior. To Skinner, drives refer to the effects of deprivation and satiation and thus are related to the probability of certain behaviors, but they are not the causes of behavior. Skinner believed that emotions can be accounted for by the contingencies of survival and the contingencies of reinforcement; but like drives, they do not cause behavior. Similarly, purpose and intention are not causes of behavior, although they are felt sensations and exist within the skin.
Complex Behavior
Human behavior is subject to the same principles of operant conditioning as simple animal behavior, but it is much more complex and difficult to predict or control. Skinner explained creativity as the result of random or accidental behaviors that happen to be rewarded. 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.
Control of Human 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.
The Unhealthy Personality
Social control and self-control sometimes produce counteracting strategies and inappropriate behaviors.
Counteracting Strategies
People can counteract excessive social control by (1) escaping from it, (2) revolting against it, or (3) passively resisting it.
Inappropriate Behaviors
Inappropriate behaviors follow from self-defeating techniques of counteracting social control or from unsuccessful attempts at self-control.
Psychotherapy
Skinner was not a psychotherapist, and he even criticized psychotherapy as being one of the major obstacles to a scientific study of human behavior. Nevertheless, others have used operant conditioning principles to shape behavior in a therapeutic setting.
How Conditioning Affects Personality
A plethora of studies have demonstrated that operant conditioning can change personality, that is, behavior. For example, a study by Tidey et al. found that, when given a choice, smokers would choose a cigarette rather than money.
How Personality Affects Conditioning
the same reinforcement strategies will not have the same effect on all people. reinforcement sensitivity theory, which suggests that impulsivity, anxiety, and introversion/extraversion relate to ways people respond to environmental reinforcers. For highly anxious people, impulsivity acts as a buffer to responsiveness to negative stimuli.
Reinforcement and the BraiN
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, John Beaver and his colleagues gave the behavioral activation scale (BAS) self-report to participants to measure how actively they tend to pursue rewards. They then measured the subjects’ brain activation upon exposure to pictures of rewarding foods versus bland foods. They found that people who scored higher on the personality variable of behavioral activation also had greater activation to pictures of rewarding foods in five specific areas of the brain.
Critique of Skinner
On the six criteria of a useful theory, Skinner's approach rates very high on its ability to generate research and to guide action, high on its ability to be falsified, and about average on its ability to organize knowledge. In addition, it rates very high on internal consistency and high on simplicity.
Concept of Humanity

Skinner's concept of humanity was a completely deterministic and causal one that emphasized unconscious behavior and the uniqueness of each person's history of reinforcement within a mostly social environment. Unlike many determinists, Skinner is quite optimistic in his view of humanity.