Skinner's Functional Analysis

Moreover, infant behaviors that are attended to and effectively responded to by the caregiver are naturally reinforced by the immediacy and relevance of the caregiver’s response which is the essence of natural consequences, a critical concept in Skinner’s analysis that has been missed or misconstrued in many attempts to review, critique, or interpret Verbal Behavior (McLaughlin, 2010). The last elements that Skinner believes is vital to the functional analysis approach is selective reinforcement. Selective reinforcement is equivalent to the natural selection that perpetuates useful variations in traits within a species, for example the caregiver does not need to be conscious of “selecting” one response over another; children’s responses are selectively reinforced by virtue of communicating more effectively and evoking favorable outcomes (McLaughlin, 2010).
In brief, the article ingenuously states that Skinner’s functional analysis theory for language development is founded on research and studies on what is able to be observed and manipulated. Those who support the behaviorist approach and Skinner state that Chomsky language acquisition theory is based off of unobservable mentalistic or cognitive structures that offer an inadequate explanation (McLaughlin, 2010). The author argues that further studies and research …show more content…
The upcoming article review by Goddard (2015) “Upon further reflection—the affinity of Noam Chomsky and B.F Skinner” in the Review of General Psychology journal relates to the previous articles discussed due to the author comparing, contrasting, and discussing both theories in depth and the controversy surrounding them. Moreover, Goddard (2015) addressed both the two-theorist’s academic backgrounds, social activism, media approach, capitalism, and similarities and differences regarding their