Chapter Outline

SUMMARY OUTLINE

I. Overview of Skinner's Behavioral Analysis
Unlike any theory discussed to this point, the radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner avoids speculations about hypothetical constructs and concentrates almost exclusively on observable behavior. Besides being a radical behaviorist, Skinner was also a determinist and an environmentalist; that is, he rejected the notion of free will, and he emphasized the primacy of environmental influences on behavior.

II. Biography of B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania in 1904, the older of two brothers. While in college, Skinner wanted to be a writer, but after having little success in this endeavor, he turned to psychology. After earning a Ph.D. from Harvard, he taught at the Universities of Minnesota and Indiana before returning
to Harvard, where he remained until his death in 1990.

III. Precursors to Skinner's Scientific Behaviorism
Modern learning theory has roots in the work of Edward L. Thorndike and his experiments with animals during the last part of the 19th century. Thorndike's law of effect stated that responses followed by a satisfier tend to be learned, a concept that anticipated Skinner's use of positive reinforcement to shape behavior. Skinner was even more influenced by John Watson, who 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.

IV. Scientific Behaviorism
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. Although he rejected internal states (thoughts, emotions, desires, etc.) as being outside the realm of science, Skinner did not deny their existence.
He simply insisted that they should not be used to explain behavior.
A. Philosophy of Science
Skinner believed that, because the purpose of science is to predict and control, psychologists should be concerned with determining the conditions under which human behavior occurs so that they can predict and control it.
B. Characteristics of Science
Skinner held that science has three principle characteristics: (1) its findings are cumulative, (2) it rests on an attitude that values empirical observation, and
(3) it searchers for order and lawful relationships.

V. Conditioning
Skinner recognized two kinds of conditioning: classical and operant.
A. Classical Conditioning
In classical conditioning, a neutral (conditioned) stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus until it is capable of bringing about a previously unconditioned response, now called the conditioned response. For example, Watson and Rayner conditioned a young boy to fear a white rat (the conditioned stimulus) by associating it with a loud, sudden noise (an unconditioned stimulus). Eventually, through the process of generalization, the boy learned to fear stimuli that resembled the white rat.
B. 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. 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 reinforcer, 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 varied 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 was acquired through operant conditioning.

VI. The Human Organism
Skinner believed that human behavior is shaped by three forces: (1) natural selection, (2) cultural practices, and (3) the individual's history of reinforcement, which we discussed above.
A. 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.
B. 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.
C. 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 sensations that exist within the skin.
D. 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.

E. 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.

VII. The Unhealthy Personality
Social control and self-control sometimes produce counteracting strategies and inappropriate behaviors.
A. Counteracting Strategies
People can counteract excessive social control by (1) escaping from it,
(2) revolting against it, or (3) passively resisting it.
B. Inappropriate Behaviors
Inappropriate behaviors follow from self-defeating techniques of counteracting social control or from unsuccessful attempts at self-control.

VIII. 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. Behavior therapists play an active role in the treatment process, using behavior modification techniques and pointing out the positive consequences of some behaviors and the aversive effects of others.

IX. Related Research
Skinner's theory has generated more research than any other personality theory. Much of this research can be divided into two questions: (1) How does conditioning affect personality? and (2) How does personality affect conditioning?
A. How Conditioning Affects Personality
A plethora of studies have demonstrated that operant conditioning can change personality (that is, behavior). For example, a recent study by Stephen Higgens et al. demonstrated that a contingent management program can be successful in decreasing cocaine use.
B. How Personality Affects Conditioning
Research has also found that different personalities may react differently to the same environmental stimuli. This means that the same reinforcement strategies will not have the same effect on all people. For example, Alan Pickering and Jeffrey Gray have developed and tested a reinforcement sensitivity theory that suggests that impulsivity, anxiety, and introversion/extraversion relate to ways people respond to environmental reinforcers.

X. 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.

XI. 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.