Parallel Lines

Jack Nickles
Project 1
Citation Style: APA
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When I look in the mirror what do I see? Yes, skin, bone, shape, complexion, but beyond

that? Underneath there may be habits and hobbies and relationships as well as fears, phobias and

addictions. Again, I look in the mirror and I ask myself how all these pieces fall into order.

Where they my doing? Or am I only a product of my environment, reduced to the whim of the

world.

In 1897, Ivan Pavlov published his primary work regarding his infamous hounds and the

conditioning he could impose upon them in just a few short trials. Thus, behaviorism was born.

Forty years later, an ambitious Harvard researcher by the name of B.F. Skinner began to conduct

his preliminary experiments.

Eighty years beyond that, I take my seat for the first time in an elective psychology class

secretly hoping to glance at the syllabus and quickly be let out but instead I am handed an

excerpt from ​Behaviorism as the Psychologist Views it​. The first line leaps off the page and

proudly proclaims that behaviorism is a natural science based solely on observable experiments

that attempt to manipulate behavior. The thinking mind and its mental states play no part in why

we act. Bolder still the article continues, “​The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme

of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute” (Watson, 1913). No

dividing line? Is this theory trying to tell me that I am no more than an animal? That can’t be

because surely just this morning I got up and made breakfast, went through my daily routines

and hell, even got myself a parking ticket; no animal I knew could do that. I left the class

exasperated.

Upon return, the professor challenged us: give me an example in your everyday life that

you believe cannot be explained by behaviorism. Immediately I gave my three examples from
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the previous morning and waited in smug satisfaction. The answer I received was simple and

clear, “operant conditioning, operant conditioning, and operant conditioning.” I left exasperated.

Determined to return to class with a full arsenal of examples to outwit my professor, I

began researching operant conditioning and its founding father, B.F. Skinner. ​Operant

conditioning, also called instrumental learning, was Skinner’s life long work, concept that he not

only dedicated his research to, but a concept that permeated his entire ideology. It states that

reinforcement, either adding stimuli or taking them away, is the sole contributor to learning.

Unlike in classical conditioning, where stimuli are simply imposed upon the subject, operant

conditioning investigates the cause and effect of ​intentional​ behavior, meaning the choices that

we make daily. Skinner, being a true behaviorist, held the belief that psychology should be based

solely on the observable. He believed that “An individual's mind cannot be known and therefore

cannot be shown to have an effect on what the individual does” (Harvey, 2017). In his first

published work he thoroughly rejected psychologist Edward Thorndike’s notion that learning can

be attributed in some part to unobservable mental states like satisfaction, saying “[it] is not that

they do not exist, but that they are not relevant to the prediction, control, and experimental

analysis of behavior” (Skinner, 1953).

Skinner’s behaviorism resonated with me. I began to look at my own life and question

how I had learned the things I knew. I first examined exercise and nutrition. Being a personal

trainer I told clients that I worked out because I “loved” it. But what did that really mean?

Through Skinner’s eyes I saw my passions explained by a series of interactions with the

environment. I went to the gym and trained hard because it provided me improved health, a

familiar social environment and even compliments from others, all three of which he would call
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positive reinforcement. I realized that I was also using positive punishment (adding a stimulus in

order to remove a behavior) by being active to reduce pent up aggression as well as eliminate

idle behavior. This really gave a new meaning to the phrase “punishing yourself during a

workout.”

Behaviorism became the forefront of my interests at the university and it felt like I had

finally found my niche within the psychology department. I knew that research in the field of

behaviorism was stagnant and outdated but its application in therapy was alive and well.

Curiosity replaced my exasperation as I sat down with my professor and interrogated him

on current behavioral techniques in therapy. He informed me that behavioral therapy, most

commonly referred to as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), was one of the most well

researched and effective forms of treatment today. He went on to explain that CBT took a

biopsychosocial approach by “developing skills to manage how thoughts, feelings and behaviors

interact and influence one another” through a handful of techniques like stress inoculation, token

economies, extinction, and contingency management (Meichenbaum, Carlson & Kjos, 2007). It

inspired me to know that lessons being learned in lecture were actually being reproduced

effectively to real people. However, it was when I came across CBT as an treatment for PTSD, a

truly devastating diagnosis that I had encountered before, that I felt a true career calling.

At that time I had been in the military for almost three years and had volunteered in a

veterans group home in Hartford for a little over one. There, I met a number of struggling adults

who were seeking treatment for PTSD via pharmaceuticals. Most ended up not only keeping the

majority of their symptoms but adding drug misuse to their growing list of problems. As I

researched I found that behavioral techniques applied in therapy, in conjunction with medication,
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were highly effective (Foa, Keane, Friedman & Cohen, 2008). Furthermore, a study found that

effectiveness was contingent upon perceived intimate relationships among CBT participants

(Monson, Rodriguez & Warner, 2005). It became clear to me that in the future I could combine

my own military experience and contacts with my pursuit of clinical psychology to help those

who were traumatized in combat.

Although PTSD treatment isn’t where Skinner thought his work would be used, the

underlying basis for the therapy comes directly from his initial experiments manipulating

behavior. Sure, the animals he worked with didn’t read dissertations on comparative literature or

perform complex tactical movements, but the techniques with which we learn (or unlearn) our

behaviors, our habits, phobias and anxieties are exactly the same as those used in B.F. Skinner’s

famous conditioning experiments.

There is no one I respect more than the researcher who strains under a microscope,

inspecting the minutiae of a neuron; however, those endeavors can only be witnessed by, and

explained to, a small sample of the general population. The reason that Skinner’s work has made

such an impact on me is because it is tangible and applicable. It was the first concept in my brief

intellectual journey that connected the classroom to my life in a profoundly undiluted way. It

took two parallel lines, my academic studies and my daily life, seemingly destined to run side by

side but never cross, and intersected them.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to name a number of people for helping me bring this paper to its final form. Thank

you to Noah Dwyer and Erin Lopez for the feedback they provided on the initial draft and

ultimately thank you to Dr. Andreano for helping me intersect my parallel lines.
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References

Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., Friedman, M. J., & Cohen, J. A. (2008). ​Effective treatments for PTSD:
practice guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies​. Guilford
Press, 207-208.

Harvey, L. (2017). Behaviourism. ​Quality Research International.​ Retrieved from

www.qualityresearchinternational.com/socialresearch/behaviourism.htm

Meichenbaum, D., Carlson, J., & Kjos, D. (2007). ​Cognitive-behavioral therapy​. ​American
Psychological Association​, 11-12.

Monson, C. M., Rodriguez, B. F., & Warner, R. (2005). Cognitive-Behavioral therapy for PTSD
in the real world: Do interpersonal relationships make a real difference?. ​Journal of
Clinical Psychology​, ​61​(6), 751-761.

Skinner, B. F. (1953). ​Science and Human Behavior​. New York: New York. MacMillan

Watson, J. B. (1913). ​Psychology as the behaviorist views it​. Psychological

Review, ​20(1), 158-178.