Philosophical, Psychological, and Sociological

Foundations of Guidance and Counseling

BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER

Operant Conditioning
An Associative Learning Theory

SHERYL A. ALAYON
MS GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING
Paglaum Project Free Batch 3
What’s inside

1. Introduction
2. Associative learning theory (Behaviorism) according to
BF Skinner
3. Application
4. Epilogue
INTRODUCTION

The schools of thought do not exist as separate schools

in modern psychology, the early schools of psychology
have left an important mark on modern psychology.
Psychologists have different psychological perspectives
on their work and have different ideas about the nature of
humanity, the nature of science and the topics and
methods they utilized.
When a large number of psychologists strongly support a
certain view, they called themselves “school”.

There are 5 early schools of thought which became the

foundations of later modern psychological

perspectives and applied psychology we call guidance
and counseling.
The Five Early Schools of Thought
 Structuralism
 Functionalism
 Gestalt

Behaviorism (Associative learning theories)

 Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Edward Lee Thorndike, and
B.F. Skinner
 Psychoanalysis
BEHAVIORISM
BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER
Overview of Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

 Unlike any theory discussed to this point, the radical

behaviorism of BF 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 . He rejected
the notion of free will, and he emphasized the
primacy of environmental influences on behavior.
B.F. SKINNER

 Born in 1904, Pennsylvania, USA

 Graduated with a Degree in
English at Hamilton College, New
York, dreamed to be a writer
 Lived a Bohemian life in New York,
but with no real success in poetry
or short story writing
 He came across with the writings
of Ivan Pavlov and John Watson,
(Behaviorism’s founder) He
applied to study Psychology at
Harvard University.
B.F. SKINNER

 Completed his Masters Degree

and PhD in Harvard and taught
 National Medal of Science,
awarded by US President
Lyndon B. Johnson
 Wrote several books and did
much of experimentation
 Died of Leukemia in 1990
B. F. Skinner was one of the most influential of American
psychologists.
A behaviorist, he developed the theory of operant
conditioning -- the idea that behavior is determined by its
consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments,
which make it more or less likely that the behavior will
occur again.
II. BEHAVIORISM ACCORDING TO
SKINNER
 Skinner is one of the most controversial figures in the
history of psychology
 Skinner was famous in seeing humans no different to
animals
 In his theory of operant conditioning, he went beyond
Pavlov
 Real solutions to social problems emerge when people's
behavior changed
Psychology of Environment, not mind

 It is more accurate to see people as the end result of the

influence around them , and their reactions to the world.

 We all need to know what circumstances cause people

to do what they do.
Better Environments, not better People

 We have actually designed our societies to involve many different

forms of control that are based on aversion or inducement instead
of outright force
 We can’t change a mind, we can only change the environment
that may prompt someone to act differently
 What we consider “traits of character” are actually the culmination
of history of environmental reinforcement
Skinner’s approach to assessing
behavior (Functional Analysis)

1. The frequency of the behavior

2. The situation in which the behavior occurs

3. The reinforcement associated with the behavior

Precursors to Skinner’s Scientific Behaviorism
 Modern learning theory has roots in the works of
Edward Lee 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, conscientiousness, or
the mind- is the basic data of scientific psychology.
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.
A. Philosophy of Science

 Skinner believed that, because the purpose of

science is to predict and control, psychologists
should be concerned with determining with 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
3. It searches for order and lawful relationships
Conditioning
Skinner recognized two kinds of
conditioning: classical and operant.
A. Classical conditioning, (Ivan Pavlov) 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.
B. Operant Conditioning
With operant conditioning, reinforcement is
used to increase the probability that a given
behavior will occur.
Three factors are essential in operant
conditioning:
1. the antecedent or environment in which behavior
takes place
2. the behavior or response
3. the consequence that follows the behavior
 Psychologists and others use shaping to mold
complex human behavior.
 Different theories of reinforcement result in operant
discrimination:
a. Different organisms will respond differently to the
same environmental contingencies
b. People may also respond similarly to different
environmental stimuli, a process 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 reinforcer strengthen
behavior.
Reinforcement: The Basis of behavior

 Behavior can be controlled by its consequences

 Animal or human could be trained or to perform any act
depending on the reinforcement responsible for it
 Whoever controls the reinforcers has the power to
control human behavior
Reinforcement

The act of strengthening a

response by adding a reward
thus increasing the likelihood
that the response will be
repeated
Extinction
The process of eliminating a
behavior by withholding
reinforcement
Operant behavior

Behavior emitted spontaneously

or voluntarily that operates on
the environment to change it.
Operant conditioning

The procedure by which a change

in the consequences of a
response will affect the rate at
which the response occurs.
Reinforcement schedule
Patterns or rates of providing or
withholding reinforces
Reinforcement can follow
behavior on either a continuous
schedule or an intermittent
schedule
 1. Fixed interval
The reinforcer is presented following
the first response that occurs after
a fixed time interval has elapsed
2. Fixed ratio

Reinforcers are given only if the

organism has made a specified
number of response. (quota/number
of pieces)
3. Variable Interval

The reinforcer might appear in

broken periods. The organism is
reinforced after the lapse of
varied period of time.
4. Variable ratio

Schedule of reinforcement is based on

an average number of responses'
between reinforcers, but there is great
variability around the average
(probability).
 Reinforcement, behavior and outcomes

Behavior Behavior

Desirable Undesirable

Positive Negative Positive Negative

reinforcement reinforcement punishment Punishment

If you want to continue, If you want to stop,

increase behavior decrease behavior
III. APPLICATION

 The Human Organism

Skinner believed that human behavior is shaped by three
forces:
1. natural selection
2. cultural practices
3. the individual’s history of reinforcement
1. Natural Selection
 As a human specie, our behavior is shaped by the
contingencies of survival
Those behaviors (eg., sex and aggression) that were
beneficial to the human species tended to survive.
Those that did not survive tend to drop out.
2. Cultural Evolution

 Those societies that evolved certain cultural

practices (eg., tool making and language) tended
to survive.
 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.
 Nonetheless, 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.
3. The individual’s history of reinforcement

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. Besides, individual’s reactions also depend on
their history of reinforcement.
E. Control of Human Behavior

Eventually, the environment controls behavior.

Societies exercise control over their members through laws,
rules and customs that transcend any one person’s means
of counter control.
There are four basic methods of social control:

1. operant conditioning, including positive and

negative reinforcement.
2. describing contingencies, or using language to
inform people of the consequence of their behaviors
3. deprivation and satiations, techniques that increase
the likelihood that people will behave in a certain
way.
4. physical restraint, including the jailing of the
criminals
Although skinner denied the existence of free will, he
did recognize that people manipulate variables with
their own environment and thus exercise some
measure of self-control, which has several techniques:

 physical restraint
 Physical aid such as tools
 Changing environment stimuli
 Arranging the environment to allow escape from
aversive stimuli
 Drugs
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
3. passively resisting it
B. Inappropriate Behaviors
Inappropriate behaviors follow from self-defeating
techniques of counteracting social control or from
unsuccessful attempt 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.
 All the same, others have used operant
conditioning principles to shape behavior in a
therapeutic setting.

 Behavior therapist 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
 IV. Epilogue
Critique of Skinner
 On the six criteria of the 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 was a completely deterministic and

causal one that emphasized conscious behavior and
the uniqueness of each person’s history of
reinforcement within mostly social environment. unlike
any determinists, Skinner is quite optimistic in his view
of humanity.
 The nomad on horseback in
outer Mongolia and the
astronaut in outer space are
two different people, but, as
far as we know, if they had
been exchanged at birth, they
would have take each other’s
place
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but
the lighting of a fire.”
- W.B. Yeats
Thank You!
References:

Personality Theories: Engler, Barbara, 2014

Personality Theories by Larsen, Randy Jr., 2014

Theories of Personality Feist and Feist, 9th Edition, 2017

Theories of Personality by Ryckman, Richard, 10th Edition, 2018

Theories of Personality | 11th Edition; Schultz, Duane P./Schultz,

Sydney Ellen, 2017

verywellmind.com, Cherry, Kendra, 2020