Skinner Theory of

personality or
Skinner operant
Analysis
Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism
➢ Behaviorism is a school of thought that focuses on the idea that all
behavior is learned. Behavior is basically overt and observable.

➢ Radical Behaviorism is the brand of Psychology that is practically

synonymous with Skinner’s name.

➢ It is an association between stimulus and response.

➢ Stimulus and response behavior is respondent or classical

conditioning

➢ Skinner rejected the use of inner states such as anxiety as the

explanation of our overt / observable behavior.
Personality from the Perspective of a Radical Behaviorist.

 Skinner believed that the study of personality involves a systematic

examination of the habit learning history and unique genetic
background of the individual.

 The study of personality, then, involves the discovery of the unique set
of relationships between the behavior of an organism and its
reinforcing or punishing consequences.

 Of course, such an analysis would have to be consistent with the

organism’s genetic capacity to respond to events in the environment.
Core Concepts
 Classical Conditioning

 Operant Conditioning
• Application
• Principles
• Basic concepts and principles
 Classical Conditioning
 It is credited primarily to two early leaders in the study of behavioral modification, I. P.
Pavlov and Watson.

 Pavlov discovered the principle at reinforcement as it applies to classical conditioning.

 It can be illustrated with a famous example.

 Suppose that on a number of occasions a bell is sounded in the presence of a hungry

dog, and suppose that on each of these occasions the sound of a bell is immediately
followed by the presentation of meat to the dog.

What do we observe?

 On each presentation of the bell-and-meat combination the dog salivates.

 But at first the dog salivates only when the meat is presented and not before.
 Thus the presentation of the meat is a reinforcing operation.

 It strengthens the likelihood that the salivary response will occur when the bell
is sounded on a later occasion.

 Furthermore, because its presentation increases the chances of salivation, it is

classified as a positive reinforcer.

 Conditioning is most effectively carried out when the reinforcement follows

the conditioned stimulus, regardless of whether the response has occurred or
not.

 Reinforcement is reward which can be:

i. Material or Symbolic

ii. Positive or Negative

 Classical conditioning begins with S-R associations.

 In his experiment Pavlov used the S-R association between food and
salivation.

 He presented hungry dogs with meat powder (stimulus) and they salivated
(response) please note this S-R association existed without any conditioning
from Pavlov

 So meat powder is unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the salivation is

unconditioned response (UCR)

 In the second step of the experiment Pavlov paired unconditioned stimulus

(UCS) say meat with conditioned (CS) bell
 In the third step the UCS meat was presented with CS bell on a number of occasions –
salivation took place.

 In the fourth step CS bell was sounded and the dog salivated so conditioning or S-R
connection between bell and salivation has been established.

Example:
 You see a spider (stimulus) and jump and run away (response).

 You see an injured man bleeding (stimulus) and feel that you might faint (response).

 Research suggests that you are not aware of the many S-R associations that influence
your behavior.

 Your preferences for food, clothing and music, books and friends are determined by S-
R associations.
Operant Conditioning
 Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning,
is a method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for
behavior.
 For example, when lab rats press a lever when a green light is on, they
receive a food pellet as a reward. When they press the lever when a red
light is on, they receive a mild electric shock. As a result, they learn to
press the lever when the green light is on and avoid the red light.
 But operant conditioning is not just something that takes place in
experimental settings while training lab animals.
 It also plays a powerful role in everyday learning.
 Reinforcement and punishment take place in natural settings all the time,
as well as in more structured settings such as classrooms or therapy
sessions.
 Operant conditioning

 The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a
function of change in overt behavior.

 Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to events

(stimuli) that occur in the environment.

 A response produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a

ball, or solving a math problem.

 When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced

(rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond.
 The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning relative to
previous forms of behaviorism (e.g., connectionism, drive
reduction) is that the organism can emit responses instead of only
eliciting response due to an external stimulus.

 Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory.

 A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response.

 It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased

accomplishment or satisfaction.
 The theory also covers negative reinforcers — any stimulus that results in
the increased frequency of a response when it is withdrawn (different
from aversive stimuli — punishment — which result in reduced
responses).
 A great deal of attention was given to schedules of reinforcement (e.g.
interval versus ratio) and their effects on establishing and maintaining
behavior.
 One of the distinctive aspects of Skinner’s theory is that it attempted to
provide behavioral explanations for a broad range of cognitive
phenomena.
 Application
 Operant conditioning has been widely applied in clinical settings (i.e., behavior
modification) as well as teaching (i.e., classroom management) and instructional
development (e.g., programmed instruction). Parenthetically, it should be noted that
Skinner rejected the idea of theories of learning.

 Example

 By way of example, consider the implications of reinforcement theory as applied to the

development of programmed instruction.

 Practice should take the form of question (stimulus) – answer (response) frames which
expose the student to the subject in gradual steps
 Require that the learner make a response for every frame and
receive immediate feedback

 Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so the response is

always correct and hence a positive reinforcement

 Ensure that good performance in the lesson is paired with

secondary reinforcers such as verbal praise, prizes and good
grades.
Principles
 Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent
reinforcement is particularly effective

 Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses

can be reinforced (“shaping”)

 Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli (“stimulus

generalization”) producing secondary conditioning