Skinner: Behavioral Analysis

Related Research

Conditioning was initially applied to simple human responses after some experiments with animals, but
more recently, Skinner's theories have been used in a wide range of studies focusing on complicated
human behaviors. The connection between enduring behavioral patterns and reinforcement
contingencies has been the subject of some of these investigations. These studies often fall into one of
three categories: they have examined how either personality or conditioning influence one another, or
how both influence one another.

How Conditioning Affects Personality

It affects through a procedure called shaping, (operant) conditioning can also encourage the emergence
of more complex behaviors. A complex target behavior is shaped by reinforcing successive
approximations of it.

We can find examples of operant conditioning at work all around us. Consider the case of children
completing homework to earn a reward from a parent or teacher, or employees finishing projects to
receive praise or promotions. More examples of operant conditioning in action include:

 You train your dog to fetch by offering him praise, a pat on the head or a treat whenever he
performs the behavior correctly. So, this is an example of positive reinforcer.
 A professor tells students that if they have perfect attendance all semester, then they do not
have to take the final exam. The students will now attend the class regularly as the professor
removed an unpleasant stimulus which is the final exam. And this is an example of negative
reinforcer.
 If you fail to hand in a project on time, your boss becomes angry and berates your performance
in front of your co-workers. So, this acts as a positive punishment, making it less likely that you
will finish projects late in the future.
 A teen girl does not clean up her room as she was asked, so her parents take away her phone for
the rest of the day. And this is an example of a negative punishment in which a positive stimulus
is taken away.

How Personality Affects Conditioning

Can personality affect conditioning or vice versa? Numerous research has shown how conditioning has
the ability to alter behavior and personality. These studies have involved both humans and animals.
However, with humans in particular, it is evident that many individuals react differently to the same
reinforcers, and personality may offer a crucial cue as to why this may be the case.

In some of the given examples earlier, the promise or possibility of rewards causes an increase in
behavior. Conditioning can also be used to decrease a behavior via the removal of a desirable outcome
or the application of a negative outcome.
For example, a talkative child may be told they will lose recess privileges if they talk out of turn in class.
This potential for punishment may lead to a decrease in disruptive behaviors.

Mutual Influence Between Personality and Conditioning

A neuropsychological theory of personality has emerged within behaviorism that helps explain the
mutual influence between individuals’ temperaments and responses to conditioning, known as
Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory.

This theory identifies three emotional motivational systems in individuals:

First is the “approach” system (the behavioral approach system, BAS)

 The BAS is responsive to rewards, impulses, and pleasurable experiences

Second is the “avoidance” systems (the behavioral inhibition system, BIS)

 The BIS is responsive to punishments and anxiety.

Third is the fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS).

 The FFFS is responsive to fear and threat.

These systems are related to both positive (in the case of the BAS) and negative (in the case of the BIS
and FFFS) emotions, and hence help explain both the development and maintenance of certain features
of personality. These reinforcement sensitivities tie into Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning and
reinforcement by making clear that different behavior is shaped by different rewards and punishments
—that is, conditioning shapes personality, but also personality affects conditioning.

Critique of Skinner

A major criticism leveled against Skinner is that he discounted the presence of free will since all actions
were determined by the contingencies of reinforcement. Such an outlook can be used to defend any
human action since the individual can blame external factors for his/her actions.

The maverick psychologist Hans J. Eysenck once criticized Skinner for ignoring such concepts as
individual differences, intelligence, genetic factors, and the whole realm of personality.

These claims are only partly true because Skinner did recognize genetic factors, and he did offer a
somewhat unenthusiastic definition of personality, saying that it is (and I quote) “at best a repertoire of
behavior imparted by an organized set of contingencies”.

Despite its relevance to many situations, the claims of Skinner were also heavily criticized by Noam
Chomsky who believed that the claims presented were vague, wrong, or empty as they could not explain
a few things.
Concept of Humanity

Without doubt, Skinner held a deterministic view of human nature, and concepts like free will and
individual choice had no place in his behavioral analysis.

People are not free but are controlled by environmental forces. They may seem to be motivated by
inner causes, but in reality, those causes can be traced to sources outside the individual.

Self-control depends ultimately on environmental variables and not on some inner strength. When
people control their own lives, they do so by manipulating their environment, which in turn shapes their
behavior.

This environmental approach negates hypothetical constructs such as willpower or responsibility.

Human behavior is extremely complex, but people behave under many of the same laws as do machines
and animals.

So, is Skinner’s concept of humanity optimistic or pessimistic? At first thought, it may appear that a
deterministic stance is necessarily pessimistic. However, Skinner’s view of human nature is highly
optimistic. Because human behavior is shaped by the principles of reinforcement, the species is quite
adaptable.