The radical behaviourism of B. F.
Skinnner
Learning objectives
After learning this chapter, you will be able to:
Demonstrate and understanding of how behavioural approaches differ from in-
depth psychological perspectives.
Explain and differentiate behavioural theoretical concepts.
Explain and discuss how environmental factors shape human behaviour.
Apply the theoretical concepts in case studies and scenarios.
Skinner’s theory is entirely different from other
personality theories.
While others regard factors within the person as the
determinants of behavior, Skinner tries to replace these so-
called ‘mentalists’ explanations with environment-oriented
Introduction explanations.
Instead of understanding behavior as a result of internal
factors, Skinner attempts to base his explanation on the
effect of environmental influences.
In explaining personality, most theorists look inside the
person for clues. The causes, motives and drives which are
forces that direct our development of behavior, that
originate within each of us.
The view of Skinner does not actually put forward his view on
humankind humanity, he prefers to write about behavior which he
regards as psychology’s object of study.
underlying the
theory He believes that humans like any other organism, are
the outcome of the process of evolution.
There is thus no essential difference between humans
and animals or between human and animal behavior.
The only difference is one of complexity that human
behavior is more complex than animal behavior.
The only important difference is that humans’ genetic
structure provides them with a wider repertoire of
behaviours – in other words, they are able to produce
a greater variety of behaviours.
Skinner’s view of humanity may be summarized as
follows:
-Humans like any other organism produce behaviour
and are controlled by the outcome of their
behaviour in that the environment determines what
behaviour will be acquired and repeated.
-All behaviour is lawful and can therefore, be
controlled.
-Since behaviour is controlled by environmental
factors, it can be manipulated by manipulating the
environment.
For Skinner, psychology should study behaviour
and the environmental factors that determine
behaviour and nothing else.
THE STRUCTURE Behaviour must therefore be regarded as Skinner’s
OF PERSONALITY structural concept and it is important to note that
Skinner makes a distinction between respondent
and operant behavior.
Respondent behavior
This is behaviour that is preceded and controlled
by a stimulus in the sense that stimulus causes the
response.
A stimulus, according to Skinner is any observable
object or change in the environment which precedes
behaviour.
A stimulus is applied (a tab on the knee) and the
response occurs (the leg jerks).
-This behaviour is not learned as it occurs
automatically and involuntarily.
-In this case, we do not have to be trained or
conditioned to make the appropriate response.
At a higher level, is respondent behaviour that is
learned.
-This learning, called conditioning involves the
substitution of a stimulus for another.
-This originated in the work of Pavlov.
Skinner also regards reflexes (for example, the
eye-blinking reflex) as well as conditioned
responses (for example the conditioned response of
a dog salivating in reaction to the bell) as
respondent behaviour.
He points out however, that it is often impossible
to distinguish between innate and acquired
respondent behaviour and that the distinction is
therefore relatively unimportant.
The classical experiment by Pavlov demonstrated
the importance of reinforcement.
The dogs would not learn to respond to the bell
unless they were rewarded for doing so.
-The reward was food in Pavlov’s experiment.
-He then formulated a fundamental law of learning.
Operant behaviour
This type of behaviour which is Skinner’s main
concern, is distinguished from the respondent
behaviour by two characteristics in particular:
Firstly, it is not preceded by any specific
identifiable stimuli and it therefore appears to be
produced spontaneously by the organism. For this
reason, it is sometimes called emergent behaviour.
Secondly, operant behaviour has an effect on the
environment and is controlled by this effect
(whereas respondent behaviour is controlled by the
stimuli preceding it).
Skinner is primarily interested in one aspect of
behavioural control namely the acquisition of
behaviour.
The dynamics of
the personality Skinner provides an exceptionally simple and
economical description of the learning process.
He uses only two concepts to explain learning:
behaviour and reinforcement.
The organism learns by producing behaviour
randomly which subsequently may or may not be
repeated, depending on the outcome of the behaviour.
When behaviour is repeated or its frequency
increases, Skinner says it has been reinforced or
learnt.
Skinner calls Pavlov’s classical conditioning
Classical or method respondent conditioning because this
respondent method entails teaching the organism to associate a
familiar response with a new stimulus.
conditioning
This is done by repeatedly presenting the new
stimulus together with another stimulus which
automatically evokes the response concerned.
Skinner is not, however, especially interested in
classical or respondent conditioning.
He maintains that it does not provide an
explanation of the learning of new behaviour.
All that happens is that an existing response is
linked to a new stimulus.
The organism learns to respond to a new stimulus,
but the response itself is new.
For this reason, Skinner prefers to use operant
conditioning which can, he says, bring about the
learning of new responses.
With operant conditioning, behaviour is controlled by
the stimuli that succeed it.
Operant It is the type of learning in which the organism learns
through the consequences of its behaviour.
conditioning
Operant conditioning can be considered to be the type
of learning in which voluntary (controllable) behaviour
is strengthened through reinforcement but weakened
when behaviour is punished.
Operant conditioning differs from classical or
respondent conditioning.
In respondent conditioning an association is formed
between a preceding stimulus and a response, whereas
operant conditioning leads to an increase in behaviour
because of the stimulus or a change in the environment,
that succeeds the behaviour.
-An example of operant conditioning: If employees
notice that their employers praise them or raise their
salaries when they work overtime, for instance, they
are likely to work overtime again in the future.
-However, if the employers show no appreciation
with the employees’ work, they will probably be
less inclined to work overtime in the future.
So Skinner believes that new behaviour is acquired
by means of operant conditioning.
Operant conditioning can be divided into two
categories, reinforcement and punishment.
Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or
increases behaviour it follows while punishment is
the presentation of an adverse event that causes a
decrease in behaviour it follows.
Reinforcement refers to anything that increases
the likelihood that the response will occur and is
defined by the effect it has on behaviour (it
increases and strengthens the response).
Types of reinforcement
Positive reinforcement : Skinner speaks of
positive reinforcement when a specific type of
behaviour increases as a result of the
administration of a positive stimulus.
Negative reinforcement: Skinner speaks on
negative reinforcement when a given behaviour
increases after the removal of an aversive
stimulus, that is an unpleasant stimulus.
Note that negative reinforcement, like positive
reinforcement, involves an increase in a certain
behaviour.
Punishment
In positive punishment : There is an
administration of aversive stimulus.
In negative punishment: There’s a removal of a
positive stimulus.
Extinction: Skinner speaks of extinction when a
specific type of behaviour decreases and eventually
disappears because stimulation is withheld, in
other words when it is followed by neither positive
nor negative stimuli.
Skinner also distinguishes between primary and
secondary reinforcers.
-A primary reinforcer is anything of biological value
to the organism such as food and water.
-A secondary reinforcer is a stimulus which has
acquired reinforcement value because of its
association with primary reinforcers.
Schedules of reinforcement
Another aspect of operant conditioning which has
been studied in the finest detail is how the
conditioning of behavior is affected by different
schedules of reinforcement.
-ie. The programs according to which reinforcers are
offered.
These schedules may be divided into two broad
types namely continuous and intermittent
reinforcement (sometimes also referred to as
regular and partial reinforcement respectively).
With continuous reinforcement, a reinforcer
follows each desired response for example, if a
mother could succeed in kissing her child each and
every time the child washed his/her face, she would
be using a continuous reinforcement schedule.
With intermittent reinforcement, the desired
behavior is not always reinforced.
This type of reinforcement schedule is a common
feature of everyday life.
The reinforcer may be administered according to
ratio schedule (that is a timetable), or according to a
ratio schedule (that is once the desired behavior has
been performed a certain number of times).
Intermittent reinforcement
We speak of fixed interval reinforcement, when
the reinforcer is given at regular intervals eg. When
employees are paid at the end of every week, a fixed
interval schedule of reinforcement is used.
•Variable interval reinforcement occurs when a
reinforcer is presented at irregular intervals,
regardless of the behavior of the organism for
example, after 50 seconds, then after 40 seconds,
then after 70 seconds, then after 65 seconds and so
on eg. When a mother gives her child a treat several
times per day, but at regular intervals, she is using a
variable interval schedule of reinforcement.
•Fixed ratio reinforcement is used when the
reinforcer is given after a fixed number of correct or
desired responses for example, an employee who
receives remuneration regularly every time she
completes ten items, is being reinforced according
to a fixed ration schedule of reinforcement.
We speak of variable ratio reinforcement when the
reinforcer is presented after an irregular number of
correct or desired responses, for example, a gambler
who wins every now and again, but at irregular
intervals, say an average every fifth time for his/her
gambling according to a variable ration schedule
reinforcement. Here the desired behavior from the
point of view of the owner of the casino at any rate
is the gambling.
Different schedules of reinforcement have
different effects on the conditioning and extinction
of behavior.
It is generally found that behavior is learnt most
rapidly when continuous reinforcement schedule is
used, but that the behavior learnt in this manner is
also easier to distinguish than behavior learnt by
one of the intermittent reinforcement schedules.
Shaping
Operant conditioning can also be used to teach an
organism complex and unusual behaviours.
A technique called shaping is used for this
purpose.
This technique essentially entails dividing the
behavior that is to be learnt into a number of small
steps, so that each step is part of a successive
approximation of the total behavior.
The researcher then conditions the organism to
perform these successive approximations until the
complete behavior is learnt.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
THE END!!!!
