B.F.

Skinner - Behavioral Analytic Theory / Radical Behaviorism

HUMAN CONDITION
ASSUMPTIONS 1. Variables and forces in the environment that shape overt behavior
2. Conditioning shapes human behavior.
CONCEPTS E. Thorndike’s Law and Effect
-- responses followed by a
satisfier tend to be learned
-- when a behavior or
performance is accompanied
by satisfaction, it tends to
be firmly established or
increased
J. Watson’s Behaviorism
-- psychology must deal with
the control and prediction of
--
behavior and that behavior
is the basic data of scientific a personality or an ego is to
psychology
Philosophy Science
-- psychologists should be
concerned about the
conditions under which
human behavior occurs in
order to predict and control
human behavior
-- psychologists should not
attribute inner motivations to
human behavior
-- scientific behaviorism
interprets the behavior, but
does not explain the cause of
a behavior
Characteristics of Science
-- its findings are cumulative
-- it rests on an attitude that
values empirical observation
-- it searches for order and
reliable relationships
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According to B.F. Skinner, a
stimulus-response theory of
psychology can account for
all of the overt behavior that
psychologists seek to explain.
Overt behavior can be
completely comprehended
in terms of responses to
factors in the environment.
The effort to understand or
explain behavior in terms of
internal structures such as
speak about “fictions” because
such structures cannot be
directly observed.
Kinds of Conditioning
a. Classical
-- a conditioned
stimulus is paired
with an unconditioned
stimulus until it is
capable of bringing
about a previously
unconditioned response
b. Operant
-- reinforcement is used to
increase the probability
that a given behavior
will recur
Skinner believed that operant
conditioning is of far greater
significance than simple
classical conditioning
Essential Factors in Operant
Conditioning (ABC)
a. Antecedent/Environment
-- environment in which
the behavior takes place
b. Behavior/Response
c. Consequence
-- what follows the
behavior
-- rewarding the behavior
Types of Behavior
a. Respondent Behavior
-- reflexes or automatic
responses that are
evoked or elicited by
stimuli
-- may be conditioned
or changed through
learning
b. Operant Behavior
-- responses emitted
without a stimulus
necessarily being
present
-- occur spontaneously
-- their subsequent
frequency are
determined by its
consequences
Shaping
-- the deliberate process of
molding behavior in order to

CONCEPTS achieve the desired behavior
-- the reinforcement of
successive approximations of
the target behavior
-- example: when a child learns
to speak its native language
Operant discrimination
-- the ability to tell the
difference between stimuli
that are and are not
reinforced
-- refers to the various
responses of different
organisms to the same
environmental contingencies
-- results from different
histories of reinforcement
Stimulus Generalization
-- the application of a response
learned in one situation to a
different but similar situation
-- happens when people
respond similarly to different
environmental stimuli
Reinforcement
-- anything within the
environment that strengthens
a behavior
-- anything that increases the
likelihood of a response
-- may be positive or negative
a. Negative Reinforcement
-- occurs when a behavior
Classical Conditioning
Cause of behavior stimulus
Nature of reinforcement precedes
reinforcement behavior
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B.F. Skinner - Behavioral Analytic Theory / Radical Behaviorism
is followed by the
termination of an
unpleasant situation
increasing the likelihood
of that behavior in
similar situations
b. Positive Reinforcement
-- occurs when a behavior
is followed by a
situation that increases
the likelihood of that
behavior occurring in
the future
Generalized conditioned
reinforcers
-- learned and have the power
to reinforce a great number
of different behavior
-- example: praise and affection
Punishment
-- any event that decreases
a behavior either by
presenting an aversive
stimulus or by removing a
positive one
-- occurs when a behavior is
followed by an unpleasant
situation designed to
eliminate it
-- example: imprisonment,
suspension
Punishment and reinforcement
can result from either natural
Operant Conditioning
“free will”
reinforcement follows the
behavior
consequences or human
imposition
Conditioned Reinforcer
-- stimuli that are not by nature
satisfying (i.e. money), but
that can become so when
they are associated with a
primary reinforcer (i.e. food)
Generalized Reinforcer
-- a conditioned reinforcer that
has become associated with
several primary reinforcers
Schedule of Reinforcement
a. Continuous Reinforcement
-- the desired behavior is
reinforced each time that
it occurs
-- extremely effective in
initially developing and
strengthening a behavior
b. Interval Reinforcement
-- the desired behavior
is reinforced after a
certain time period has
elapsed, regardless of the
response rate
-- may occur on a fixed or
variable basis
i. fixed-interval
-- the organism is
reinforced for the first
response following a
designated period of
time
ii. variable-interval
-- the organism is
reinforced after the
lapse of various
periods of time
 B.F. Skinner - Behavioral Analytic Theory / Radical Behaviorism
CONCEPTS c. Ratio Reinforcement the probability of certain
-- the rate of reinforcement b. Operant Extinction behavior emotions
is determined by the -- elimination or weakening »» can be accounted for
number of appropriate response in an operant by the contingencies
responses that the conditional model of survival and
organism emits reinforcement
i. fixed-ratio Forces that shape human ii. purpose and intention
-- the number of behavior »» felt sensations and exist
responses required within the skin
prior to reinforcement a. Natural selection
is stable and -- human behavior is shaped While human behavior
unchanging by the contingencies of is subject to the same
ii. variable-ratio survival (behavior that principles of operant
-- the number of was beneficial to the conditioning it is much more
appropriate operant human species tended to complex and difficult to
behavior must occur survive while those that predict or control
prior to reinforcement did not tended to drop
changes from time to out) Complex Behavior
time
-- most effective in b. Evolution of cultures a. High Mental Processes
maintaining behavior -- societies that evolved -- thinking, problem solving
-- responses maintained certain cultural practices and reminiscing are
under these conditions (i.e. tool making and covert behavior that take
are highly resistant language) tended to place within the skin
to extinction and less survive
likely to disappear -- societies whose members b. Creativity
-- example: gambling behave in a cooperative -- result of random or
manner tended to survive accidental behavior that
Extinction happen to be rewarded
-- the gradual weakening of c. Individual’s history of
a conditioned response reinforcement Most of human behavior is
that results in the behavior -- refers to an individual’s unconscious (or automatic).
decreasing or disappearing exposure to various Not thinking about certain
-- the tendency of a previously schedules of experiences is reinforcing.
acquired response to reinforcement
become progressively Unconscious Behavior
weakened upon non- d. Inner states - nearly all our behavior is
reinforcement -- refers to an individual’s unconsciously motivated.
drives and awareness but In a more limited sense,
a. Classical Extinction do not cause behavior behavior labelled unconscious
-- elimination or weakening i. drives when people no longer
response in a classical »» effects of deprivation think about it because it has
conditional model and satiation related to been suppressed through
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CONCEPTS Punishment
discourages bad behavior
causes behavior to happen less frequently
punishment
Dreams
-- covert and symbolic forms
of behavior that are subject
to the same contingencies of
reinforcement as any other
behavior
-- reinforced when repressed
sexual or aggressive stimuli
are allowed expression
Social Behavior
-- “...groups do not behave; only
individuals do. Individuals
establish groups because
they have been rewarded for
doing so.”
Methods of Social Control
All of a person’s behavior is
controlled by the environment.
Societies exercise control
over their members through
laws of a nation, rules of an
organization and customs of a
culture that transcend any one
person’s means of counter-
control
a. Operant conditioning
-- includes positive and
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B.F. Skinner - Behavioral Analytic Theory / Radical Behaviorism
Reinforcement
encourages good behavior
causes behavior to happen frequently
have positive and negative forms
are means of controlling behavior
negative reinforcement as d. Arranging the environment
well as punishment to allow the escape from
b. Describing contingencies aversive stimuli
-- using language to e. drugs
inform people of the f. doing something else to
consequence of their avoid behaving undesirably
behavior
-- exampe: advertisements In Skinner’s view (1984),
c. Deprivation and satiation operant conditioning is to
-- techniques that increase the origin of behavior what
the likelihood that people natural selection is to the
will behave in a certain origin of species in Darwin’s
way theory.
-- example: food
d. Physical restraint “survival is the only value
-- includes jailing of according to which a culture
criminals is eventually to be judged”
-- example: lawbreakers in
prison After birth, environmental
conditioning shapes each
Skinner denied the existence one of us in this life.
of free will.
Techniques to manipulate
variables in one’s environment
to exercise some self-control
a. Physical restraint
b. Physical aids (tools,
machines, financial
resources)
c. Changing environmental
stimuli

ABNORMAL Possible outcomes of social
and self-control
DEVELOPMENT
a. Counteracting Strategies
-- people can counteract
excessive social control by
»» escaping from it:
withdrawing from
the controlling agent
either physically or
psychologically
»» revolting against it:
counter attacking the
controlling agent
PSYCHOTHERAPY Although Skinner himself
criticized psychotherapy
as an obstacle to human
behavior, behavior therapists
apply behavior modification
techniques and point out the
positive consequences of some
behavior and the averse effect
of others.
RELATED a. How operant conditioning
RESEARCH affects personality
-- when given a choice,
smokers would choose
a cigarette rather than
money (Tide et al.)
b. How personality affects
conditioning
-- impulsivity, anxiety and
introversion/extraversion
relate to ways people
respond to environmental
reinforcers; Reinforcement
Sensitivity Theory
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B.F. Skinner - Behavioral Analytic Theory / Radical Behaviorism
»» passively resisting it:
most likely to be used
where escape and
revolt have failed
b. Inappropriate Behavior
-- follows from self-
defeating techniques
of counteracting
social control or from
unsuccessful attempts at
self-control
-- examples:
»» vigorous behavior
(Pickering and Gray)
-- For highly anxious people,
impulsivity acts as a
buffer to responsiveness
to negative stimuli; people
vary in their responses to
reinforcers depending on
their personality (Corr)
c. Reinforcement and the
brain
-- People biologically
respond to rewards
differently: people
who scored higher on
»» excessively restrained
behavior
»» blocking out reality
»» defective self-
knowledge
»» self-punishment
behavioral activation
had greater activation to
pictures of rewarding food
in five specific areas of
the brain (Beaver et al.)
d. Psychological behaviorism
(Staats): personality
characteristics, traits,
temperaments, abilities,
interests, and attitudes
are due to a long-term,
complex, continuous
process of learning