Skinner, Behaviorism, And Operant Conditioning

Skinner created the theory of Operant Conditioning as he believed that all behaviour can be controlled by rewards or reinforcement. This is very different from Pavlovs theory of Classical Conditioning as Skinner is trying to control voluntary behaviour. This is done by giving the subject a positive or negative reaction to an action with the theory that a negative response will discourage the subject to repeat the action. A good example of this is house training a dog, as the dogs natural reaction is to relieve itself, however it must be taught to wait until it is outside. The more the dog waits until he is outside, the more praise he receives therefore it is less likely to wish to instigate a negative reaction by relieving himself inside the house.

A researcher named Burrhus Frederic Skinner thought he would develop the idea of operant conditioning. He suggested than we act in regard to consequences (reward or punishment) in which we actively learn. He suggested there are 3 types of these consequences of behavior; positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and punishment. Positive reinforcement is receiving a reward for acting in a certain way. An example of this could be getting a school prize for performing well in your exams, because of the reinforcement of the prize, the student will try to perform well every time. Negative reinforcement occurs when we act in a way that avoids an unpleasant consequence (e.g. not being late to a meeting because you do not want to be perceived as rude). Punishment is an unpleasant consequence that comes from the way we act. For example, gaining a detention for arriving late to lessons. Punishment decreases like probability that behaviour is likely to be repeated. Whereas, in positive and negative reinforcement the chances are you will repeat the behaviour. Skinner’s conducted research in the form of a lab experiment. He used a hungry rat that was placed in a cage that had been especially developed for the purpose of the study and was named Skinner’s box. In the cage was a button and a food dispenser. When the rat pressed the button food would appear in the dispenser. The animal soon learned that

Skinner’s theory observes individuals from the point of view of the behavior that they demonstrate. The key weakness of this theory is its attempt to explain the behaviors of an individual solely through visible phenomena. Critics sometimes accuse behaviorists of denying that ideas and thoughts exist (Jensen & Burgess, 1997). The major opposition that behaviorists face is that behavior of a person cannot be understood without including the mental activity of the individual. Critics have accused behaviorists of focusing only on behavior and ignoring the role of physiology, neuroscience, and genetics (Weiss & Rosales-Ruiz, 2014). Sometimes the reactions that people demonstrate have are not related their experience and therefore they have another

Three major events in the early twentieth century greatly influenced Skinner’s work: Darwin’s theory of evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, and Pavlov’s approach to conditioning. Darwin asserted that all life forms evolved from simple forms and that the selection of characteristics contribute to the survival of each individual. Skinner believed that Darwin’s ideas could be applied to behaviorism and coined the idea of “selection by consequences” to explain why people act how they act. Psychoanalysis began in the early 1900s and Freud focused on the idea that people are driven by their unconscious and that adult behaviors are formed in childhood. Skinner agreed with a few of Freud’s ideas; both psychologists believed that behavior has predictable effects and is not a result of free will. However, Skinner rejected Freud’s idea that the id, ego, and superego cause behavior. Pavlov’s

Just as Freud is known as the father of Psychoanalysis, B.F. Skinner is often referred to ask the “the father of operant conditioning.” B.F. Skinner is also known for major contributions to the field of psychology (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner was a prolific author, publishing nearly 200 articles and more than 20 books. Skinner was most known for his work in behavior psychology. Behavioral psychology is the psychological practice that focuses on learning new behaviors and how to modify our existing behavior and how that takes place (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). One of his major contributions was his theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning means roughly, the changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement, either positive or negative, and which these reinforcements are given after the desired response (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.

According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, for obvious reasons he is more commonly known as B.F. Skinner. Skinner was an American psychologist best-known for his influence on behaviourism. Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 and died on August 18, 1990. Skinner study Psychology at Harvard University, where he examined a more objective and measured way to study behaviour. He believed that the best way to understand behaviour is by observing the causes of an action and its consequences. Thus, he developed what he called an Operant Conditioning Apparatus to do this, which came to be known as the Skinner box. His first experimental study was rats, seeing how the rodents discovered and used a level in the box, which dispensed food at various intervals and some instances

During his time at Harvard he wanted a verifiable way to study psychology. In result, he developed a machine called “Operant Conditioning” in 1937, known as the Skinner Box. Skinner’s theory was that the external behavior should be observed only, he was more focused on how the consequences can impact a person’s behavior. He wanted to analyze how a consequences of a behavior can increase and decrease.

According to Boeree, C, George (2006), B. F. Skinner’s “entire system is based on ‘operant conditioning’”. Behaviourism is determined by the environment and is “concerning with the effect of external events such as reward or punishment for behaviour” (Duschesne,

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B.F Skinner was born on 1904 in Pennsylvania. He was an American ancient psychologist who known for his work on development of behavior and the theory of reinforcements, also known as operant conditioning. Along with being the most influential psychologist he was also a professor of psychology at Harvard University. During his course of study at Harvard, he conducted a study of behavior which led him to develop the prototype of the famous Skinner Box. His encounter with John B. Watson 's Behaviorism led him to study psychology in graduate program and to the development of his own version of behaviorism. He gave this world the most needed scientific approach to human behavior.

The principals of operant conditioning, teaches how having certain coping techniques can reward certain undesirable behaviors. Conditioning human behavior has been studied for many years, Psychologists Edward Thorndike and B.F. Skinner, have dedicated majority of their lives to the study. Thorndike’s theory Law of effect. Thorndike suggest that certain stimuli and response become connected or dissociated from each other. His experiment worked by placing a cat into a box, then observing its behavior as it tried to escape and obtain the food on the other side. He studied several cats and plotted the time it took for them to escape from the puzzle box. The challenge to get out of box remained the same but the amount of time to get out of the box decreased, and while the animal may have not realized what it was doing, but knew what he had to do too receive the food. He concluded that animals learn from reward and punishment or trial and error. The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is of change in behavior. Operant conditioning is learning by consequence. To put it simply, an action which his rewarded is likely to be repeated along with an action that is punished is less likely to be repeated. B.F. Skinner introduced a new term into the law of effect known as reinforcement. Behavior that is reinforced tends to be repeated while behavior which is no reinforced tends to disappear. conducted an experiment where he

Skinner’s methods for operant conditioning relied on reinforcement and punishment, with an emphasis on positive reinforcement. As pointed by Peters(2013) “ Of course, Skinner didn’t invent the ideas of punishment and reward, but he conceptualized them scientifically and conducted experiments to determine how to use them most effectively, based on various schedules of frequency (Behavioral Conditioning, para. 4).”

B.F. Skinner’s ideology would forever change how people would see the science of behaviorism and psychology. Skinner thought it was much more productive to study observable behavior rather than the mental cause and effects of experiments. In this way, he would

After receiving his doctorate in psychology in 1931, B.F. Skinner developed a research that focused on operant conditioning. Operant behaviors were defined by their impact on the environment rather than by their form (Frost & Bondy, 2006). There were three parts of operant conditioning that he coined: neutral operants, reinforcers, and punishers (McLeod, 2007). Skinner investigated operant behavior by using rats in pressing a bar when rewarded with food (Brennan, 2003). Skinner used behavior modification as a technique that was changed the environment’s events depending on the person’s behavior.

Skinner’s positive reinforcement starts by promoting good behavior in the classroom through the promise of a reward. Skinner created a rewards system that is said to help shape human behavior in a