Bf_Skinner

Introduction This paper will discuss the theories of B. F. Skinner such as operant conditioning and behaviorism. B. F. Skinner started as a writer, but not finding much success he returned to school, after reading about the conditioning experiments of Watson and Pavlov, he decided to enroll as a graduate student majoring in psychology, acquiring his Ph.D. He was a teacher and an avid inventor. Although, he had not had much success with writing fiction and poetry, but later he became known as one of the best psychology writers. This paper will include theories, his contribution to psychology, and behavioral concepts in psychology. Theory of Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning is known as the changes in behavior resulting from an individual's response to events or stimuli that occur in the environment. First a response must be triggered to produce a consequence. For Skinner, this is called a stimulus-response or S-R pattern. When the S-R pattern is reinforced, an individual or animal can be conditioned to respond. For example, you have a child that is getting ready to potty train, but they are afraid, you tell them that you will buy them a treat if they actually go potty. They finish their business and you reward them. This is conditioning a response. The Skinner Box The Skinner box is one of Skinner's experiments with operant conditioning. This experiment was a box or chamber that Skinner made in order to study animal behavior, or operant behavior. Within the box, a rat was placed and was deprived of food. He was free to roam within the box. The rat would eventually hit and activate a lever or a bar that would release a food pellet onto a tray. After the rat would get a few pellets, the conditioning would happen rather fast. The rat's behavior was operated on the environment and it's able to receive food.   Behaviorism Theory Behaviorism is any physical action being considered a behavior. His behaviorism was devoted to the study of response. The behaviorist psychologists developed their theories form conducting experiments on animals. They thought that these animals could be taught to perform certain tasks by encouraging habit-forming. Positive reinforcement was used by rewarding desired behaviors. Negative reinforcement was used, such as punishment, for unwanted behaviors. He used the animals, but from it he would believe this is how humans would also behave. With this belief, Skinner proposed that children imitate adults, either parents or caregivers. With his natural approach to science, reinforced by his results from his conditioning experiments, it was believed human behavior could be guided, modified, or shaped from awareness of environmental conditions and with using positive reinforcement. Influences Upon reading about Skinner's life, I found that he was mostly influenced by behaviorism theories of Watson. Watson proposed that the basic reflexes could be developed into learned responses from stimuli in the environment, hence the birth of behaviorism. Skinner read about the conditioning experiments of Watson and Pavlov, which caused a spark in his scientific interest in human nature. But Watson had left psychology which lead Skinner to take over the reins of his research when he finished his schooling in Experimental Psychology. It has been said that Skinner represented a renewal of Watson's behaviorism. (Schultz, 2008, p. 289). Skinner's focus was on what was happening mentally, just the stimulus and response. In a passage from the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Skinner stated that Descartes had also influenced his approach to psychology. Differences from Earlier Psychologists and Theories From our previous readings in our text, we learned that Descartes works were focused on the mind and the body, like the mind-body interaction and the mind producing two kinds of ideas, such as derived and innate, and the localization of mental functions in the brain. With Wilhelm Wundt, and his method of structuralism, his belief was that psychology was the science of the human mind and consciousness using the method of objective introspection to identify the basic mental elements. Titchener's view of structuralism was that all mental experience can be understood as a combination of simple elements or events, focusing on the contents of the mind. While learning about functionalism, I found that William James opposed Wundt's elemental approach, he believed that the consciousness is a constant flow and that psychology should focus on the functions of learning and perceptual abilities, such as the acts and functions and the internal contents. " Functionalism... differs from behaviorism in two major respects. First, while behaviorists defined mental states in terms of stimuli and responses, they did not think mental states were themselves causes of the responses and effects of the stimuli...another difference is between functionalism and behaviorism is that functionalists emphasize not just the connections between pain and its stimuli and responses, but also its connections to the other mental states." (Block, 1980, pp. 175) After reading about the other's theories and found that the focuses and theories of previous psychologists were not the same as Skinner's, he was not concerned about the functions of the brain or any internal functions that occur. He didn't believe in creating a hypothesis and speculating about what might be happening internally, he was concerned about the stimulus and response in the environment, the external world. Another difference with Skinner was that he did not find it necessary to use a large number of subjects for his experiments and he did not make statistical comparisons between the average responses in a subject group. He likes to use a single subject. Operant behavior happens without any observable external stimulus, so the reaction appears to be spontaneous. Of course there is stimulus, but at the time of response, the stimulus is not detected. Pavlov's experiments were considered to be respondent behavior, where the behavior is not associated with the environment. The dog was not able to move, he was harnessed, from that the dog can only respond when the stimulus is presented, the dog cannot act on its own and secure the food. With Skinner's experiment, the rat has to explore around his environment, which according to Skinner, this creates a more typical learning environment, otherwise known as operant behavior. Operant conditioning attempts to predict non-reflexive, complex behaviors and the conditions in which they will occur, dealing with behaviors that are performed so the subject can obtain reinforcement. In classical conditioning, the controlling stimulus comes before the behavior while with operant conditioning; the controlling stimulus comes after the behavior. Similarities Upon researching about the different psychologists, I really did not find many similarities between their ideas and Skinners. But, one similarity I found was that John Locke believed, that the mind was a blank slate at birth, tabula rasa, this was something that Skinner also believed. Also, a form of similarity is that functionalism and behaviorism both emphasize the way that individuals adapt and adjust to the environment. Contributions to Psychology Behaviorism today demonstrates behavioral concepts that can be applied to practical problems. At the time of his writing the book, The Behavior of Organisms, the book did not receive good reviews and did not sell well. Fifty years later, the book is considered to be one of the handfuls of books that changed the face of modern psychology. From the 1950's to the 1980's, Skinner was seen as the behavioral psychology champion. American psychology was found to be more influenced by his work compared to that of any other psychologist. He brought forth behavior modification. In today's psychology, behavior modification is used widely in many places such as mental hospitals, prison, and schools, just to name a few. With the method of behavior modification with positive reinforcement we can control or modify undesirable behaviors to more acceptable behaviors. This can be beneficial in many other places such as the workplace. For example, you have a company with high absenteeism causing low morale and many employee accidents, stemming from an increased work load due to people missing work, you could offer incentives. With a behavior modification program in place you can reward employees. Such an incentive would be, if an employee went 30 days without missing work, they would receive a bonus of $50.00, and then if they went 90 days with perfect attendance, they would receive a $200.00 bonus. With the modification program in place absenteeism should be reduced also causing accidents to be reduced and morale to increase with the monthly and quarterly bonus incentive. Thus creating positive reinforcement with the behavior modification, you will be rewarded. Another example is from our textbook regarding behavior modification would be in mental hospitals, we can reward patients by giving them tokens that can be traded for goods like candy, cigarettes, or privileges including time out of the hospital or going to see a movie if the appropriate behavior is being practiced, and not reinforcing negative or disruptive behaviors. Psychology Reviews of Skinner's Work Although according to some reviews of the Psychological Record proclaim that Skinner was the most eminent psychologist of the 20th century, his work is widely praised and also criticized at the same time. It is speculated that his work has found continued interest due to the significant contributions he has made to psychology. Most of his criticism is due to the understanding of his original work, stating that Skinner incorporated Darwin's evolutionary principles such as selection. He is also compared to Watson, stating that Watson's behaviorism is methodological and that Skinner's is radical. Skinner's applied behavior analysis has helped improve social conditions such as helping to design drug treatments for abuse, counseling, developmental disabilities, animal training, and organization psychology just to mention a few. He was very eager in applying the science to his own behavior and had a desire to create a better world with the same principles be believed in within his own life. "Finally, the science of behavior cannot be used to adequately understand, predict, or control the behavior of any species without knowledge of its instinctive patter, evolutionary history, and ecological niche." (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001). One of his biggest criticisms is that he did not deal with consciousness, cognitive processes, feelings, or the state of mind. His work is partly considered limited relevance to the experimental analysis on human behavior, but at the same time provides a foundation that others will improve and build on from his principle ideas. Conclusion As we have studied many psychologists and learned about their many theories, it brings me to conclude that everyone had their own set of theories to the table. Many are still practiced today, while others may have vanished. B. F. Skinner on many accounts, considered one of the most influential theorists in modern psychology while also being the most famous of the American psychologists. Although his work is still under some scrutiny, it has been studied for many years. His experiments paved the way for many ideas for future psychologists making him a remarkable man and psychologist. References Block, N. (1980). Introduction: what is functionalism. Readings in Philosophy of Psychology, 1, 175bf Hayes, S. C, Barnes-Homes, D., & Roche, B. (2001). Relational frame theory: A post- Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers O'Donohue, W., & Ferguson, K. (2001). The Psychology of B. F. Skinner. The Psycholoy Record, 58, 319-326 Operant conditioning. (n.d.). Retrieved on June 22, 2010 from http://tip.psychology.org/skinner.html Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2008). History of psychology. Mason, Ohio:Cengage Learning