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Psychology
Chapter Summary: B
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Skinner

B
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Skinner and His Work
The difference between Sigmund Freud and B
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Skinner, is that Freud invented
Psychoanalysis, whereas Skinner expanded the ideas of scholars like John Watson and
presented them as an articulated theory
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Behaviorism
Behaviorism has three main claims:
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-

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An emphasis on learning and strong rejection of innate traits or ideas
→ Everything you know and are, is a result of your experience
→ There is no human nature
→ We are infinitely malleable and any one of us has infinite possibilities
Anti-mentalism
→ Desires, wishes, goals, beliefs and emotions stick to things we can observe, like
stimulus
There are no interesting differences across species

There are also three main learning mechanisms:
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Habituation
Classical conditioning
Instrumental conditioning

The Learning Mechanisms of Behaviorism
Habituation
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A declining tendency to respond to stimuli that are familiar due to repeated exposure
An incredibly useful psychological mechanism, because it keeps the focus on novelty

Classical Conditioning
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The idea is that its an adaptive mechanism that gives sensitivity to cues that an event
is about to happen
The purpose of the sensitivity is that it allows preparation for that event
Classical conditioning is passive
Is the logic underlying some treatment of phobias
→ Such as Systematic Desensitization: exposing an individual to the trigger while
pairing the exposure with relaxation techniques (or with drugs in some cases)
As a result of this, over time, this stimulus comes to evoke the same response
as the relaxation drug or technique has

The logic of Classical Conditioning:
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Repeated pairings of a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus transforms the
neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus, giving rise to a conditioned response

Classical Conditioning was best illustrated by physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, who won his Nobel
Prize for his studies on the physiology of digestion
...

-

Pavlov would ring a bell and then get the dog the food
After repeating the pairings of bell-food, the dog started salivating at the sound of
the bell
The logic of the experiment:

It starts off with a neutral stimulus that evokes no response (the bell), an unconditioned
stimulus (the food) and the unconditioned response (the saliva)
...

-

Thorndike noticed that animals don’t seem to learn through sudden insight, but rather
through a series of random activities that they improve at
...
The tendence to perform an action is increased is rewarded,
and weakened if not
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Two types of reinforcement:
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Positive reinforcement
→ Giving the subject what it wants
Negative reinforcement
→ Releasing the subject from something aversive

The Scientific Assessment of B
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Skinner
Featuring Noam Chomsky

Behaviorists believe three main things:
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Firstly, there is no innate knowledge
Secondly, anti-mentalism
Thirdly, behaviorist learning mechanisms will work for any stimulus and any response

However, nobody believes this anymore, and that to some extent, the claims are mistaken
...
F
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Choam’s critiques shattered the
foundations of behaviorism
...
The reinforcement could be
abstract at times, making it rewarding
...

It's not true in a literal sense that these things are reinforcing, even though you
get some sort of food, or pat on the head, or gift, or something that gives you
pleasure as soon as you do it
...


So where does this leave the legacy of behaviourism?
- Behaviorism has given a richer understanding of important learning mechanisms
- Behaviorism has given powerful tools for training and teaching adults, children and
non-verbal creatures
If the problem of Freud is that his theories were too all encompassing and too vague and too
ungrounded in empirical effect to ultimately become a successful theory of the mind
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References
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Balleine, B
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(2005)
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Physiology & Behavior, 86, 717–730
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(1977)
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Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall

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Bandura, A
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, Ross, S (1963)
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Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 66(1), 3 - 11
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; Ross, D
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A
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"Transmission of aggression through the
imitation of aggressive models"
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Bernstein, I
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(1991)
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Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 185–191
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E
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Context and behavioural processes in extinction
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Colwill, R
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, & Rescorla, R
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(1986)
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In G
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Bower (Ed
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20,
pp
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New York, NY: Academic Press
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G
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, Zelikowsky, M
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, Chowdhury, N
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(2008)
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Behaviour
Research and Therapy, 46, 5–27

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