Psychologist Mark Sherman described Skinner's contribution to behavioral psychology this way: The principles that Skinner demonstrated and defended so well work all the time, whether or not they are being used intentionally, say by parents or managers or — as is most often the case — unintentionally, in the everyday life of all living organisms.
B.F. Skinner emerged at a time when Freudian psychoanalysis was flourishing. Going against the grain, and building upon the theories of Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson, he put forth some of the most elegant and concise theories on animal and human behavior seen to that point.
But he was also a radical among psychologists who cast aside notions of dignity and free will. Here's why Skinner continues to be relevant — and even a bit dangerous.
Skinner argued that humans don't really think — that they merely respond to environmental cues. He came up with various therapeutic techniques, including "operant conditioning," which, while beneficial for the treatment of disorders like phobias and addictions, have proven extremely problematic for the "treatment" of autism and homosexuality.
Critics of B. F. Skinner were concerned that: he relied too heavily on animals to explain general learning principles.
Another criticism of the operant conditioning has been from the psychologists who argue that the theory cannot be generalized in humans by conducting studies on animals as their anatomy and physiology differs from humans.
Skinner argued that the goal of a science of psychology was to predict and control an organism's behavior from its current stimulus situation and its history of reinforcement.
He recognized that there was a common tendency to explain behavior by reference to a non-physical, inner agent called mind but he rejected this because it lacked the physical dimension (Skinner, 1953/1965).
Among the most common criticisms of behaviorism are that it is mechanistic and reductionistic. Critics feel this case is obvious prima facie while behav- iorists find it groundless. Perhaps we can find the key to these opposing views.
Skinner in his theory of operant conditioning. In positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by rewards, leading to the repetition of desired behavior. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus. Skinner showed how positive reinforcement worked by placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box.
While Skinner's theory's have been criticized for placing too much emphasis on operant behaviors shaped by external stimuli while ignoring important cognitive contributors to social learning, many developmentalists agree that human behaviors are varied and habits can emerge or disappear depending on whether they have ...
Evaluation. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning played a key role in helping psychologists to understand how behavior is learnt. It explains why reinforcements can be used so effectively in the learning process, and how schedules of reinforcement can affect the outcome of conditioning.
B.F. Skinner is a major contributor to the Behavioral Theory of personality, a theory that states that our learning is shaped by positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, modeling, and observation. An individual acts in a certain way, a.k.a. gives a response, and then something happens after the response.
William McDougall was one of the major critics of Watson system. As we know, by 1925 Watson had completely rejected theory of instinct that was the base of McDougall's psychology. Attacking Watson, total rejection of method of introspection eliminated a great deal of valuable and legitimate data in psychology.
And, in any case, in order to have meaning, it should lean on physiology, to which it can, ultimately, be reduced. Skinner, in contrast, considers that psychology, as the study of behavior, is a natural science, as his own work demonstrates, and therefore it is independent of and cannot be reduced to physiology.
Skinner argued that humans were no different — that they could be trained through the delivery of new subject matter in a series of graduated steps with feedback at each stage. Changes in behavior, said Skinner, were simply the result of a person's response to events occurring in their environment.
Genes, said Skinner, simply played a minor role relative to larger processes at work.
Take his work on child development and the emergence of verbal behavior. Skinner argued that imitation was a serious mechanism for the acquisition of language. Verbal behavior, he said, was learned by an infant from a verbal community.