B.F. Skinner's Radical BehaviorismIntroductionThe utilization of rewards to modify classroom behavior is properly documented and established in literature
B.F. Skinner's Radical Behaviorism
Introduction
The utilization of rewards to modify classroom behavior is properly documented and established in literature. One of the principal advocates of the behavioristic school of thought is B. F. Skinner. His view on behaviorism has been applied with enormous success among the mentally, handicapped, hearing impaired children, and substance abusers.
B.F. Skinner's View on Behaviorism
Moreover, Skinner is the lone prominent figure in the history of behaviorism to present a socio-political world observation founded on his dedication to behaviorism. Skinner built a theory in addition to narrative picture in Walden Two (1948) of what an ideal human society would be like if planned consistent with behaviorist principles. Skinner's social belief reveals both his loathing of free will, to dualism, to homunculi, including his reasons for asserting that a person's history of environmental interactions manages his or her behavior.
One noteworthy characteristic of human behavior, which Skinner deliberately discards, is that individuals resourcefully and artistically create their own environments. The world is as it is, partly, since we create it that way. Skinner argues that it is in the nature of an investigational examination of human behavior that it must strip away the functions formerly assigned to autonomous man and convey them individually to the controlling environment.
Radical Behaviorism as Developed by B.F. Skinner
Radical behaviorism, which was developed by B. F. Skinner, is considered to be a philosophy that brings about the experimental analysis of behavior move toward to psychology. The phrase 'radical behaviorism' refers to a specific subset of behaviorism.
Furthermore, Skinner was a prominent instrument in defining radical behaviorism, which is also considered a viewpoint codifying the foundation of his school of research (dubbed the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, otherwise known as EAB.) While EAB varies from other approaches to behavioral research on various theoretical and methodological points, radical behaviorism differs from methodological behaviorism most especially in accepting introspection and treatment of feelings as existing and scientifically treatable. This is performed by means of distinguishing them as something non-dualistic, and here Skinner espouses a divide-and-conquer method, with a number of instances being acknowledged with bodily conditions or behavior, and others obtaining a more comprehensive 'analysis' in terms of behavior. Nevertheless, radical behaviorism stops short of acknowledging feelings as reasons of behavior. Among other instances of difference were a refusal of the reflex as a model of every behavior and a justification of a science of behavior corresponding to but independent of physiology.
This fundamentally philosophical point obtained strength from the triumph of Skinner's initial experimental work with pigeons and rats, summed up in his books Schedules of Reinforcement (1957, with C. B. Ferster) and The Behavior of Organisms (1938) and others. Of specific importance was his idea of the operant response, of which the canonical illustration was the rat's lever-press. In addition to what was discussed earlier in operant conditioning, contrary to the idea of a reflex or physiological response, an operant is considered to be a class of structurally distinct yet functionally equivalent responses. For instance, despite the fact that a rat may possibly press a lever with its right paw or its left paw or its tail, all of these reactions and responses function on the world in a similar manner and have a common result. Operants are frequently considered as species of responses, where the individuals vary yet the class goes together in its function--shared outcomes with operants and reproductive accomplishment with species.
Skinner's experimental work expounded on previous research regarding trial-and-error learning by researchers like Guthrie and Thorndike and with both conceptual reformulations - Thorndike's idea of a stimulus-response 'connection' or 'association' or was abandoned - and methodological ones - the utilization of the 'free operant', alleged since the animal was now allowed to react at its own rate instead of in a series of trials identified by the experimenter procedures. With this way, Skinner performed considerable experimental work regarding the effects of various rates and schedules of reinforcement on the rates of operant responses carried out by pigeons and rats. Skinner obtained notable success in terms of training animals to carry out unforeseen responses, and to give out huge numbers of responses, and to display several experimental regularities at wholly behavioral level. This provided certain credibility to his conceptual examination. It is mainly his conceptual examination that made his work much more thorough compared to his peers, a line of reasoning which can be noticed unmistakably in his seminal work Are Theories of Learning Necessary? in which Skinner criticizes what he considered to be theoretical weaknesses at that time common in the study of psychology.
Radical Behaviorism has at all times been controversial due to numerous reasons. The supporters of radical behaviorism contend that the theory is generally misrepresented and misunderstood. Antagonists of radical behaviorism frequently feel just as strongly.
Nevertheless, B.F. Skinner has observed that classical conditioning didn't give an explanation for the behavior the majority of us are interested in (just like writing a book or riding a bike). Skinner's observations, using the concepts of Thorndike (1898), led him to recommend a theory regarding how these and similar behaviors (dubbed as operants) take place.
B.F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning
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Radical Behaviorism has at all times been controversial due to numerous reasons. The supporters of radical behaviorism contend that the theory is generally misrepresented and misunderstood. Antagonists of radical behaviorism frequently feel just as strongly.
Nevertheless, B.F. Skinner has observed that classical conditioning didn't give an explanation for the behavior the majority of us are interested in (just like writing a book or riding a bike). Skinner's observations, using the concepts of Thorndike (1898), led him to recommend a theory regarding how these and similar behaviors (dubbed as operants) take place.
B.F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning
Skinner changed the beliefs of behaviorism to match his own discoveries that included what he dubbed as "operant conditioning." "Conditioning" is considered to be the scientific word for learning. "Operant" relates to Skinner's perception that every organism "operates" on his environment - specifically, executes actions that modify the environment around it either for better or for worse. Operant psychology is founded on the concept that an action taken by a person or an animal frequently has consequences that happen as expected in the environment. This is referred to as "operant conditioning". Moreover, reinforcement is something that makes it more probable that a certain behavior will be recurring. The outcomes of a certain action either reinforce the said behavior or do not reinforce it.
For instance, if a child makes faces at the teacher in class, the laughter of the other students might cause to reinforce his behavior. If the teacher reprimands the child by means of making him/her write, "I will not make faces" one hundred times on the board, that particular child might keep away from such antics in the future. Therefore, the child instigates the behavior, and features or factors in the child's environment either reward or reprimands his/her behavior.
Radical Behaviorism and Operant Conditioning in Learning
In learning, B.F. Skinner did not was not concerned or worried much concerning which outcome was the stronger one. He supposed that if a certain behavior was reinforced, it was appropriate to be repeated. Skinner also supposed that positive reinforcement was more successful compared to punishment. Furthermore, he thought that the reinforcement should happen quickly.
Experimenters employing Skinner's system have taught animals to carry out a variety of unnatural actions. Probably, all of us have witnessed dogs climbing ladders, acting like firemen or maybe chickens playing toy pianos. All of these peculiar behaviors are taught by way of a process dubbed as "shaping."
For instance, a chicken is initially rewarded if it turns to some extent towards the direction of the piano. As it starts to twist toward the piano more often, it starts to be rewarded simply when it gazes directly at the piano or maybe moves toward it. Finally, the chicken is rewarded just when it touches the piano, and so on.
This shaping of behavior, otherwise known as "successive approximation" has demonstrated to be an extremely successful and effective teaching technique. Successive approximation has been modified to educate people to conquer phobias or other disturbing behaviors.
Meanwhile, Skinner's techniques and concepts were not drastic enough in themselves to instigate the storm of controversy that ultimately started to swirl around him. One aspect causing to this storm was the so-called "baby tender".
The baby tender was described to be an apparatus Skinner created to keep his second daughter named Deborah in a safe, secure, and thermostatically controlled environment while Skinner worked. It was considered to be the high-tech counterpart of a playpen, yet it was misinterpreted and taken to mean as a diabolical device that Skinner was utilizing to experiment upon his unfortunate child. Skinner was charged of keeping his daughter Deborah, who became regarded as "the baby in the box" inside the baby tender for a period of three years, depriving her of human companionship and most especially fresh air. Even though this was far from the truth, magazine articles illustrated Skinner as a heartless, unsympathetic, inhumane parent.
Punishment and negative reinforcement are frequently confused. It is significant to note that a reinforcer is anything that intensifies the possibility that a behavior will take place once more. Moreover, a punisher will at all times decrease behavior.
Meanwhile, B.F. Skinner detested the utilization of punishers and he contended their adverse side effects were frequently worse than the actual behavior that was to be decreased.
Another term for operant conditioning is instrumental conditioning that is most closely linked with scientists who examined learning that happened over discrete trials like runs through a maze. Skinner led the way to the the free operant technique, where organisms could react at any specific time during a prolonged experimental session. Consequently, Skinner's dependent variable was typically the rate or frequency of responding or reacting, not the mistakes that were done or the rate of traversal of a maze.
Operant conditioning coveys something concerning the future of the organism: That in the future, the reinforced behavior will be possible to happen more frequently.
When Skinner promoted the utilization of operant conditioning methods to engineer and control human behavior, the proposal evoked dictatorship and abuse of power. Skinner reacted that every behavior is already manipulated by factors present in the environment, and that society has to handle some of those factors.
Skinner's Concept on Human Language
As Skinner shifted from experimental work to focus on the philosophical foundations of a science of behavior, his attention unsurprisingly shifted to human language. Skinner's book Verbal Behavior (1957) presented a vocabulary and theory for functional examination of verbal behavior.
Even though ridiculed as "scientistic" and "unprovable" by Noam Chomsky, Skinner's handling of verbal behavior has been employed with great success in quite a lot of areas, as well as the treatment of autism.
What was vital for a behaviorist examination of human behavior was not language attainment so much as the dealings between overt behavior and language. In an article republished in his 1969 book entitled Contingencies of Reinforcement, Skinner assumed the belief that humans could build linguistic stimuli that would then gain control over their behavior in a similar manner that external stimuli could. The likelihood of such "instructional control" over behavior implied that possibilities of reinforcement would not constantly create the same effects on human behavior as they consistently do in other animals. Thus, the motivation of a radical behaviorist examination of human behavior changed to an effort to recognize the interaction between contingency control and instructional control, and also to recognize the behavioral processes that establish what instructions are built and what control they gain over behavior.
Application of Skinner's Concepts
As stated earlier, therapists have accepted Skinner's concepts and utilized them to help people conquer phobias and other maladaptive and disturbing behavior. These therapists are helping individuals manage and control their actions without employing the emotionally charged language that caused Skinner to be into so much hot water.
Psychologists have refuted the idea that a cat can constantly be taught to carry out similar tasks as a pigeon. In its place, a number of species appears to be pre-wired to carry out certain kinds of tasks, whereas other species might be incapable to learn them, in spite of their physical ability to do such tasks.
Instant rewards are no longer regarded as the best reinforcers under all circumstances, even though they play a significant part in several kinds of learning. Nowadays, scientists recognize that learning includes more complicated and complex combinations of factors. At times, a deferred reward is more effective and successful compared to an instant one. Furthermore, a combination of reward and punishment can hasten learning as well.
Planned teaching materials offering instant comments to students' responses are employed in today's classrooms to effectively teach certain types of material. Skinner's techniques have also been espoused to teach autistic and mentally retarded children, are utilized in industry to lessen job accidents, and are employed in several applications in health-related disciplines.
Skinner contended that behavioral rationalizations of psychological occurrences are just as true as physiological justifications. In claiming this, Skinner took a non-reductionistic tactic to psychology. Nevertheless, Skinner redefined behavior to contain all that an organism performs, consisting of feeling, thinking, and speaking and maintained that these phenomena were legitimate subject matters of psychology. Thus, the phrase radical behaviorism denotes just this: that all an organism performs is a behavior.
Nevertheless, Skinner discounted feeling and thinking as legitimate explanations of behavior. The interpretation is this:
Feeling and thinking are not considered epiphenomena nor do they hold any other special status, and are merely more behavior to explain. Explaining behavior by means of implying feelings or thought are pseudo-explanations for the reason that they simply identify more behavior to be explained. Hence, Skinner recommended environmental factors as appropriate causes of behavior for the reason that:
* Environmental factors belongs to a different logical level compared to behavior
* An individual can maneuver or manipulate behavior by means of manipulating the environment as well
This supports merely for rationalizing the class of behaviors, which are considered as operant behaviors. This class of behavior Skinner held as the most interesting study matter.
Meanwhile, several textbooks, in noting the importance Skinner puts on the environment, contend that Skinner believed that the organism is a blank slate or also called a tabula rasa. Skinner wrote comprehensively regarding the possibilities and limits nature puts on conditioning. Conditioning is applied in the body as a physiological process and is dependent on the learning history, current state, and history of the species.
Opposition to Skinner's Views
Detractors have brought up numerous protests to the Skinnerian social picture. One of the most influential and convincing, and definitely one of the most common, adverts to Skinner's idea of the ideal human society. It is a query being asked of the fictional creator of Walden Two, Frazier, by the theorist or philosopher Castle. It is the query of what is the best social means of survival for a human being. Frazier's, and also Skinner's, reaction to this query is both too incomplete and general. Frazier/Skinner talks about the values of friendship, relaxation, health, rest, and others. Nevertheless, these values are barely the thorough basis of a social system.
There is an infamous complexity in social theory of identifying the proper level of detail at which a design for a new and ideal society should be presented. Skinner distinguishes the behavioristic principles and learning motivations that he hopes will lessen the so-called systematic injustices in social systems. Moreover, Skinner likewise identifies a few practices (about child rearing and the like) that are aimed to play a part to human happiness. Nonetheless Skinner provides only the haziest images of the every day lives of Walden Two citizens and no proposals for how best to resolve arguments concerning alternative ways of life that are prima facie in agreement with behaviorist principles. In addition, Skinner offers little or no serious consideration to the vital general problem of inter-personal disagreement resolution and to the part of institutional arrangements in resolving disputes.
In an article, which was published in The Behavior Analyst, almost forty years following the publication of Walden Two, Skinner, in the disguise of Frazier, attempted to elucidate his description of ideal human conditions. Skinner believed that in the ideal human society individuals simply as expected carry out the things they have to do to uphold themselves ... and treat each other in a good way, and they just unsurprisingly perform a hundred other things they enjoy doing for the reason that they do not have to do them. Nevertheless, certainly, doing a hundred things humans take pleasure in doing merely denotes that Walden Two is indistinctly described, not that its culturally established habits and the nature of its institutions deserve emulation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that Skinner dismissed the belief that individual freedom existed. Skinner believed that man's actions were nothing more than a set of behaviors that were formed by his environment, over which he had no power or control. Thus, Skinner's beliefs eliminated well-liked or admired attributes from man -- conscious thought, dignity, and free will -- and changed them with behaviors that were formed by an environment over which individual man had little or no control or power. #
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