Lecture 6. Sociogenetic theories of development

The origins of the sociogenetic approach come from the tabula rasa theory that arose in the Middle Ages, formulated John Locke(1632-1704), according to which the human psyche at the time of birth is a “blank slate”, but under the influence of external conditions, as well as education, all the mental qualities characteristic of a person gradually arise in him. Locke put forward a number of ideas about the organization of children's education on the principles of association, repetition, approval and punishment.

The French philosopher of the 18th century was also a representative of this trend. Claude Adrian Helvetius(1715-1771), who believed that all people are born the same in their natural data and the inequality between them in the field of mental abilities and moral qualities is due only to unequal external environmental conditions and various educational influences.

Sociologizing ideas were in tune with the ideology that prevailed in the USSR until the mid-1980s. According to this theory, with the help of purposeful education and upbringing, any qualities and behavioral properties can be formed in a child. In order to study a child, one must study the structure of his environment.

The sociogenetic approach is associated with the behavioral direction in psychology, according to which a person is what his environment makes of him. The main idea of ​​behaviorism is the identification of development with learning, with the acquisition of new experience by the child. American researchers took the idea of ​​I.P. Pavlov that adaptive activity is characteristic of all living things. The phenomenon of a conditioned reflex was perceived as a kind of elementary behavioral phenomenon. The idea of ​​combining stimulus and response, conditioned and unconditioned stimuli came to the fore: the time parameter of this connection was singled out. The main theories of behaviorism include:

1. The theory of classical and instrumental conditioning by I.P. Pavlova

2. The associationist concept of learning by D. Watson and E. Gasri.

3. The theory of operant conditioning by E. Thorndike.

4. B. Skinner's theory. With the help of reinforcement, you can create any type of behavior.

The very idea of ​​conducting a rigorous scientific experiment, created by IP Pavlov to study the digestive system, entered American psychology. The first description by I.P. Pavlov of such an experiment was in 1897, and the first publication by J. Watson was in 1913. Already in the first experiments of I.P. Pavlov with the salivary gland brought out, the idea of ​​a relationship between dependent and independent variables was realized, which runs through all American studies of behavior and its genesis, not only in animals, but also in humans. Such an experiment has all the advantages of real scientific research, which is still so highly valued in American psychology: objectivity, accuracy (control of all conditions), availability for measurement. It is known that IP Pavlov persistently rejected any attempts to explain the results of experiments with conditioned reflexes by referring to the subjective state of the animal.

American scientists perceived the phenomenon of a conditioned reflex as a kind of elementary phenomenon, accessible to analysis, something like a building block, from the multitude of which a complex system of our behavior can be built. The genius of IP Pavlov, according to his American colleagues, was that he was able to show how simple elements can be isolated, analyzed and controlled in the laboratory. The development of I.P. Pavlov’s ideas in American psychology took several decades, and each time one of the aspects of this simple, but at the same time not yet exhausted phenomenon in American psychology, the phenomenon of a conditioned reflex, appeared before the researchers.

In the earliest studies of learning, the idea of ​​a combination of stimulus and response, conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, came to the fore: the time parameter of this connection was singled out. This is how the associationist concept of learning arose (J. Watson, E. Gasri). J. Watson began "his" scientific revolution, putting forward the slogan: "Stop studying what a person thinks; let's study what a person does!"

1. Behaviorism

Watson John Brodes

(1878 - 1958). American psychologist, founder of behaviorism (from the English behavior - behavior), one of the most common theories in Western psychology of the 20th century.

In 1913 his article “Psychology from the point of view of a behaviorist” was published, which is evaluated as a manifesto of a new direction. This was followed by his books Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology (1914), Behaviorism (1925), in which, for the first time in the history of psychology, the postulate that the subject of this science is consciousness (its content, processes, functions, etc.).

Influenced by the philosophy of positivism, Watson argued that only that which can be directly observed is real. He argued that behavior should be explained from the relationship between the directly observed effects of physical stimuli on the organism and its also directly observed responses (reactions). Hence the main formula of Watson, perceived by behaviorism: "stimulus-response" (S-R). It followed from this that the processes between stimulus and response - whether physiological (nervous) or mental - psychology must eliminate from its hypotheses and explanations.

Methodologists of behaviorism proceeded from the position of the lifetime of the formation of the main mental processes. Lipsitt and Keye (Lipsitt, Kaye, 1964) conducted experiments on the development of conditioned reflexes in 20 three-day-old babies. Ten babies were assigned to the experimental group, and for them the combination of unconditioned (nipple) and conditioned stimuli (pure tone) was repeated 20 times. The researchers wanted to get the sucking response to the sound tone that the nipple naturally elicits. After twenty combinations of stimuli, infants in the experimental group began to suck in response to the sound, while children in the control group, who were not exposed to combinations of stimuli, did not show such a reaction. This study shows that learning occurs from the earliest days of life. It also suggests that a behavioral approach can help us understand development, and that, through conditioning, researchers can study infants' ability to process sensory information long before they acquire language.

D. Watson proved the ideas of classical conditioning in his experiments on the formation of emotions. He experimentally demonstrated that it is possible to form a fear response to a neutral stimulus. In his experiments, the child was shown a rabbit, which he took in his hands and wanted to stroke, but at that moment he received an electric shock. Naturally, the child frightenedly threw the rabbit and began to cry. However, the next time he again approached the animal and received an electric shock. For the third or fourth time, the appearance of a rabbit, even in the distance, caused fear in most children. After this negative emotion was fixed, Watson tried once again to change the emotional attitude of the children, forming an interest and love for the rabbit. In this case, the child began to show it during a delicious meal. The presence of this important primary stimulus was an indispensable condition for the formation of a new reaction. At the first moment, the child stopped eating and started crying, but since the rabbit did not approach him, remaining far away, at the end of the room, and delicious food (for example, chocolate or ice cream) was nearby, the child quickly calmed down and continued to eat. After the child stopped crying at the appearance of a rabbit at the end of the room, the experimenter gradually moved the rabbit closer and closer to the child, while adding tasty things to his plate. Gradually, the child stopped paying attention to the rabbit and in the end reacted calmly, even when he was located near his plate, took the rabbit in his arms and tried to feed him something tasty. Thus, Watson argued, our emotions are the result of our habits and can change dramatically depending on the circumstances.

Watson's observations showed that in the event that the formed fear reaction to a rabbit was not converted to a positive one, a similar feeling of fear later arose in children at the sight of other fur-covered objects. Proceeding from this, he sought to prove that in people, on the basis of conditioned reflexes, persistent affective complexes can be formed according to a given program. Moreover, he believed that the facts discovered by him prove the possibility of the formation of a certain, strictly defined model of behavior in all people. He wrote: “Give me one hundred children of the same age, and after a certain time I will form absolutely identical people out of them, with the same tastes and behavior.”

The principle of behavior control gained wide popularity in American psychology after the work of Watson. It is also his merit that he expanded the sphere of the mental, including the bodily actions of animals and humans. But he achieved this innovation at a high price, rejecting as a subject of science the vast wealth of the psyche, which is irreducible to externally observable behavior.

Edwin Ray Gasri

(1886 - 1959). He was professor of psychology at the University of Washington from 1914 until his retirement in 1956. His main work was The Psychology of Learning, published in 1935 and reprinted in a new edition in 1952.

He proposed a single law of learning, the law of contiguity, which he formulated as follows: “A combination of stimuli that accompanies a movement tends, when repeated, to produce the same movement. Note that nothing is said here about "affirmation waves" or reinforcement or a state of satisfaction. In another way, the law of contiguity can be defined as follows: if you did something in this situation, then the next time you find yourself in the same situation, you will tend to repeat your actions.

E. Gasri explained why, despite the possible truth of the law of contiguity, the prediction of behavior will always be probabilistic. Although this principle, as just said, is short and simple, it will not be understood without some explanation. The phrase “tends” is used here because behavior at any given time depends on a wide variety of conditions. Conflicting "trends" or incompatible "trends" are always present. The outcome of any stimulus or stimulus pattern cannot be predicted with absolute accuracy because other stimulus patterns exist. We can express this by saying that the presented behavior is caused by the entire situation. But in stating this, we cannot flatter ourselves that we have done more than find an explanation for the impossibility of predicting behavior. No one has yet described and no one will ever describe the entire stimulus situation or observe any complete situation in order to speak of it as a "cause" or even as a pretext for misconceptions about a small part of the behavior.

In a recent publication, E. Gasri revised his adjacency law to clarify: “What is noticed becomes a signal for what is done.” For Ghazri, this was an acknowledgment of the vast array of stimuli that the organism encounters at any given time, and the fact that it is apparently impossible to form associations with all of them. Rather, the organism responds selectively to only a small fraction of the stimuli encountered, and this is the fraction that is associated with any response elicited by those stimuli. One can draw attention to the similarity between Gasri's way of thinking and Thorndike's concept of "predominance of elements", who also believed that organisms respond selectively to various manifestations of the environment.

Edward Lee Thorndike

(1874–1949). American psychologist and educator. President of the American Psychological Association in 1912.

Conducted research on animal behavior. They were sent to get out of the "problem box". By this term, E. Thorndike meant an experimental device in which experimental animals were placed. If they came out of the box, they received a reinforcement of the reflex. The results of the research were displayed on certain graphs, which he called "learning curves." Thus, the purpose of his research was to study the motor reactions of animals. Thanks to these experiments, E. Thorndike concluded that animals act by the method of "trial and error and random success." These works led him to the theory of connectivism.

E. Thorndike concludes that the behavior of any living being is determined by three components:

1) a situation that includes both external and internal processes that affect the individual,

2) reaction or internal processes occurring as a result of this impact;

3) a subtle connection between the situation and the reaction, i.e. association. In his experiments, Thorndike showed that the intellect as such and its activity can be studied without recourse to reason. He transferred the emphasis from establishing internal connections to establishing connections between the external situation and movements, which introduced new trends in associative psychology. Thorndike combined mechanical determinism in his theory with the biological, and then with the biopsychic, significantly expanding the field of psychology, previously limited by the limits of consciousness.

Based on his research, Thorndike deduced several laws of learning:

1. Law of exercise. There is a proportional relationship between the situation and the reaction to it with the frequency of their repetition).

2. Law of readiness. The state of the subject (the feelings of hunger and thirst he experiences) is not indifferent to the development of new reactions. Changing the body's readiness to conduct nerve impulses is associated with exercise.

3. Law of associative shift. When reacting to one specific stimulus from several acting simultaneously, other stimuli involved in this situation subsequently cause the same reaction. In other words, a neutral stimulus, associated by association with a significant one, also begins to cause the desired behavior. Thorndike also singled out additional conditions for the success of a child's learning - the ease of distinguishing between a stimulus and a reaction and awareness of the connection between them.

4. Law of effect. The last, fourth, law caused a lot of controversy, since it included a motivation factor (a factor of a purely psychological orientation). The law of effect said that any action that causes pleasure in a certain situation is associated with it and further increases the likelihood of repeating this action in a similar situation, while displeasure (or discomfort) during an action associated with a certain situation leads to a decrease in the likelihood of committing this act in a similar situation. This implies that learning is also based on certain polar states within the organism. If the actions taken in a certain situation lead to successful results, then they can be called satisfying, otherwise they will be violating. Thorndike gives the concept of a successful result at the level of neurons. With a successful action, the system of neurons, put on alert, is actually functioning, and not idle.

E. Thorndike, B. Skinner. They identified development with learning.

Burres Frederick Skinner

(1904 - 1990). American psychologist, inventor and writer. He made a huge contribution to the development and promotion of behaviorism.

Skinner is best known for his theory of operant learning, and to a lesser extent for his fiction and non-fiction writings, in which he promoted the ideas of the widespread use of behavior modification techniques developed in behaviorism (for example, programmed learning) to improve society and make people happy, as a form of social engineering. Continuing the experiments of D. Watson and E. Thorndike, B. Skinner designed the so-called "Skinner box", which made it possible to accurately measure behavior and automatically apply reinforcement. The Skinner box, resembling a cage for a rat or a pigeon, has a metal pedal, by pressing which, the animal receives a portion of food into the feeder. With this very simple device, Skinner was able to systematically observe the behavior of animals under various conditions of reinforcement. It turned out that the behavior of rats, pigeons, and sometimes people are quite predictable, because they follow certain laws of behavior, at least in this situation. In Skinner's experiments (as in Thorndike's) food was usually the reinforcer.

A typical Skinner model typically includes the following components: distinguishable stimulus, response of the individual and reinforcement. A discernible stimulus usually signals to the individual that learning has begun. Skinner's experiments used light and sound signals, as well as words, as distinguishable stimuli. The response is the emergence of operant behavior. Skinner called his type of conditioning operant conditioning because the individual's response operates the reward mechanism. Finally, a reinforcing stimulus is given for an adequate response. Therefore, reinforcement increases the likelihood of subsequent operant behavior. Operant behavior can also be taught by avoidance conditioning, where the reinforcer is to stop exposure to the unpleasant stimulus. For example, a bright light can be turned off, a loud sound can be muted, an angry parent can be calmed down. Thus, in operant conditioning, the individual learns to respond when the reinforcement consists in stopping the exposure to the unpleasant stimulus.

Skinner developed a method of shaping behavior by successive approximations, which is the basis of operant conditioning. This method consists in the fact that the entire path from the initial behavior (even before the start of training) to the final reaction that the researcher seeks to develop in the animal is divided into several stages. In the future, it remains only to consistently and systematically reinforce each of these stages and thus lead the animal to the desired form of behavior. With this method of learning, the animal is rewarded for each action that brings it closer to the final goal, and the specified behavior is gradually developed in it.

According to Skinner and other behaviorists, this is how most human behaviors are generated. From Skinner's point of view, one can explain the very rapid learning of the child's first words (without, however, extending this concept to language acquisition in general). At first, when the child is just beginning to utter some articulate sounds, the babbling "me - me - me" already arouses the delight of others, and especially the happy mother, who already thinks that the child is calling her. However, soon the parents' enthusiasm for such sounds cools down until the baby, to everyone's joy, pronounces "mo ... mo." Then these sounds for the newborn cease to be reinforced until a relatively articulate "mo - mo" appears. In turn, this word, for the same reasons, will soon be replaced by the combination "moma", and, finally, the child will clearly pronounce his first word - "mama". All other sounds will be perceived by others only as "babble" in the literal sense of the word, and they will gradually disappear from the "lexicon" of the newborn. Thus, as a result of selective encouragement on the part of family members, the infant discards those incorrect reactions for which he does not receive social reinforcement, and retains only those that are closest to the expected result.

Operant reactions in Skinner's sense should be distinguished from automatic, purely reflex reactions associated with unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. An operant reaction is an arbitrary and purposeful action. However, Skinner defines purposefulness in terms of feedback (that is, the impact on behavior of its consequences), and not in terms of goals, intentions, or other internal states - mental or physiological. In his opinion, the use in psychology of these "intrinsic variables" involves the introduction of questionable assumptions that add nothing to the empirical laws that relate observed behavior to observed environmental influences. It is these laws that are the real means of predicting and controlling the behavior of humans and animals. Skinner emphasized that "the objection to internal states is not that they do not exist, but that they are irrelevant to functional analysis." In this analysis, the probability of an operator reaction appears as a function of external influences, both past and present.

In the field of education, Skinner put forward the concept of programmed learning. According to him, such training can free the student and the teacher from the boring process of simply transferring knowledge: the student will gradually move forward in mastering a particular topic at his own pace and in small steps, each of which is reinforced; these steps form the process of successive approximation (Skinner, 1969). However, it was soon discovered that such learning quickly reaches its "ceiling", and this is due precisely to the fact that only minimal effort is required from the student, and therefore reinforcement soon becomes ineffective. As a result, the student quickly gets bored with such training. In addition, in order to constantly maintain the motivation of the student and the orderly transfer of knowledge, personal contact with the teacher is apparently necessary. All of this can probably be explained in terms of the principles underlying social learning, and learning by observation in particular.

We are accustomed to the fact that a psychologist is a person who will listen, help and tell you, at whose reception you can lie on the couch and cry to your heart's content. Although psychologists were not always so. Once they tortured people and maliciously manipulated them. Such psychologists were called behaviorists, and their history began more than a hundred years ago.

John Watson and "pieces of meat"

The full namesake of Dr. Watson was born in California in 1878. John's religious mother dreamed that her son would become a preacher, and therefore smoking, drinking and dancing were forbidden in the family. The only entertainment was the Baptist confession meetings, which lasted three days. Watson's father did not share his wife's Christian lifestyle and shortly after John's birth, he ran away from the family to two Cherokee Indian women.

When Watson turned thirteen, he followed the example of his invisible father and went into all serious trouble: he began to be cheeky with teachers, drink, smoke and do things that his mother never did even with the lights out. Soon Watson could already boast of two arrests - for a fight and shooting in the city.

The shame of the family decides to move to Baptist College. There, the atheist Watson becomes an outcast. But he meets pastor Gordon Moore, a heretic and fashion psychology teacher. Soon the odious professor was expelled, and Watson went after him - to the University of Chicago.

There Watson becomes disillusioned with psychology, which then resembled science even less than it does now. The main method of the psychologist's work was the self-reports of the subjects, and Watson did not trust people. Instead of people, he studied rats: of course, it is pointless to demand self-reports from them, but it is possible to observe and record their behavior from the outside.

Gradually, Watson decided to transfer this principle to man. In 1913, he published the article "Psychology from the point of view of a behaviorist", where he states: consciousness is subjective, behavior needs to be studied, and "the difference between a man and a beast" is insignificant. Humans are a species of animals, and the job of psychologists is to predict and control their reactions.

The article makes a splash. Watson turns speculative psychology into a serious science. In addition, by the beginning of the 20th century, German-speaking countries were at the forefront of the study of the psyche. Watson proposed an American path for the development of psychology and in 1915 became president of the American Psychological Association.

Having become acquainted with Pavlov's writings, John decided to teach people reactions in the same manner that the Russian applied to dogs. In 1920, Watson conducted an experiment that psychologists later called the most cruel in the history of their science. In one of the hospitals, John found 9-month-old Albert. His mother "heard something" about Watson and, without hesitation, agreed to the scientist's experiments in a well-tailored suit that inspires confidence.

The essence of the experiment (Watson did not tell Albert's mother about it) was as follows. John showed the boy a rabbit. The child pulled his hands to the animal. At that moment, the assistant hit the metal shield, which made a frighteningly loud sound, and the child began to cry. The experiment was repeated many times - a silent, but very dramatic video about the relationship between a boy and animals has been preserved. Soon Albert hiccupped with fear at the sight of a rat, a rabbit, a fur coat and Santa's beard.

Continuing to experiment on his own and other people's children, Watson wrote the book Psychological Help for the Infant and Child. "Help" became a bestseller: 100,000 copies sold out in a couple of months. Publications began to interview John, he was invited to conferences.

As a result, in the first half of the 20th century, every second American was brought up “according to Watson”. Fortunately, it did not always work out: the requirements of a behavioral psychologist were serious. Thus, Watson argued that in order for “pieces of meat” (yes, this is a quote) to grow independent, they should never be touched. Excessive parental love is pedophilia.

The most important thing is to teach the child to go to the potty correctly: "Satan's lair" (as Watson's mother called the intestines that were not emptied in time) Watson devotes a whole chapter. Children should be protected from "homosexuality": boys should not be sent to the Boy Scouts, and girls should almost be banned from holding hands by law.

The results of Watson's upbringing are visible in the fate of his own children. My daughter spent her life trying to commit suicide. The son became a Freudian and challenged his father's ideas. He did not dispute for long: unlike his sister, he managed to commit suicide the second time.

John's other children were more fortunate: after undergoing psychotherapy, they began to live a normal life. True, problems with the intestines did not stop chasing them.

And Watson's granddaughter, Emmy winner Mariet Hartley, wrote a book about her grandfather and her own manic-depressive illness.

Nevertheless, the authority of Watson and his contribution to psychology is undeniable to this day. A year before his death, he received the highest award of the American Psychological Association, and recently entered the twenty most influential psychologists of all time.

Mr Skinner and the kamikaze pigeons

Burres Frederick Skinner, born in Pennsylvania in 1904, has been inventing since childhood. Because of this, he almost got kicked out of college: he constantly played tricks on teachers. Once he even led a complex trigger mechanism to a bucket of water above the door. But an apparatus for sifting unripe rowan made Skinner the most successful young entrepreneur in the state.

After college, Fred locked himself in the attic of his father's house, wanting to write a novel. It did not work out, only sluggish humoresques came out from the pen of an unrecognized genius. Skinner suffered, got dirty, snapped. Friends advised me to turn to a shrink. After going to a couple of sessions, Fred, unexpectedly for his relatives, decided to become a psychologist himself.

In those years, animal experiments had a drawback: they were carried out "by eye", their results depended not so much on the rats, hamsters and pigeons themselves, but on the reaction of the scientist holding a stopwatch in his hand. The "Skinner box" invented by Fred helped solve this problem, because it recorded the behavior of animals with computer precision.

Placed in a "Skinner box," a dove would accidentally flap its wings and receive food. The dove began to flap its wings on purpose, but the reinforcements stopped. The dove, continuing to swing, accidentally leaned over - and suddenly received food again. Adding reaction, Fred made the pigeon turn, squat and perform other indecencies.

Suddenly, Skinner pigeons came in handy in the war: as part of the Pigeon project, Fred trained kamikaze pigeons. Under the guidance of a behaviorist, the birds of the world have learned to correct the flight of a rocket. But, unfortunately for the ambitious Skinner, and fortunately for the world (and the pigeons), the war is over.

Like Watson, Skinner dreamed of building an ideal society. After the war, he sat down to write the utopian novel Walden II. Fred's book, published simultaneously with 1984, described a small community built on the laws of reinforcement and punishment. The total control that frightened Orwell was presented in Skinner's novel as a common good.

In an interview, Skinner admitted that the ideas of the novel seem creepy even to him. But this did not bother his fans at all: inspired by Walden, they organized the Twin Oaks commune, which exists to this day. After the birth of his second child, Skinner casually invented a crib that maintained an optimal microclimate for the baby. Fred submitted an article about the crib to a women's magazine, not realizing that he was ruining his already dubious reputation. The editors, without going into details of the use of the crib, titled the article "Skinner's Baby Box". A rumor spread across America that Skinner built a human training box and locked his one-year-old daughter there.

But despite the rumours, in 1972 the American Psychological Association ranked Skinner at the top of its list of outstanding psychologists of the 20th century. Even the fact that in his entire life Skinner did not conduct a single experiment on humans did not prevent him from getting around Freud.

THE PRACTICE OF BEHAVIORISM

In the USSR, behaviorism was recognized as "an endangered imperialist theory." Now Russian authors write that he has outlived his usefulness. This does not prevent behaviorism from penetrating into all corners of human life so far.

The founder of behaviorism in the promotion of goods was Watson himself. After leaving university, he moved to the legendary advertising agency JWT, where the leading psychologist in the country had to start his career almost from scratch. And although at first John believed that the craft of an advertiser was "little better than growing cabbages", the desire to put his own ideas into practice allowed Watson to soon become vice president of the company.

Watson was the first to put science at the service of fooling the consumer. Before Watson, advertising only informed, John acted more boldly. He stated that advertising does not sell a product, but a way of life.

It was after Watson that coffee ceased to be just a drink, but began to increase productivity and help in a career. Thanks to him, celebrities appeared in advertising: they formed a positive reaction to a stimulus in the form of toothpaste or chocolate.

"Sex sells" is another Watson formula. But it's not about the symbolic acquisition of beauty, as modern advertisers explain the sultry beauty on the packaging of diapers. Watson's idea is simple: if fear can be associated with a rabbit, then sexual arousal can be associated with anything. In this case, the quality of the product is not important. The buyer, who took the product because of the beautiful packaging, will buy it and will not compare it with analogues. Slogans are also important. Many Watson invented himself, to the best of his ideas about beauty. Behaviorism is used in displaying goods, stimulating unnecessary purchases, and building customer loyalty. You didn't buy a chocolate bar at child's eye level and he lay down on the supermarket floor and threw a tantrum? I took goods for 10 thousand and received a bag as a gift? Eating at a third-rate diner for the eighth time, hoping to get the eleventh meal for free? Greetings from the behaviorist Watson.

PSYCHOTHERAPY

Behaviorism formed the basis of cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is familiarly called CBT. According to many specialists, this is a much more effective way to achieve success with a patient than long and tedious psychotherapy.

Wanting to smooth over the aftermath of experiments with Albert, John took 6-year-old Peter, who was afraid of rats, without the help of a doctor, and decided to "knock down" this reaction with sweets. Frightened by a rat at the other end of the room, the boy ate and calmed down. Watson moved the cage closer. Even closer. Soon Peter even began to feed the animal*. The rat became associated with pleasure. This method is still used in psychology today. Only instead of eating they use relaxation.

Other people's problems are self-sustaining cycles that make you step on the same rake. A person has submitted a report to the boss and is worried about the result (can you imagine, there are people who really care about this!). The report is approved. "I was worried - everything went well." Then the person worries again and gets praise again. When the third report is blown to smithereens, the person thinks he wasn't worried enough. And the fourth time increases fear tenfold.

Recording the level of fear and the result (to understand that this is not related in any way), relaxation, meditation, sex, drugs and rock and roll, as well as the ability to ignore what is happening, help to break the cycle.

CBT is so effective that it is included in the American health insurance system. The behaviorist does not delve into past traumas, but solves the problem here and now. Psychoanalysts believe that understanding the problem will change behavior, and they look for it (the problem) until old age. Behaviorism works directly with behavior and copes with a number of situations in a couple of months.

The CB therapist does not lisp with the patient, but pushes them to solve the problem. Requirement for a consultant: he himself does not have client problems, he must be an example, and not solve his own difficulties in parallel, as psychologists from the series do.

STAFF MOTIVATION

If instead of a bonus you have a corporate party with Ukupnik, blame the behaviorists: the roots of “non-material motivation” grow from there.

The fact is that behaviorists have proven that raising wages does not work in the long run. Any reinforcement is welcome. In order for a pigeon to dance a jig in a box, the stimulus in the form of food must be replaced after a while.

After a pay rise, the “hard-working” reaction quickly fades away. The reward should change and surprise the employee. Of course, you can surprise with a bonus in Chinese euros (not every day they pay in a non-existent currency), but there are also cheaper ways to “stroke” employees - like the already mentioned corporate party or exotic positions. So, Apple avoided the outflow of staff by renaming the position "consultant" to "genius".

PEDAGOGY

The idea that it is impossible to beat a child existed before the behaviorists, but it was of a moral nature. Gingerbread supporters insisted that putting children on peas was somehow wrong. “Yes, wrong,” the parents agreed. “But how to grow people out of them?”

Skinner proved that corporal punishment is ineffective. “The child will not change behavior. He will learn to avoid punishment." You get used to punishment faster than to encouragement. The first time, a slap in the face is enough, the second - a belt. To discourage the desire to meddle where it should not, you need to raise the stakes. As a result, only the physical destruction of the child can stop the wrong behavior.

If punishment is unavoidable, you should not flog, but deprive him of positive reinforcement: do not take him to the zoo or take binoculars through which the child peeps at the dressing neighbor. Punishing, you need to offer a model of correct behavior and "buns" for its implementation.

PROFILING CRIMINALS

About behaviorism tells the series "Think like a criminal." Now there will be spoilers. The fact is that attempts to draw up a portrait of a maniac have been made since the time of Jack the Ripper, but John Douglas from the FBI Behavioral Analysis Department is considered a pioneer in the study of killers.

Douglas developed a technique for identifying criminals based on their behavior. Studying the case materials, the investigator identifies two qualities of the killer: the method of action and handwriting. A modus operandi is anything a criminal does to kill a victim. Picking locks indicates a possible criminal past, deft handling of a knife indicates service as a soldier in the army or as a cook in the kitchen. If the murders are committed between 18.30 and 19.00 - it is possible that the killer blows off steam, going home from work.

The modus operandi can change (the "fortress" can take a couple of lessons from a familiar safekeeper) and says nothing about the maniac's pathology. If there is no knife, the killer uses a hammer. The method is being improved, allowing you to determine the experience of a maniac.

But handwriting is already a killer's fetish. Handwriting can be things stolen for collection or left at the crime scene, the type of victim, the damage done. Handwriting, unlike the method, is unshakable, because it satisfies the psychological need from the murder. That is, without handwriting, the crime is simply meaningless.

Often the newspapers get information about the method of murder, and not handwriting. This makes it possible to identify the imitator: if he reproduced the modus, but did not leave a dried rose, most likely the crime was committed for personal, and not pathological, motives.

Distinguishing method and handwriting is not always easy. It is important to remember: modus operandi is “how”, handwriting is “why”. If the killer acts with any blunt object (a vase, a dumbbell, a volume of the Soviet Encyclopedia), then we are talking about the method of murder. But when it is possible to establish that all the victims were killed by a jar of peas, this is handwriting.

For comparison. You prefer to meet in clubs. But if the girl turns up in a different situation, you will also take advantage of this. But if you like to have sex in a women's bra, then without this element you simply will not enjoy the process.

The Douglas method has proven to be effective. But he also has opponents who claim that he is unscientific, confuses the police and ruins the lives of the innocent. If you want to get more familiar with behavioral profiling, but are too lazy to watch 10 seasons of Criminal Minds, there is another option. Watch David Fincher's Netflix series Mindhunter, in which John Douglas was directly involved.

American philologist (by education) and psychologist by occupation, creator of the concept of operant behaviorism, founder of the theory of programmed learning.

"After graduating from college Skinner was determined to become a writer. In his autobiography, he cites a letter in which his father tries to convince him to give up such a career: it will not allow him to earn even a piece of bread. Despite warnings, young Skinner persevered and spent a year doing artistic work in Greenwich Village, New York's Literary Quarter. The letter Skinner received from the poet Robert Frost, to whom he sent several of his stories, asking him not only to evaluate them, but also to give advice on a future career, became decisive in choosing a life path. Frost advised Skinner to think about this before he finally became a writer. During this time, Skinner made the decision to enter Harvard in the psychology department, which he barely studied in college. Before making such a decision, he read a book by a Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, whose theory of conditioned reflexes, based on experiments with dogs, was published in English in the late 1920s. In 1929, Pavlov gave a lecture at an international congress at Harvard. Skinner was also familiar with the works John Watson on behaviorism. His theory and elegant style of writing captivated Skinner. With the same greed in those years, Skinner devoured philosophical works. Bertrand Russell. Skinner's Harvard educators included Henry Murray, Edward Boring and several other representatives of "introspective psychology", which did not correspond to the positivist and behaviorist models that prevailed in his mind. The philosopher also had a great influence on the young scientist. Alfred North Whitehead, thanks to which Skinner became close to Bertrand Russell».

Fifty Contemporary Thinkers on Education, from Piaget to the Present, Ed. Joy Palmer, M., Higher School of Economics, 2012, p. 103.

In 1938 Burres Skinner published the book: Behavior of Organisms / The Behavior of Organisms, where he put forward the concept of “operant” (from the term “operation”) learning, according to which the body acquires new reactions due to the fact that it reinforces them and only after that external stimuli cause its reactions (such was the concept I.P. Pavlova).

A similar term is sometimes used: instrumental conditioning.

“Operant technique consists in the fact that the animal is “trained” to perform a task, followed by a reward. A rat can be made to press a lever, a dove to peck at an illuminated disc, vampire bats to lick a glass tube, a fish to pinch a rod in an aquarium with its lips. Each of these adaptations plays the role of a key stimulus. Such a training technique is indicated by the English word shaping (shaping, i.e. formation).

Reznikova Zh. I., Intelligence and language of animals and humans. Fundamentals of cognitive ethology, M., "Akademkniga", 2005, p. 39-40.

In contrast to the principle of classical conditioning on I.P. Pavlov: Stimulus - Response, Edward Thorndike, and later - Burres Skinner developed the principle of operant conditioning: Reaction - Stimulus, according to which, behavior is controlled by its results and consequences. Based on this formula, one of the possible ways of influencing a person is to influence his results, or: that spontaneous behavior that is recognized as desirable is reinforced.

Psychotherapeutic Encyclopedia / Ed. B.D. Karvasarsky, St. Petersburg, "Piter", 2006, p. 418-419.

It is fundamental that Burres Skinner defined operant learning in terms of feedback (that is, the impact on behavior of its consequences), and not in terms of goals or some internal states of the organism - mental or physiological.

“Here is what Skinner's own account of the "training" of a lecturer looks like in the presentation Karen Pryor(1981): And now the most prominent authority in the field of human psychology and an equally prominent detractor of the "inhuman" Skinnerian approach came to Harvard to give a lecture. Some lecturers prefer to look somewhere in the back of the hall and speak into space, while others choose some sensitive listener in one of the front rows and turn to him. This psychologist belonged to the second type. Skinner, whom he didn't know, went to the lecture, sat in the front row, listened with great interest, and forced the psychologist to focus on himself. Skinner then began to feign boredom when the psychologist spoke of love, but brightened up and nodded in approval whenever the lecturer made an annoyed or belligerent gesture. "By the end of the lecture," Skinner said, "he was shaking his fists like Hitler."

Reznikova Zh.I., Intelligence and language: animals and humans in the mirror of experiments, Part I, M., "Science", 2000, p. 53.

“During World War II, the CIA's Strategic Services Division was literally flooded with ideas. B. F. Skinner, a psychologist, proposed using pigeons to guide guided missiles. The fact is that these birds are able to peck at the image of the target on the screen for four to five minutes without interruption. Idea: pigeons will peck at the moving image on the screen, thereby correcting the missile guidance signals. Skinner's idea did not find application. The OSS concluded that the representatives of the Tribunal would die of laughter before they had time to consider the idea.

Michael Mikalko, Mind Games: Creative Thinking Training, St. Petersburg, "Piter", 2009, p. 433.

In 1948 Burres Skinner published a novel: Walden Two / Walden Two, describing a model of a community based on the principles of behaviorism.

The title of the novel certainly refers to the famous book Henry David Thoreau"Walden, or Life in the Woods" (1854), depicting a cloudless life away from the noise of the city. In his book, Skinner acts as a kind of social inventor, describing a society in which the knowledge of how to induce people to certain reactions is hidden. There is a fragment in the novel where the founder of the new society, the alter ego of the author, says these words:
“In all my life I was visited by only one obsession - but I was truly obsessed with it. To put it bluntly, it's the idea of ​​getting others to do my way. "Control" - you can put it like this. control of human behavior. When I first started my experiments, I was overcome by a mad desire to control. I remember my anger when the forecast turned out to be wrong. I wanted to scream to my “guinea pigs”: “You bastards! Behave right! Behave yourself!”
Publication of the novel "Walden-2" (in the same year the famous book George Orwell 1984) went largely unnoticed by the public, at least on the European side of the Atlantic. But in the 1960s, when a wave of student indignation swept the world in the atmosphere of youth disillusionment with the social order, many began to put into practice the life described in the novel in “communes,” as they were called. Sales of the book jumped sharply and reached about a million copies.

Fifty Contemporary Thinkers on Education, from Piaget to the Present, Ed. Joy Palmer, M., Higher School of Economics, 2012, p. 107.

In 1954 Burres Skinner made a report on the topic: The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching / The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching, where he first introduced the concept of linear programmed learning.

“Skinner's behavioral philosophy was based on the fact that the behavior of an animal can be completely controlled by creating the appropriate order of reinforcements. These representations are based on the law of effect Thorndike, according to which a positive reinforcement of an action increases the likelihood of its manifestation, and a negative one reduces it. Based on their results of successfully shaping the behavior of laboratory animals (as well as ideas Ernst Mach- Approx. I.L. Vikentiev), Skinner put forward, in particular, the principle of least effort, according to which animals strive to receive rewards in the simplest and most convenient way.

Reznikova Zh. I., Intelligence and language of animals and humans. Fundamentals of cognitive ethology, M., "Akademkniga", 2005, pp. 155-156.

“In the heyday of his career, he was optimistic about the opportunities that were opening up, but towards the end of his life he realized with despair that he had not succeeded in convincing the world and that our unguided technology was leading us to destruction. All of his major projects - learning machines and software learning, culture projects and behavioral therapy - had an impact, but were not accepted as a technology capable of changing the fate of mankind. . Perhaps his most obvious success was in self-organization. Unlike most other psychologists, he applied his principles to his own life, using the principles of "problem solving" in everything until old age. In his work he fully obeyed the Protestant ethic, but he did it painlessly, rather applying pleasant reinforcements to his daily achievements and successes, rather than demanding from himself the ideal of service in the name of the salvation of the soul.

Psychology: biographical bibliographic dictionary / Ed. N. Sheehy, E. J. Chapman, W.A. Conroy, St. Petersburg, "Eurasia", 1999, p. 573.

« Aldous Huxley in his dystopia Brave New World (1932) parodied the views Watson and Skinner, describing genetically engineered babies specially shaped for a particular place in life, grown in a test tube. Children destined to become laborers received an electric shock if they tried to touch flowers or books, which developed in them a deep aversion to reading and to the beauties of nature. In the science fiction story "Theory of Learning" by J. McConnell, a behavioral professor, being placed by some alien scientists - also behaviorists - in a "Skinner box", had to perform chains of actions that were obscure to him, for a reward in the form of food capsules or even in in the form of a nude film actress.

Reznikova Zh. I., Intelligence and language of animals and humans. Fundamentals of cognitive ethology, M., "Akademkniga", 2005, p.16.

Frederick Skinner is one of the most influential American psychologists in history, an atheist and a radical behaviorist. He developed, perhaps, the main theory in behaviorism - the theory of operant learning. Despite the serious development of psychology since the formation of the main positions of Skinner's teachings, his principles continue to work effectively in science. For example, in the treatment of phobias or in the fight against various addictions. Skinner believed that the only true approach to the study of psychology was an approach that explores the behavior of subjects (human, animals, etc.). Therefore, in fact, he denied the existence of the mind outside the body shell, however, he did not deny the existence of thoughts that can be analyzed using the same principles that apply to the analysis of external behavior.

Skinner: a unique personality from birth

Burres Frederick Skinner was born in 1904 in the small town of Susquehanna, in the state of Philadelphia. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a strong-willed, intelligent housewife, which predetermined the upbringing of the child. Frederick grew up in a conservative religious environment where hard work and love of God were valued. From an early age, Skinner was an active boy, preferred to play outdoors, loved to build, create various things. He studied with pleasure, although, despite all the efforts of his mother and teachers, he remained an atheist. His growing up was not without a tragic event: his younger brother, at the age of sixteen, died of a cerebral aneurysm.

Frederick Skinner graduated from Hamilton College in New York in 1926 with a degree in English Literature. However, studying did not bring him much pleasure: he was usually left to himself, because he did not like football and sports in general, he was not attracted to student fraternity parties either. And besides, the rules of the college obliged to attend church every day, which also did not please the future psychologist. While in college, he wrote articles for the faculty newspaper, often criticizing the college, its faculty and administration, and even the oldest student fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa.

Passion for writing and entry into psychology

Frederick Skinner always wanted to be a writer, which is why he made numerous attempts to find himself in the writing craft: he wrote both prose and poetry, sent works to newspapers and magazines. After receiving his diploma, he even built a studio for himself in the attic of his parents' house, but over time he realized that writing did not give the result he had hoped for. No significant success has been achieved. “I realized that I had nothing to say about anything important,” he later said.

Soon Skinner stopped working with newspapers for which he wrote articles about problems in the job market and, settling in Greenwich Village in New York, began to live a bohemian life. At the same time, he began to travel. Quickly fed up with such a life, Skinner decides to enter Harvard in the department of psychology. He always liked to observe the behavior of animals and humans, so there were no problems with specialization. The department of psychology at that time at the university was predominantly focused on introspection (self-observation), and F. Skinner became more and more interested in behaviorism.

Education is what survives when what has been learned is forgotten. F. Skinner

Skinner's research and theory

In 1931, Skinner graduated from Harvard and received a diploma, he continues to do research at the university. The most significant theory for the psychology of behaviorism was Skinner's theory of operant conditioning, or the theory of operant learning. Its emergence, not least, became possible thanks to numerous experiments with the so-called "Skinner box". The device itself was a transparent, small box with a special pedal inside. A laboratory rat was placed in the box, which was given complete freedom of action. As a result of chaotic and random movements in the box, each new rat, over and over again, certainly touched the pedal. After pressing the pedal, due to the operation of a special mechanism, food appeared in the box. After a few random clicks, the rat developed a new pattern of behavior: when the rat wanted to eat, she pressed the pedal and food appeared. Moreover, such behavior was formed without the participation of any additional incentives.

Skinner called such patterns of behavior operants, that is, behaviors that represent a developed mechanism: the rat got hungry - pressed the pedal. At the same time, the scientist designated the positive consequences of such behavior as “reinforcements”. In numerous experiments with different kinds of reinforcers, Skinner found that there is a pattern with operants followed by positive consequences. It lies in the fact that such forms of behavior are much more common than others. It turns out that if the rat “knows” that after pressing the pedal it will receive food, then it will repeat this action more often than others.

Similar behavior is also characteristic of pigeons, with which Skinner was very fond of experimenting. If a pigeon accidentally pecks at a red spot located on the floor of the cage and receives a seed, then this operant (action with the expectation of success) will be repeated more often in the future. The same pattern of behavior is also true for a person - if he was fed very tasty in one of the restaurants, then he will definitely return there, even if the institution is located on the other side of the city. In some sources, the described regularity is referred to as "the first law of operant conditioning." Although Skinner himself called it "the law of profit".

The practical value of this law is not questioned. Indeed, now, if a teacher or therapist needs to correct behavior by forming new habits or a new form of behavior, then it is enough to use positive reinforcement for “targeted” behavior. By constantly reinforcing this behavior, the teacher will ensure from the student or the therapist from the patient that this behavior will be repeatedly repeated in the future.

When it comes to the negative consequences of behavior, Skinner disagrees with many other psychologists. They believe that by imposing a "penalty" on such behavior, it can eventually get rid of it altogether. But Skinner says that such a "penalty" leads the individual to look for other forms of behavior that may be even more undesirable than the form that led to the punishment.

Life after Harvard

At Harvard, Skinner stayed to do research for another 5 years after receiving his degree. In 1936, he left his alma mater and moved to Minnesota, where he received a teaching position at a local university, this position allowed him to continue his research in the field of behaviorism. With the outbreak of World War I, Skinner had a new project: he was trying to teach pigeons to be guides during air strikes. However, before the closure of the project, he failed to achieve his goal. But he managed to teach pigeons to play ping pong.

In 1945, he became head of the psychology department at Indiana University. But, having worked in the position for only a few years, he accepted the offer of Harvard University and returned to the post of lecturer at his alma mater. Some time later, he received the title of professor, which allowed him to stay at Harvard for the rest of his life.

Main works

All the developments in the theory of operant learning Skinner included in his first published work "The Behavior of Organisms" ("The Behavior of Organisms"). This book has been compared by many with the work of I. P. Pavlov, but if Pavlov focused on reactions to various stimuli, then Skinner focused on responses to the environment.

With the advent of his own children, he became more and more interested in education, which was reflected in his book "Technology of Teaching" ("Teaching Methods"). The book was published in 1968. Three years later, his work Beyond Freedom and Dignity was published. She was seriously criticized due to the fact that Skinner alluded in the work to the lack of free will and individual consciousness in humans. Therefore, later he had to publish the work “About Behaviorism” (“On Behaviorism”) to smooth out possible false interpretations.

However, in addition to his main early work, The Behavior of Organisms, Skinner's name is often associated with another of his works: WaldenTwo (Second Walden). This is a work of art, a novel, with which the scientist wanted to satisfy his age-old need for writing. In fact, this is a utopian novel. Despite the fiction of the plot, Skinner applied some provisions of the theory of operant conditioning in describing events. The people of the community described in the novel are brought up from childhood with the help of a system of rewards and punishments in order to become good people when they grow up. Which implies a completely equal position of all individuals, both in social status: whether they are a cleaner or a manager, they are equal, and in material terms: as such, there is no currency, and the daily rate for using any benefits of society is 4 credits, which are earned according to the plan and distribution of managers.

The novel somewhat undermined Skinner's reputation as a scientist among some of his colleagues, others noted his questionable emphasis on a scientific approach that does not take into account other aspects of human existence. However, there are several attempts to create a similar community in modern conditions. For example, the Twin Oaks community (“TwinOaks”), which still exists today. However, it has moved away from most of the principles of Skinner's fictional society, but continues to use his ideas of planning and credit.

Family in the life of Frederick Skinner

Of great importance in Skinner's scientific life was his own family. He met his wife, Yvonne Blue, while working at the University of Minnesota. In marriage, they had two daughters. The second daughter of the Skinner couple grew up in infancy in a special device invented by her father - in a "Plexiglas heated bed with a window" (Aircrib). Skinner decided to take such a step after the requests of his wife during pregnancy to come up with a safe bed for their baby. In view of the fact that the spouses then lived in Minnesota, the father of the family took into account both climatic factors and the general state of the environment in the state.

In engineering terms, the crib, invented by Skinner, was a large metal bed with a ceiling, three walls and plexiglass, which could be raised or lowered if it was necessary to pick up or put the child in the crib. Parents could regulate the temperature and humidity using a special device located on top of the crib. Clean air came in from below. Deborah - that was the name of the girl - spent the first two years of her life in such a bed. In all respects, she was healthy, and she also had a completely happy childhood and adult life.

Unfortunately, Skinner's invention was not destined to become commercially successful, despite its fame and recognition. The press tried: after several photos of his daughter in the crib, many people had a direct association with the "Skinner Box", as well as with reinforcements, levers and other things. In addition, people are very careful when it comes to technologies that replace the labor of a loving mother. Perhaps the criticism was not based on real grounds: Deborah Skinner grew up a healthy and happy child, she had no problems with the crib and always talked about her childhood in a positive way.

I don't admire myself as a person. My successes do not override my shortcomings. F. Skinner

Last years of life and legacy

In the last years of his life, Skinner was still active in scientific activity, although he somewhat moved away from direct research. In several autobiographical works, the scientist tried to give logical harmony to his lived rich life and chronologically build its important milestones. But he conducted research in the field of behaviorism even at a venerable age, although the diagnosis of "leukemia" in 1989 seriously limited his activity. He lost his battle with the disease on August 18, 1990, when he died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 86.

The core tenets of Skinner's theory live on, primarily thanks to the B.F. Skinner Foundation", whose president today is his eldest daughter Julia Skinner (married Vargas). Throughout his life, the scientist received more than two dozen Honorary Degrees from various US institutions of higher education. A few days before his death, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association. He has published more than 20 books and written about 180 articles, and by his contemporaries he is recognized as a pioneer of modern behaviorism along with John Watson and Ivan Pavlov. According to many researchers, Skinner is the second most influential psychologist in history after Sigmund Freud.

List of used literature:

1. Melnik S.N., Personality Psychology, Vladivostok, Far Eastern State University, 2004
2. Psychology: biographical bibliographic dictionary / Ed. N. Sheehy, E. J. Chapman, W.A. Conroy, St. Petersburg, "Eurasia", 1999
3. Psychotherapeutic Encyclopedia / Ed. B.D. Karvasarsky, St. Petersburg, "Piter", 2006
4. Fifty Contemporary Thinkers on Education, from Piaget to the Present, Ed. Joy Palmera, M., Higher School of Economics, 2012
5. Benjamin, L.T., Jr. & Nielson-Gammon, E. (1999). B.F. Skinner and psychotechnology: The case of the heir conditioner. Review of General Psychology, 3, 155-167. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.3.3.155
6. Bjork, D. W. (1996). B. F. Skinner: A life. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
7. Epstein, R. (1995, November 1). Babies in boxes. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-19951101-000010.html
8. Skinner, B. F. (1945). Baby in a box: The mechanical baby-tender. The Ladies Home Journal, 62, 30-31, 135-136, 138.
9. Skinner-Buzan, D. (2004, March 12). I was not a lab rat. Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/mar/12/highereducation.uk

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist and writer. Skinner admitted that at the beginning of his journey he was strongly influenced by the ideas of the English scientist and philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626), whose works he became acquainted with in his youth. "Bacon's three principles have guided my professional life." Skinner put it this way:

1. "I studied nature, not books."

2. "In order to control nature, it must be obeyed."

3. “A better world is possible, but it will not arise suddenly, by chance. It must be carefully planned and created in accordance with this plan, mainly with the help of science” (1984, pp. 406-412).

“Behaviorism is a tool that makes it possible to apply an experimental approach to the study of human behavior ... Many aspects of the theory of behaviorism probably require further research, but there is no need to doubt the correctness of this theory. I am absolutely sure that in the end it will triumph” (Skinner, 1967, pp. 409-410).

Skinner said of himself: "I asked more questions of the organism itself than of those who studied the organism" (1967, p. 409). The result of this approach was that Skinner emphasized rigorous laboratory experimentation and the collection of measurable behavioral data. If we take into account the wealth of the human person, then such an approach may seem too limited; and yet he is the very foundation on which all of Skinner's theories rest firmly.

Skinner adopted and developed the scientific philosophy known as radical behaviorism. Some modern behavioral learning theorists use terms such as need, motivation, and intention to explain certain aspects of human and animal behavior. Skinner refused such terms, as they were related to personal, mental experience and symbolized, in his opinion, a return to non-scientific psychology.

According to Skinner, observable and measurable aspects of the environment, the behavior of an organism, and the consequences of this behavior are the basic material for a thorough scientific analysis.

Skinner believed that science is concerned with finding the causes of phenomena, that the determination of causes makes prediction and control possible, that carefully conducted experimental research will make it possible to establish these causes.

Skinner introduced definitions of two, in his opinion, the most important types of behavior:

Responsive behavior that is evoked by a known stimulus

operant behavior that is not caused by a stimulus, but simply produced by the organism.

Unconditioned responses are an example of respondent behavior because they result from the use of a stimulus. Examples of respondent behavior are all reflexes, such as a sharp movement of the hand when pricked with something sharp, constriction of the pupil in bright light, salivation when food appears.

In Skinner's ideology, behavior change is simply about finding something that will reinforce the organism whose behavior needs to be changed, wait for the desired behavior to emerge, and then reinforce the organism's response.

After that, the frequency of occurrence of the desired reaction will increase. The next time the desired behavior appears, it is reinforced again, and the rate at which the response appears increases even more. Any behavior that an organism is capable of exhibiting can be influenced in this way.

According to Skinner, what we call "personality" is nothing but consistent patterns of behavior that are the sum total of our reinforcement history. For example, we learn to speak our native language because we have been reinforced in our immediate environment since early childhood by making sounds similar to those of our native language. Different cultures reinforce different behaviors. This fact must be well understood before any adequate applied science of behavior can be established.

In Skinner's attempts to understand the causes behind behavior and thus predict and control behavior, the similarity between operant conditioning and natural selection is important.

If reinforcement can be controlled, then behavior can be controlled.

It is not a question of whether behavior will be controlled, but rather who or what will control it. For example, parents can guide their child's personality development by reinforcing certain behaviors, or they can empower society to educate their child by allowing television, peers, school, books, and babysitters to reinforce. However, setting the direction of their child's life is not easy, and every parent who wishes to do so should at least follow these steps:

1. Decide what personal qualities you would like your child to have.

Let's say, for example, you want your child to grow up to be a creative person.

2. Express these goals in terms of behavior. To do this, ask yourself; “What does a child do when he creates?”

3. Reward behavior that is consistent with these goals. With this example in front of you, you can reward moments of creativity the moment they occur.

4. Be consistent, organize the main aspects of the child's environment so that they also reward behaviors that you consider important.

A similar approach can be used by a manager in relation to his subordinate. That is why Skinner's ideas subsequently led to the development of the so-called reinforcement theory.

The process of operant conditioning takes quite a long time.

There is another approach to operant conditioning that doesn't take that long. This procedure is very similar to the children's game "hot - cold", when one child hides something, and other children try to find the hidden one. As they approach the hidden object, the child who hid the object says, “Warmer, very warm, terribly hot, just hot.” When they move away from the object, the child says: "It's getting cold, very cold, you can become stiff."

Modeling has two components: differential reinforcement, which means that some responses are reinforced while others are not, and successive approximation, which shows that only responses that meet the experimenter's intention are reinforced.

Skinner was very interested in the practical application of his theory of learning to the educational process. According to Skinner, learning is most effective when:

1) the information that needs to be learned is presented gradually;

2) learners receive immediate feedback on the correctness of their learning (i.e. they are shown directly from the learning experience, whether they learned the information correctly or incorrectly);

3) learning takes place at a pace acceptable to students.

It is interesting to note that the most common teaching method is lecturing, and the lecturing method violates all three of the above principles.

Skinner has proposed an alternative method of teaching called programmed learning that actually incorporates all three of the above principles.

Many behavioral problems arise because our behavior is more influenced by immediate reinforcers.

For example, for some, the taste of food in the moment is more reinforcing than the distant promise of longevity by following a meal or diet regimen. Likewise, the immediate effects of nicotine are more reinforcing than the promise of a long smoking-free life.

Skinner believed that it was not necessary to formulate complex theories of learning a certain behavior, that behavioral events should be described in terms of what has a direct impact on behavior, and it was logically inconsistent to try to explain behavior in terms of mental phenomena. For this reason, Skinner's method of research has been called the "empty body approach".

Skinner also believed that complex learning theories are a waste of time and uneconomical. At one point, such theories may prove useful in psychology, but only after a huge amount of basic / initial data has been collected. Our main goal should be to discover the basic relationships that exist between classes of stimuli and classes of responses.

Skinner's approach to research was to perform a functional analysis of the effect of a behavior-stimulating event on the individual's behavior itself.

Weakening Factors of Reinforcement Conditions Skinner states that there are five factors that attenuate the reinforcing effects of reinforcement conditions.

According to Skinner, many of the problems resulting from these "cultural habits" could be solved by reinforcing the desired behavior through the use of principles derived from experimental behavioral analysis.

Skinner's long and effective research programs have had a significant impact on both applied and theoretical psychology. Compared to the systems of many other researchers, Skinner's system was simple and could be easily applied to problems ranging from animal education to human behavior modification. On the other hand, his work led to the emergence of the law of correspondence and indirectly influenced modern research on behavioral decision making.