Reinforcement is one of the principles of conditioning. Already from infancy, according to Skinner, human behavior can be regulated with the help of reinforcing stimuli. There are two different types of reinforcements. Some, such as eating or eliminating pain, are called primary reinforcers because they they have a natural reinforcing power. Other reinforcers (smile, adult attention, approval, praise) are conditioned reinforcers. They become such as a result of frequent combination with primary reinforcements.

Operant conditioning relies mainly on positive reinforcement, i.e. to the consequences of reactions that support or reinforce them, for example, food, monetary rewards, praise. However, Skinner emphasizes the importance of negative reinforcement, which leads to the extinction of the response. Such reinforcing stimuli can be physical punishment, moral influence, psychological pressure. In punishment, the unpleasant stimulus follows the response, reducing the likelihood that the response will occur again. Skinner lamented that punishment is "the most common behavioral control technique used in the modern world. . Everyone knows the scheme: if a man does not behave the way you like, punch him; if a child misbehaves, spank him; if people in another country misbehave, drop a bomb on them "(cited by: Crane W. Secrets of Personality Formation, St. Petersburg: Prime-Evroznak, 2002, p. 241).
In addition to reinforcement, the principle of conditioning is its immediacy. It was found that in the initial stage of the experiment, it is possible to bring the reaction to the highest level only if it is reinforced immediately. Otherwise, the reaction that began to form will quickly fade away.

With operant, as well as with respondent conditioning, generalization of stimuli is observed. Generalization is an associative connection of a reaction that has arisen in the process of conditioning with stimuli similar to those to which the conditioned reflex was originally developed. Examples of generalization are - fear of all dogs, which was formed as a result of the attack of a single dog, a child's positive reaction (smile, pronounce the word "dad", movement to a meeting, etc.) to all men similar to his father.

The formation of a reaction is a process. The reaction does not arise immediately and suddenly, it takes shape gradually, as a series of reinforcements is carried out. Sequential reinforcement is the development of complex actions by reinforcing actions that gradually become more and more similar to the final form of behavior that was supposed to be formed. Continuous behavior is formed in the process of reinforcing individual elements of behavior, which together add up to complex actions. Those. a series of initially learned actions in the final form is perceived as a holistic behavior.

The process itself is supported by the so-called reinforcement regime. Reinforcement regimen - percentage and interval of reinforcement responses. To study reinforcement regimens, Skinner invented the Skinner box, through which he observed the behavior of animals.

Schematically, it looks like this:
S1 - R - S2,
where S1 - lever;
R - pressing the lever;
S2 - food (reinforcement).

Behavior is controlled by changing environmental conditions (or reinforcement). They, for example, can be given (1) after a certain period of time, regardless of the number of reactions; (2) through a certain number of reactions (pressing the lever), etc.

Reinforcement modes

The following modes of reinforcement were identified: continuous reinforcement - the presentation of reinforcement every time the subject gives the desired response; intermittent, or partial, reinforcement.
For a more rigorous classification of reinforcement regimes, two parameters were distinguished - temporary reinforcement and proportional reinforcement. In the first case, they are reinforced only when the period during which it was necessary to perform the corresponding activity has expired; in the second, they are reinforced for the amount of work (number of actions) that should have been performed.

Based on the two parameters, four modes of reinforcement have been described:

1. Constant Ratio Reinforcement Mode. Reinforcement is carried out in accordance with the established number (volume) of reactions. An example of such a regime could be wages for a certain, constant amount of work. For example, remuneration to a translator for the number of characters translated, or a typist for the amount of printed material.

2. Reinforcement mode with a constant interval. Reinforcement occurs only when a firmly established, fixed time interval has elapsed. For example, monthly, weekly, hourly pay, rest after a hard time of physical or mental work.

3. Variable ratio reinforcement regimen. In this mode, the body is reinforced on the basis of some predetermined number of reactions on average. For example, buying lottery tickets may be an example of how this reinforcement regimen works. In this case, buying a ticket means that with some probability there may be a win. The probability increases if not one, but several tickets are bought. However, the result is, in principle, little predictable and unstable, and a person rarely manages to return the money invested in buying tickets. However, the uncertainty of the outcome and the expectation of a large payoff lead to a very slow damping of the response and extinction of the behavior.

4. Reinforcement regimen with a variable interval. The individual is reinforced after an indefinite interval has passed. Similar to the constant interval reinforcement regime, in this case the reinforcement is time dependent. The time interval is arbitrary. Short intervals tend to generate high response rates, while long intervals tend to result in low response rates. This mode is used in the educational process, when the assessment of the level of achievements is carried out irregularly.

Skinner talked about the individuality of reinforcement, about the variability in the development of a particular skill in different people, as well as in different animals. Moreover, the reinforcement itself is unique in that it it is impossible to say with certainty that a given person or animal can act as a reinforcement.

Personal growth and development

As the child develops, his responses are internalized and remain under the control of reinforcing influences from the environment. In the form of reinforcing influences are - food, praise, emotional support, etc. The same idea is presented by Skinner in the book "Verbal Behavior" (1957). He believes that mastery of speech occurs according to the general laws of operant conditioning. The child receives reinforcement by pronouncing certain sounds. Reinforcement is not food or water, but the approval and support of adults.
In 1959, the well-known American linguist N. Chomsky made critical remarks about Skinner's concept. He denied the special role of reinforcement in the course of language acquisition and criticized Skinner for neglecting the syntactic rules that play a role in a person's understanding of language constructs. He believed that learning the rules does not require a special educational process, but is accomplished thanks to an innate, specific speech mechanism, which is called the "mechanism of mastering speech." Thus, mastery of speech does not occur as a result of learning, but through natural development.

Psychopathology

From the point of view of the psychology of learning, there is no need to look for an explanation of the symptoms of the disease in hidden underlying causes. Pathology, according to behaviorism, is not a disease, but either (1) the result of an unlearned response, or (2) a learned maladaptive response.

(1) An unlearned response or behavioral deficit results from a lack of reinforcement in developing the necessary skills and abilities. Depression is also seen as the result of a lack of reinforcement to form or even maintain the necessary responses.

(2) A non-adaptive reaction is the result of the assimilation of an action that is unacceptable for society, that does not correspond to the norms of behavior. This behavior occurs as a consequence of the reinforcement of an unwanted response, or as a result of a random coincidence of the response and reinforcement.

Behavior change is also built on the principles of operant conditioning, on a system of behavior modification and associated reinforcements.
A. Behavioral change can come from self-control.

Self-control includes two interdependent reactions:

1. A control response that affects the environment by changing the likelihood of secondary responses ("withdrawal" in order not to express "anger"; removal of food in order to wean from overeating).

2. A control reaction aimed at the presence of stimuli in the situation that can make the desired behavior more likely (the presence of a table for the implementation of the educational process).

B. Behavioral change can also occur as a result of behavioral counseling. Much of this type of counseling is based on the principles of learning.
Wolpe defines behavior therapy as conditioning therapy, which involves using principles of learning formulated through experimentation to change inappropriate behavior. Inadequate habits are weakened and eliminated; adaptive habits, in contrast, are introduced and reinforced.

Goals of counseling:

1) Changing inappropriate behavior.

2) Teaching decision making.

3) Prevention of problems by anticipating the results of behavior.

4) Eliminate the deficit in the behavioral repertoire.

Stages of counseling:

1) Behavioral assessment, collection of information about acquired actions.

2) Relaxation procedures (muscular, verbal, etc.).

3) Systematic desensitization - the connection of relaxation with the image that causes anxiety.

4) Assertiveness training

5) Reinforcement procedures.

Advantages and disadvantages of learning theories

Advantages:

1. The desire for rigorous testing of hypotheses, experiment, control of additional variables.

2. Recognition of the role of situational variables, environmental parameters and their systematic study.

3. The pragmatic approach to therapy has produced important procedures for behavior change.

Disadvantages:

1. Reductionism - reducing the principles of behavior obtained on animals to the analysis of human behavior.

2. Low external validity is caused by conducting experiments in laboratory conditions, the results of which are difficult to transfer to natural conditions.

3. Ignoring cognitive processes in the analysis of S-R relationships.

4. Big gap between theory and practice.

5. Behavioral theory does not give stable results.

In the middle of the XX century. as a result of the revision of a number of fundamental ideas of orthodox behaviorism, neobehaviorism was formed (E. Tolman - cognitive behaviorism, K. Hull - hypothetical-deductive behaviorism, E. Gasri, B.F. Skinner - operant behaviorism, etc.). Serious criticism from the opponents of orthodox behaviorism was caused by its obvious mechanism in understanding behavior. Therefore, some neobehaviorists have made an attempt to introduce a number of new intermediate variables (cognitive cognitive map, value matrix, goals, motivation, anticipation, behavior control, etc.) into the traditional "stimulus-response" scheme. This significantly changed the general content of behaviorism.

While most of the supporters of neobehaviorism softened their positions by introducing concepts that are not characteristic of orthodox behaviorism, the famous American psychologist B.F. Skinner and a number of other researchers took the point of view of "radical behaviorism". This approach is even more rigid than it was accepted in orthodox behaviorism, it rejected any interpretations related to mentalism. B. F. Skinner condemned deviations from orthodox behaviorism as a return to unscientific psychology. Material for scientific analysis, in his opinion, can only be observable and measurable aspects of the environment, the behavior of the organism and the consequences of this behavior.

Neobehaviorism had a significant impact on learning theory and educational practice in the mid-20th century. worldwide. On the basis of neobehaviorist ideas in educational psychology and learning theory, a powerful scientific direction was formed, which received the name "programmed learning". Since the mid 1950s. programmed learning has become widespread in the world (England, Poland, USSR, USA, France, Czechoslovakia, etc.). In the United States, special research institutions were created to deal with the development of new didactic technology. In the USSR, a special scientific council was also organized on issues of programmed learning.

Barras Frederick Skinner (1904–1990) was born in Suskahanna, Pennsylvania and received his M.A. in 1930 and his Ph.D. in 1931 from Harvard. The youthful desire to become a writer was not realized, and after a series of unsuccessful attempts to find his own way, he went to study psychology at Harvard.

BF Skinner taught psychology at the University of Minnesota from 1936 to 1945. During this time he published one of his major works, The Behavior of Organisms. After three years as Dean of the Department of Psychology at Indiana University, he returned to Harvard in 1948, where he lived and worked until his death in 1990.

The main provisions of the theory of "operant learning" by B. F. Skinner

An important starting point for understanding BF Skinner's theory is his classification of behaviors. He singled out "respondent behavior" and "operant behavior". Respondent behavior is evoked by a known stimulus. An example of respondent behavior is all unconditional reactions; they arise as a result of an unconditional stimulus. Operant behavior is not caused by a stimulus, it is simply produced by the organism. Because operant behavior is not associated with known stimuli, it appears to occur spontaneously. Manifestations of operant behavior are diverse, most of our daily actions can be qualified as operant behavior.

BF Skinner did not claim that operant behavior occurs independently of stimulation, rather the opposite. It's just that the stimulus that causes the operant behavior is unknown and it is not necessary to know its cause. Respondent behavior depends entirely on the stimulus that preceded it. In contrast, an operant command is controlled by its consequences.

Along with the two types of behavior, according to BF Skinner, there are two types of conditioning: "respondent conditioning" and "operant conditioning". Respondent conditioning is identical to the classical conditioning of I. P. Pavlov, B. F. Skinner also called it conditioning of the type " S". Thereby emphasizing the importance of the stimulus, which causes the necessary response. Operant conditioning B. F. Skinner denotes by the letter "R", emphasizing in this case that the emphasis is on reaction.

When specifying the type "R" its strength is judged by the speed of the reaction, and when conditioning the type " S"The strength of conditioning is often determined by the magnitude of the conditioned reaction. It is easy to see that B.F. Skinner's "/?" conditioning is very similar to E. Thorndike's "instrumental conditioning", and his S"- on the "classical conditioning" of I.P. Pavlov. In his own research, B.F. Skinner paid the main attention to operant conditioning, or, in his terminology, type conditioning "R".

B. F. Skinner singled out two main principles of operant conditioning (conditioning of the type "R"):

• 1. Any response following a reinforcing stimulus is prone to repetition.
• 2. A reinforcing stimulus can be anything that increases the rate of appearance of an operant response.

A reinforcer can be anything that increases the likelihood of a response being repeated. As you can easily see, the principles of operant conditioning can be applied to a variety of situations. In order to change behavior, you need to find something that will serve as a reinforcement for the body. Then you should wait until the desired behavior manifests itself, and then provide reinforcement.

In a fascinating book by a follower of B. F. Skinner, an American animal psychologist and animal trainer Karen Pryor, "Don't growl at the dog," many examples of the use of operant learning principles in the training of marine animals are described. The dolphins participating in her research not only learned to follow human commands, they even successfully solved creative tasks.

After that, the frequency of the desired reaction will increase. When the desired behavior reappears, it is reinforced again, and the rate at which the response occurs increases even more. A similar effect can be exerted on any behavior of the organism.

B. F. Skinner considered the socio-cultural environment as a set of reinforcement opportunities.

Due to differences in the socio-cultural environment, different patterns of behavior are reinforced. According to B.F. Skinner, what is called "personality" is nothing but consistent patterns of behavior that are the sum total of our reinforcement history.

Psychological concepts - teaching, learning, teaching describe a wide range of phenomena associated with the acquisition of experience, knowledge, skills, abilities in the process active relationship subject with the objective and social world - in behavior, activity, communication.

· When it comes to learning, then the researcher has in mind such aspects of this process as:

The gradual change

The role of the exercise

The specificity of learning compared to the innate characteristics of the individual.

For the first time, the patterns of learning established by experimental methods were established within the framework of behaviorism. They are:

· Law of readiness: the stronger the need, the more successful the learning.

· Law of effect: Behavior that leads to a beneficial action causes a decrease in need and therefore will be repeated.

· Law of exercise: all other things being equal, repeating a particular action makes it easier to commit a behavior and leads to faster execution and a decrease in the likelihood of errors.

· Law of Recency: it is better to memorize the material that is presented at the end of the series. Law of Conformity: there is a proportional relationship between the probability of response and the probability of reinforcement.

In doing so, important phenomena were investigated:

· Generalization- the conditioned response to the initially neutral stimulus extends to other stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus (the fear that arose for a particular dog then spreads to all dogs).

· Differentiation- a specific response to similar stimuli that differ in the degree of reinforcement (for example, differentiation of reactions to a circle and an ellipse).

· extinction- the destruction of the connection between the conditioned stimulus and the response, if it is not accompanied by reinforcement.

Definition of operant conditioning

operant conditioning is the process by which the characteristics of a response are determined by the consequences of that response.

Operant- this is not something that appears in the behavior already completely ready-made. It is the result of a continuous process of formation"

Principles of Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement is one of the principles of conditioning. Already from infancy, according to Skinner, human behavior can be regulated with the help of reinforcing stimuli. There are two different types of reinforcements. Operant conditioning is a term introduced by the American psychologist B.F. Skinner to designate a special way of forming conditional connections. In operant, as well as in respondent conditioning, there is generalization incentives. Generalization is an associative connection of a reaction that has arisen in the process of conditioning with stimuli similar to those to which the conditioned reflex was originally developed.

Sequential reinforcement- this is the development of complex actions by reinforcing actions that gradually become more and more similar to the final form of behavior that was supposed to be formed.

Reinforcement modes

The following reinforcement modes have been identified: continuous reinforcement- presentation of reinforcement each time the subject gives the desired response; intermittent, or partial, reinforcement.
Based on the two parameters, four modes of reinforcement have been described:

4. Constant ratio reinforcement regimen. Reinforcement is carried out in accordance with the established number (volume) of reactions.

5. Reinforcement mode with a constant interval. Reinforcement occurs only when a firmly established, fixed time interval has elapsed.

6. Variable ratio reinforcement regimen. In this mode, the body is reinforced on the basis of some predetermined number of reactions on average.

Reinforcement mode with variable interval. The individual is reinforced after an indefinite interval has passed.

Personal growth and development

As the child develops, his responses are internalized and remain under the control of reinforcing influences from the environment. In the form of reinforcing influences act - food, praise, emotional support, etc.

Psychopathology

Self-control includes two interdependent reactions:

9. A control response that affects the environment by changing the likelihood of secondary responses ("withdrawal" so as not to express "anger"; removal of food to wean from overeating).

· Goals of counseling:

· (1) Change inappropriate behavior.

· (2) Learning to make decisions.

· (3) Prevention of problems by anticipating the results of behavior.

· (4) Eliminate deficits in the behavioral repertoire.

· Stages of counseling:

· (1) Behavioral evaluation, collection of information about acquired actions.

· (2) Relaxation procedures (muscular, verbal, etc.).

· (3) Systematic desensitization - the association of relaxation with an image that causes anxiety.

(4) Assertiveness training

· (5) Reinforcement procedures.

Main subject

research Externally observable, accessible to observation and

measuring human behavior

Research methods Observation, experimental learning in problem

box, experimental behavior analysis

Basic concepts Behavior, respondent and operant learning,

principles of conditioning, reinforcement, encouragement

and punishment, reinforcement regimen, modification

behavior

Key Ideas The focus is on the influence of the external environment.

Great importance in the life of people operant

learning, in which behavioral models determine

share their consequences (nature of reinforcement),

those. behavior is explained in terms of incentives

and reinforcing consequences. Behavioral

reactions develop gradually and constantly

Development factors Social factor, learning

Valuable - Pushing the limits of learning theory to more

complex models of operant behavior

Drawing attention to the conditions of social

environment, to the characteristics of behavior reinforcement

individual

Wide practical application (modification

behavior, operant techniques for behavior correction

problems, programmed learning)

Directions of criticism - Attributing a decisive role in human development

century environmental influences

Fundamental rejection of the analysis of internal

(psychological) factors of behavior, cognitive

constituents

Skinner's ideas have found a fairly wide practical application. The strategy of successful successive approximation and positive reinforcement techniques formed the basis of methods for modifying the individual's behavior, behavioral training. Specific areas of application include coping with a variety of fears, anxiety and obsessions, restructuring destructive behavior, teaching communication skills, training in self-confidence, and biofeedback training in the treatment of anxiety, migraine, muscle tension, and hypertension. Operant techniques are applied to preschool children, to patients in psychiatric clinics, and to prisoners in prisons. The techniques of “token reward”, sensitization and desensitization, “off time”, or “time out” have become widely known. Programmed learning using a computer is based largely on the principles developed by Skinner. Many experts recognize the effectiveness of the "behavior construction technology", but at the same time emphasize the mechanistic nature of the method, the authoritarian tendencies of the leader and the disregard for internal factors of development (interests, feelings, thoughts of a person) and warn against excessively wide application of this method.

SELF-CHECK QUESTIONS:

1. What are the patterns of formation of new forms of behavior (from the standpoint of classical behaviorism)?

2. What is the ratio of biogenetic and behavioral ideas in psychology?

3. Compare learning according to the laws of classical conditioning and operant learning.

4. Give examples of different types of reinforcement for the normative behavior of a child and an adult.

5. How is the problem of age periodization of development solved in behavioral psychology?

6. What is behavior modification?

7. What is the specificity of the behavioral approach to the problem of socialization of children?

EXERCISE 1

Read an excerpt from J. Watson's article "Behaviorism", highlight in the text the concepts specific to behaviorism, the key provisions characteristic of this approach, paying attention to their formulations.

“In other words, behaviorism is supposed to become the laboratory of society. A circumstance that makes the work of a behaviorist difficult is that stimuli that did not initially evoke any response may subsequently elicit one. We call this the conditioning process (it used to be called habit formation). This difficulty forced the behaviorist to resort to the genetic method. In a newborn child, he observes the so-called physiological system of reflexes, or, better, innate reactions. Taking as a basis the entire inventory of unconditioned, unlearned reactions, he tries to turn them into conditional ones. At the same time, it is found that the number of complex unlearned reactions that appear at birth or shortly after it is relatively small. This leads to the necessity of completely rejecting the theory of instinct. Most of the complex responses that the old psychologists called instincts, such as crawling, climbing, tidiness, fighting (one could make a long list of them), are now considered built-in or conditioned. In other words, the behaviorist finds no more data that would support the existence of hereditary forms of behavior, as well as the existence of hereditary special abilities (musical, artistic, etc.). He believes that in the presence of relatively few innate reactions that are approximately the same in all children, and subject to mastery of the external and internal environment, it is possible to direct the formation of any child along a strictly defined path ”(Reader on the history of psychology. Period of open crisis (early 10s years - the middle of the 30s of the XX century).

Additional literature:

1. Vygotsky A.S. Preface to the Russian translation of the book by E. Thorndike “Principles of Education Based on Psychology” // Collected. cit.: In 6 vols. T. 1. S. 177-195.

2. Linde N.A. Psychotherapy in social work. M., 1992.

3. Rudestam K. Group psychotherapy. M., 1993.

4. Khyamyalyaynen Y. Education of parents. M., 1993.

Chapter VIII THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD AS A PROBLEM OF SOCIALIZATION: THEORIES OF SOCIAL LEARNING

“IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW SOMETHING IS ORGANIZED, SEE HOW IT WAS FORMED” HERACLITOUS OF EPHESIA, IV-V CENTURY BC The need to successfully pass on one's experience to the next generations made it necessary to empirically improve the learning procedure. Through learning, we gain knowledge, acquire language, form attitudes, values, fears, personality traits, and self-esteem. Learning (teaching, teaching) is the process of acquiring by the subject of new ways of carrying out behavior and activities, fixing and/or modifying them. By the time the experimental studies of the problem of learning in psychology began, there were already certain ordinary ideas about how and what should be taught. Skinner preferred to turn to spontaneous reactions, operants.

Skinner also believes that psychology, before attempting to understand and predict complex behavior, must turn to simple behavioral events. He argued that psychology, especially the field of learning, was not sufficiently developed in order to find justification for the construction of a large-scale, formalized theory. He stated that it is not necessary to conduct theoretically directed studies, since they provide "an explanation of the observed facts that appeal to events described in different terms and measured, if at all they can be measured, in different quantities" . He also challenged theories of human behavior that give psychologists a false sense of confidence in their knowledge and do not actually include the relationship between the process of behavior and the environmental circumstances that preceded this behavior.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in 1904 in Pennsylvania. The atmosphere in his family was warm and relaxed, teaching was respected, discipline was strict, and rewards were given when they were deserved. Skinner writes of his childhood: “I was always building roller scooters, steerable cars, merry-go-round sleds and slides. Again and again I tried to make a glider to fly myself. separate ripe berries from green ones. For many years I worked on perpetual motion machines. (He didn't work)" 1926 - Skinner received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Hamilton College.

As a student, Skinner did not take any psychology courses. After college, Skinner returned to his parents' house and tried to become a writer. But, his desire to be a writer did not lead to anything good: “I read aimlessly, built models of ships, played the piano, listened to the newly invented radio, scribbled humorous notes in the local newspaper, but did not write anything else and thought about visiting a psychiatrist » Eventually, Skinner gave up his career as a writer and enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology. In 1931, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, during which time Skinner worked hard and creatively and became known as one of the leading behaviorists in the United States.

Skinner was the author of many works. Among his books are: The Behavior of Organisms (1938); "Walden 2" (1948); Science and Human Behavior (1953); "Verbal Behavior" (1957); Reinforcement Regimes (1957); "Summation of Observations" (1961); "Teaching Technology" (1968); "Random Reinforcement" (1969); "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" (1971); "On Behaviorism" (1974); "Details of my life" (1976); Reflections: Behaviorism and Society (1978) and others. In Walden 2, Skinner describes a utopian community based on the control of behavior through the principles of reinforcement. Children were brought up in "air chambers" in public kindergartens. All adult members of society were considered the parents of all children. Private property has been abolished. In fact, there was no government. The division of labor disappeared, competition was not encouraged.

SKINNER The animal is placed in the so-called. "Skinner box" (a cramped cage that provides an opportunity only for those actions of the rat that the experimenter can control or observe). The rat must press the lever several times to receive a portion of food. This pressing is called an operant response. By rewarding (giving out food) for a certain number of clicks or for pressing at a certain interval, you can get stable ways of responding.

In 1944, the second daughter, Deborah, was born in the Skinner family, which greatly frightened Skinner's wife, who did not want more children. And then Skinner began to build a special device. At first, he called it "mechanical nanny", then the device received the trade name "air chamber". Skinner's device provided a unique living space for his newborn daughter - an environmentally controlled thermostat, an enclosed chamber with a safety glass viewing window, and a resilient floor with gauze padding that was easily changed as it got dirty. The child was kept in ideal conditions, comfortable for him, without any pajamas with fasteners and even without diapers. Deborah enjoyed extraordinary freedom of movement and grew up to be a strong, healthy child. In addition, the camera released Yvonne. She no longer needed to constantly monitor Deborah's condition, although at any time she had the opportunity to take the child out of the cell to hold it in her arms or play

BASIC PROPOSITIONS OF SKINNER'S THEORY Certain patterns (modes) of reinforcement generate characteristic and repeatable changes in the response, both in the reinforced response and during extinction. It has been experimentally proven that: a) conditioning can occur both with awareness and without awareness (i.e., a person learns to respond to a certain conditioned stimulus without being aware of this fact); b) conditioning is able to persist for a certain time, regardless of awareness and volitional efforts; c) conditioning is most effective if it occurs at the desire of a person and his readiness to cooperate in this process.

Theory provisions: emphasizing the role of the verbal environment in shaping human behavior A person in his behavior is constantly influenced by others. It is the influence of the environment (in which, what is very important, the person himself is included) determines the behavior, supports and modifies it. One of the specific features of social behavior is that the reinforcements that a person receives in response to his behavior depend only in part on his own behavior: the response depends not only on his action, but also on how it was perceived by others. Emphasis on Individuality, on Individual Human Behavior Skinner focuses on functional rather than structural analysis of personality; the main object of his theory and experiments is modifiable behavior.

! It is important to take into account the following. First, by control, Skinner means behavior modification (i.e., control is achieved through behavior modification, not through suppression of unwanted behavior). Secondly, he attached importance to the genetic conditioning of the organism's sensitivity to reinforcement and recognized the existence of individual differences in the ease or difficulty of conditioning other specific forms of behavior; moreover, he believed that some forms of behavior have only a genetic basis, so they are not subject to modification under the influence of experience. Thirdly, Skinner recognized as a scientific fact that there is no rigid relationship between stimulus and response, so the same stimulation does not necessarily produce the same behavior.

PERSONALITY IN SKINNER'S THEORY Personality is defined by Skinner as the sum of patterns of behavior, a set of responses, and is the result of learning and unique innate abilities. According to Skinner. Environmental Exposure Determines Our Reinforced Behavior In order to explain behavior (and thus implicitly understand personality), we need to analyze the functional relationship between visible action and visible people as consequences in behavioral analysis. an organism that has an acquired set of behavioral responses.

Skinner did not single out structural variables of personality; he is interested in modifiable behavior. Replacing an undesirable type of behavior with another, more acceptable and normal, method of relearning, which is carried out by manipulating the environment using operant conditioning techniques. Modeling speeds up the process of "desired" behavior: the desired "complex" behavior is broken down into successive stages and gradually worked out, step by step, from simple to complex. In this regard, positive personal changes are the ability of the individual: to minimize the influence of negative factors for his behavior and life activity, to develop control over the external environment that is useful for him.

GENERAL ASSESSMENT. CONCLUSIONS Applications: Ø Ø Ø Rocket control, space technology, psychopharmacology, psychoactive drug testing, behavioral drug research, educational technology including psycholinguistics and verbal behavior, child development, development of experimental cultures or societies, industrial management, including job satisfaction and workplace relationships among employees, therapeutic treatment of psychological problems (eg, alcoholism, drug addiction, mental retardation, childhood autism, phobias, eating disorders). The most effective examples are the use of positive reinforcement conditioning techniques with autistic children, with psychotic patients. In this case, therapists a) deal with the actual behavior of the patient, not his internal states, b) consider the symptom as a disease, in the sense that it must be modified and removed.

According to Skinner, operant conditioning can be used not only to control other people's behavior, but also to control one's own behavior, to improve society, and to "make people happy." Self-control can be achieved by creating conditions for the desired behavior to be reinforced. Sheremetyevo Airport, Behavioral Therapy Center. Psychological assistance to passengers suffering from aerophobia. 2013 Photo: Transaero.

Criticism: q the experiment is carried out with relatively simple organisms, with a relatively simple history, and in relatively simple environmental conditions - does not allow explaining such complex forms of behavior that are associated with the thinking processes that form the inner world of a person (sometimes to solve the problems of an individual specific person alone behavioral methods alone may not be enough); q gap between theory and practice; q ignoring the fact that the organism is not a “tabula rasa”, whose final state is determined only by stimulus-response stereotypes; q does not give stable results; q low external validity is caused by experiments in laboratory conditions, the results of which are difficult to transfer to natural conditions.

The merit of operant learning: q the main merit is the application of the ideas of programmed learning in pedagogy; q more “deep” translation of psychology to the level of objective scientific knowledge; q a solid foundation in the form of laboratory data obtained under carefully controlled conditions, a detailed specification of the learning process and the desire to resolve contradictions not by calls, but by experiments; the possibility of correcting mental disorders acquired as a result of erroneous past learning (no matter how self-destructive or pathological a person’s behavior may be - it is the result of the influence of the environment that reinforces and strengthens it. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the desired new behavior and determine the reinforcement regimens that are required, to shape this behavior) - the so-called. "token system" q