Burres Frederick Skinner(1904-1990) was born in Susquehania, Pennsylvania, where he lived until he entered college. His childhood passed in an atmosphere of love and tranquility. He loved his school and always arrived early in the morning. In childhood and adolescence, he was fond of creating a variety of objects. He also read a lot about animal behavior and kept a zoo at home.
Skinner went to Hamilton College in New York, but did not like it there. Despite his rebelliousness, Skinner successfully graduated from college with a degree in English, Phi Beta Kappa membership, and aspirations to become a writer. For two years after graduating from college, Skinner engaged in literary activities.
After reading about the experiments of Watson and Pavlov on the formation of conditioned reflexes, Skinner turned sharply from the literary aspects of human behavior to the scientific ones. In 1928, he entered the graduate school of Harvard University in psychology - despite the fact that he had never taken a psychology course before. Three years later he received his Ph.D. Upon completion of his scientific work, after defending his doctoral dissertation, he taught at the University of Minnesota (1936-1945) and the University of Indiana (1945-1974), after which he returned to Harvard.
At the age of 78, Skinner wrote an article titled "How to Maintain Intelligence in Old Age" in which he referred to his own experience.
In 1989, Skinner was diagnosed with leukemia. Two months later, he died at the age of 86.
Scientific analysis of behavior. Behavior, like any other phenomenon, can be investigated by natural science methods. It has its own patterns, and therefore predictable and manageable.
Personality is the sum of patterns (reactions) of behavior. Each behavioral response is based on previous experience and genetic code.
Conditioning and reinforcement. Reactive conditioning is reflex behavior; The body automatically responds to the stimulus.
Skinner was more interested in the process that follows the reaction, operational conditioning. This is something more than a reaction, it is one of the mechanisms of behavior. Operational conditioning is at the heart of learning. Encouraging or punishing, you can form a certain stereotype of behavior. And not only in animals (training), but also in people.
Reinforcement - any stimulus that increases the likelihood of a certain (pre-programmed) response, shapes and regulates behavior (it can be positive or negative). In humans, the word is also a powerful reinforcement stimulus. Therefore, power, glory, on the one hand, and fear, humiliation, etc., join the basic reinforcements.
Explanatory fiction. When the true causes of behavior are not understood, they are explained by false (fictitious) mechanisms. The most common fictions are: "autonomous person", "freedom", "dignity", "creativity". Fictions mask the true mechanisms of behavior.
Behavior management. To predict behavior means to study its mechanisms. Behavior management is based on learning and changing the environment. Skinner viewed the human body as a black box. The input (stimulus) and output (behavior) are known. What goes on inside the box is largely a mystery.
In his research on operant conditioning, Skinner came to the following conclusions:
- Conditioning most often occurs outside the realm of consciousness. Our individual perception depends on past perceptions (culture, traditions) as well as experience. They layer gay on top of each other and create a base for behavior that we often don't realize.
- Conditioning is maintained outside of consciousness. Many decisions and the resulting behavioral responses are associated with unconscious perception.
- Conditioning is most effective (and reaches a new level) when the elements of the unconscious are combined with the conscious (the unconscious becomes conscious).
Social relations. There is nothing in social behavior that distinguishes it from all other behavior. It is only characteristic that two or more people interact. The behavior of an individual depends on the behavior of the people around him. He paid much attention to "verbal communication", it most of all contributes to feedback.
Skinner's work laid the psychological and methodological foundations of modern programmed learning:
- each student works at his own pace (choleric - quickly, phlegmatic - slowly);
- the student moves on to more complex material only when he has mastered the simpler one;
- thanks to the existing correct answer “the student is always right”, he does not have a feeling of inferiority (“sit down, mediocrity, deuce”);
- the student is constantly active and receives immediate confirmation of his success;
- the question is always formulated in a qualified manner and in such a form that the student understands its essence;
- machine answers always have a hierarchy of accuracy, provide a choice, and are educational in nature.
29.08.2017 14:33
Many of the methods of psychotherapy are based on the principles of learning. At the beginning of the development of behavioral psychotherapy, it was based on the concept of Pavlov's conditioned reflexes. According to behaviorists, human behavior is a set of conditioned reflexes and it is better not to interfere with the “closed work” of the brain. With incorrect training of the patient, his formed conditioned reflexes will lead to low-adaptive behavior, which, in turn, will lead to neurosis. The main goal of behavioral therapy is the gradual extinction of maladaptive reflexes that form incorrect behavior, and the formation of reflexes that contribute to correct behavior and getting rid of neuroticism.
Behaviorists believe that most of a person's life is the result of his learning. A person tries with all sorts of tricks to bypass those situations that he is afraid of and because of this he does not receive the necessary experience. Fear becomes less and such behavior is reinforced. But as a result of this, the basic needs of the body are not realized. For example, a young guy gets nervous when he asks a girl out on a date. In order not to experience stress, he stops talking to girls. Fear does not bother him, but now he has problems meeting the necessary needs. In any case, such a situation ends badly - nervous tics, sweating, obsessive thoughts, excitement appear - all this is a manifestation of psychopathology. In behaviorism, this is a variant of behavior.
The first behavioral treatment method in history, implemented in 1973 by D. Wolpe, was systematic desensitization. Its essence lies in the fact that the patient is taught to gradually relax the muscles. In conversations and work with the patient, those moments and situations that can cause stress and fear are revealed. If the patient begins to succeed in relaxing, he is asked to imagine a situation in a relaxed moment that gives rise to unpleasant and exciting emotions. When a person overcomes this situation, he is asked to imagine a more difficult situation. If possible, it is better to arrange such procedures in places that are close in atmosphere to the situation that causes fear. If a person has agrophobia, then after working through the situation in your thoughts, you can go out with him into the streets and cross roads, carefully, starting with small ones, with calm movement.
Despite the fact that behavioral therapy has clear parameters of recovery, it has not developed properly in our country.
Today, psychology does not seem to us without psychometric methods that were created and developed by behaviorists. On the basis of Skinner's and Thorndike's theories of operant conditioning, psychological methods were developed that greatly influenced the development of pedagogy.
Operant conditioning is the process of transmitting stimuli in communication. When communicating, one person transmits a stimulus to another, in response to which the opponent has a reaction, expressed in behavior. In this case, such a reaction will be the cause leading to the answer of the first person. If ineffective interaction occurs between people, then incorrect forms of behavior are formed, which can eventually result in illness.
An exemplary communication scheme is reflected in the following.
Stimulus - reaction
Consider a simple example - a child wants to be bought a toy, but the parents refuse. He begins to cry excitedly, fall, hysteria, his parents cannot calm him down, give up and buy what they want. Such a reaction of the parents will serve as a positive incentive for further action, the child will now throw tantrums on less significant occasions, which, in turn, will lead to psychological and physical problems. Such conclusions were first voiced by B. Skinner, a recognized American psychologist. Today, behavioral therapy is used not only in therapeutic practice, but also in educational institutions, somatic medical institutions, sports organizations and production teams. They do not change the state, but change the behavior, which ultimately leads to a change in state.
In his youth, Skinner dreamed of a career as a writer, but his relationship with prose did not work out at all. He went to study at the Harvard School in the Department of Psychology, where absolutely all the time was busy with studies, no entertainment and parties. After graduation, he went to work as a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, a little later he began teaching.
Skinner's major work The Behavior of Organisms was published in 1938, after which he became a leading theorist. The direction of neobehaviorism is associated with his name. At the end of his life he was engaged in writing. Some of his interesting works are - "On Behaviorism", "Science and Human Behavior" and "Teaching Technology".
Skinner suggested that man is close enough to animals, more than he thinks. And the study of philosophy prompted him to think that behaviorism is not only the science of human behavior, it is its philosophy. He believed that personality is a set of forms of behavior. Depending on the situation, this or that reaction will be shown. Any individual reaction contains a past lived experience. Skinner studied human behavior, without touching on its motives and causes.
Fundamentals of Behavioral Therapy
Consider the concepts used in behavioral therapy
Reactive conditioning - or otherwise - a conditioned reflex. Recall a simple experiment - in the process of learning, dogs begin to salivate in response to a created conditioned stimulus. It is also possible for a person when he sees delicious food. But still, man is not as similar to animals as Skinner believed. If the animal's reinforcement disappears, then reactive conditioning disappears with it. Everything is more difficult with a person, despite the lack of reinforcement, he can continue to do the same out of habit - for example, look for money where he once found them. This process is called operant conditioning—that is, the formation and maintenance of a particular behavior through its consequences.
Consider an example
A woman suffering from hysterical neurosis constantly had fainting spells. To help her, they turned to a psychotherapist. On another occasion, the doctor was able to bring her out of a state of fainting and talked with the patient for some time, after which she became cheerful and even cheerful. For some time the doctor did not come, but later the fainting recurred again, and he was called. The situation repeated itself - everything ended successfully - a good conversation. After that, fainting began to happen more often than usual. Thus, pleasant conversations with the doctor served as a reinforcement for the patient to increase the frequency of fainting. Realizing this, the doctor next time refused to talk, explaining that he considered it useless to talk immediately after a faint, since at that time blood circulation was disturbed in the brain and therefore understanding was inhibited. Talking is only possible after a few weeks. Stopping the conversations became a negative reinforcer for changing the inappropriate behavior. The patient passed out of fainting, after a couple of weeks she discussed her problems with the doctor, after which they always talked once every two weeks.
This reward is a stimulus or reinforcer that influences responses and behavior. But it can be not only positive, but also negative. Positive reinforcement increases the desired response, while negative reinforcement decreases the unwanted one.
The role of reinforcement is great in the upbringing of children and pedagogy. It is important to use reinforcement correctly so that it helps the development of the child. For example, a solution to a child's literacy problem could be a monetary reward for reprinting professional (for example, psychological) texts without errors. With this approach, the child improves his literacy and at the same time learns new material that he can apply in later life.
Behaviorists did not look for causes in behavior, neobehaviorists said that behavior is an explanatory fiction. The latter include the following concepts:
autonomous person- this fiction says that a person has an "inner being" that controls the energy within the personality.
Liberty- a fiction that people can use to explain behavior if the reasons for it are not exactly known.
For example, after hypnosis, a person cannot remember how the process of suggestion took place, but when explaining his actions, he says that it was his free decision.
Dignity (also known as reputation)- a fiction, thanks to which people divide actions and activities into worthy and unworthy.
Creation is also an explanatory fiction. According to Skinner, such activities are no different from other human activities. An example is the writing of poetry by a poet and the incubation of eggs by a chicken. They feel equally good after the actions performed.
Skinner argued that behavior is manageable. Positive behavior should be stimulated with rewards, and wrong actions should be stopped with punishments. But the big minus of punishments is that they only tell you what not to do, but do not explain how to behave. Therefore, punishment is a hindrance in the process of learning, because the form of behavior followed by punishment does not leave without a trace, it remains and manifests itself in other actions. At the same time, new actions allow evading punishment and are a response to it.
If you often resort to punishment, then the initial effect of it will pass, since the punished one, who at the beginning shows a good result, may later rebel. Punishment brings little benefit to both the punisher and the punished.
Skinner believed that behavior is formed on the presentation of the desired result. It is worth carefully monitoring the behavior of people in order to understand the true causes of behavior, in which needs and goals are hidden.
Behaviorists have concluded that conditioning can take place outside of consciousness. Skinner suggested that the role of consciousness in behavior may not be so great, but still, for conditioning to be most effective, it must be recognized.
Skinner developed methods of programmed learning, during which each person learns at his own pace, and only after complete assimilation of the material and completion of tasks, he moves on to more complex ones. This method allows the student to understand everything at every moment of learning and be ready to answer or complete the task.
What do we understand about behaviorism?
The goal of behavioral therapy is to teach people to respond to situations in life in the way they want to respond.
therapy does not interfere with the emotional basis of the relationship of the individual
all complaints of the patient in behaviorism are considered important information about him, and not symptoms at all
the patient and the doctor set certain goals in such a way that they know the time when they will be achieved
Skinner often expressed the idea that there is less need to work with internal causes, that behavioral therapy can be the basis for the management of infinite power. Such statements led many to accuse behaviorism of trying to control the personality, doctors refused to apply these principles in their work.
But for successful practice, not all principles of behaviorism can be applied, but only those that can benefit patients. In the study of behavioral therapy, it was found that qualitative improvements in patients are observed only with internal rearrangements in the personality structure. To make this happen, it is quite logical and justified to use behavioral methods. Today, techniques have been developed in which these methods are used in a complex treatment system.
Also, the methods of behavioral therapy have found their application in the ideas of NLP. Behaviorists have indeed reprogrammed behavior, but always only in order to correct it for the better. All people in communication influence each other, and behaviorists believed that the best thing to do is to learn how to competently influence human behavior.
The efficiency and effectiveness of the behaviorists' methods were obvious and undeniable, but disagreements arose over the rights of hospital patients, prisoners, and young men. Those doctors who nevertheless decided to use behavioral methods in their practice were condemned and criticized, colleagues questioned their competence, interpreting even successful results of treatment in their own way.
Skinner's research and the work of other neobehaviorists greatly influenced the development of psychology and pedagogy. Based on new theories, schools of psychotherapy, techniques and teaching practices arose. Our country was closed, unfortunately, from these new currents.
But even in Western countries, Skinner's theories were heavily criticized in the media, the reason for this was his denial of creativity, personality and freedom. Philosophers criticized him for the fact that he did not cover and considered the problems of the inner world of the individual, psychologists for the fact that, in principle, he did not study many other problems.
Despite all this, Skinner was able to justify his vision of human nature, without taking into account intuitive moments and references to divine providence.
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, of course, 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 plays the role of a kind of social inventor describing a society in which the knowledge of how to get people to react in certain ways 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.
SKINNER
Berres Frederick (Skinner B.F., 1904-1990). Renowned psychologist, leader of modern behaviorism. S. was born in 1904 in Saxuehanna, Pennsylvania, USA. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1926. He received his Ph.D. in 1931 from Harvard University. Since 1948 - professor at Harvard University, member of the National Academy of Sciences.
S. put forward the concept of operant learning, according to which the body acquires new reactions due to the fact that he reinforces them, and only after that the external stimulus causes the reaction. In I. P. Pavlov, whose ideas influenced S., the reaction occurs in response to a stimulus, that is, a conditioned or unconditioned stimulus; in a "Skinner box" the animal first makes a reaction, and only then it is reinforced.
Since 1930, Mr.. S. studied the operant behavior of animals and proposed a number of original instruments and techniques. Calling verbal behavior purely human, that is, having specific properties, S. considered it possible to extend to humans the methods used in experimental research on animals without subjecting them to significant modification (Science and Human Behavior, 1953). Views on the nature of the learning process were then transferred from laboratory conditions and embodied in the concept of programmed learning ("Teaching Technology", 1968), covering the assimilation of speech, learning at school. Since the 50s. methods of operant behaviorism have spread to psychotherapeutic practice (behavioral psychotherapy).
Later, S. developed the idea of managing behavior and created a technology of behavior, the purpose of which was to resolve social problems and reorganize society by modifying human behavior by means of external control. This is the subject of his book "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" (1971), which was criticized in different countries, including ours. This concept is called social behaviorism.
In the 70s. S.’s works were published, summarizing his previous ideas: “On Behaviorism” (1974), “Autobiography: in 2 volumes.” (1976).
A number of methods of behavioral psychotherapy - positive reinforcement, extinction, some aversive techniques - are based on the model of operant conditioning.
Psychotherapeutic encyclopedia. - St. Petersburg: Peter. B. D. Karvasarsky. 2000 .
See what "SKINNER" is in other dictionaries:
Skinner, Burres Frederic (Eng. Burrhus Frederic Skinner, 1904 1990) American psychologist. Skinner, Brett (Eng. Brett Skinner, b. 1983) Canadian ice hockey player. Skinner, Jethro (Eng. Jethro Skinner, born 1977) English actor. ... ... Wikipedia
- (Skinner) Berres Frederick (b. 20. 3. 1904, Saxuehanna, Pennsylvania, USA), Amer. psychologist, leader behaviorism. He opposed neo-behaviorism, believing that psychology should limit itself to describing externally observable ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
- (Skinner) Berres Frederick (03/20/1904, Saxuehanna, Pennsylvania) American psychologist, since 1974 professor of psychology at Harvard University, representative of behaviorism. Developed an original technique and methodology for studying behavior ... ... Encyclopedia of Sociology
- (Skinner) Burres Frederick (1904–90), American psychologist, leader of modern behaviorism. He put forward the concept of operant, reinforced learning, proposed a number of methods for experimental study of animal behavior. Performed with... ... Modern Encyclopedia
- (Skinner) Burres Frederick (1904-90), American physiologist who developed the concept of instrumental reinforcement of CONDITIONAL REFLEXES. He put forward the concept of operant learning, according to which the body acquires new reactions due to the fact that itself ... ... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary
skinner, b.- Skinner, B. (1904 1990) American psychologist, author of the concept of "operant behaviorism", one of the central concepts of which is "operant conditioning". This concept denotes a special way of formation of conditioned reflexes, ... ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia
Skinner- Behaviorism and Skinner After Watson, behaviorism split into several different directions. We can say that the epistemological basis of Watson's ideas is close to pragmatism, and the epistemological basis of later behaviorism is close to ... ... Western philosophy from its origins to the present day
- (Skinner) Berres Frederick (b. 20.3.1904, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA), American psychologist, leader of modern Behaviorism. Professor (since 1939) at the Universities of Minnesota, Indiana and Harvard. Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Performed…… Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- ... Wikipedia
- ... Wikipedia
Books
- valueweb. How fintech companies are using blockchain and mobile technologies to create an internet of value, Skinner K. A new book from the author of The Digital Bank about the third generation of the Internet - or ValueWeb - allowing machines and consumers to trade, exchange and share value in real…
- The origins of modern political thought. The Age of the Reformation Volume 2. Quentin Skinner, Skinner K. The second volume of Quentin Skinner's two-volume work is devoted to the study of the political thought of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The author traces the main stages in the development of Lutheranism and Calvinism,…
In 1972, the members of the American Psychological Association (already numbering one hundred thousand at the time) were asked to name the most prominent psychologists of the 20th century. In their almost unanimous opinion, this honorary list was headed by B.F. Skinner, ahead of even Freud (he was named second). Probably, the great-power narcissism of the Americans also played a role here. However, if in such an assessment an exaggeration was allowed, then a small one. Skinner is a truly outstanding psychologist, and if not the first, then one of the first. His influence on world psychology, on the whole complex of human sciences (not least on pedagogy) is enormous. One can treat his radical ideas in different ways (and he was constantly reproached for radicalism), but in the analysis of the world psychological thought of the outgoing century, they should by no means be discounted.
OUTSTANDING MIND
Burres (such a Russian spelling is accepted for the rare name Burrhus) Frederick Skinner was born in the town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, on March 20, 1904. As he himself noted in his autobiography, which was published in the 5th volume of the famous History of Psychology in Autobiographies (1967), he was brought up in a warm and friendly family atmosphere. However, there was strict discipline in the family. The general positive attitude was achieved due to the fact that parents did not abuse punishments, but, on the contrary, maintained discipline and order, each time encouraging and rewarding those deeds that deserved it. Probably, this style of relationship subsequently influenced the formation of Skinner's psychological and pedagogical views: he always assigned a decisive role to the so-called positive reinforcement.
In childhood and adolescence, the interests of the future psychologist were extremely diverse and completely unsystematic. Like many boys, he was fond of experimenting with mechanical devices, tried to make a homemade pneumatic gun, even designed a sophisticated multi-block design for ... neatly hanging his own pajamas.
In these interests, his biographers see (although this seems to be a stretch) a foreshadowing of the extreme mechanism of his future theories. At home, he arranged a whole terrarium, where he kept several toads, lizards, turtles and even snakes.
He managed to play in the school orchestra, in his youth he was considered a good saxophonist. But the young Skinner paid the greatest attention to literature. Already at the age of fourteen, based on a rigorous analysis of Shakespeare's plays, he put forward his own hypothesis about their authorship, which he attributed to Bacon. Similar hypotheses have been put forward before and after, but it is characteristic that an American schoolboy came to this conclusion with his own mind, which in itself characterizes this mind as very extraordinary. How many eighth graders do you know who are capable of such conclusions, and who have even read Bacon? And Skinner delved into the Baconian philosophy of science with particular attention, admiring the English thinker's belief in the possibility of a scientific solution to practical life problems.
YOUTH SEARCH
Skinner was known among his peers for his amazing work ethic.
From a young age, he spent most of the day in the laboratory
Skinner received his higher education at Hamilton College, a small liberal arts school in New York State. Here he specialized in the field of English language and literature, intending to devote himself to literary creativity in the future. He retained not the most pleasant memories of his student years. Many things in the curriculum annoyed him, especially the obligatory daily services (religiousness was absolutely alien to him throughout his life).
He failed to get close to his classmates, because he considered them (probably not unreasonably) to be limited people, with low spiritual demands. While they indulged in simple youthful amusements, he read Joyce and Proust with rapture. However, Skinner sometimes took an active part in student pranks, and after several risky pranks organized on his initiative, the young man was almost expelled from college. He still managed to graduate from college, in 1926 he received a bachelor's degree.
It should be noted that at Hamilton College, psychology was taught as an elective. Skinner did not attend these classes, his interest in psychology was formed later. And in those years, he seriously planned his literary career. Acquaintance with the famous poet Robert Frost further strengthened him in this intention. Frost believed that the young man showed great promise as a writer, and warmly admonished him. This prediction was not destined to come true. After graduating from college, Skinner spent quite a bit of time in creative pursuits, until he finally came to the disappointing conclusion that he had "absolutely nothing to say."
MILESTONES OF A SCIENTIFIC CAREER 
By the end of the 1930s, young Skinner acquired
fame as one of the leading behaviorists
At this moment there was a sharp reorientation from the field of art to the field of science, which, as he realized, is the "art of the twentieth century." In 1928, Skinner entered Harvard University in the psychology department. He was aware that he had lost a lot of time and, in terms of psychological erudition, was far behind his university comrades. Therefore, he set for himself the strictest, truly Spartan regimen of training sessions, completely denying himself leisure: he set aside 15 minutes a day for extracurricular activities. This dedication paid off. In 1931, Skinner received his doctorate and published his first serious scientific study, immediately pushing him to the forefront of behavioral psychology.
From 1931 to 1936, Skinner did scientific work at Harvard. He concentrated his efforts on the study of animal behavior. In 1936 he took up a teaching position at the University of Minnesota and remained there until 1945. In the fall of 1945, he became chair of psychology at Indiana State University, a post he held until 1947, after which he returned to Harvard as a lecturer. He worked there until he retired in 1974.
BEHAVIOR AND REINFORCEMENT
Skinner's scientific bibliography is very extensive: for half a century he has written 19 major monographs and many articles. But the earliest publication that brought him fame is usually mentioned even in the shortest lists of his writings. This is a small article "The concept of a reflex in descriptions of behavior." Here, for the first time, the conditioned reflex was interpreted not as a real act of life activity inherent in it in itself, but as a derivative of the experimenter's operations.
In one of his subsequent works, Skinner wrote that in his entire life he had only one idea, and this idea is expressed by the term "management" ("control"), meaning the management of behavior. The experimenter can cope with this task only if he controls all the variables under the influence of which the behavior of the organism is formed and changed. He loses power over his object when he admits its dependence on hypothetical internal factors that elude direct observation. Therefore, only directly fixed relationships between experimentally controlled stimuli and subsequent reactions are of interest to science.
According to Skinner, science is forced to resort to hypotheses and deductive theories where its objects are phenomena that are inaccessible to direct perception. Psychology is in a better position. The interaction of factors generating behavioral responses can be directly seen.
However, this requires special experimental setups and schemes. They are like optical instruments that can detect events hidden from the naked eye. Skinner considered such a device to be the experimental box he invented (later called, despite the protests of the inventor himself, the Skinner box), in which a rat or a pigeon, by pressing a lever or button, receives reinforcement. The lever is connected to a recorder that registers movement.
Pressing the lever is considered as a sample and an independent unit of the "operant reaction" - very convenient for fixation, since it can always be unambiguously determined whether it has occurred or not. Additional devices allow you to connect reinforcements with various signals (sound, light, etc.).
The scheme of experience can be complicated. For example, instead of one lever, there are two in front of the rat, thereby putting it in a situation of choice. From this rather simple set of elements, a wide variety of behavior management plans are compiled. So, the rat presses the lever, but gets food only when the light bulb lights up. As a result, in the future, under the light of a light bulb, the reaction rate increases markedly. Or food is given out only when pressed with a certain force. In the future, movements of the required force appear more and more often. You can connect movements in a chain (say, a reaction to a green color leads to the appearance of a new stimulus - a red color, the motor response to which is reinforced). The experimenter can also vary widely the timing and order of positive and negative reinforcement by constructing various "reinforcement plans".
ACCOUNTING AND CONTROL
In his experiments, Skinner clearly preferred experimenting on animals, mainly pigeons and rats, believing that the difference between humans and animals is actually not at all fundamental.
Skinner had a negative attitude towards statistical generalizations, believing that only a careful fixation of the reactions of an individual organism would solve the main problem of psychology - to predict and control the behavior of specific individuals.
Statistical data concerning the group (sample) are insufficient for conclusions that have predictive power in relation to each of its members. The frequency of responses and their strength are captured by curves, which, according to Skinner, exhaust all that positive science can say about behavior. As an example of this type of research, Skinner's work, carried out by him jointly with C. Foerster, “Reinforcement Plans” (1957), was proposed, in which data were collected in 921 diagrams on 250 million reactions continuously produced by experimental pigeons for 70,000 hours.
Like most behaviorists, Skinner believed that recourse to physiology was useless for studying the mechanisms of behavior. Meanwhile, his own concept of "operant conditioning" was formed under the influence of Pavlov's teachings. Recognizing this, Skinner distinguished between two types of conditioned reflexes. He suggested classifying the conditioned reflexes studied by the Pavlovian school as type S. This designation indicated that in the classical Pavlovian scheme, the reaction occurs only in response to the impact of some stimulus (S), that is, a stimulus. 
Skinner's box of various designs "accompanied" its creator throughout his creative life.
Behavior in the "Skinner box" was classified as type R and called operant. Here the animal first produces a reaction (R) and then the reaction is reinforced. During the experiments, significant differences were established between the dynamics of the type R reaction and the development of the salivary reflex according to the Pavlovian method.
According to Skinner, the limitation of the traditional behavioral formula S - R is that it does not take into account the influence of the results of the reaction on subsequent behavior. The reaction is considered only as a derivative of the stimulus, only as a consequence, but not as a determinant that transforms the organism. An adequate formula for the interaction of an organism with the environment, Skinner wrote, must always take into account three factors: 1) the event about which the reaction occurs, 2) the reaction itself, 3) reinforcing consequences. These relationships are incomparably more complex than the relationship between stimulus and response.
OPERATING TECHNIQUE
Thus, the fundamental importance of the transition from a linear idea of behavior to the assertion of the role of feedback in the construction of reactions was outlined. This role was played by reinforcement, which selects and modifies reactions.
Developed by Skinner and his followers, the technique of "operant conditioning" has been widely used in the United States in various fields of practice. The intention to apply the principles of operant behaviorism to the solution of practical problems of various kinds has given this direction wide popularity far beyond the boundaries of psychology. Operant technique began to be used in the education of mentally retarded children, the treatment of neurotics and the mentally ill. In all cases, behavior modification is achieved through incremental reinforcement. For example, the patient is rewarded for every action that leads step by step to the goal provided by the treatment regimen.
During the years of World War II, the observation of trained pigeons pecking food led Skinner to the invention of special guided projectiles. However, this invention has not been put into practice. (This idea by Skinner was parodied by Danish filmmakers many years ago: in the comedy Hit First, Freddy!, specially trained pigeons were replaced in the belly of a rocket with ordinary carrier pigeons, which are accustomed ... to return home.)
PROGRAMMED LEARNING
In pedagogy, Skinner's ideas have found extremely wide application. He himself explained this phenomenon by chance, as well as all his achievements (true to his theory, he assessed everything that happens in life as a consequence of the prevailing circumstances).
On November 11, 1953, after attending an arithmetic class at his daughter's school, Skinner, as he recalls in his autobiography, became distraught: “Suddenly the situation seemed completely absurd to me. Feeling no guilt, the teacher violated almost all the laws discovered by scientists regarding the learning process.
Impressed by this picture, Skinner began to think about reinforcement factors that could be used to improve the teaching of school subjects, and designed a series of teaching machines. So there was a direction called programmed learning. Its rapid development met the needs of the era of the scientific and technological revolution.
True, the idea of optimizing learning and using special machines for this purpose is not inextricably linked with any particular psychological concept. As for Skinner's theory, it was able (unlike other psychological systems) to become the basis for research work on programmed learning, due to the fact that it introduced the principle of dividing the process of solving a learning problem into separate operations, each of which is controlled by a reinforcement that serves as a feedback signal. .
The vulnerability of Skinner's "learning technology" was that it introduced into pedagogical theory and practice the idea inherent in all behaviorism about the identity of the mechanisms of behavior modification in all living beings. The controversy of this position was especially sharply exposed in Skinner's interpretation of those higher forms of mental activity that since ancient times have been considered purely human property, namely speech acts.
SPEECH AND REACTION OF THE RAT
In Verbal Behavior (1957), Skinner develops the concept that language acquisition occurs according to the general laws of the formation of operant conditioned reflexes. When one organism produces speech sounds, the other organism reinforces them (positively or negatively), thereby controlling the process of acquiring stable meanings for these sounds. The latter, according to Skinner, can belong to one of two sections - indicate either the subject in which the speaking individual feels the need, or the subject with which this individual comes into contact.
This concept was sharply criticized by the well-known American linguist Noem Chomsky, who showed that attempts to explain the production of speech by the type of operant reactions of a rat pressing a lever are not only incompatible with the linguistic interpretation of language as a special system, but also render meaningless the concepts of stimulus that are key to behaviorism. reactions, reinforcement. And although most specialists in the field of language theory in this controversy gravitate more towards the position of Chomsky, Skinner himself considered Verbal Behavior to the end of his days the most successful and convincing work.
PIONEER, LEADER, MASTER
No less, and perhaps even more acute controversy was caused by another work of Skinner - the social utopia "Walden 2".
In this book, combining his literary inclinations and psychological findings, Skinner depicted in a fictional form the prospects for creating a new just social order using the technique of operant conditioning.
Despite the humanistic intent, the analogy with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was seen in Walden 2 so clearly that the most exalted publicists wrote Skinner almost into fascists. However, life itself put everything in its place. The communes, created according to the model proposed by Skinner, did not last long: it turned out to be not very comfortable to live in them. However, as in the communes of flower children, who professed diametrically opposed principles. Perhaps this is the fate of all social utopias.
Skinner, in fact, gave a lot of criticism. However, the names of his critics (with the exception of Chomsky and, perhaps, Rogers) are unlikely to be preserved in the history of psychology, and Skinner remains one of the most frequently cited authors to this day. The Gold Medal awarded to him in 1971 by the American Psychological Association barely contained the eulogy: “B.F. Skinner, a pioneer in psychological research, a leader in theory, a master of technology who has revolutionized the study of behavior."
B.F. Skinner died of leukemia on August 18, 1990.
None of his works has yet been translated into Russian.
