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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface………………………………………………………………….…….......4
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………….………...6
About the Author……………………………………………………….………...8
Bio-Data of the Author………………………………………………….………..9
PART- I
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
Two Models Of Man……………………………...……...…....……….12
Behaviorism and Phenomenology………………………….……………..…….13
Chapter 2
The Developing Viewpoints....……………...………………...…..……15
PART II
A SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY: B. F. SKINNER
Chapter 3
Historical and Philosophical Background ………………….……......23
An Overview of Skinner's Scientific Psychology…………………….……...….24
Historical & Philosophical Background of Behaviorism...………………....…..25
Thorndike and Connectionism………………………………………….…....….25
Pavlov and Classical Conditioning…………………………………….……..…27
Watson and Behaviorism………………………………………………….…….28
Skinner and Operant Conditioning………………………………………..….…29
Chapter 4
The Process Of Learning: Skinner's Scientific Analysis Of
Behavior…………………………………………………………...…....31
Two Kinds of Learning (Classical & Operant Conditioning)…….…….............32
Superstitious behavior………………………………………………….……......33
Positive and Negative Reinforcers……………………………………..…....…..34
Extinction…………………………………………………………………....…..35
Schedules of Reinforcement…………………………………………......….......35
Primary and Secondary Reinforcers…………………………………..….....…...37
Generalized Reinforcers…………………………………………….….…..…....38
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Ecape and Avoidance Conditioning………………………………….……….....38
Stimulus Generalization………………………………………………..…..........39
Stimulus Discrimination ....………………………………..………...….….…....39
Response Generalization……………………………………………….….…….39
Response Differentiation……………...……………………….……....…….......40
Punishment………………………………………………………………….…...40
Chaining……………………………………………………………….……..….41
Imitation…………………………………………………………….……..…….41
Chapter 5
Implication For Teaching: The Technology of Teaching………..;….43
Need for Technology in Education……………………………………..…...…..44
The Teaching Machine…………………………………………….……............45
Programmed Material………………………………………………...……...….45
PART III
A HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY: CARL R. ROGERS
Chapter 6
Historical and Philosophical Background of Humanism…..…..…....47
Chapter 7
The Process of Learning: Rogers 19 Principles of Phenomenology...55
Chapter 8
Implications for Teaching: The Facilitation of Learning………........68
Chapter 9
Comments on the Book………………………………………………...74
Bibliography………………………………………………………………..……77
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Preface
This booklet is in fact not to be the solely or even partially considered as my
personal thoughts and ideas about the approaches to education throughout the history,
however I have tried to summarize the things and at times elaborate in simple language
the concepts discussed by Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha in their book ―From
Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches to Education‖. Actually, in the said book
the both authors gave a brief account of the evolution of psychology from study of soul to
study of behavior of organisms or individuals and comprehensively discussed the two
distinct schools of thought that emerged throughout the history of studying learning and
human behavior i.e. ‗behaviorism‘ and ‗phenomenology‘ that paved the way for third
force ‗humanism‘. On the one hand ‗behaviorism‘ treats man as neutral and passive
organism who only interacts and initiates a behavior when a stimulus is provided by
external environment, whereas, ‗phenomenology‘ on the other hand oppositely held the
idea that man is not a passive organism but is active, creative, and generator of ideas that
tend to cause all of his behavior. Humanism believes that both schools of thought have
more or less worth and value regarding studying human learning and behavior while
treating phenomenological factors as primary and basic ones that must be developed
through the principles of behaviorism or proper environmental stimuli.
I must say that in no way this booklet or guide, if it could be called, parallels the
original book ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches to Education‖ by
Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha. I must say that for comprehensive understanding the
reader should go through the original book, however, those who have less time available
or having trouble with understanding from the native English writers could make the
most of it. In this book the words or even sentences mostly are taken as it is from the
original book, nevertheless, the reader is able to understand the concepts because they are
relatively in precise form and are elaborated using key words and symbols wherever
necessary. At a few places the concept in hand is linked to our local (Sindh) context
through personal experience and understanding too.
Adopting either Skinner‘s behaviorism or Rogers‘ phenomenology in an
educational theory or practice surely has far reaching effects on learning and learners as
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
the former tends to accept education as teacher-centered where learners are considered
passive in construction of knowledge and outside agencies i.e. teachers, experts etc
decide for subject matter, teaching strategies, and other resources to be required. This
approach is blamed by the reactionaries for putting imposition on learners‘ freedom
because learners are here only transmitters of knowledge. Whereas, on the other hand the
latter approach tends to accept educational process throughout as learner-centered. Here,
learners‘ inherent and innate potentials existing within a particular social setup are
considered important and they are to be at first found out by teachers and then developed
in such a way where learners actively construct knowledge through proper facilitation.
This booklet or guide would be useful for our local students doing M. Phil. and
PhD in Education at public and private universities. Moreover, this booklet is (mostly)
arranged in bullet points with bold font for important key points; it will help students to
prepare related power-point presentations.
The layman, educated people, and the parents who are interested in educational
psychology could find this book helpful as it refers to how the learners or individuals
learn and to know how reinforcers and punishers (environmental factors) play their role
for one‘s learning; and how one‘s own perceptions, feelings, and emotions dominate to
initiate particular behavior and learning regardless of environmental influences.
However, the author recommends having a look at the original book for deeper
understanding. I would appreciate if valuable feedback is given to improve it further as
there is always room for improvement. You can write me down at my email:
[email protected]
Dated: February 12, 2011
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Bhutto Muhammad Ilyas
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Acknowledgements
My cordial acknowledgements are due to many people for this work. If there is
some worth in this booklet it is in the large measure due to their great support, guidance,
and cooperation.
First of all I am thankful to the collaborative efforts of the Education and Literacy
Department, government of Sindh, the Burreau of Curriculum and Extension Wing
Sindh, Jamshoro, and Provincial Institute for Teacher Education for launching and
supporting ADP scheme for the promotion of higher education and research among
public sector teachers including High School Teachers, Lecturers, Subject Specialists of
Sindh. Under this scheme 39 public sector teachers from allover Sindh were selected
through transparent selection process ensuring merit for the course of M. Phil leading to
PhD in Education on government expenses at Iqra University Karachi—one of the top
private universities of Pakistan. I am also part of this scheme. If there were no such
scheme, a dream of studying for highest research degree at one of the top private
universities would not come true for many public sector teachers like me.
As far as the stimulus for writing this booklet is concerned it was as assignment
given by worthy Dr Ismail Saad, the Dean Faculty of Education and Learning Sciences,
Iqra University Karachi to our class fellows. Actually Dr Saad was our facilitator for the
‗Reading for Research and Publication‘ a subject/ discipline at PhD in Education at Iqra
University and he gave us two assignments. One aimed at building a reading habit among
us and for developing understanding about general approaches to learning and human
behavior. Whereas, the other was related to our specific area of interest on which each of
us wants to conduct a research and write PhD thesis. For former assignment Dr Saad
offered us a list of books; we had to choose four books from it to read. However to
reduce burden we were to write summaries and comments on two books selecting at least
one of the books of Dr John Dewey. Most of the fellows including me chose ―From
Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches to Education‖ by Frank Milhollan and
Bill E. Forisha, and ―Experience and Education‖ by John Dewey.
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There were presentations and discussions on what we read and summarized up to
that moment on every weekly class that lasted for three hours, Dr Saad offered his
insights and facilitated wherever needed. I could remember his beautifully judged
comments after each presentation getting to the depth of our understanding and leading to
further comprehension and linking the concepts to our local context. I really feel honored
to have an opportunity to be one of the students of Dr Saad and to have learned from him.
He is really a living legend and a resource for learners. He always insists on to broaden
the circle of vision and thought by removing biasness and labels attached to the things
and beliefs that is key to humanity and universal brotherhood. May Allah Almighty
bestow upon Dr Sadd and his family the unlimited blessings and best of health,
prosperity, and luck always so that we and our young generation could get from him
guidance and broader vision.
So, this booklet initially was my assignment submitted to fulfill the requirement
of the said course, then, I sought opinion from Dr Saad that if it could be given a shape of
a booklet for further guidance of other students and people interested in the field. He was
happy with this idea so I extended it to a booklet through some revision.
My special thanks are due to our honorable Vice Chancellor Dr U. A. G. Issani,
and worthy teachers like Dr Wasim Qazi, Dr Nasim Qaisrani, and Dr Khalid Jamil Rawat
who provided the same opportunities during our M. Phil and PhD course work. They
asked our class to reading one or two related books written by foreign authors or writers
and to critically reviewing and presenting before the class about what we understood
from them. This practice really we enjoyed a lot, in addition it developed within us the
love for reading quality books.
Lastly, I do acknowledge my deep thanks to my parents and my wife for
extending their sincere cooperation and help while I was working for hours on computer.
Without their sincere support it would not be possible for me to accomplish my tasks in
due time.
Bhutto Muhammad Ilyas
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
About the Author
Bhutto Muhammad Ilyas belongs to Sehwan—a town
of District Jamshoro, Sindh. He did his matriculation and
Intermediate (science) from Government High School Sehwan
(1982) and Government College Sehwan (1984) respectively.
Despite lots of financial constrains his parents somehow
managed to support his studies and he went to Government
Degree College Dadu and bagged a science-graduation degree
B. Sc. in 1988. He solutes his parents for that valuable support.
Mr Bhutto entered in teaching as a High School Teacher (HST, Science-Teacher)
in November, 1990. He developed interest for enhancing academic and professional skills
and education after entering in to teaching. He did his B. Ed., M. A. (Economics), and M.
Ed. while serving as HST. Teaching filled him with new spirit of living and serving the
younger generation through imparting quality education and facilitating teaching learning
process. Now, Mr Bhutto was internally motivated towards reading Sindhi, Urdu, and
English books on both literature and science and remained a regular visitor of Lal
Shahbaz Public Library Sehwan. He was locally acknowledged with the title of ―Best
Teacher of the Institution‖ at Government Boys High School Sehwan in 2001.
As hard work and commitment never goes in vain, so, Bhutto was selected as
Master-Trainer in Social Studies and English subjects in Middle School Project 2002 and
Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Program (BBSYDP) 2008 respectively. He
qualified for getting a scholarship for M. Phil leading to PhD in Education program
through Bureau of Curriculum & Extension Wing Sindh (Jamshoro) in August 2007 (The
author thanks to his colleague teacher Mr Noor Muhammad Serai for informing him that
scholarship program otherwise he would have missed that opportunity).
He topped in M. Phil (Education) in May 2009 and got Gold Medal from Iqra
University Karachi‘s Convocation 2010 for achieving the highest CGPA of 3.92/ 4.00
that no doubt reflects his hard work and commitment for academic and professional
growth. He remained a science-teacher for 19 years (from Nov 1990 to Aug 2009).
Soon after, Mr Bhutto went beyond his school teaching career when he qualified
the public service commission‘s exam for Lecturer in ‗Education‘ and was placed at
‗Second‘ position on merit list throughout Sindh and entered in college education (Jamia
Millia Government College of Education Malir, Karachi) in August, 2009. He has been
serving there. He has been devoted to contribute toward improving teaching and
pedagogy therefore his M. Phil. (Ed) research (Learning through Operant Conditioning:
An Experimental Study) and other multiple research works focus on teacher education,
educational philosophy and psychology. He is currently working on his PhD research in
the area of ‗Evaluation of Science Pedagogy‘ at public sector secondary school level.
Mr Bhutto has published multiple research works. His four research articles have
been published so far in the International Journal of Academic Research in Business
and Social Sciences a journal of Human Resource Management Academic Research
Society (www.hrmars.com). He believes education and learning is life long process and
needs proper attention and effort always.
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Complete Bio-Data of the Author
Name:
Muhammad Ilyas Bhutto
Father‘s Name:
Muhammad Ishaque Bhutto
Home town:
Sehwan, District Jamshoro, Sindh (Pakistan)
Matriculation:
From Government Boys High School Sehwan in 1982
F. Sc. (Intermediate): From Government College Sehwan in 1984
B. Sc. (Pass):
Government Degree College Dadu in 1988
B. Ed:
From Allama Iqbal Open University, Sehwan Centre (Distance
Education) in 1994
M. A. (Economics):
From University of Sindh, (as external candidate) in 1993
M. Ed:
From University of Sindh (Off-campus program) in 2001
M. Phil (Ed):
From Iqra University Karachi with CGPA of 3.92 out of 4.00 in
May 2009, thus got Gold Medal at Iqra University‘s Convocation
2010 (on government expenses under Bureau of Curriculum and
Extension Wing Sindh, Jamshoro‘s ADP-Scheme 2007)
M. Phil Thesis:
Learning through Operant Conditioning: An Experimental Study
PhD (Ed):
Continues at Iqra University Karachi on Government expenses
(under above scheme)
First Appointment:
As High School Teacher H.S.T. (Science Teacher) in 1990 after
passing B. Sc.
HST:
Served as High School Teacher for 19 years (1990-2009)
Lecturer:
Joined as Lecturer in Education at Jamia Millia Government
College of Education Malir, Karachi in August 2009 after
qualifying Sindh Public Service Exam.
Favorite Poet:
Ustad Bukhari, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Allama Iqbal,
Favorite Singer:
Sunidhi Chauhan, Sarmad Sindhi, Fozia Soomro, Asha Bhosle,
Abida Parveen
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Literary work:
Unpublished prose and poetry in Sindhi, Urdu
Published Articles: Four research articles published so far in International Journal of
Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences; can be downloaded from
http://www.hrmars.com/index.php?page=our%20journals%20f (July and August issues)
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Part I
INTRODUCTION
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Chapter 1
Two Models of Man
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TWO MODELS OF MAN
Behaviorism and Phenomenology:
Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha in the first chapter of their book ―From
Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches to Education‖ discuss the basic concepts
of two schools of thought i.e. ‗behaviorism‘ and ‗phenomenology‘ which seem
contrasting at first sight but readers could find them complementary to each other in latter
chapters. Here is the brief account of both approaches:
Two models or images of man discussed for many years. A symposium held at
Rice University in 1964; the topic was: The Conflict between Phenomenology and
Behaviorism.
The behaviorists consider man to be passive organism governed by stimuli
supplied by the external environment. Man and his behavior can be controlled. The
behavior and natural phenomena follow universal laws, therefore scientific method of
knowing.
The phenomenologists consider man to be source of all acts. He is free to make
choices always. Freedom through human consciousness is the key word; behavior thus
is only the observable expression and consequence of essentially private, internal world
of being. Therefore only experience studied in the world of being can explore the human
organisms. These questions always remained important and studied by different people
using different approaches for their answers:
Does man lives in the objective world? Does man live in the Subjective world?
Is man predictable or not? Is man only the transmitter of information?
Or does man lives in subjective world where he creates new knowledge?
Can man be better understood through analysis or synthesis?
Can human characteristics be investigated independently of one another, or must
they be studied as a whole?
Is man truly knowable in scientific terms or whether or not he is
actually more than he can ever know about himself?
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Pondering over these questions two distinct concept about people‘s behavior
emerged i.e. man‘s actions are due to environmental influence on the one hand, and
man‘s self awareness and inner thoughts and feelings govern his experiences and actions.
Both schools of thought are possibly and traditionally opposed models of man.
The acceptance of either the behaviorist or phenomenological model to the exclusion of
the other may have important implications in the everyday worlds of our personal and
professional lives.
Why must we necessarily choose once and for all between them? Perhaps man
can often be described meaningfully in terms of his behavior and at other times or in
other contexts can be described more meaningfully in terms of his consciousness. Thus it
appears reasonable that man might be described in terms of either his behavior or his selfawareness or both.
Accepting man as one living in objective world, means the scientific laws, or
laws (environment) of nature dominates allover, the man has nothing to do but to
understand them and transmit them, he, his behavior, is dependent on them, those laws
drive him according to their nature. However, accepting man as one living in
subjective world means he has private world of feelings, emotions, and perceptions.
He has the capacity to transmit but has also the higher capacity to generate information
anew. He may ask questions that were never before asked. He is generator of ideas.
Jaspers (967) wrote: ―An empirical science cannot teach anyone what he ought to do, but
only what he can do to reach his end by stable means.‖
In fact, one can not deny that there appears to be truth in both views of man.
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Chapter 2
The Developing
Viewpoints
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The Developing Viewpoints
In the second chapter of the book ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting
Approaches to Education‖ by Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha, the authors discuss
the progression of two schools of thought i.e. behaviorism and phenomenology in their
historical contexts. The main concepts of the chapter are:
Man has always been curious about himself. He questioned: What am I? How
did I come to be what I am? He saw moving things and gradually attributed spirit or
soul to them, i.e. fire, water, clouds, plants—animism. Causality is first step to
understand things and humans for children may come to believe ‗trees make the wind
blow.‘
The inner agents or spirit accounted for living animals and humans for mobility;
for they thought when spirit or soul left the body, they became immoveable or dead.
‗Psyche‘ in Greek mean ‗soul, therefore term came ‗psychology‘. Later on, they tried to
understand the relationship of inner man (mind) to body—psychology thus studied
‗mind-body problem‘ or study of mind.
Philosophers put questions while inquiring into the universe; how can we know?
How do we know? They concluded knowledge came through two processes;

Knowledge achieved through senses (objectivity)

Knowledge achieved through reason (rationality)
They became familiar with objectivity and subjectivity. Some pondered over the
ultimate or absolute reality through reason.
Socrates considered the effort of knowing ultimate reality futile and thus turned
to obtainable knowledge i.e. ‗knowledge of the self‘ which led to virtuous life.
Plato specified the areas of mind and matter (body): ‗ideas‘ could be revealed by
reason and ‗things‘ by mind, and he concluded ‗ideas‘ as permanent, perfect,
changeless, and absolute, while, matter (things) he saw perishable, imperfect and
changeable.
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Aristotle found no sharp distinction between mind and matter. Over the
centuries, philosophers debated; Does man have the freedom of choice or not?
(Phenomenology vs behaviorism)
Descartes (1596-1650) tried to resolve the conflict between science and religion
(though never fulfilled) and he developed views about the nature of man that were to
have far-reaching effects:

Principles of physics could be applied to understand the nature of body. (activities
of muscles, process of respiration and even sensation etc)

Man is composed of two substances; soul and body itself. He related that both
interacted; body affects mind and vice versa.
He distinguished man from animals for having freedom of thought and actions,
whereas animals‘ thought and actions were determined (heredity) i.e. Freedom vs
Determinism started. It is still a philosophical issue. He believed in the existence of
innate ideas in human. Ideas were not driven from experience i.e. concept of god, self,
space, time, motion, etc were all subjective and innate ideas.
His concept of freedom vs determinism aroused long standing debate of
nature vs nurture, or heredity vs environment, or Nativism vs Empiricism. Nature or
heredity or Nativism is called instinct psychology; it holds that behavior depends on
instincts, with minimum role of environment. Whereas, nurture or environment or
empiricism implied that behavior depends upon experience or interaction with
environment.
Thomas Hobbes:
Human conduct is dominated by reason (rational). Man‘s behavior was seen as
planned and foreseen through intellectual considerations rather than by chance or by
non-rational feelings, emotions, and accidents. He gave basic principle of
associationism i.e. one idea follows another not by chance but by law. Hobbes
psychology was entirely mechanistic, materialistic, and deterministic.
John Locke (1637-1704)
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
‗How do we know?‘ Locke answered ‗through senses.‘
He was founder of British-Empiricism (experience but not experiments is the
source of knowledge—self consciousness). He opposed Descartes‘ innate ideas and
suggested that all knowledge comes to us through our senses. Ideas were not ‗inborn‘
but came from experience. He described man‘s intellect (mind) as ‗tabula rasa‘ a blank
tablet where sensory experience made its marks. He was influenced by the work of
Newton. Also spoke of connections or associationism (history of associationism dates
back to Aristotle; one thing reminds you of another. A reminds B, then relation is
similarity, however other relations might be contrast, and contiguity (nearness) etc.
Forming or compounding of complex ideas out of simple ones is mind‘s operation.
Gottfried Leibnitz--1632-1704
He opposed Locke‘s views and propounded concept of ‗monad‘. Monads are
dynamic, continuously active and developing according to their own laws. They are not
influenced by external (environmental) effect and are independent therefore no causes.
A monad is like a perfect watch. Two such watches agree but have no cause-effect
relationship. Cause is illusory. Harmony in nature because harmony in the laws of
monads. Mind and body are example of monads. The monads are inner determinant of
behavior. Man is generator of ideas.
Locke and Leibnitz clearly and distinctly, and oppositely spoke of or supported
concepts of behaviorism and phenomenology.
Locke attacked on rational psychology (knowledge comes through intuition and
deductions based on the premise that soul is the source of perfect knowledge and ultimate
reality)
Contrary to Locke‘s view, positive movement or positivism emerged
(subjectivity). It led to a psychology that was empirical but not rational as they believe
that behavior depends upon experience and interaction with environment. The
environmental influences could be controlled and measured therefore it was empirical in
nature. However, according to British Empiricism, behavior could not be empirical and
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
experimental as it occurs as a consequence of the combination of environmental
influences and person‘s unique perceptions or meanings attached to it. This led to another
contrasting school of thought believing that a person‘s experience or perception or
personal meaning attached to an experience is the only source of knowledge and reality
(phenomenology, observation and experience are tools and sources of knowledge
and data collection).
George Berkeley (1685-1753) claimed that all knowledge is derived from sensation and
no other source i.e. solidity and all other qualities can only be known through sensation.
An apple is nothing but all sensation (no matter).
David Hume (1711-1776) worked on existence of thinking self and causality but could
not found them and discarded. However, he found in a man, there is nothing but love or
hate, pleasure or pain, light or shade etc. Causality is illusory and product of mind. He
supported subjectivity and claimed there was no objectivity.
British Associationism (Locke and his successors; Hobbes, Berkeley, Hume, and Daniel
Hartley supported):
It asserts that learning and the development of higher mental processes consist
mainly in the combinations of supposedly irreducible mental elements (perceptions).
Hertley formulated the basic doctrine: there are two orders of events—the mental
and the physical. They are not identical but run parallel; a change in one results a change
in the other. Sensations (things) and ideas (perceptions) are directly connected.
If A is associated with B, C, & D in sensory experience (things A, B, C, D.), taken
alone A will tend to rouse the idea of B, C, & D.
It was possible to account for all mental functions through associationism. No
matter how complex they were (for example learning through classical and operant
conditioning in human life)
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Faculty Psychology—Christian Wolff (1679-1754)
Mind has distinct faculties. Basic ones are: knowing, feeling, and willing.
Knowing includes or divided into perception, imagination, memory, and pure reason.
Faculties are present at birth and education can develop their functioning.
Immanuel Kant-- 1724-1804
Wrote book: ―Critique of Pure Reason‖
World we know is the world of ‗order‘ which is not influenced by experience,
but it (order) must come from mind itself. The mind instead of reflecting the order in
our external world imposes its own laws upon nature. Experience is product of things and
of the mind.
Experience begins when things act upon the senses, but then (mind‘s) elaboratory
machinery works which makes it impossible for us to know things as they are. We
know them (things) as influenced by our thoughts therefore:

Nature can never be discovered.

Reality as exist outside our experience is forever beyond our reach.

It is impossible to know the soul, as it is (external) the world. Therefore, rational
psychology claiming to have direct knowledge of the soul is impossible.
Effect of Kant reaffirmed subjectivism and importance of mental phenomenon,
therefore, in Germany, it was natural to experimental psychology to become science of
consciousness (phenomenology), whereas, in England, Russia, America, it remained
objective (behaviorism).
Between 1800 to1860 physiologists and physicists contributed to psychology
therefore studying nervous system and sensation.
Wilhelm Wundt--1832-1920
He was pioneer of experimental physiological psychology and established first
psychology-laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. (Psychology became as science),
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however Gustav Fechner‘s book ‗Elements of Psychophysics‘ was the beginning of
experimental psychology, in 1860. Wundt‘s psychology is known as ‗Structuralism‘:
It was an attempt to study the structure of the mind, and to search for mental
elements into which all mental contents could be analyzed. Such an element could be
‗sensation‘ which could bring the experience of green, sour, cold etc. To search for other
elements and their rules of combination, they used ‗introspection-method‘:
Subjects were exposed to a physical stimulus and they analyzed their state of
awareness. Subjects reported the results. For this purpose they were trained to possibly
state their awareness/ consciousness objectively.
It was anticipated that mental experience would be reconstructed from elementary
sensations. Wundt‘s psychology could not get momentum in Europe and America, for
Europeans were not interested in applied psychology, whereas, Americans were
interested in the practical uses of psychology, also others objected to subjective aspect of
structuralism.
Consequently two new movements emerged, one of these known as
‗behaviorism‘ that followed Locke‘s tradition of environmentalism and sensory stimuli
of knowledge through senses. While, another contrasting one as Leibnitzian tradition,
and is referred to as Gestalt psychology or Phenomenology—focusing on one‘s internal
and subjective perceptions, and understanding.
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Part II
A SCIENTIFIC
PSYCHOLOGY: B. F.
SKINNER
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Chapter 3
Historical and Philosophical
Background
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A Scientific Psychology: B. F. Skinner (An Overview)
Here the authors of ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches to
Education‖ (Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha) present an overview of B. F. Skinner‘s
Scientific Psychology which is summed up in bullet points and then follows the historical
context of behaviorism:
 Harvard‘s Skinner—the most influential figure in modern psychology.
 Also the most controversial figure in psychology today.
 Studied behavior as an objective science
 Positive & Negative Reinforcement.
 ‗Skinner Box‘ became a standard apparatus/ equipment in psychologylaboratory.
 Fictional account of Utopian Society based on scientific control of human
behavior—‗Walden Two‘ (book) half million copies sold.
 Latest book (now past) book ‗Beyond Freedom and Dignity‘—non-fiction
version of ‗Walden Two‘ suggests that we can no longer afford freedom, so it
must be replaced with control over man, his conduct, & his culture.
 (indirectly Governments, Politicians, International agencies, Super Powers all
work as Capitalists and do the same job for their own vested interests)
 Introduced teaching machines in USA.
 His contributions brought for him both the respect and enmity. Humanists saw
him as ‗cold-blooded scientist‘ for man is simply a machine that can be trained
to do his job. On the other hand, all educators got influenced by Skinner‘s
principles of operant conditioning knowingly or unknowingly applied in the
classrooms.
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Historical and Philosophical Background of Behaviorism
The third chapter of the book ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches
to Education‖ by Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha presents an account of the
important aspects of behaviorism i.e. classical and operant conditioning in the context of
the contributions of E. L. Thorndike, Ivan P. Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner.
Here is the key understanding to the concepts:
 Skinner‘s major contribution is the analysis of consequences of behavior and
how they change the behavior. Reward and punishment have long history as
regulators of behavior; however, E. L. Thorndike (1874-1949) in 1898
scientifically experimented on them.
Thorndike and Connectionism
 He researched for 50 years on studying learning by rewarding consequences—
unquestionably major influence on psychology and on practice in USA. However,
Pavlov and Watson are considered pioneers of ‗behaviorism‘—learning through
consequences.
 Thorndike was greatly motivated by Evolutionary Theory of Darwin and studies
of animal behavior (if body evolved why not could be mind and emotions). He
also worked on Associationistic tradition.
Unfortunately, psychologists and researchers studied animal behavior with
reference to either instincts or reasoning. Wundt in Germany, Lloyd Morgan in England
rejected reasoning in dogs—Wundt concluded dogs learned through simple associations,
while Morgan discovered that learning was due to ‗trial and error‘. Both concepts implied
that law of parsimony.
Associationism and Thorndike
 Thorndike assumed that learning is the formation of associative bonds or
connections between physical and mental connections. Physical events were
stimuli and responses, and mental events were things sensed or perceived.
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Learning is the process of selecting and connecting these physical and mental
units, but the process was passive, mechanical, and automatic.
 Thorndike concluded that learning was largely a matter of stamping in correct
responses and stamping out incorrect ones as a result of pleasurable or
annoying consequences (rewards or punishments). He called it ‗law of effect‘
(cats – puzzle boxes)
 Instincts and reflexes, and hedonistic principle were the bases of ‗law of effect‘.
Hedonism is the theory that human action arises out of the desire of men to gain
pleasure and avoid pain.
 Law of effect has no implication of futuristic goals; the ‗purpose‘ must push, not
pull. It lies within the organism, not in the future and outside of him.
 Thorndike compared and discovered that learning curves of humans and
animals followed same pattern.
 G. Stanley Hall (1846-1924), the evolutionist, stressed the importance of heredity
but the country was beginning to accept that social progress depended upon
education; therefore it was seen passively but the Thorndike‘s learning theory
focusing environmental influence got momentum.
 Thorndike also demolished the existing ‗formal discipline-theory of
education‘—it claims that mental faculties are also strengthened through
exercise just as our muscles do while doing physical exercise (Memorizing and
reasoning both could be strengthened through practice but was proved wrong).
Thorndike explained that transfer takes place when the ‗situation learned‘ and
‗actual situation‘ were identical in their elements (the elements may be of
substance or of procedure), therefore, learning is always specific, never general;
when it appears to be general, it is only because new situations have much of
older situations in them (commonalities).
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 Therefore, Thorndike believed teachers should teach for transfer. The schools
should include as many learning tasks, which will contribute to effective
performance in the society.
 Thorndike‘s work focused on ‗quantitative‘ aspects; ―anything that exists,
exists in amount and is therefore measureable‖—according to a psychology of
learning/ or the concept existed earlier.
 Pavlov in Russia simultaneously and independently worked on animals, both
discovered the same concept of learning—Pavlov called it ‗Reinforcement‘,
while Thorndike called it ‗Law of Effect‘.
Pavlov and Classical Conditioning: Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936)
 For Pavlov, the learning process was a matter of the formation of an association
between a stimulus and a reflexive response through contiguity. (S-R), the
learning involved some kind of connection in the central nervous system between
an S and an R.
 One stimulus is substituted for another—stimulus substitution process.
 Pavlov worked on certain stimuli that automatically produced or elicited specific
responses or reflexes: sneezing, coughing, dilation and contraction of pupil of the
eye, perspiration, and other reflexes are found in infants shortly after birth. Some
disappear while others appear later in life.
 Perhaps, the most common reflex is salivation, & Pavlov worked on it. He called
it ‗conditional reflex‘, later on called by others as Classical Conditioning.
 Sound of tuning fork + meat powder trough tube, into the mouth
salivation.
Process repeated for a few days, then alone sound of tuning fork elicited the same
reflex (saliva)—he called it conditional reflex.
 He discovered extinction—alone tune of fork with no stimulus (meat powder)
gradually decreased and became extinct—extinction. However, after an interval
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of rest the dog again salivated to tone—called as spontaneous recovery, but
finally the reflex (response) would not recover at all.
 Generalization, Pavlov found dog salivated before the food actually reached the
mouth i.e. on the sound of food steps of the feeder, or sight of dish etc.
Conditioned response elicited to a more or less similar stimuli.
Stimulus Differentiation (Discrimination):
 Dog salivated to a metronome with 100 beats per minute, when response was
conditioned; but not to the 80 or 120 beats stimuli.
 But when too fine for the dog i.e. between 95 and 100 beats, the dog became
visibly disturbed and responded randomly to either stimulus. Pavlov called it
‗experimental neurosis‘
 It is possible that Pavlov‘s conditioning principles apply principally to emotional
responses. If it is true (all behaviors have more or less emotional aspect) it is
possible that our interests, preferences, attitudes, fears, hates, and loves, and
even connotative meaning of words are acquired through classical
conditioning. (controversy exits in this matter).
Watson and Behaviorism
 Earlier Wilhelm Wundt founded ‗physiological psychology‘ but was largely
mentalistic approach—not involved ‗body‘. Therefore, in America, psychologists
argued that ‗body‘ be brought back into psychology and it should change its
focus from conscious experience to the study of behavior, because, scientists were
interested in the evidence that was publicly verifiable. John B. Watson (18781958) was leading spokesman for this.
 J. B. Watson was the founder of ‗behaviorism‘ in psychology. In his article:
‗Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It‘ in 1913, he observed that consciousness
in animals can neither be directly observed nor logically proved to exist, yet
observing and measuring the behavior was quite possible.
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 Watson claimed non-introspective, non-mentalistic animal research was the
only true research, thus ‗psychology‘ became ‗science of behavior‘—he
rejected mentalism.
 For Watson, ‗behavior‘ meant the movement of muscles and activities of glands.
He opposed his time‘s concept of ‗instincts‘ and ‗their resulting behavior‘, and
claimed: We are not born with social behavior, we learn it, we inherit only
physical structure and few reflexes; and all other behaviors are due to learning.
 An Environmentalist—human nature is subject to change and there is no
limit to what man might become. He was influenced by Ivan Pavlov‘s and
Locke‘s tradition. Watson, however accepted three ‗instincts‘ or ‗innate
characteristics‘—fear, anger, and love.
 Fear—11year child with no fear for white rat + white rate and loud terrifying
sound associated
alone rat (with no sound) produced fear.
 He believed all knowledge is acquired through conditioning; he focused on
‗overt behavior‘.
Skinner and Operant Conditioning:
 B. F. Skinner provided most systematic and most complete statement of
associationist, behaviorist, and environmentalist.
 Experimented with pigeons and white rats—but mostly ‗pigeon‘ in ‗skinner
box‘. He is known for programmed learning and teaching machines. He published
‗Behavior of Organisms‘ in 1938, and was Influenced by Watson‘s behaviorism,
followed Pavlov‘s & Thorndike‘s work and refined and extended it. Worked on
measurable behavior without denying either mental or physiological processes.
 Argued, we have for so long looked inside the organism (mental processes) for
explanation of behavior, and neglected the outside of organism i.e. variables
found in environment that is not only measurable but also controllable and
objective ones (all aspects of external variables are empirical and scientific).
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 He believed that methods of science could be applied to human affairs. We are
all controlled by the world. He argued, ‗Is this control to occur by accidents,
by tyrants, or by ourselves?‘ Scientific society should reject accidental
manipulation. (in one way or other Capitalists and Super Powers have been
controlling our behaviors)
 We cannot make wise decisions if we continue to pretend that we are not
controlled. Science not only describes, it predicts, and to the extent if relevant
conditions be altered or controlled, the future can be controlled. ―We are
concerned with the causes of behavior. By discovering and analyzing these
causes we can predict behavior; to the extent that we can manipulate them, we
can control behavior‖.
 Skinner argues science believes in control and measurement of behavior while
personal freedom (phenomenology) believes in another. Until we adopt a
consistent view we are likely to remain ineffective in solving our social problems.
 Science supports determinism—the doctrine that behavior is caused and
predictable.
 Our society‘s practices, he argues, do not represent any clearly defined position:
Sometimes we say man‘s behavior is spontaneous and responsible other times we
say inner determinism is not complete. We see the common man as the product
of his environment; yet we give personal credit to great men for their
accomplishments.
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Chapter 4
The Process of Learning:
Skinner’s Scientific Analysis of
Behavior
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The Process of Learning: Skinner‘s Scientific Analysis of Behavior
In fourth chapter of ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting Approaches to
Education‖ the authors Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha discuss in detail all the
aspects of conditioning and operant conditioning. Here is the comprehensive summary of
the concepts:
Two Kinds of Learning
Learning taking place under conditioning comes under two classes of behavior:
‗Reflex‘ or ‗involuntary‘ or ‗respondent behavior‘ or ‗elicited‘ [Spontaneous]
Voluntary‘ or ‗operant behavior‘ or ‗emitted‘ [we wait for them to occur]
In Pavlovian or Classical Conditioning a new stimulus is paired with the one
that already elicits the response [conditioned stimulus]. Skinner believes this kind of
conditioning play little part in most human behavior, but through operant conditioning,
we learn most behaviors.
[Infant – crib
touches an objects
trial & error /accidental
tinkling sound
association
repeats behavior in
touches voluntarily to ring the sound:
operant conditioning]. In above diagram example the initial involuntary action (during
trial and error effort) of touching the object that produces tinkling sound is classical
conditioning; however, the later controlled learning i.e. the child touches the object when
he or she wants to hear tinkling sound involves operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian/ in-voluntary/ elicited behavior):

Stimulus precedes response SR

Stimulus involve/ satisfy primary needs

Uncontrolled response (involuntary)

Little gap/ no delay between S & R. Immediate and uncontrolled response.
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Operant Conditioning (Thorndike‘s & Skinner‘s controlled/ voluntary/ emitted):

Stimulus follows response .RS.

Not uncontrolled response—A doorknob—we do not turn it when we see every
time but when we wait to turn it open the door.

The operant response of lifting your fork is not simply elicited by sight of food,
but depends on hunger, food preferences; others have been served or not etc.

Long delays in reinforcement is normal; Planting orchard or garden, building a
team, college or university education, learning professions i.e. doctors, teachers
etc.
Crying of a child, can be either reflex respondent or operant behavior—
respondent when stimuli ‗loss of child support‘ or ‗loud noise‘, but operant when
followed by food‘ or care or etc & it is changed or maintained according to their response
while in ‗respondent conditioning‘ it is not true.
Superstitious Behavior:
The power of a single reinforcement is well illustrated in Superstitious behavior.
 If there is only an accidental connection between the response and the
appearance of a reinforcer, the behavior is called ‗superstitious‘. ……. A pigeon
was given a small amount of food every fifteen seconds regardless of what it is
doing. If reinforcement follow when it is only standing still—conditioning will
take place if again the reinforcement [food] follow that position of pigeon; then
‗operant behavior‘ will be strengthened. If not other behavior will be
strengthened. Eventually ‗operant‘ becomes stable. Skinner noticed pigeon
continuously moved round or stood still exhibiting superstitious behavior, while
reinforcement was based on fixed interval 15 Sec. Schedule
Our superstitions:
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Watch the basketball player‘s actions as he prepares for a free throw.
Many of us wear a certain shirt or pair of Shoes because they ‗brought us luck‘.
We carry charms or place statues on the dash board of the car for fortune / Safety.
‗Taweez‘ ‗Dhaga‘, ‗Naqsh‘ ‗Ayat‘, making black spot with lamp black on face of
child etc are no doubt superstitious behaviors for getting rid of evil forces and for
being safeguarded in our (Sindh) culture
Positive & Negative Reinforcers:
 Layman reinforcement sees as ‗reward‘ but what about ‗a frown‘ from a teacher
when it works and the student does well.
 ‗Food‘ may be reinforcer at one time when a person needs it otherwise not.
 ‗Reinforcer‘ is that consequence [stimulus] which tends to increase the frequency
of a behavior or strengthens it otherwise not.
Positive Reinforcer:
 A candy, pat on the back , smile, praise etc if it increases the frequency of an
exhibited behavior [Presenting favorable consequences]
Negative Reinforcement

It is withdrawal of favorable consequence (Removing negative consequences.)

Our behavior of doing things which save us from disturbance is strengthened
(Aspirin—headache). Our behavior of taking aspirin increases to get rid of
headache.

More examples:
We take of shoe to remove a stone.
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We jump from hot sidewalk to the grass when barefooted.
It is also called ‗escape‘ behavior.
Aversive (unfavorable) stimulus is also relative to individual & to situations.
Extinction:

In the absence of reinforcement, the learned response (CR) gradually becomes
less frequent and eventually will extinguish.

The failure of a response to be reinforced leads not only to extinction but also to a
(emotional expression) reaction commonly called frustration.

Greater the history of intensity (frequency) of reinforcement harder will be the
extinction and vice versa.

Examples: We watch less frequently when TV shows become worse. Student‘s
hand rising becomes less frequent when uncalled by the teacher.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous schedule of reinforcement (Reinforcing each response, not economical)
Intermittent ( partial) Reinforcement
Two types of Intermittent Reinforcement: i) Ratio Schedule ii) Interval Schedule, or
combination of the two
Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement:
It is based on number of responses emitted. It can be of two sub-types: Fixed &
Variable Schedules
Fixed Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement: (Reinforcement on fixed no of responses)
 If it is FR10—it means each tenth response is reinforced.
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Variable Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement:
 The number of responses required for reinforcement varies about some mean or
average of the total responses needed. (5-30)
 Example: VR10 (if total responses required are 30) may mean that reinforcement
may occur at 8th, 17th, 30th or at 5th, 10th, 30th or at 11th, 19th, 25th etc.
Interval Schedule of Reinforcement:
Reinforcement depends on passage of time.
Overall rate of response is low.
Two Sub-Types: Fixed and Variable Interval Schedule of Reinforcement
Fixed Interval Schedule of Reinforcement:
 Reinforcement occurs after passage of fixed time.
 FI-15 Seconds means each reinforcement occurs after passage of 15 seconds
 Monthly tests, mid-term tests, weekly quizzes etc, & monthly salary etc are
examples.
Variable Interval Schedule of Reinforcement:
 The time of reinforcement required for varies about some mean or average of the
total available time.
 VI 10 minutes means that for thirty minutes of total time reinforcement may
occur at 8th, 15th, and 27th minute; or 5th, 15th, 30th minute etc.
Interval Schedules:
o For long time conditioning
o Highly resists to extinction.
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o Overall rate of response rate is low.
Ratio Schedules:
o For greater rate of response
o Example: addiction to gambling; factory workers get payment on the amount of
work done.
Fixed Interval Schedules: (Monthly tests, term papers etc.)
o No reason to work rapidly—low rate of response in the beginning and higher
rate of response at the end (Cramming), therefore unannounced exams or ‗pop
quizzes‘ are also necessary in educational learning process because they work as
Variable Interval Schedule & consistent response (study) maintained.
Primary & Secondary Reinforcers:
Primary Reinforcers:
 Those which satisfy primary (basic) or physiological needs i.e. food (hunger),
water (thirst), sexual contact (sex)
 They are concerned with the well-being of organism: Shelter, favorable
temperature or weather conditions etc.
 They have biological significance.
 They play major role in learning of ‗escape‘ & ‗avoidance‘ learning.
Secondary Reinforcers:
 Those which satisfy secondary or ‗psychological‘ or social needs i.e. others
approval or disapproval, praise, smile, love, belonging etc.
 We rarely see Primary Reinforcers in conditioning in humans as mostly humans
respond on or to social reinforcers.
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Generalized Reinforcers:

A conditioned reinforcer becomes generalized when it has been paired with
more than one primary reinforcer.

Food, money, attention, approval, affection, etc are generalized reinforcers. We
can get other primary & secondary reinforcers from a generalized reinforce. For
example we can get material and social benefits if other is attended, approved, or
loved.

Affection is the most powerful generalized reinforcer which is used to modify
the behavior of others.
Escape Conditioning:
 Getting rid of an existing aversive situation (punishment). The response
terminates ongoing aversive conditions.
Avoidance conditioning:
 We postpone the onset of aversive stimulus (consequence). Aversive conditions
not occur.
 Much of our day-to-day behavior is avoidance. We pay taxes, we diet, we obey
traffic rules, we spray our gardens with poisons, we study for exams more to
avoid negative consequences, perhaps than to produce positive ones.
 Due to nature of avoidance conditioning, negative consequences do not occur
therefore avoidance behavior is less strongly reinforced. Eventually we fail to
emit it (avoidance). We run through a red light or drive too fast and receive
fine.

Similarly ‗empty threats‘ by parents & teachers soon loose their effectiveness---because child sees that negative reinforcers (punishment) do not follow----and
thus ‗obeying responses‘ extinguish.
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Stimulus Generalization:
 When similar stimuli also are effective and produce the same ‗response‘.
 A round red spot one Sq inch
a yellow spot of same size
 When stimuli share common properties. i. e (size) is common in above exp.
Stimulus Discrimination:
 If there was generalization always, it would be confusing; therefore we also learn
not to generalize.
 We respond to a certain stimuli not to the other. It does so because we reinforce
only that response.
 Examples: we pick up easily the correct Bus-Number while waiting at the stop.
 We behave differently in presence of close friend than we do in the presence of
teacher or minister.
 ‗Abstraction‘ is type of discrimination learning—a response comes under control
of a single ‗element‘ of a stimulus that is common to many stimuli.
 Child says ‗Red‘—in the presence of red ball & gets reinforcement, but when
‗Red‘ says in presence of ‗Blue‘ or other color-ball, he gets no reinforcement,
thus discrimination develops (or abstraction occurs).
Response Generalization:

Conditioned behavior is likely to occur in other situations. (transfer of
learning)

Aim of education is also to ensure transfer of classroom-learning to one‘s
social life situations (generalization & application)

Bicycle riding appears to facilitate a motorcycle riding.
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
There must be some commonalities between classroom learning & social
situations. (curriculum must incorporate social demands)
Response Differentiation:
 To skinner the present probability of response is more important than how it
was first acquired.
 When reinforcement is contingent on the properties of the response it is called
Response Differentiation.
 Using this process, it is possible to ‗produce‘ extraordinary behavior. The
extreme responses when reinforced, the constitution of class of behaviors will
change in that direction. The experimenter has to anticipate the response and
reinforce it immediately (he or she must know his subjects very well)
 However, most of behaviors are shaped towards the mean (average) rather than
the extreme ones by our parents, teachers, and peers. If we waited for perfect
articulation of a word before reinforcing a child, he might never acquire adequate
language skills. (coach—perfect team etc)
Punishment:
 In extinction behavior gradually become less frequent & extinguish, but in
punishment it rapidly extinguishes (suppresses). But it has the disadvantage for
both—the punished and the punishing agency.
 In punishment we either withdraw a positive reinforcer or present negative
reinforcer (aversive stimulus)
 The sequence is opposite in ‗punishment‘ than in ‗reinforcement‘.
 Punishment temporarily suppresses a behavior, when discontinued eventually
responses reappear.
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 Withdrawal of opportunity to obtain reinforcement (time out)—‗go to your
room‘ ‗sit in the corner‘ etc are examples of negative punishment.
 Presentation of aversive stimulus (consequence) is positive punishment—
scolding, slapping, putting bad-look, frowning, etc. are examples of Positive
Punishment.
Three effects of punishment:
o Suppression of behavior (behavior reappears later)
o Production of anxiety, guilt, or shame (to both parties: resulting higher
heart rate, B.P., respiration, & muscle-tension—far-reaching negative
effects)
o Production of ‗avoidance behavior‘ [which ultimately result in
reappearance of punished behavior—because negative consequences are
not presented (but avoided), therefore the avoidance is extinguished
(extinction)]
Chaining/ Shaping:

Gradual learning through reinforcement. Breaking down a task to very
smaller responses to be learnt in sequence through reinforcement.

When one response produces or alters the variables which control other
response is called chaining.

Most behaviors occur in chains:
o Learning ‗counting‘, or ‗language‘ through letters of alphabet, walking,
dancing, graduating, learning carpentry, teaching, or doctor etc.
Imitation:

Imitation develops as the result of discriminative reinforcement.
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
We learn behaviors through imitation & forget its origins and accept them as
inherent part of our behavior.

Language, vocalization, culture etc are more or less product of imitative
learning.

We encourage imitation: ‗watch what I do‘, ‗I‘ll show you‘.

Vigotsky‘s constructivism‘s steps involve imitation:
o I do, you see, (Observation, adult-performance)
o I do, you help, (Adult-child interaction, and Scaffolding)
o You do, I help, (Assisted modeling, and Scaffolding)
o You do, I see. (Independent modeling)
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Chapter 5
Implications for Teaching:
The Technology of Teaching
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IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING: THE TECHNOLOGY OF
TEACHING
Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha, the authors of ―From Skinner to Rogers;
Contrasting Approaches to Education‖ gives a brief account of what forced Skinner to
develop teaching machines and programmed learning. Here is the summary of key
concept in bullet form:
Need for introducing Technology in Education:
 There are several notable deficiencies in our present methods of teaching from
Skinner‘s point of view.
 One of the major problems in teaching, he says, is the use of aversive control.
 A shift to non-corporal measures such as ridicule, scolding, sarcasm,
criticism, extra homework, forced labor, withdrawal of privileges.
Examinations are used as threats. Therefore, students work mainly to escape
aversive stimulation. And finds other ways of escaping, and becomes tardy or
absent.
 Children learn without being taught, Skinner says, because they are naturally
interested in some activities and learn by themselves. Discovery method.
 Could we seriously believe that children can discover writing and reading
skills, mathematics, and genetics? Certainly students should be encouraged to
explore, to ask questions, to work and study independently, to be creative. It does
not follow that these can be achieved only through a method of discovery.
 Students, according to Skinner, do not learn simply by doing. From experience
alone a student probably learns nothing. The consequences of the response
(reinforcement) are therefore important.
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 Shaping—tasks must be divided into very small steps. Reinforcement must be
contingent upon the completion of each step satisfactorily. By doing this
reinforcements will be got frequently.
The Teaching Machines:

In 1960s several kinds of teaching machines are available. A teaching machine
provides a slot through which a statement and or question appears. There is
second opening through which the student writes in his response or answer,
usually on a separate tape. Student can cover the answer, and cannot alter what he
has written. One question must be completed before the next question can be
seen.

Machine works like a true private tutor. Reinforces the correct answer instantly.
Programmed Material:

The program is the actual instruction, and learning occurs during participation,
but not later.

By the time the pupil reaches complete frames (structures or items of test or
program) he or she is able to learn the programmed task.

Skinner has developed a handwriting program that uses a method called fading.
Handwriting is shaped by immediate reinforcement of the correct response and by
the gradual withdrawal i.e. fading of the controlling stimulus.
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Part III
A HUMANISTIC
PSYCHOLOGY: CARL. R.
ROGERS
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Chapter 6
Historical and Philosophical
Background of Humanism
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A HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY: CARL. R. ROGERS (Overview)
Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha, the authors of ―From Skinner to Rogers;
Contrasting Approaches to Education‖ in this part presents an overview of the other
school of thought and its major contributors. I am going to present here a bird‘s eye view
for overall understanding:
A tradition in psychology is always there either to study psychology (the study of
human or his behavior) as a ‗Natural Science‘ using the empirical principles of natural
sciences, or as a ‗Human Science‘ using the principles of one‘s own subjective thinking
processes.
o Supporters of psychology as ‗natural science‘ remained dominant, and the other
group is objectors, but they always have not formed a unified group. Maslow
developed the notion of ‗Third Force‘ in psychology: the concept that both
schools of thought i.e. ‗Behaviorism‘ and ‗Phenomenology‘ or objective or
subjective view point of human study are of equal importance, and there should
be integrated effort to properly studying human behavior.
o Carl R. Rogers is prominent figure among supporters of ‗Third Force‘. To some
in this group it is not rational to capture the essence of man through pure objective
or scientific way; for science can only reach the ‗obvious‘ visible and
measureable behavior which is only ‗trivial‘ or unimportant, thus leaving out his
‗uniqueness‘, ‗complexity‘, and ‗unpredictability‘ which is the most important
one.
o Rogers wants a different conception of science—either a new type of science or a
broader one that could also take into account one‘s life experiences, feelings,
meanings, and humor; and the techniques and procedures required for this are not
found in natural sciences.
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HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND
Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha, the authors of ―From Skinner to Rogers;
Contrasting Approaches to Education‖ in chapter six discuss the progression of one
school of thought behaviorism to another one i.e. phenomenology in the historical
context. Here is the summary and key understanding of the chapter:
The two philosophical approaches delineated in the modern world by Leibnitz
and Locke—the ‗nativistic‘ or subjective and the ‗empiristic‘ or the objective study of
human behavior (psychology)
Differentiation of the two approaches paved the way for the ‗Third Force‘ in
psychology, that is, the ‗Humanistic‘ approach which involves and or studies humans on
both ‗subjective‘ and ‗objective‘ approaches (one is ‗subjective‘, other is ‗objective‘,
and third is ‗humanistic‘ approach)
Common-sense approach began as opposed to empiristic observation. It
supported and demonstrated the unity and coherence of all mental life through
introspection. They viewed an individual was an active entity.
German ‗Faculty Psychology‘ emphasized upon the ‗ultimate modes of psychical
functioning‘; it ended in the formulations of Kant.
Under the French idealism, Maine de Biran developed truly dynamic
psychology. His concern was to find the self consciousness in the development of the
child. This was a reaction against mechanistic approaches. The self was here being
described as an experiencing agent, rather than nothing more than a recorder capable of
registering a series of sequential experiences.
De Biran believed that the self becomes conscious of its own existence whenever
a baby first begins to make adjustments to its external environment. The very first
part of this process is primarily mechanical i.e. crying and moving of the limbs etc.
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Rollo May supported that our (human‘s) existence is both a subject and an
object; we are both the actor and acted upon. To him, the first exercise of the will be the
human infant was the actual cause of the development of self-consciousness.
Blaise Pascal (1623-62) a colleague of Descartes in mathematics and physics
claimed about understanding human nature: ‗It is dangerous to show man too often
that he is equal to beasts without showing him his greatness. It is also dangerous to
show him too frequently his greatness without his baseness. It is yet more dangerous
to leave him ignorant of both. But, it is very desirable to show him the two together.‘
To find a middle ground in this continuing controversy David Ausubel wrote
more extremely: ‗…since an individual‘s behavior does in fact vary every time the
situational context is altered, it must therefore be determined by the latter variable
alone. It is hardly necessary to point out, however, that the demonstration of behavioral
change associated with variability in one factor does not necessarily preclude the
possibility that other variables are simultaneously operative. In fact, by simply reversing
the picture, i.e., keeping the situation constant and varying the individuals exposed to
it, once could just as easily emerge with the equally one-sided conclusion that only
personality factors determine behavioral change.‘
The conflict then evolved as the loyalty either to the subject matter under
investigation (phenomenology) or to the method of investigation (behaviorism).
Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century psychology was either studied as branch of
natural science (empiricism) or a separate human science. However, in 1879 Wundt
founded first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.
Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911) defined the distinctive character of a human
science: ―there is no reason why the one sphere of knowledge should not be as
thoroughly studied by philosophers as the other‖. Dilthey pointed instead to a position
between the natural sciences and art the rightful orientation of this disciplined study. He
believed that Psychology as human science must deal with human world of meaning
and values active mind, and free will. Unlike quantitative data of natural sciences, such
human phenomenon cannot be removed from their historical context as within this
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context human action by free will is taken and human are thus responsible being for the
act within the context according to their consciousness, free will and get the
consequences.
For Dilthey, psychology as a natural science had nothing to say in respect to
creative imagination, self-consciousness, self-sacrifice, and a sense of obligation,
love, devotion, and sympathy. He desired that it could take the wisdom and insights of
the poets and give them precise expression and a rigorous, systematic grounding; and it is
the true heir of empiricist tradition. Carl Rogers have done the same: ―Are we willing for
the model and the methods of our science to emerge naturally from the problems of our
science? Can we build a psychological science, or a behavioral science which grows
out of the problems encountered in the study of the whole man in his subjective and
objective being?
Giorgi points out that American psychologist William James—the founder of
both behaviorism and humanist psychology—never achieved a unified viewpoint
precisely because he was torn between meeting the demands for a system of psychology
of the natural sciences and yet refusing to abandon the investigation of those kinds of
phenomena—stream of consciousness, will, experience—relevant to psychology as a
human science. James—according to Giorgi—conceded that psychology was only ‗the
hope of a science‘.
A basic premise of Gestalt theory is that the manner in which any particular
object is perceived is a function of the total configuration or field in which the object is
set. A perceptual field is more than just its specific parts, rather is the perception of
relationships that make up the experience of an individual at any given moment—a
modern version of pre-Socratic principle which denies the possibility of explaining
wholes by a study of their constituent parts. Gestaltist Max Wertheimer in 1912
experimented: Light was thrown through a small slit arranged vertically. A moment later
light through a second slit inclined some degrees to the right thrown. No actual
movement of light was involved. But from the observer‘s point of view light was
perceived as having ―fallen‖ from one position to another, or the movement of light
falling was perceived.
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Wertheimer was in protest against the general modern scientific movement form
parts to whole, from elements to structures, from below to above. He used the term
―Pragnanz‖—the quality of self-fulfillment which is intrinsic in all structured totals.
This includes the cognitive and affective capacities of living systems as well. Total
perception is never possible thus it is not pure objective but relative to objective reality.
A younger colleague of Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler experimented with apes
and concluded that solutions to problems are found by a process of integration or
insight, in which not a number of separate elements of the problem taken in series, but an
integrated system of elements or clues, is responded to all at once. In America Gestalt
psychology provided interesting insights and a direction for further research, whereas in
German it was thought as a final or complete theoretical formulation. Nevertheless, Kurt
Lewin‘s ‗Field Theory‘ included historical tracing of humanistic psychology (borrowed
from physical sciences) involve:
1) A field is considered to be the totality of coexisting facts—external and
internal—which are conceived of as mutually interdependent.
2) Behavior is a function of this field or ‗life space‘ which exists at the moment
behavior occurs (like Rogerian phenomenology).
3) Analysis begins with the situation as a whole (experience as it is given). The
word phenomenal defined as that which perceived in contrast with that which is
real.
Carl Rogers tends to define mental health as the congruence of the two.
Psychological science is significant to explaining a given behavior which is perceived or
experienced as orderly and meaningful at any given moment as opposed to objective
reality. Behavior is determined thus by the inner experience of the organism.
Therefore, phenomenology must be a science of person.
Rollo May, a contemporary of Rogers in humanist movement maintains that we
can never have a science of man without considering such subjective categories as
man‘s inner being, its expression in action, and the meaning derived from action.
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May quotes Michael Polanyi, a professor in chemistry, medicine, and social sciences: ―In
the days when an idea could be silenced by showing that it was contrary to religion,
theology was the greatest single source of fallacies. Today, when any human thought can
be discredited by branding it as unscientific, the power previously exercised by theology
has passed over to science; hence science has become in its turn the greatest single
source of error.‖
For Sartre, man is a being of whom no essence can be finally affirmed, for such
an essence would imply a permanent structure, contradictory to man‘s power of
transforming himself indefinitely—the human freedom and potentiality. He supports
both Locke‘s and Lebnitzian stand point. In ‗Existential Psychoanalysis‘, Sartre
maintains that man cannot be understood at all if we see in him only what our study of
animal life permits us to see, or if we reduce him to naturalistic or mechanical
determinisms. This is also the case if we reduce and separate him into instincts or sets of
stimuli and responses, or in any other way consider the subject of our study apart from
what constitutes his humanness—his ultimate freedom and responsibility.

First, Sartre, like Dilthey and other phenomenologist, insists on understanding
and describing as opposed to explaining.

Second, he sees human existence as purposive. Human reality identifies and
defines itself by the ends which it pursues, not by hypothetical causes in the past.
Neither is it possible to live without purpose—to live simply to live. He insists
that such purpose and meaning is derived not from any universal reality but from
the concrete, particular realities of those situations called into existence by
individual choice. The way of man is unique for each particular man because
each man is unique and each is in a unique situation. German existentialist,
Fredrich Nietzsche‘s dialogue from ‗Thus Spake Zarathustra‘: ―This—is now my
way—where is yours? Says Zarathustra. ―Thus did I answer those who asked me
‗the way‘. For ‗the way—it doth not exist!‖ Martin Heidegger, a contemporary
German existentialist, also interprets Nietzsche‘s famous proclamation, ―God is
dead!‖ in precisely these terms that there is no world of ideal essences and
there should be focus on the world of the here and now.
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
Finally, we should specifically emphasize the concept of ontology—the study of
being and becoming. For him ‗psychology‘ should aim at the rediscovery of the
original mode of existence in which an individual had chosen his being through
examination of present and concrete situations. The subjective choice by which
each person makes himself a person must be brought to light in a strictly objective
form. (essence). Sartre agrees with the phenomenological position of the
Gestaltists concerning wholes and their parts.

His most famous statement, ―I am my choices,‖ sums up what he means by this
totality—an essence which entails both freedom and responsibility, both
actuality and potentiality.
Existentialism goes back to Descartes, the view of human thought and behavior
as having essentially an internal origin. In a symposium on existential psychology
Abraham Maslow‘s concerns were summed up by his colleague Gordon Allport stated:
―Existentialism deepens the concerns that define the human condition. In so doing,
it prepares the way for the first time for a psychology of mankind.‖
Maslow and Allport, along with Rollow May have extensively written on
existential psychology. They and Rogers worked as core group opposed behaviorism as
the only true psychology and worked for humanistic approach of psychology.
According to Rogers, voices are saying: ―the tunnel vision of behavior is not
adequate to the whole range of human phenomena… and human behavior is in some
significant ways, something more than the behavior of our laboratory animals.‖ He and
his group had not turned aside from empirical research, rather they only desired a science
which considers the whole person and which elevates this prerequisite over any
particular concern for method.
Rogers—the supporter of ‗Third Force‘ in psychology—described by his cohort,
Rollo May, as being one of the two psychologists ―who are widely known as the
representatives of the two horns of this dilemma,‖—the human dilemma, man as subject
or man as object, B. F. Skinner, of course, being the other representative.
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Chapter 7
The Process of Learning: Roger’s
Phenomenology
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THE PROCESS OF LEARNING: ROGER‘S PHENOMENOLOGY
In the seventh chapter of their book ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting
Approaches to Education‖ Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha explain the Carl Rogers‘
phenomenology and learning process through his 19 phenomenological (or humanistic)
principles that govern human behavior and learning. Here are the main point of the
chapter/ principles:

Rogers worked with people not with animals in laboratories. (real life situations).
From his clinical experience as a ‗Psychologist‘ he developed 19 formal
principles regarding human behavior.

Rogers‘ theoretical work on scientific methodology, psychological counseling or
therapy, personality, interpersonal relationships, mental health, and learning
paved the way for humanistic approach to Psychology (Third force).

Those 19 principles are concerned with learning from phenomenological view
point:
1.
Development of an individual‘s own sense of reality
2.
Those internal forces which cause him to act,
3.
And the development of individual‘s own self–concept, i.e. his concept of
himself as a person who acts.
Rogers‘ 19 Principles
1. Every individual exists in a continually changing world of experience of which he
is the center.
Sensory input (environmental stimuli) + Internal stimuli
(Experience)
Valuing Stimuli (Perception)
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Phenomenological field
Individual‘s Behavior (Action)
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An individual always has a unique & private world of experience available to
his consciousness. He / she can know the experiences as they are in their totality.
Communication between individuals is, therefore, difficult, incomplete & distorted.

Example: Your experience of skiing-thrill—I can‘t get it, but partially I can get
it, when I also had my previous experience with mountains, speed, snow etc. but
never in totality.
2. The organism reacts to the field as it is experienced and perceived. This perceptual
field is, for the individual, his “reality”.
 Our reaction or behavior depends upon our perceptions about a thing or concept;
and that perception involves both individual‘s immediate inner feelings, emotions
and external or environmental stimuli or conditions prevailing on that moment;
then one attaches meaning or value to this phenomenological field that is called
perception; therefore our perceptions work as our own unique world of
‗realities‘ which tend to initiate our particular behavior.
 For example, we judge someone‘s behavior as ‗stupid‘ at one time, but alter our
judgment later when particular circumstances come to light, or we can say that we
have become more aware of that man‘s context.
 To use a cliché: truth as beauty exists in the eyes of the beholder.
3.
The organism reacts as an organized whole to this phenomenal field.

All aspects of an individual‘s being—both physical and mental or emotional –
enter behavior as interdependent elements in the world of experience.

For example: Hand burnt by a hot stove → physical pain + mental feelings +
medication + an explanation to another of what occurred + loss of appetite etc
work simultaneously as whole (learning through insight). Person learns through
perception of the relationships of all elements exist in his phenomenal field.
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4. The organism has one basic tendency and striving to actualize, maintain, and
enhance the experiencing organism.
 The theme is similar with the idea of survival in evolutionary theory.
 Monistic dynamic system; one drive suffices to account for all behavior --- (no
mind-body duality).
 In all cases the base or prerequisite for behavior is individual‘s own perception
which keeps him experiencing.
 This principle is based on the idea that man is inherently ―good‖ as he internally
is always striving to actualize, maintain, and enhance his experience of personal
world.
 However, in actualizing, the organism experiences differentiation within the
phenomenal field. For instance, a baby experiences the first sense of
differentiation from the mother‘s experiences. Other extreme may employ the
sense of uniqueness experienced (by someone) in creative arts.
 Self-actualization involves all kinds of behavior (physical & cognitive).
 Behaviorists see man as neutral & passive whereas, phenomenologists treat him
‗good‘ and active, having unique world of ‗reality‘ (unique values & judgments
attached) and active to explore the things on his own.
5. Behavior is basically the goal-directed attempt of the organism to satisfy its need as
experienced in the perceived field.
 All behavior is purposive. Purpose evolves from ‗obstacle‘ in perceived-field,
which leads individual to self-actualization & enhancement.
 Exp. Hunger, higher authority etc may be such an obstacle, which leads to
satisfy with food & required obedience – behavior.
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 External and Internal stimuli may work as ‗obstacles‘ to initiate a purposive
behavior.
 For an observer another‘s purposive behavior may seem as ‗irrelevant‘,
inadequate, or even destructive because only isolated ‗action‘ cannot provide all
evidence or consciousness or context, which is necessary for understanding one‘s
behavior (action). (all evidence or consciousness is available only to the person
himself).
6. Emotion accompanies and in general facilitates such goal-directed behavior, the
kind of emotion being related to the seeking versus the consummatory aspects of
the behavior, and the intensity of the emotion being related to the perceived
significance of the behavior for the maintenance and enhancement of the
organism.
 Cause of behavior = physiological changes + emotions.
 For example Nervous speaker feels dry-mouth so takes a drink. Actually emotions
cause perceived purposes to initiate action. These emotions prepare individual for
action—fear, excitement, or joy, or general unpleasantness. However, emotions
occurring after an ‗action‘ are not actual stimuli for action but they are
consequences i.e. feelings of satisfaction, relaxation, calmness etc. The
behaviorists have contrasting point of view as they perceive that behavior is the
result of the consequence that occurs after an individual‘s response.
 For an observer, the emotions may seem as retarding rather than facilitating the
behavior or ‗action‘ of an individual, because emotions are only a part of
phenomenal field. The attached meaning & value and relationship of all elements
are out of reach of observer consciousness.
7. The best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of
reference of the individual himself.

Emphasizes uniqueness of each individual‘s world of being.
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
Evaluating another‘s behavior is more or less impossible. But another‘s
behavior may be (partial) some what understood through ‗empathy‘, otherwise
communication would be impossible.

Prejudice (bias) diminished if empathy-oriented mode of communication.

Empathetic communication will always be partially successful.
8. A portion of the total perceptual field gradually becomes differentiated as the
“self”.
 Process of change & development is continuous in one‘s phenomenological
field; however, there are two structural constructs: the organism and the self
(Rogers theory labeled as self-theory)
 Totality of all awareness is experience or phenomenal field.
 A portion of this field becomes differentiated as a ‗self‘.
 ‗Self‘ is aware of being & functioning in the world—knows that it exists, and it
knows that it is an experiencing organism.
 ‗Self‘ is not always present to awareness, but it is always available.
 ―It (self) is the organized, consistent conceptual gestalt with characteristics of
‗I‘ or ‗me‘, and the relationships of I or me to other‘s people, things, and aspects
of life, together with values attached to these perceptions. It is a fluid and a
changing gestalt, but at any given moment a specific entity‖.
9. As a result of interaction with the environment and, particularly, as a result of
evolutional interaction with others, the structure of self is formed—an organized,
fluid, but consistent conceptual pattern of perceptions of characteristics and
relationships of „I‟ or „me‟ together with values attached to these concepts.
 From all parts of the phenomenal field, a part is differentiated as ‗self‘ having
particular meaning or value—‗me‘, while within the phenomenal field a part also
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develops or exists as ‗not me‘. In other words the evaluations of possible actions
become either ‗desirable‘ or ‗undesirable‘/ ‗good‘ or ‗bad‘. More valuable or
desirable parts of the field (related to self or ‗me‘) create purposes of
enhancement.
 For example, reactions of delight by parents to the behavior of a ‗good‘ baby.
 These parts (desirable or good or ‗me‘) become more permanent and consistent
and are consistently in the form of ‗becoming‘, whereas, other ‗undesirable‘ part
proceeds in the opposite direction.
10. The values attached to experiences, and the values which are a part of the selfstructure, in some instances are values experienced directly by the organism, and in
some instances are values introjected or taken over from others, but perceived in
distorted fashion as if they had been experienced directly.

Self-structure is combination of the existing values of an individual which
evolve through external or environmental as well as internal stimuli, and the
values attached to the present experiences.

Some behaviors are directly experienced and valued by an individual i.e.
enjoying music, playing games, etc, but some behaviors are valued and
influenced by other people primarily, but ultimately a person accepts them as
their own if they are in consistency with his personal values. Poets and writers
often unintentionally use others concepts and claim as their own.

Maladjustment occurs when a large number of other people‘s values are in
conflict with person‘s direct experience and values. In this case the person may
adopt or discard the either experiences or values, sometimes in one time he
accepts his values and on the other time rejects his to adopt social norms.

All prominent behaviors which are generally associated with particular sex,
profession, or ethnic group are the result of this phenomenon.

For example: (these are generally accepted but not true always)
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o Sex-roles—female child is to cook, serve, and choose teaching job etc
o The concept that all ‗Mullahs‘ are extremists and irrational.
o The concept that ‗police‘ are the most corrupt people.
o The concept that ‗religious people‘ are irrational as conceived by highly
educated and liberal people.
11. As experience occur in the life of the individual, they are either (a) symbolized,
perceived, and organized into some relationship to the self, (b) ignored because
there is no perceived relationship to the self-structure, or (c) denied symbolization
or given a distorted symbolization because the experience is inconsistent with the
structure of the self.
 Phenomenal field is made up of both conscious and symbolized experiences and
unconscious or un-symbolized experiences.
 Consciousness is the symbolization of some of our experiences.
 Individual may however react as well to un-symbolized (unconscious)
experience—called as ‗subception‘.
 Symbolized experiences are enhancing the self-structure. For example,
competent hunter→ empty-handed returned → admits failure (symbolized
experience).
Incompetent hunter → empty handed returned → may perceive the day relaxing
and enjoyable (denied or distorted symbolization of experience).

Denial or distortion in symbolizing process may occur if the experience is
perceived as being inconsistent with the self-structure.
 For example, unsuccessful hunter may distort the same experience by saying,
―This gun is too old,‖ or ―Everyone was too noisy‖—responses (undue cause)
about consistently distorted experiences are known as ―rationalization‖.
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 These distortions are unimportant in our lives, however, refusal to actualize
basic organic experience may cause severe coping problems—i.e. ‗sexual
frigidity‘. Anxiety and tension results from a number of such ‗subceived
experiences‘.
12. Most of the ways of behaving which are adopted by the organism are those which
are consistent with the concept of self.

An individual initiates behavior that is in line with his ‗self-structure‘, even
when the environment is providing a contrary stimulus (a threat or unfavorable
consequence).

Thus an individual only proceeds to experience things which are consistent with
his self-construct/ structure otherwise not. A new experience (contrary to one‘s
self) is never likely to occur consciously.
13. Behavior may, in some instances, be brought about by organic experiences and
needs which have not been symbolized, such behavior may be inconsistent with the
structure of the self, but in such instances the behavior is not “owned” by the
individual.
 Un-symbolized behavior caused by organic experiences and needs (i.e. alcohol,
drugs, or unusual pressure) may appear as strange and is not owned.
 Here, the self-structure becomes diffused and thus allowing non-symbolized
experiences to be actualized.
14. Psychological maladjustment exists when the organism denies to awareness
significant sensory and visceral experiences which consequently are not symbolized
and organized into the gestalt of the self-structure. When this situation exists, there
is a basic or potential psychological tension.
 When an individual denies to important sensory & environmental experiences
or awareness, then those experiences and awareness remain un-symbolized (un-
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perceived) within the phenomenal-field, consequently psychological tension
occurs.
 Exp. An individual is unable even to react to the stimulation provided by a loved
one. (psychological impotency)
15. Psychological adjustment exists when the concept of the self is such that all the
sensory and visceral experience of the organism are, or may be assimilated on a
sumbolic level into a consistent relationship with the concept of self.
 When sensory or environmental experiences that are in line with one‘s self
concept
are
allowed
and
perceived
properly
(become
symbolized),
psychological adjustment occurs and the experiences are assimilated,
consequently the self-construct is enhanced.
 Competent hunter →no game bagged→ finds no faults with gun→ may fry to
enhance his skill more
 Young girl → ‗lady – like‘ at home → ‗climbs trees‘ when with friends → or
may choose to forego the pleasure to make his parents happier.
16 Any experience which is inconsistent with the organization or structure of self may
be perceived as a threat, and the more of these perceptions there are the more
rigidly the self-structure is organized to maintain itself.
 An experience which is contrary to self is a threat.
 If, more such experiences, then one‘s ‗self‘ is denied. Therefore, to avoid such
state of nonbeing, all being that is available to him becomes organized to
maintain the self-structure, which, however, produces a narrow purpose. The
consciousness contracts & one‘s behavior may become rigid, unpleasant, and
even paranoid.
 It is a circular process, which becomes constricted & harder and harder: (As
implies in R.D Liang‘s thought).
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I want it,
I get it
Therefore I am good.
I want it,
I don‘t get it,
Therefore I am bad.
I am bad because I didn‘t get it,
I am bad because I wanted what I didn‘t get.
I must take care
to get what I want,
and want what I get,
and not get what I don‘t want.
For example, the stereotype by poorer whites of southern states is: ―Life is hard‖. It
provides narrow experience or purpose. To with stand with it they argue & rationalize:
″Suffering is God‘s will″.

In our (Sindh‘s) culture poorer people and some ethnic groups also face with this
dilemma, as they in their routine lives encounter and feed the experiences which are
opposed to their ‗self‘, therefore, their potential of experiencing is narrow, and they
organize their consciousness to narrow purpose and rationalize it with certain
concepts i.e. :
‗Respect‘ or ‗Disrespect‘ is from God.
‗Everything (good or bad) is from God.
Life, death, health, disease is from God.
Corruption could never come to end etc.
17. Under certain conditions, involving primarily complete absence of any threat to the
self-structure, experiences which are inconsistent with it may be perceived, and
examined, and the structure of self revised to assimilate and include such
experiences.

Roger‘s this principle brings psychology to the human science where existential
phenomenology and empiricism are herein brought together and made
compatible.
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
From this principle, teachers, counselors, administrators, therapists, and good
friends might build ‗helping relationships‘ with those in need that come their
way.

For instance, we are more like our ‗true selves‘ around friends. That is, in the
presence of an accepting person, we feel non-threatened and free to incorporate
more or our experience into our self-structure.

Your perception about something is ‗false‘ (as opposed to your ‗self‘) hence you
avoid experiencing it (thing perceived as threat). But when you are among your
friends (environmental stimuli) you feel no threat and become ready to
experience that ‗thing‘ and eventually your consciousness of self is modified
and your behavior is modified and you treat it ‗not that false‘. (you accept it)

‗Truth‘ and ‗falsity‘ is tentative within no threatening situation. Person is
willing to even experience the things contrary to one‘s self structure within
supporting environmental conditions.

In his book ‗Experience and Education‘ Dr Dewey also states that in traditional
education students‘ artificial decorum of ‗being attentive‘ and ‗being obedient‘
through imposed discipline puts hurdles for a teacher or a facilitator to be aware
of the real nature of learners and to understand their inner and social experiences
that are most important for them. Teacher as a facilitator when provides non
threatening environment in classroom, the learners then may drop their defenses
and then he or she is in a better position to understand them and help them out; in
turn, it also enables learners to understand both the facilitator and the class
resulting in better educational experiences and learning outcomes.

The ‗being‘ undergoes four specific attitudes in reality testing:
1. Openness to experience,
2. Trust in the wisdom of the organism to maintain and enhance itself,
3. Willingness to be a process,
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4. While in process—willingness to experience ambiguity.

This process of reality testing is then a process of experimenting with the possible
range of experience available to the organism. When threat to the self is absent,
experience can be perceived in differentiated fashion, that is, learning of new
modes of being can proceed. In case of more rigidity, other friendly people may
facilitate the process.
18. When the individual perceives and accepts into one consistent and integrated
system all his sensory and visceral experiences then he is necessarily more
understanding of others and is more accepting of others as separate individuals.
19. As the individual perceives and accepts into his self-structure more of his organic
experience, he finds that he is replacing his present value system—based so largely
upon introjections which have been distortedly symbolized—with a continuing
organismic valuing process.

For positive mental health, an individual must be a fully-functional person. He
not only accepts his self-oriented inner experiences, but accepts also all his
sensory and visceral experiences (present in environment).

When an individual fully accepts his inner and outer experiences he then is
accepting and understanding other value system; ultimately, he reaches at a
balanced satisfaction of needs demanded.
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Chapter 8
Implications for Teaching:
The Facilitation of Learning
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IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING: THE FACILITATION OF
LEARNING
In the last chapter of their book ―From Skinner to Rogers; Contrasting
Approaches to Education‖ the authors Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha sum up both
school of thought and their impact on education, learners, and learning. No school of
thought can stand up and meet the total requirement of learners and learning. However,
the child‘s interests and potentials (phenomenology) should be considered first through
proper facilitation and empathic listening by the teacher that is a contrasting role as
compared to traditional educational set up. Then by providing effective and supporting
environment (behaviorism) learners could be facilitated in a learner centered teaching,
curricula, and resources. Here are the key concepts of the chapter:

Rogers declined to use the term ‗revolution‘ in education; he nevertheless believes
that ―only a tremendous change in the basic direction of education can meet the
needs of today‘s culture.‖ The goal of education must evolve from dynamic nature
of our society.

There must be a climate conducive to personal growth where innovation is not at
all frightening but creative capacities of all concerned are nourished and expressed.
The end-point our educational system must be the development of ‗fully
functioning
people
involving
all
the
stakeholders
(students,
teachers,
administrators etc).

Rogers confesses, ―1. I cannot teach another person to teach, 2. Outcomes of
teaching are either unimportant or hurtful, 3. I have lost interest in being a teacher,
and 4. I am only interested in being a learner.‖ All these surprising confessions are
consistent with a phenomenological view of man.

For example, ‗what shall be taught?‘ ‗What does the student need to know?‘ or
‗what shall be course cover?‘ All these assumptions run counter to the individual
freedom and uniqueness. The implication is, of course, that our present system
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lacks trust in the human organism; it denies man both his freedom and his
dignity.

The goal of education must become the facilitation of change and learning. Only
from an interpersonal context in which learning is facilitated will arise ―true
students, real learners, creative scientists and scholars, and practitioners, the
kind of individuals who can live in a delicate but ever changing balance between
what is presently known and the flowing, moving, changing problems and facts of
the future.‖

The facilitation of learning does not rely upon his any particular skills, scholarly
knowledge, curricular planning, use of audiovisual aids; nor upon his programmed
learning, lectures, oral reports or even books and pencils and paper. They might
become resources, but the facilitator is a living resource who works in relationship
to the learning—i.e. interpersonal relationship with learner is of prime
importance in education.

Rogers has discerned certain attitudinal qualities between facilitator and learner.
The first of these essential attitudes is realness or genuineness. A facilitator must
discard the traditional ―role‖ ―mask,‖ ―façade‖ of being ―The Teacher‖ and become
a real person with his students. He should not hide his whatever feelings from the
students. He freely expresses his emotions (if is bored or angry or enthusiastic or
sympathetic) and students should also be free to respond likewise. A good example;
a sixth-grade teacher in a self directed classroom setting was upset with a messedup room; the teacher announced that she had a problem that she found it difficult
to work in all the mess and asked the group for help. The students responded by
setting up a cleaning system.

A second attitude in the facilitator-learner relationship is the trust and acceptance,
even a prizing of the other person as a worthy, valuable individual. Since learning
may often involve a change in the organization of the self, it occurs more frequently
when external threats to the self are at a minimum.
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A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
And finally, where learning is to occur, empathetic communication must ensue
between those persons involved; and it is only possible in a climate characterized by
empathic understanding. A facilitator of learning must be sensitively aware of
learning and education. Rogers maintains that this kind of non-evaluative
understanding is practically unheard of in the average classroom. Learners need
communication if they are to succeed; they need to be understood, not evaluated,
not judged, and not taught. Facilitation requires acceptant, empathic
understanding. Rogers supported with argument from relevant research those three
attitudinal qualities: degree of genuineness shown by the teacher, degree of
unconditional positive regard, and the degree of empathic understanding
remarkably supported higher achievement in classroom learning.

The achievement of these attitudes is no easy task. Basic to all of these attitudes is
trust in the capacity of the human individual for developing his own potentiality.
Only with this trust can learning be facilitated, opportunities provided, freedom
given. A facilitator works on the hypothesis that any student who is in real contact
with problems deemed relevant to himself will want to learn, to grow, to discover,
to create, to become self-disciplined. What learning truly is the very vital
striving of the organism for life itself (self-initiated learning).

Self-initiated learning involves the whole person of the learner (feelings as well
as intellect) and is the most lasting and pervasive. Learning to be an independent,
creative, and self-reliant is facilitated when self-criticism and self-evaluation are
basic and evaluation by others is of secondary importance. (this is, of course,
learning the process of learning)

The classroom atmosphere must be student-centered. It may be necessary to
confront them with real life situations, which will become real problems to them.
Oftentimes, however, this may also simply be a matter of allowing natural
confrontations to occur. How many of our schools really desire to teach
democratic values? If students were free from so many of those rules imposed
from above and without, they would, from the necessity of their own social
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interaction, formulate laws designed to enhance those reasons for their coming
together.

This idea was of course, the central premise of Locke‘s democratic political
philosophy. And in this sense, Rogers is actually very much in the Lockean
tradition. A. S. Neil‘s Summer-hill is a self-governing school. Everything
connected with the social interaction of its members, including even punishment for
social offenses, is settled by vote at Saturday night general school meetings. Each
child, regardless of age, has one vote. And so does each staff member, including
Neil himself. Rogers claims ―when children are given a responsible freedom, in
a climate of understanding and non-possessive love, they choose with wisdom,
learn with alacrity, and develop genuinely social attitudes.‖

As a human resource he (facilitator) is himself introductory material to a wider
world of potential experience to the learner. Unfortunately, state certification
requirements often tend to disqualify persons with a truly wide range of life and
work experience. Rogers observes that by the time, the child has spent a number of
years in traditional school, intrinsic motivation may well be dampened. Yet it is
always there, waiting to be tapped.

Jerome Bruner has called for the activity of ‗enquiry‘ or ‗discovery‘ learning or
learning by doing. Students become self-directed researchers, scientists
themselves, on a simple level. They learn how to learn.

Similar to enquiry learning is the experiential learning entailed in ―simulation.‖
Real life situations are simulated with as much of their complexity and urgency as
possible.

Rogers does not hesitate also to recommend both his own ―humanistic‖ approach
and ―behaviorist‖ programmed instruction. However, latter should never become
a substitute for thinking in larger patterns i.e. through enquiry or discovery
learning.
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
A Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Rogers has written and spoken extensively on one of the practical considerations of
humanistic psychology—the ―encounter-group‖ also known as ―T‖ group
(laboratory training, sensitivity training, and workshop)

An encounter group has ten to fifteen people, along with a facilitator or group
leader. The group is unstructured and provides a climate of freedom for the
expression of personal feelings and interpersonal communication. The word
―encounter‖ refers to that interaction which occurs when people drop their
defenses and relate directly and openly as ―real‖ persons, same as in client centered
therapy. The trust that is generated enables a person to recognize, experiment, and
exchange self-defeating attitudes for those more conducive to innovative and
constructive behaviors.

In the educational setting, the encounter group may be used to release the capacity
of participants for better educational leadership through improved interpersonal
relationships and to facilitate learning by the whole person. The emphasis is on the
whole system, including administrators, teachers, students, and parents.

People are less resistant to change when they do not feel threatened and when
they are determining these changes themselves. The exercise of freedom is
inseparable from the burden of responsibility. And that burden may actually
become lighter and ever fulfilling in a climate of trust and positive regard.
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Chapter 9
Comments of the Author (Bhutto M. Ilyas)
on ‘From Skinner to Rogers: Contrasting
Approaches to Education’
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COMMENTS OF AUTHOR (Bhutto M. Ilyas) ON ―From Skinner To Rogers:
Contrasting Approaches To Education‖:
Generally, there are two schools of thought about the human-learning and their
study. Behaviorists on the one hand focus studying environmental or external stimuli that
cause man to learn. Since these stimuli are objective and measurable, therefore make this
school of thought very scientific in nature. However, on the other hand,
phenomenologists believe that man‘s action and learning is governed by people‘s inner
phenomenological field (involving his or her feelings, perceptions, emotions, and
thoughts). Hence the values attached to certain concepts or things simply tend to be
unique and subjective, and vary from person to person and place to place.
Believing in either school of thought and rejecting the other one solves no
problems. Both have obviously a significant amount of worth which could not be simply
discarded. Scientific inventions and discoveries speak loudly of the importance of former
school of thought. Whereas, existence of divergent beliefs and ideas about morality,
social values, and religion makes us agree to accept the validity of phenomenological
stand point.
For these reasons Rogers proposed the concept of third-force by uniting or
accepting effective points of the empirical as well as subjective understanding about a
phenomenon. This seems less extreme position enough to find out a moderate approach
to study and understand how people learn, perceive, and act as humans. Humans, as one
can not deny, are different from animals. And the experiments conducted on animals that
mostly depend on inherited and environmental stimuli could not always be applied to
humans as final resort. Their learning is mainly based on the principles of classical
conditioning. They use little or no thoughts and logic in their lives. But, on the other hand
symbolic representation (language) facilitates human thought and experiences. They have
comprehensive critical thinking process involving reflection on past experiences and
learning. Also individual differences in terms of intellect and emotions play vital role in
unique understanding of things and concepts. Therefore their (people‘s) subjective
understanding can not be simply ignored.
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For these reasons Rogers propagated the third approach called humanist approach.
It assumes that a person is influenced by both the environmental stimuli and influences
and by one‘s inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Therefore, his or her learning is not
the result of either influences but of the stimuli or influences from both aspects. However
for external or environmental stimuli Rogers believe that they must subordinate to ones
inherent potentials as he thinks that they are the primary forces to be developed. Dr
Dewey‘s experience based education also based on this principle and clearly supports this
point.
Since, human can not be separated from the environment or external world;
therefore, logically it is not a better way to overemphasize on either the person or the
environment. However, an effort should be made to reach a balance between the two.
That balance could be sought, at times, separately or otherwise. Working on and
exploring material things itself and their natural laws one should be objective or use
objective empirical (scientific) approach. While determining value of material things or
determining value of social or religious aspects require subjective understanding or
phenomenological approach. For these reasons it seems realistic to accept the theory or
concept of third-force or humanist approach for understanding, and for facilitating
learning for humans.
Sociological trends, culture, and values I think, imply more or less subjective
values of that community. A group is claimed, at the same time, by different people as
extremely right or wrong, or praiseworthy or punishable for their doings. Therefore
logically the idea of third force or humanist approach seems to be appropriate for
understanding sociological trends and beliefs that make individuals generate and initiate
both the values and actions subjectively throughout the history of humankind.
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Reference (of the original book to which this book (Guide) refers to:
Frank Milhollan and Bill E. Forisha; From Skinner to Rogers: Contrasting Approaches to
Education; Professional Educators Publications, Inc. U.S.A. 1972.
Notes and References of the Original (above) Book:
Chapter 1
K. Jaspers, Philosophy Is for Everyman (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967), pp. 242-43.
Rollo May (ed), Existential Psychology, A. H. Maslow, “Existential Psychology—What’s in It for
Us?” (New York: Random House, 1961), p. 59.
Chapter 2
Gordon Allport, Becoming (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955), pp. 7-12.
Edna Heidbreder, Seveen Psychologies (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1933).
Chapter 3
B. F. Skinner, Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis (New York: Appleton-CenturyCrofts, 1938).
B. F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (New York: Macmillan, 1953), p. 23.
Carl R. Rogers and B. F. Skinner, “Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior,”
Science, Vol. CXXIV, No. 3231 (November 30, 1956).
Chapter 4
B. F. Skinner, Science and Human Behavior (New York: Macmillan, 1953), pp. 85-87, 94, 132.
Ellen Reese, The Analysis of Human Operant Behavior (Dubuque, Iowa: William C. Brown, 1966),
p. 14.
Fred S. Keller, Learning: Reinforcement Theory (New York: Random House, 1954), p. 24.
A. Bandura and Richard H. Walters, Social Learning and Personality Development (New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1963).
Chapter 5
B. F. Skinner, The Technology of Teaching (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968), pp.
40,45,119.
Richard I. Evans, B. F. Skinner: The Man and His Ideas (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., 1968),
pp. 30-31.
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Chapter 6
Gardner Murphy, Historical Introduction to Modern Psychology (New York: Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1949), p. 67.
Rollo May, Psychology and the Human Dilemma (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.,
1967), p. 25, 111.
David Ausubel, Theory and Problem of Child Development (New York: Grune & Stratton, 1957),
p. 43.
Maurice Friedman, To Deny Our Nothingness: Contemporary Images of Man (New York: Dell
Publishing Co., Inc., 1967).
H. A. Hodges, The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey (London: Routledge, 1952), pp. xiv-xv.
H. A. Hodges, Wilhelm Dilthey: An Introduction (London: Routledge, 1944), p. 42.
William R. Coulion and Carl R. Rogers (eds.), Man and the Science of Man, “Some Thoughts
Regarding the Current Presuppositions of the Behavioral Sciences” (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E.
Merrill Publishing Co.), p. 69.
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1 (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1890), p. 7.
Maurice Friedman (ed.), The Worlds of Existentialism: A Critical Reader (New York: Random
House, 1964), p. 3.
Maurice Friedman, To Deny Our Nothingness: Contemporary Images of Man, p. 254, 246-47.
Rollo May (ed.), Gordon Allport, “Comment on Earlier Chapters,” Existential Psychology (New
York: Random House, 1961), pp. 44-45.
Rollo May (ed.), Gordon Allport, Carl Rogers, “Two Divergent Trends,” p. 87.
Chapter 7
Carl Rogers, “A Theory of Therapy, Personality, and Inter-Personal Relationships, as Developed
in the Client-Centered Framework, “ in S. Koch (ed). Psychology: A Study of Science, Vol. III (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1959), pp. 200-01.
R. D. Liang, Knots (New York: Random House, 1970), p. 38.
Carl R. Rogers, “The Characteristics of a Helping Relationship,” Personnel Guidance Journal,
1958, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 6-16.
Carl R. Rogers, “Two Divergent Trends,” in Rollo May (ed), Existential Psychology (New York:
Random House, 1961), p. 89-90.
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Chapter 8
Carl R. Rogers, Freedom to Learn (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.), p. 15,
151,105, 119, 303.
A. S. Neil, Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing (New York: Hart Publishing Co.,
1960).
Bibliography (as given in original book):
Bruner, Jerome S. The Process of Education. New York: Random House, 1963.
Hill, Winfred F. Learning: A Survey of Psychological Interpretations, Rev. ed. Scranton, 1971.
LaBenne, Wallace D. and Green, Bert I. Educational Implications of Self-Concept Theory. Pacefic
Palisades, California: Goodyear Publishing Co., Inc., 1969.
May, Rollo. Psychology and the Human Dilemma. Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Co.,
Inc., 1966.
Pittenger, Owen, E., and Gooding., C. Thomas. Learning Theories in Educational Practice: An
Integration of Psychological Theory and Educational Philosophy. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 1971.
Rogers, Carl R. Freedom to Learn. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., 1969.
Rogers, Carl R., and Skinner, B. F. “Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior,”
Science, Vol., CXXIV, No. 3231 (November 30, 1956).
Skinner, B. F. The Technology of Teaching. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1968.
Skinner, B. F. Walden Two. New York: Macmillan, 1948.
Wann, T. W. (ed.), Behaviorism and Phenomenology: Contrasting Bases for Modern Psychology.
Chigago: University of Chicago Press, 1964.
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