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Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" Chapter 3 A Scientific Psychology: B. F. Skinner Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" A Scientific Psychology: B. F. Skinner 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 these bullet points: 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. Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" Historical and Philosophical Background 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 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. Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" 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). Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" 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 Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" 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. Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" 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). Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education" 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. Published By: HRMARS, Publishing House www.hrmars.com/GFS