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Guide To "From Skinners To Rogers: Contrasting Approaches To Education"
Chapter 3
A Scientific Psychology:
B. F. Skinner
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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
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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.
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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).
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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.
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