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Freud’s contribution has been widely misunderstood. The important point was not that the individual was often unable to describe important aspects of his own behavior or identify important causal relationships…

There are many words in the layman’s vocabulary which suggest the activity of an organism yet are not descriptive of behavior in the narrower sense . . . We say…

In spite of Freud’s valuable analysis of verbal slips and of the techniques of wit and verbal art, he rejected the possibility of an analysis of verbal behavior in its…

Inevitably, [Freud’s mental apparatus] stole the show. Little attention was left to behavior per se. Behavior was relegated to the position of a mere mode of expression of the activities…

In the process of therapy, the analyst necessarily acts upon the patient only through physical means . . . Nevertheless, it is commonly assumed that the mental apparatus is being…

By arguing that the individual organism simply reacts to its environment, rather than to some inner experience of that environment, the bifurcation of nature into physical and psychic can be…

Freud, himself, however, did not appeal to the inner apparatus to account for spontaneity or caprice because he was a thoroughgoing determinist. (p 287)

Freud’s explanatory scheme followed a traditional pattern of looking for a cause of human behavior inside the organism. His medical training supplied him with powerful supporting analogies. (p. 287)

There is an alternative view [to the one held by some of Freud’s followers], however, which holds that Freud did not discover the mental apparatus but rather invented it, borrowing…

No matter what logicians may eventually make of this mental apparatus, there is little doubt that Freud accepted it as real rather than as a scientific construct or theory. One…

Freud demonstrated that many features of behavior hitherto unexplained—and often dismissed as hopelessly complex or obscure—could be shown to be the product of circumstances in the history of the individual.…

No matter how bad a teacher may be, he has at least one available reinforcer—dismissing his class . . . He should wait until the behavior of the class is…

Many problems in classroom management arise because the teacher reinforces students when they behave in objectionable ways . . . The teacher tends to do so “naturally,” and he will…

Laboratory or classroom practice in operant conditioning gives the teacher the confidence he needs to change behavior in less immediate but more effective ways. (p. 280)

The training of a teacher should begin with basic principles. Everyone who intends to be a teacher should have a chance to see learning take place or, better, to produce…

. . . we are on the verge of a new educational “method”—a new pedagogy—in which the teacher will emerge as a skilled behavioral engineer. (p. 279)

Students reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule will show a fantastic dedication if the schedule has been properly programmed. They will work for long periods of time with no reinforcement whatsoever,…

No one is ever actually reinforced by remote consequences, but rather by mediating reinforcers which have acquired their power through some connection with them. (p. 279)

. . . adults put jigsaw puzzles together and work crossword puzzles for no more obvious reason than that they come out right. In a good program the student makes…

Given the right conditions men will learn—not because they want to, but because, as the result of the genetic endowment of the species, contingencies bring about changes in behavior. (p.…

Studies of operant reinforcement differ from earlier studies of learning by emphasizing the maintenance as well as the acquisition of behavior. (p. 275)

Behavioral objectives remove much of the mystery from education, and teachers may feel demeaned when their task is reduced to less awesome dimensions. But the loss is more than offset…

What is the student to do as the result of having been taught? (p. 274)

Quite complex forms of behavior can be generated, often with surprising speed, through a series of stages leading to the terminal specifications. One actually “sees learning take place,” and the…

The step-by-step shaping of complex behavior was first demonstrated in an experimental analysis, and the technique is probably still best seen in experiments with animals. (p. 274)

[A token economy community] has been called a “prosthetic” environment. Like eye glasses, hearing aids, and artificial limbs, it permits people to behave successfully in spite of defects. (p. 274)

. . . man is an animal, although an extraordinarily complex one, and shares many basic behavioral processes with other species. Human behavior must nevertheless be studied in its own…

As more and more complex contingencies have been arranged, it has been possible to study more and more complex kinds of behavior, including behavior once attributed to higher mental processes.…

Behavior which acts upon the environment to produce consequences—“operant” behavior—has been experimentally analyzed in great detail. (p. 273)

The “reasons” why men behave are to be found among the consequences of their behavior—what, to put it roughly, they “get out of behaving in given ways.” (p. 273)

Most students come and behave in order to avoid consequences of not doing so. (p. 271)

The change which occurs in a student as the result of spending one day in high school is discouragingly small. (p. 270)

Teachers need to be retrained as skillful behavioral engineers.

To remove the mystery, we must define our goals in the most explicit way. And we can then begin to teach. (p. 263)

If we announce that we are interested in giving the student a thorough knowledge of a science, a grasp of its structure, an understanding of its basic relations, we shall…

Statements of educational policy are replete with [mentalistic expressions] . . . It would be a mistake to underestimate their power, for they are supported by ancient systems of psychology…

The commonest practice in high school as well as college is still “assign and test.” We tell the student what he is to learn and hold him responsible for learning…

It is characteristic of the successful scientist, for example, that he continues to work for long periods when nothing interesting is happening. That kind of dedication can be instilled in…

The important thing is for the student to discover that interesting things happen when he attends to something which, on its face, is not interesting at all. (p. 258)

A student who is not paying attention is obviously not learning, and the teacher is therefore reinforced when he behaves in ways which attract attention . . . But to…

It is true that scientists occasionally discuss things among themselves, but the creative interchanges are more likely to be between men and things than between men and men. (p. 258)

The significant results of teaching lie in that distant future in which students make use of what they have learned, and it is a future usually closed to the teacher…

From his study of the behavior of the individual student, the investigator gains a special kind of confidence. He usually knows what he has done to get one effect and…

The programing of schedules of reinforcement is a promising alternative to the aversive control which, in spite of repeated reforms, still prevails in educational practice. (p. 248)

Appropriate terminal schedules of reinforcement will maintain the student’s interest, make him industrious and persevering, stimulate his curiosity, and so on; but less demanding schedules, carefully designed to maintain the…

A teaching method is simply a way of arranging an environment which expedites learning. (p. 247)

[A behavioristic formulation] is merely an effective formulation of those activities of teacher and student which have always been the concern of educational specialists. (p.247)

Contrary to frequent assertions, a behavioristic formulation of human behavior is not a crude positivism which rejects mental processes because they are not accessible to the scientific public. (p. 247)