Skinner’s Quote of the Day

"Most methodological behaviorists granted the existence of mental events while ruling them out of consideration." (p. 17) Subscribe to RSS feed here

"It is so easy to observe feelings and states of mind at a time and place which make them seem like causes that we are not inclined to inquire further.…

"The quickest way to [avoid the mentalistic problem] is to confine oneself to what an early behaviorist, Max Meyer, called the “psychology of the other one”: consider only those facts…

"Structuralism or developmentalism do not tell us why customs are followed, why people vote as they do or display attitudes or traits of character, or why different languages have common…

"A kind of prediction is possible on the principle that what people have often done they are likely to do again; they follow customs because it is customary to follow…

". . . the major difficulties are practical: we cannot anticipate what a person will do by looking directly at his feelings or his nervous system, nor can we change…

"The person with whom we are most familiar is ourself; many of the things we observe just before we behave occur within our body, and it is easy to take…

"Why do people behave as they do? It was probably first a practical question: How could a person anticipate and hence prepare for what another person would do? Later it…

"The major problems facing the world today can be solved only if we improve our understanding of human behavior. Traditional views have been around for centuries, and I think it…

"Unfortunately, very little is known about this analysis outside the field. Its most active investigators, and there are hundreds of them, seldom make any efforts to explain themselves to nonspecialists.…

"The criticisms listed above [on pp. 4-5] are most effectively answered by a special discipline, which has come to be called the experimental analysis of behavior. The behavior of individual…

"I believe the explanation [why behaviorism is still so seriously misunderstood] is this: the science itself is misunderstood." (p. 8) Subscribe to RSS feed here

"Much is at stake in the way in which we look at ourselves, and a behavioristic formulation certainly calls for some disturbing changes". (p. 7) Subscribe to RSS feed here

"[Watson’s] new science was also, so to speak, born prematurely. Very few scientific facts about behavior—particularly human behavior—were available . . . Among the behavioral facts at hand were reflexes…

"Watson himself had made important observations of instinctive behavior and was, indeed one of the first ethologists in the modern spirit, but he was greatly impressed by new evidence of…

"The first explicit behaviorist was John B. Watson, who in 1913 issued a kind of manifesto called Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. As the title shows, he was not…

"Human behavior is the most familiar feature of the world in which people live, and more must have been said about it than about any other thing; how much of…

"Some of the questions [behaviorism] asks are these: Is such a science really possible? Can it account for every aspect of human behavior? What methods can it use? Are its…

"Behaviorism is not the science of human behavior; it is the philosophy of that science." (p. 3) Subscribe to RSS feed here

A good tradition of starting on January 4th of the New Year to publish daily quotations from Skinner's publications continues today. We start 2017 with the first quote from About…

"By distributing scientific knowledge as widely as possible, we gain some assurance that it will not be impounded by any one agency for its own aggrandizement." (p. 442) "Science is…

"To refuse to accept control, and thus to leave control to other sources, often has the effect of diversifying control. Diversification is another possible solution to our problem." (p. 440)…

"A demonstration of basic behavioral processes under simplified conditions enables us to see these processes at work in complex cases, even though they cannot be treated rigorously there. If these…

"The power achieved by the religious agency depends upon how effectively certain verbal reinforcements are conditioned—in particular the promise of Heaven and the threat of Hell." (p. 353) Subscribe to…

"A functional analysis of behavior provides us with a basic conception with which we may approach each of these fields in turn. . . if we can achieve such an…

"The conception developed in one field is seldom applied, and never effectively applied, to another. What the political scientist has to say about man proves to be of little value…

"Those who are most concerned with restricting personal control have most to gain from a clear understanding of the techniques employed." (p. 322) Subscribe to RSS feed here

"As we have seen, science implies prediction and, insofar as the relevant variables can be controlled, it implies control. We cannot expect to profit from applying the methods of science…

"As we have seen, science implies prediction and, insofar as the relevant variables can be controlled, it implies control. We cannot expect to profit from applying the methods of science…

". . . control is frequently aversive to the controllee. Techniques based upon the use of force, particularly punishment or the threat of punishment, are aversive by definition, and techniques…

"Psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists usually prefer theories of behavior in which control is minimized or denied, and we shall see that proposed changes in governmental design are usually promoted by…

"Students of human behavior often avoid the issue of control and even regard it as in bad taste to suggest that deliberate control is ever undertaken." (pp. 320-321) Subscribe to…

"The individual who is able to present a positive reinforcement or withdraw a negative is usually also able to present the negative or withdraw the positive and is therefore able…

"Negative reinforcement is employed in personal control in the aversive cry of the child and the nuisance value of the behavior of an adult. Control is achieved by making the…

"The whole field of verbal behavior exemplifies the use of stimuli in personal control. The speaker generates auditory patterns which are effective because of the listener's history in a given…

"The use of force has obvious disadvantages as a controlling technique. It usually requires the sustained attention of the controller. It is almost exclusively concerned with the prevention of behavior,…

"[The first task of the counselor] is to make sure that the man he is counseling continues to listen and to return for further counsel. If this can be done,…

"The kind and extent [of personal control over others] depend upon the personal endowment and skill of the controller. The strong man uses the variables which derive from his strength.…

"[In analyzing social interaction,] it is our task to evaluate the various ways in which one person controls another." (p. 313) Subscribe to RSS feed here

"The interchanges within a group and the heightened effect of the group upon the environment may be studied within the framework of a natural science."  (p. 312) Subscribe to RSS…

"The reinforcing consequences generated by the group easily exceed the sums of the consequences which could be achieved by the members acting separately. The total reinforcing effect is enormously increased.…

"The [behavior of the] man attired in full uniform, parading smartly down the street, is reinforced by the acclaim of the crowd even though it would not be forthcoming if…

"Situations [where behaving as others behave is likely to be reinforcing] multiplied a thousandfold generate and sustain an enormous tendency to behave as others are behaving." (p. 312) Subscribe to…

"The group may reinforce the individual for telling the truth, helping others, returning favors, and reinforcing others in turn for doing the same. The Golden Rule is a generalized statement…

"Although many . . . interlocking social systems are stable, others show a progressive change. A trivial example is the behavior of a group of people who enter an unfamiliar…

"Social behavior arises because one organism is important to another as part of its environment. A first step, therefore, is an analysis of the social environment and of any special…

Skinner's Quote of the Day will be back on Monday, November 28.

"The principal realm of the symbol is the dream which occurs when we are asleep. This is a species of private event which is extremely difficult to study and is,…

"It has been argued that one cannot describe behavior after the fact which one could not have described at the time. This appears to explain our inability to recall the…

"It is easy to overestimate the unity of a group of responses, and unfortunately personification encourages us to do so . . . [and] may lead us to expect consistencies…