Chapter 15: Skinner – Behavioral Analysis

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering B. F. Skinner’s behavioral analysis: key principles, processes, schedules, and related concepts.

Radical Behaviorism

Skinner’s doctrine that psychology should study only observable behavior, avoiding hypothetical internal constructs.

Scientific Behaviorism

Skinner’s view that lawful relationships of behavior can be discovered without resorting to inner motives or drives.

Determinism (Skinner)

The belief that all behavior is lawfully caused by environmental variables, leaving no room for free will.

Environmentalism

Skinner’s position that behavior must be explained by external stimuli and the individual’s reinforcement history, not by physiology.

Law of Effect

Thorndike’s principle, adopted by Skinner, that responses followed by satisfiers are strengthened, while those followed by annoyers are weakened.

Classical (Respondent) Conditioning

Learning in which a neutral stimulus paired with an unconditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response.

Operant (Skinnerian) Conditioning

Learning in which the probability of a response is changed by its consequences, especially reinforcement.

Elicited vs. Emitted Response

Elicited responses are drawn out by a stimulus (classical); emitted responses are produced by the organism and then reinforced (operant).

Shaping

Reinforcing successive approximations of a desired behavior until the final form is achieved.

ABC Contingency

The triad of Antecedent (environment), Behavior (response), and Consequence (reinforcer or punisher).

Positive Reinforcement

Adding a pleasant stimulus after a behavior to increase its future probability.

Negative Reinforcement

Removing an aversive stimulus after a behavior to increase its future probability.

Punishment (Type I)

Presenting an aversive stimulus following a response, decreasing the response’s frequency.

Punishment (Type II / Response-Cost)

Removing a positive stimulus following a response, decreasing the response’s frequency.

Extinction (Operant)

Gradual weakening of a response when it is no longer reinforced.

Stimulus Discrimination

Responding differently to situations because only some have been reinforced in the past.

Stimulus Generalization

Emitting a response in new situations that share elements with previously reinforced situations.

Continuous Reinforcement

Reinforcing every occurrence of a behavior.

Intermittent Reinforcement

Reinforcing some, but not all, occurrences of a behavior; produces resistance to extinction.

Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule

Reinforcement delivered after a set number of responses (e.g., FR 5 = every fifth response).

Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule

Reinforcement delivered after a varying number of responses, averaged around a mean (e.g., slot machines).

Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule

First response after a fixed time interval is reinforced (e.g., FI 5-min).

Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule

First response after varying time intervals (averaging a set value) is reinforced.

Conditioned Reinforcer

A stimulus that gains reinforcing power through association with a primary reinforcer (e.g., money).

Generalized Conditioned Reinforcer

A conditioned reinforcer linked to many primary reinforcers; e.g., attention, approval, tokens.

Social Control

Society’s regulation of behavior via conditioning, describing contingencies, deprivation/satiation, and physical restraint.

Self-Control (Skinner)

Altering one’s own environment (e.g., using alarms, removing temptations) to change behavior; ultimately environment-based.

Escape (Counteracting Strategy)

Withdrawing physically or psychologically from excessive social control.

Revolt (Counteracting Strategy)

Active counterattack against controlling agents, such as vandalism or rebellion.

Passive Resistance

Stubbornly refusing to comply with control when escape and revolt fail.

Excessively Vigorous Behavior

Over-intense responses that no longer fit the current situation but were once reinforced.

Excessively Restrained Behavior

Unduly inhibited actions maintained by past punishment or threat.

Skinner Box (Operant Chamber)

Experimental apparatus that automatically records and reinforces animal responses.

Project Pigeon

Skinner’s WWII attempt to train pigeons to guide missiles via operant conditioning.

Baby-Tender

Enclosed, climate-controlled crib Skinner designed for his daughter to reduce parental labor.

Walden Two

Skinner’s utopian novel describing a society engineered through behavioral principles.

Private Events

Internal behaviors (thoughts, feelings) observable only to the individual but still subject to analysis.

Drives as Explanatory Fictions

Skinner’s label for hypothetical inner causes; he replaced them with observable deprivation/satiation.

Natural Selection (Behavioral)

Evolutionary process selecting behaviors that aid species survival (e.g., rooting reflex).

Cultural Evolution

Selection of social practices that help groups survive, shaping individual behavior.

Higher Mental Processes (Skinner)

Covert behaviors like thinking and problem-solving, analyzed by the same principles as overt acts.

Creativity (Behavioral View)

Novel behavior produced by accidental variations that are subsequently reinforced.

Unconscious Behavior (Skinner)

Acts controlled by variables outside awareness; no hidden mind, just unobserved contingencies.

Behavior Therapy / Behavior Modification

Clinical application of operant (and classical) principles to change maladaptive behavior.

Reinforcement Sensitivity

Individual differences in how strongly people respond to reward/punishment, linked to brain systems.