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Psychology 213 Chapter 9
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Psych 213 - Chapter 1BF Skinner and Radical Behaviourism
I. Background
A. Skinner tries to replace these “mentalistic” explanations with environment-
orientated explanations
B. If we de ne a personality theory as any attempt to provide an explanation of
human functioning in general, Skinner’s explanation not only quali ed but is also
regarded as one of the most in uential theories of human functioning
C. He attempts to base his explanation on the e ect of environmental in uences
II. The View of the Person Underlying the Theory
A. He does not put forward a view of the person
B. However, he does have a view of humanity that is based on the principles of
evolution and environmental determinism
C. He believed that humans are outcomes of the process of evolution
1. Therefore there is no essential di erence between humans and animals or
between human and animal behaviour
D. He focused his research on the study of animal behaviour and did not hesitate to
apply his nding to humans
E. His use of evolutionism and environmental determinism takes him beyond just an
abstract view of humanity
F. He maintains that individual organisms produce a large variety of behaviours,
some of which “survive”
1. Which means that they are repeated and used again by the organism because
they are “reinforced”
G. His acceptance of the evolutionist view means that he regards it as unnecessary to
ascribe goal orientation and conscious planning o humans or to any organism
1. The organism produces behaviour innately while the environment determined
what behaviour will (or will not ) be repeated in the future
H. He therefore sees the human being as no di erent from animals
1. The only di erence being that humans’ genetic structure allows us to obtain a
greater variety of behaviours
I. He does not deny that people experience feelings, perceptions, cognitions and
goals consciously but believes the such experiences should not be regarded as
causing or explaining behaviour
1. He avoids the use of subjective matters like those mentioned above
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