Question

Refer to Skinner’s Behaviorist theory, what might Skinner have to say about your personality? Incorporate two or more of the following terms in your response:

• Reinforcement (positive, negative, continuous, intermittent)
• Punishment (not to be confused with negative reinforcement)
• Social control
• Self-control

Answer 1

Ans. According to B.F Skinner(1938), Operant conditioning involves learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and its consequence.

B.F. Skinner proposed that the differences in an individual's learning experiences are the main reason behind their individual differences in behavior. Further, they learn these patterns of behavior either directly i.e through reward as positive reinforcement of good behavior or punishment as a negative reinforcement of bad behavior. And sometimes even indirectly through observational learning or modeling.

He believed that it is simply human nature that one behaves in a way, that they receive rewards or favorable things. In order to experience reinforcement, they should develop personality traits that are positive, such as those attributes included in the "agreeableness" category of the Big Five Factor model of personality such as being understanding, compassionate, empathetic, and a positive thinker.  In this way, Skinner argued that one responds to every kind of reinforcement, and that the behavior and personality traits can be shaped and controlled by the society. In addition to this, Skinner implied that if one wants the negative traits to be changed into positive ones, they must changed their social environment first.

Hence, from the behaviorist point of view, it tries to refute other psychologists belief that one must alter the inner self first i.e personality traits, before one can fully experience the change that they want to achieve.