What is meant by the statement that operant behavior is controlled by its consequences?
In the past era, Watson refined his theory of psychology after the Russian psychologists and Skinner refined his psychology theory after Thorndike. Watson and Pavlov tried to correlate the behavior with the adjustment of environmental stimuli. Thus, Skinner was greatly interested in the reflexive type of behavior.
Hence, Skinner explained two different types of behavior that are known as respondent behavior and operant behavior. In respondent behavior, it was elicited by a known kind of stimulus. But, in operant behavior, it is specifically emitted by the entry of the organism’s actions rather than eliciting by a known type of stimulation factors.
Skinner postulated operant behavior because it operates on the environment realms that in turn, it has the ability to produce major consequences. The major aspect behind the operant behavior is that it is greatly controlled by its consequences that reflect the idea of behaviorism very different from Watson’s theory.