Question

Assignment: Prepare a Mini Transcript of a Fictional Debate

Imagine this scenario: You are attending a local psychology conference and you find two graduate level psychology students entered in a hot debate, with a crowd of people around them. You are curious and come closer to see what everyone is interested in. You find that they are debating the work and personality of BF Skinner. One of the students, Rick Nilsen claims that Skinner was a cool headed scientist who based his opinions about the human being only on observable behavior. The other student, Blanca Alvarez, says that Skinner was not just as simple as he seemed. He believed in behaviorism, just like other people believed in Marxism or any other –ism. • What points would each one make? Would they bring in other behaviorists’ theories? Consider Hull and Thorndike’s ideas. • How would each one refute the other's points?

Answer 1

BF skinner was an American psychologist who believed in the theory that the behavior is determined by the performance and the regular attitude of the person in particular situations. The theory was called as the radical behaviorism. It is the actual attitude and the existence of the person in the real situation than just believing in perceptions and false imaginations. It is called as the radical behavior of the person. He emphasized on the role of the environmental factors in analyzing the behavior of the person in the real sense and situations in the life. Many individuals are born with innate behaviors and that the genes and their expression design the internal behavior of the person. The ability of the person to adapt in a particular situation depends upon the behavior of the person. The operant conditioning in behavior is an important phenomenon discussed in the Skinner studies and research. The external stimulus defines the existence of the behavior of the particular person in life. This behavior tends to be get repeated depending upon the environmental situation,rewards and the intensity of the punishment during circumstances of bad behavior. The example is the behavior of the rat in a food chamber with a lever and a dispenser. The rat presses the lever and the dispenser down immediately on receiving the stimulus of food inside the chamber cavity. The necessity of reinforcement is discussed in the analysis of the behavior of the person. This is called as the operant conditioning. In this the example taken is that of parents rewarding their children if they perform and get good grades in school. This leads to the development of quiet and sincere behavior in children with discipline. There are positive and negative reinforcements in life. The positive reinforcement is the rewarding the merits of children, the negative is the removal of the bad behavior and habits in the children through inculcating good moral values.

Thorndike has emphasized on the importance of the reinforcements in behavior based on the consequences of the events observed by the person. The behavior is the consequence of the situations faced and encountered by the persons in the society. The acitivity of the person, reinforcements and the objectives for defining the work should be clear in life. The repeatitions of the same events should be observed in life and should be monitored with care and precision.