480 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
answered this problem by comparing creative behavior with natural selection in
evolutionary theory. “As accidental traits, arising from mutations, are selected by
their contribution to survival, so accidental variations in behavior are selected by
their reinforcing consequences” (p. 114). Just as natural selection explains differen-
tiation among the species without resorting to an omnipotent creative mind, so behav-
iorism accounts for novel behavior without recourse to a personal creative mind.
The concept of mutation is crucial to both natural selection and creative
behavior. In both cases, random or accidental conditions are produced that have
some possibility of survival. Creative writers change their environment, thus pro-
ducing responses that have some chance of being reinforced. When their “creativ-
ity dries up,” they may move to a different location, travel, read, talk to others,
put words on their computer with little expectancy that they will be the finished
product, or try out various words, sentences, and ideas covertly. To Skinner, then,
creativity is simply the result of random or accidental behaviors (overt or covert)
that happen to be rewarded. The fact that some people are more creative than
others is due both to differences in genetic endowment and to experiences that
have shaped their creative behavior.Unconscious Behavior
As a radical behaviorist, Skinner could not accept the notion of a storehouse of
unconscious ideas or emotions. He did, however, accept the idea of unconscious
behavior. In fact, because people rarely observe the relationship between genetic
and environmental variables and their own behavior, nearly all our behavior is
unconsciously motivated (Skinner, 1987a). In a more limited sense, behavior is
labeled unconscious when people no longer think about it because it has been sup-
pressed through punishment. Behavior that has aversive consequences has a ten-
dency to be ignored or not thought about. A child repeatedly and severely punished
for sexual play may both suppress the sexual behavior and repress any thoughts
or memories of such activity. Eventually, the child may deny that the sexual activ-
ity took place. Such denial avoids the aversive aspects connected with thoughts of
punishment and is thus a negative reinforcer. In other words, the child is rewarded
for not thinking about certain sexual behaviors.
An example of not thinking about aversive stimuli is a child who behaves in
hateful ways toward her mother. In doing so, she will also exhibit some less antag-
onistic behaviors. If the loathsome behavior is punished, it will become suppressed
and replaced by the more positive behaviors. Eventually the child will be rewarded
for gestures of love, which will then increase in frequency. After a time, her behav-
ior becomes more and more positive, and it may even resemble what Freud
(1926/1959a) called “reactive love.” The child no longer has any thoughts of hatred
toward her mother and behaves in an exceedingly loving and subservient manner.Dreams
Skinner (1953) saw dreams as covert and symbolic forms of behavior that are sub-
ject to the same contingencies of reinforcement as other behaviors are. He agreed
with Freud that dreams may serve a wish-fulfillment purpose. Dream behavior is
reinforcing when repressed sexual or aggressive stimuli are allowed expression. To