482 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
Like Erich Fromm, each of us is controlled by a variety of social forces and
techniques, but all these can be grouped under the following headings: (1) operant
conditioning, (2) describing contingencies, (3) deprivation and satiation, and
(4) physical restraint (Skinner, 1953).
Society exercises control over its members through the four principal methods
of operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and the two
techniques of punishment (adding an aversive stimulus and removing a positive one).
A second technique of social control is to describe to a person the contingen-
cies of reinforcement. Describing contingencies involves language, usually verbal,
to inform people of the consequences of their not-yet-emitted behavior. Many
examples of describing contingencies are available, especially threats and promises.
A more subtle means of social control is advertising, designed to manipulate peo-
ple to purchase certain products. In none of these examples will the attempt at
control be perfectly successful, yet each of them increases the likelihood that the
desired response will be emitted.
Third, behavior can be controlled either by depriving people or by satiating them
with reinforcers. Again, even though deprivation and satiation are internal states,
the control originates with the environment. People deprived of food are more likely
to eat; those satiated are less likely to eat even when delicious food is available.
Finally, people can be controlled through physical restraints, such as holding
children back from a deep ravine or putting lawbreakers in prison. Physical restraint
acts to counter the effects of conditioning, and it results in behavior contrary to that
which would have been emitted had the person not been restrained.
Some people might say that physical restraint is a means of denying an
individual’s freedom. However, Skinner (1971) held that behavior has nothing to
do with personal freedom but is shaped by
the contingencies of survival, the effects of
reinforcement, and the contingencies of the
social environment. Therefore, the act of
physically restraining a person does no
more to negate freedom than does any other
technique of control, including self-control.Self-Control
If personal freedom is a fiction, then how
can a person exercise self-control? Skinner
would say that, just as people can alter the
variables in another person’s environ-
ment, so they can manipulate the variables
within their own environment and thus
exercise some measure of self-control.
The contingencies of self-control, how-
ever, do not reside within the individual
and cannot be freely chosen. When people
control their own behavior, they do so by
manipulating the same variables that theyPhysical restraint is one means of social
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