Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 15. Skinner: Behavioral
Analysis(^480) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
behavior, they assign it to some internal concept such as free will, beliefs, inten-
tions, values, or motives. Skinner believed that people are capable of reflecting on
their own nature and that this reflective behavior can be observed and studied just
like any other.
Is Skinner’s concept of humanity optimistic or pessimistic? At first thought,
it may appear that a deterministic stance is necessarily pessimistic. However, Skin-
ner’s view of human nature is highly optimistic.Because human behavior is shaped
by the principles of reinforcement, the species is quite adaptable. Of all behaviors,
the most satisfying ones tend to increase in frequency of occurrence. People, there-
fore, learn to live quite harmoniously with their environment. The evolution of the
species is in the direction of greater control over environmental variables, which
results in an increasing repertoire of behaviors beyond those essential for mere sur-
vival. However, Skinner (1987a) was also concerned that modern cultural practices
have not yet evolved to the point at which nuclear war, overpopulation, and de-
pletion of natural resources can be stopped. In this sense, he was more of a real-
ist than an optimist.
Nevertheless, Skinner provided a blueprint for a utopian society—Walden Two
(Skinner, 1948, 1976b). If his recommendations were followed, then people could
be taught how to arrange the variables in their environments so that the probabil-
ity of correct or satisfying solutions would be increased.
Is humanity basically good or evil? Skinner hoped for an idealistic society in
which people behave in ways that are loving, sensible, democratic, independent,
and good, but people are not by nature this way. But neither are they essentially
evil. Within limits set by heredity, people are flexible in their adaptation to the en-
vironment, but no evaluation of good or evil should be placed on an individual’s
behavior. If a person typically behaves altruistically for the good of others, it is be-
cause this behavior, either in the species’ evolutionary history or in the individual’s
personal history, has been previously reinforced. If one behaves cowardly, it is be-
cause the rewards for cowardice outweigh the aversive variables (Skinner, 1978).
On the dimension of causality versus teleology, Skinner’s theory of personal-
ity is very high on causality. Behavior is caused by the person’s history of rein-
forcement as well as by the species’ contingencies for survival and by the evolution
of cultures. Although people behave covertly (within the skin) when thinking about
the future, all those thoughts are determined by past experiences (Skinner, 1990b).
The complex of environmental contingencies responsible for these thoughts,
as well as for all other behaviors, is beyond people’s awareness. They rarely have
knowledge of the relationship between all genetic and environmental variables and
their own behavior. For this reason, we rate Skinner very high on the unconscious
dimension of personality.
Although he believed that genetics plays an important role in personality de-
velopment, Skinner held that human personality is largely shaped by the environ-
ment. Because an important part of that environment is other people, Skinner’s
concept of humanity inclines more toward social than toward biological determi-
nants of behavior. As a species, humans have developed to their present form be-
cause of particular environmental factors that they have encountered. Climate, ge-
ography, and physical strength relative to other animals have all helped shape the
human species. But social environment,including family structure, early experiences
474 Part V Learning Theories