Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 15. Skinner: Behavioral
Analysis© The McGraw−Hill^453
Companies, 2009creases the likelihood of eating, then they can deprive a person of food in order to
better predict and control subsequent eating behavior. Both deprivation and eating
are physical events that are clearly observable and therefore within the province of
science. Scientists who say that people eat because they are hungry are assuming an
unnecessary and unobservable mental condition between the physical fact of depri-
vation and the physical fact of eating. This assumption clouds the issue and relegates
much of psychology to that realm of philosophy known as cosmology,or the con-
cern with causation. To be scientific, Skinner (1953, 1987a) insisted, psychology
must avoid internal mental factors and confine itself to observable physical events.
Although Skinner believed that internal states are outside the domain of sci-
ence, he did not deny their existence. Such conditions as hunger, emotions, values,
self-confidence, aggressive needs, religious beliefs, and spitefulness exist; but they
are not explanations for behavior. To use them as explanations not only is fruitless
but also limits the advancement of scientific behaviorism. Other sciences have made
greater advances because they have long since abandoned the practice of attributing
motives, needs, or willpower to the motion (behavior) of living organisms and inan-
imate objects. Skinner’s scientific behaviorism follows their lead (Skinner, 1945).
Philosophy of Science
Scientific behaviorism allows for an interpretationof behavior but not an explana-
tion of its causes. Interpretation permits a scientist to generalize from a simple learn-
ing condition to a more complex one. For example, Skinner generalized from animal
studies to children and then to adults. Any science, including that of human behav-
ior, begins with the simple and eventually evolves generalized principles that permit
an interpretation of the more complex. Skinner (1978) used principles derived from
laboratory studies to interpret the behavior of human beings but insisted that inter-
pretation should not be confused with an explanation of why people behave the way
they do.
Characteristics of Science
According to Skinner (1953), science has three main characteristics: First, science is
cumulative; second, it is an attitude that values empirical observation; and third, sci-
ence is a search for order and lawful relationships.
Science, in contrast to art, philosophy, and literature, advances in a cumulative
manner. The amount and nature of scientific knowledge that today’s high school stu-
dents have of physics or chemistry is vastly more sophisticated than that of even the
most educated Greeks 2,500 years ago. The same cannot be said for the humanities.
The wisdom and genius of Plato, Michelangelo, and Shakespeare are clearly not in-
ferior to the wisdom and genius of any modern philosopher, artist, or writer. How-
ever, cumulative knowledge is not to be confused with technological progress. Sci-
ence is unique not because of technology but rather because of its attitude.
The second and most critical characteristic of science is an attitudethat places
value on empirical observationabove all else. In Skinner’s (1953) words: “It is a dis-
position to deal with facts rather than with what someone has said about them”
(p. 12). In particular, there are three components to the scientific attitude: First, it
Chapter 15 Skinner: Behavioral Analysis 447