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Part VI    Learning-Cognitive Theories530
 However, Skinner (1987a) was also concerned that modern cultural prac -
tices have not yet evolved to the point at which nuclear war, overpopulation, 
and depletion of natural resources can be stopped. In this sense, he was 
more of a realist 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 environ -
ments so that the probability of correct or satisfying solutions would be 
increased.
Is humanity basically good or evil? Skinner hoped for an idealistic soci -
ety 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 environment, but no evaluation of good or evil should 
be placed on an individual’s behavior. If a person typically behaves altruisti -
cally for the good of others, it is because this behavior, either in the species’ 
evolutionary history or in the individual’s personal history, has been previ -
ously reinforced. If one behaves cowardly, it is because the rewards for 
cowardice outweigh the aversive variables (Skinner, 1978).
On the dimension of causality versus teleology, Skinner’s theory of 
personality is very high on causality . Behavior is caused by the person’s 
history of reinforcement 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 person -
ality development, Skinner held that human personality is largely shaped by 
the environment. Because an important part of that environment is other 
people, Skinner’s concept of humanity inclines more toward social than 
toward biological determinants of behavior. As a species, humans have 
developed to their present form because of particular environmental factors 
that they have encountered. Climate, geography, and physical strength rela -
tive to other animals have all helped shape the human species. But social 
environment,  including family structure, early experiences with parents, edu -
cational systems, governmental organization, and so forth, has played an 
even more important role in the development of personality, 
Skinner hoped that people might be trustworthy, understanding, warm, 
and empathic—characteristics that his friendly adversary Carl Rogers (see 
Chapter 10) believed to be at the core of the psychologically healthy per -
sonality. In contrast to Rogers, who believed that these positive behaviors 
are at least partially the result of the human capacity to be self-directed, 
Skinner held that they are completely under the control of environmental Final PDF to printer