fei75766_ch16_495-533.indd 504  02/06/20 01:34 PM
Part VI    Learning-Cognitive Theories504
disposition todealwithfactsrather thanwithwhat someone hassaidabout them” 
(p.12).Inparticular, there arethree components tothescientific attitude: First, it
rejects authority —even itsownauthority. Justbecause some well-respected person, 
suchasEinstein, sayssomething, thatinitself doesnotmake thestatement true.It
must stand thetestofempirical observation. Recall from Chapter 1ourdiscussion 
ofAristotle’s belief thatbodies ofdifferent masses fallatdifferent rates. Thatwas
accepted asfactforroughly 1,000 years simply because Aristotle saidit.Galileo, 
however, tested thatideascientifically anddiscovered thatitwasnottrue.Second, 
science demands intellectual honesty, anditrequires scientists toaccept factseven
when these factsareopposed totheirwishes anddesires. Thisattitude doesnotmean 
thatscientists areinherently more honest thanother people. They arenot.Scientists 
havebeen known tofabricate dataandmisrepresent theirfindings. However, asadis-
cipline, science putsahighpremium onintellectual honesty simply because theright
answer ultimately willbediscovered. Scientists havenochoice buttoreport results 
thatgoagainst theirhopes andhypotheses, because iftheydonot,someone elsewill,
andthenewresults willshow thatthescientists whomisrepresented datawerewrong. 
“Where rightandwrong arenotsoeasily orsoquickly established, there isnosimilar 
pressure” (Skinner, 1953, p.13).Finally, science suspends judgment untilclear trends 
emerge. Nothing ismore damaging toascientist’s reputation thantorushintoprint 
findings thatareinsufficiently verified andtested. Ifascientist’s report offindings 
doesnotholduptoreplication, thenthatscientist appears foolish atbestanddishon -
estatworst. Ahealthy skepticism andwillingness tosuspend judgment aretherefore 
essential tobeing ascientist.
Athird characteristic ofscience isa search for order and lawful relationships. All
science begins withobservation ofsingle events andthenattempts toinfergeneral 
principles andlawsfrom those events. Inshort, thescientific method consists ofpre-
diction, control, anddescription. Ascientist makes observations guided bytheoretical 
assumptions, develops hypotheses (makes predictions), teststhese hypotheses through 
controlled experimentation, describes honestly andaccurately theresults, andfinally 
modifies thetheory tomatch theactual empirical results. Thiscircular relationship 
between theory andresearch wasdiscussed inChapter 1.
Skinner (1953) believed thatprediction, control, anddescription arepossible 
inscientific behaviorism because behavior isbothdetermined andlawful. Human 
behavior, likethatofphysical andbiological entities, isneither whimsical northe
outcome offreewill.Itisdetermined bycertain identifiable variables andfollows 
definite lawful principles, which potentially canbeknown. Behavior thatappears to
becapricious orindividually determined issimply beyond scientists’ present capacity 
topredict orcontrol. But,hypothetically, theconditions under which itoccurs canbe
discovered, thuspermitting bothprediction andcontrol aswellasdescription. Skin-
nerdevoted much ofhistimetotrying todiscover these conditions, using aprocedure 
hecalled operant conditioning.
Conditioning
Skinner (1953) recognized twokinds ofconditioning, classical andoperant. With 
classical conditioning (which Skinner called respondent conditioning), aresponse 
isdrawn outoftheorganism byaspecific, identifiable stimulus. With operant Final PDF to printer