fei75766_ch16_495-533.indd 529  02/06/20 01:34 PM
Chapter 16    Skinner: Behavioral Analysis529
 Concept of Humanity
Without doubt, B. F. Skinner held a deterministic view  of human nature, and 
concepts like free will and individual choice had no place in his behavioral 
analysis. People are not free but are controlled by environmental forces. 
They may seem to be motivated by inner causes, but in reality , those causes 
can be traced to sources outside the individual. Self-control depends 
ultimately on environmental variables and not on some inner strength. When 
people control their own lives, they do so by manipulating their environment, 
which in turn shapes their behavior. This environmental approach negates 
hypothetical constructs such as willpower or responsibility. Human behavior 
is extremely complex, but people behave under many of the same laws as 
do machines and animals.
The notion that human behavior is completely determined is an 
extremely problematic one for many people who believe that they observe 
daily many examples of free choice in both themselves and others. What 
accounts for this illusion of freedom? Skinner (1971) held that freedom 
and dignity are reinforcing concepts because people find satisfaction in 
the belief that they are free to choose and also in their faith in the basic 
dignity of human beings. Because these fictional concepts are reinforcing 
in many modern societies, people tend to behave in ways that increase 
the probability that these constructs will be perpetuated. Once freedom 
and dignity lose their reinforcement value, people will stop behaving as 
if they existed.
In the days preceding Louis Pasteur, many people believed that mag -
gots spontaneously generated on the bodies of dead animals. Skinner 
(1974) used this observation to paint an analogy with human behavior, point -
ing out that the spontaneous generation of behavior is no more of a reality 
than the spontaneous generation of maggots. Haphazard or random behavior 
may appear to be freely chosen, but it is actually the product of haphazard 
or random environmental and genetic conditions. People are not autonomous, 
but the illusion of autonomy persists due to incomplete understanding of an 
individual’s history. When people fail to understand behavior, they assign it 
to some internal concept such as free will, beliefs, intentions, 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, Skinner’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, therefore, learn to live quite harmoni -
ously with their environment. The evolution of the species is in the direction 
of greater control over environmental variables, which results in an increas -
ing repertoire of behaviors beyond those essential for mere survival. Final PDF to printer