Focus on the potential for creating a better way of life through specific proposals.
Emphasis on behaviorism, particularly the work of B.F. Skinner, a prominent Pennsylvanian psychologist.
Skinner's Philosophies and Experiments
Key Beliefs of Skinner
Believed humans start as a blank slate.
Behavior is shaped by the environment.
Operant conditioning is central to behavior modification.
Operant Conditioning
Method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior.
Skinner's experiments began with pigeons.
Pigeons were trained to peck a button a set number of times to receive a seed reward.
Demonstrated the power of conditioning by training pigeons to play ping pong.
Application to Humans
Experiment at Youth Borstal
Conducted in the early 1970s with the BBC documenting his progress.
Inmates had challenging backgrounds: lack of family, education, and employment.
Introduction of a reward system to encourage positive behavior.
Reward System
Points for good behavior could be exchanged for various rewards:
Better food
Game room access
Private room or TV rental
Short vacations
Outcomes
Dramatic improvements in behavior and learning:
Inmates learned reading, writing, and arithmetic without compulsion.
Hostile behavior decreased significantly.
Language Acquisition and Criticisms
Skinner's Theory on Language
Proposed language is acquired through operant conditioning:
Imitation from parents, reinforced by rewards and punishments.
Criticisms and Challenges
Linguists argued Skinner's theory was too simplistic.
A BBC Horizon program in the 1970s challenged this concept.
Experiment demonstrated that young children could not simply copy complex grammar.
Experiment Outcomes
Older child could copy sentences.
Younger child struggled with complex sentence replication.
Skinner's Admission
Acknowledged limitations of his explanation on verbal behavior.
Admitted ignorance in some areas of language acquisition.
Conclusion
Humans are not merely blank slates.
Each individual is born with inherent traits and capabilities.
Skinner’s work remains influential, seen in reward systems worldwide, but it has limitations in explaining complex human behaviors like language acquisition.