Two Views on Behaviorism

BF Skinner is a huge figure in Western psychology. Skinner was one of the earliest investigators of operant conditioning and positive and negative reinforcement. His theories are commonly known as radical behaviorism, which seeks to understand behavior as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences. As mentioned in the clip, he feels there is no true free will and at the end of the day everything comes down to learned behaviors and biological traits. The primary reason Skinner's ideas persist today is that they work, and are empirically verified.

Skinner's views have often been confused with those of John Watson, who completely rejected any form of interiority. While Skinner didn't think we have much control over our choices and actions, he did acknowledge the importance of thinking, feelings and 'inner behavior' in his analysis.

Here is Skinner talking about reinforcement. I will follow this video with one from Victor Frankl voicing some opposition to Skinner's reductionist view of the human psyche.


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Skinner's work is evident in much of modern psychology, but especially in the dominant model of treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which was highly influenced by his views.

Victor Frankl felt that humans are much more than their behavior. He fully acknowledges the power of learning and conditioning, but he feels we must move beyond the two-dimensional views of Skinner into a three-dimensional view that includes dignity and meaning.

Frankl was the creator of Logotherapy:

The following list of tenets represents Frankl's basic principles of Logotherapy:

• Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
• Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
• We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering.

The human spirit is referred to in several of the assumptions of Logotherapy, but it should be noted that the use of the term spirit is not "spiritual" or "religious". In Frankl's view, the spirit is the will of the human being. The emphasis, therefore, is on the search for meaning, not the search for God or any other supernatural being. Frankl also noted the barriers to humanity's quest for meaning in life. He warns against "...affluence, hedonism, [and] materialism..." in the search for meaning.

Here are his views on Behaviorism.


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What we really have is Skinner looking at the exterior-individual qualities of human behavior and Frankl looking at the interior-individual qualities of human behavior. Because they are examining very different things, they will reach very different conclusions.

In the end, they are both correct. Frankl tends to be "more correct" in that he acknowledges the contributions of Skinner while Skinner never fully accepted any form of interiority as a determinant of behavior. But if you have any doubt that Skinner was brilliant, go play some slot machines and notice the conditioning behavior that they create.


Tags: Behaviorism, BF Skinner, conditioning, psychology, Victor Frankl, Logotherapy, free will, radical behaviorism, cognitive behavioral therapy, quest for meaning