PSY 181 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Scientific Management, B. F. Skinner, Reinforcement

• School: University of Rochester
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 181
• Professor: C H R I S T O P H E R N I E M I E C

Document Summary

Inner causes of behavior do not exist; it"s all the environment. Thoughts are just talking to oneself; they are covert behaviors and are under environmental contingencies of reinforcement. People have no personal responsibility for their behavior because our behavior is completely a function of our environment. Don"t blame or give credit to others. Don"t punish peopleinstead, change environment in which those behaviors arise. All behavior can be predicted and controlled. The ability to predict behavior gives us the perception that we know another person. Agency and purpose are fictional , inner causes of behavior. Choice and will are not real constructs. Choice arises when we have conflicting schedules of reinforcement and we weigh the reinforcement potential against our own personal history of reinforcement. Faith: we"re not aware of what controls our behavior and we attribute our behavior to faith. Personality: there is no such thing as personality!!! There is no coherence or consistency that resides within the person.