March 2021
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 4: The Design of Cultures. Quote 9
Our apparatus was designed by the organism we study, for it was the organism which led us to choose a particular manipulandum, particular categories of stimulation, particular modes of reinforcement, and so on, and to record particular aspects of its behavior. (p. 47)
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: The Design of Cultures. Quote 4
Inherited patterns of behavior must have been selected by their contributions to survival in ways which are not unlike those in which the behavior of the individual is selected or shaped by its reinforcing consequences. (p. 42)
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: The Design of Cultures. Quote 2
The experimental study of reinforcing contingencies is nothing more than a nonteleological analysis of the directed effects of behavior, of relations which have traditionally been described as purpose. (pp. 41-42)
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: The Design of Cultures. Quote 1
Our present understanding of the so-called “contingencies of reinforcement” is undoubtedly incomplete, but it nevertheless permits us to construct new forms of behavior, to bring behavior under the control of new aspects of the environment, and to maintain it under such control for long periods of time—and all of this often with surprising ease. (p. […]
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior. Quote 18
Fear of control, generalized beyond any warrant, has led to a misinterpretation of valid practices and the blind rejection of intelligent planning for a better way of life. (p. 38)
The latest issue of Operants is here
The new issue of Operants went out to subscribers. In it, we look back at 2020 and reflect on 30 years that have passed since B. F. Skinner’s death in 1990. In the issue: What Religion Means to Meby B. F. Skinner B. F. Skinner – The Last Few Daysby Julie S. Vargas 30 Years After SkinnerInterview […]
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior. Quote 16
From the therapist’s point of view it may appear to be possible to relinquish control. But the control passes, not to a “self,” but to forces in other parts of the client’s world. (p. 37)
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior. Quote 15
A people relinquish democratic power when a tyrant promises them the earth. Rich men give away wealth to escape the accusing finger of their fellow men. A woman destroys her beauty in the hope of salvation. And a psychotherapist relinquishes control because he can thus help his client more effectively. (p. 36)
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3: Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior. Quote 14
A nation has burned its Reichstag, rich men have given away their wealth, beautiful women have become ugly hermits in the desert, and psychotherapists have become nondirective. When this happens, I look to other possible reinforcements for a plausible explanation. (p. 36)
Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition (1999). Chapter 3:Some Issues Concerning the Control of Human Behavior. Quote 9
No scientist, I am sure, wishes to develop new master-slave relationships or bend the will of the people to despotic rulers in new ways. These are patterns of control appropriate to a world without science. (p. 34)