Skinner's Stimulus

And yet, Skinner spent his life turning tradition on its pointy little head. One of his most important views is that we waste time and energy trying to solve complicated social problems by trying to dissect individual motives and emotions. That a young man might spend his days and nights selling crack cocaine on a street corner because he "felt'' alienated was, to Skinner, quite beside the point. Skinner believed that people take their cues from, and are shaped by, their environment. Alter the environment, and you alter the behavior. Feelings be damned.

Skinner also took a lonely and risky position when he wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity in 1971. He argued passionately that, for the sake of survival, we must set aside our individualistic ideals, which, he said, would ultimately encourage overpopulation, aggravate pollution, and drain vital resources. The answer, he said, lies in a technology of behavior--that is, he once explained, "changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.'' Of course, that kind of behavior would have to be controlled by someone, somewhere--and for many of his critics, that was the sticking point.

Still, Skinner maintained that we are all controlled. What is the average school building, with all its bells, its grading system, and the everpresent threat of punishment, but...