Historical Context / Significant Contributions

The behaviorist theory evolved with Skinner. Skinner was influenced by the likes of J.B Watson and other pioneers in the field like Ivan Pavlov and Edward Thorndike. Pierce and Cheney (2004) state that J.B. Watson discussed his ideas on “stimulus-response psychology which he based his theory on Pavlov’s conditioning experiments” (p. 5). In other words, there was an event and reaction to things. In addition, Smith and Woodward (1996) add that Watson “claim[ed] that the theoretical aim of psychology should be the prediction and control behavior, not its explanation” (p. 153). Here is where Skinner begins to move away from Watson’s idea and establishes a newer thinking on behaviorism. Pierce and Cheney (2004) add that “B.F Skinner viewed psychology as the study of the behavior of organisms” (p. 5). He analyzed how organisms interacted with their environment. Furthermore, Pierce and Cheney (2004) state, he made a “distinction between two types of conditioning reflex, corresponding to the difference between operant and respondent behavior. . . . The basic idea is that an individual emits behavior that produces effects, consequences, or outcomes” (p. 7). Therefore, his theory looks at behaviorism as the interaction between an individual organism and its environment.

Skinner is the father of operant conditioning. Pierce and Cheney (2004) add, “Operant conditioning is the regulation of behavior by its consequences. . . . Any behavior that operates on the environment to produce an effect is called operant” (p. 4). For example, a mother (stimulus) looks at her baby. The baby interacts with the mother by smiling (operant). The mother picks up the baby (reinforcement). The child learned that when he/she smiles, the mother will most likely pick him/her up.

Skinner believed that language was verbal behavior. Owens (2005) adds that Skinner defined it as a “learned behavior like any other, subject to all rules of operant conditioning. As such, verbal behavior is modified by the environment” (p. 32). Skinner believed that how the child interacted with its environment would greatly reinforce her or his language. It is important to note that there needs to be reinforcement, whether it is positive or negative, to learn language. Skinner (1974) stated that there are “three terms which appear in the contingencies of reinforcement generating an operant [and] divided between two people: the speaker responds to the setting and the listener engages in the behavior and is affected by the consequences” (p. 101). Children would develop language through modeling of a parent and the interaction with people in the environment such as in school with their peers and daily activities. Skinner created names for different types of stimuli that presented themselves to develop language; these were metaphor, abstraction, and concepts. Again, his theory was not on how language developed as a linguist might study but how the interaction with the environment helped to develop language.