Quotes by B. F. Skinner - Page 3

A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Science
Technology
Dedication
Copy Quote
I have to tell people that they are not responsible for their behavior. They're not creating it; they're not initiating anything. It's all found somewhere else. That's an awful lot to relinquish.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Awful
Behavior
Creating
Found
Somewhere Else
Awful Lot
Somewhere
Relinquish
Copy Quote
We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Education
Teacher
Book
Reading
Copy Quote
I remember when I was a freshman in college, I was still somewhat bothered by... worried... about religion. I remember going to this professor of philosophy and telling him that I had lost my faith.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Bothered
Freshman
Philosophy
Remember When
Worried
Somewhat
Professor
Telling
Copy Quote
The simulated approval and affection with which parents and teachers are often urged to solve behavior problems are counterfeit. So are flattery, backslap-ping, and many other ways of "winning friends.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Teacher
Parent
Winning
Copy Quote
A child who has been severely punished for sex play is not necessarily less inclined to continue; and a man who has been imprisoned for violent assault is not necessarily less inclined toward violence.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
Children
Sex
Copy Quote
Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Education
Doe
Punishment
Copy Quote
Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Behavior
Doe
Justice
Copy Quote
A culture must be reasonably stable, but it must also change, and it will presumably be strongest if it can avoid excessive respect for tradition and fear of novelty on the one hand and excessively rapid change on the other.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Culture
Hands
Novelty
Copy Quote
The alphabet was a great invention, which enabled men to store and to learn with little effort what others had learned the hard way-that is, to learn from books rather than from direct, possibly painful, contact with the real world.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
Book
Real
Copy Quote
The strengthening of behavior which results from reinforcement is appropriately called 'conditioning'. In operant conditioning we 'strengthen' an operant in the sense of making a response more probable or, in actual fact, more frequent.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Behavior
Facts
Reinforcement
Copy Quote
I don't deny the importance of genetics. However, the fact that I might be altruistic isn't because I have a gene for altruism; the fact that I do something for my children at some cost to myself comes from a history that has operated on me.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Altruism
Cost
Deny
Genetics
Importance
History Myself Me
Gene
However
Operated
Copy Quote
The human species took a crucial step forward when its vocal musculature came under operant control in the production of speech sounds. Indeed, it is possible that all the distinctive achievements of the species can be traced to that one genetic change.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Education
Achievement
Sound
Copy Quote
The simplest and most satisfactory view is that thought is simply behavior - verbal or nonverbal, covert or overt. It is not some mysterious process responsible for behavior but the very behavior itself in all the complexity of its controlling relations.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Education
Mysterious
Views
Copy Quote
Your liberals and radicals all want to govern. They want to try it their way- to show that people will be happier if the power is wielded in a different way or for different purposes. But how do they know? Have they ever tried it? No, it's merely their guess.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Different
People
Trying
Copy Quote
I believe that I have been basically anarchistic, anti-religion and anti-industry and business. In other words, anti-bureaucracy. I would like to see people behave well without having to have priests stand by, politicians stand by, or people collecting bills.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Behave
Bills
Collecting
Priests
Business Believe I Believe
Business Believe People
Basically
Politicians
In Other Words
Copy Quote
Must we wait for selection to solve the problems of overpopulation, exhaustion of resources, pollution of the environment and a nuclear holocaust, or can we take explicit steps to make our future more secure? In the latter case, must we not transcend selection?
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Environment
Exhaustion
Explicit
Holocaust
Latter
Nuclear
Overpopulation
Pollution
Resources
Secure
Solve
Steps
Waiting
Case
Wait
Problems
Transcend
Copy Quote
In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can't buy love with gifts or favors, you can't hold love by raising an inadequate child, and you can't be secure in love by serving as a good scrub woman or a good provider.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Children
Deserve You
World
Copy Quote
I won't say that I'm an agnostic, since agnosticism maintains that one cannot know... but I'm not averse to the idea of some intelligence or some organizing force that set up the initial conditions of the universe in such a way that ultimately generated stars, planets and life.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Space
Agnostic
Conditions
Force
Planets
Stars
Universe
Averse
Set
Organizing
Initial
Such A Way
Ultimately
Copy Quote
Society already possesses the psychological techniques needed to obtain universal observance of a code - a code which would guarantee the success of a community or state. The difficulty is that these techniques are in the hands of the wrong people-or, rather, there aren't any right people.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Community
Hands
People
Copy Quote
In the world at large we seldom vote for a principle or a given state of affairs. We vote for a man who pretends to believe in that principle or promises to achieve that state. We don't want a man, we want a condition of peace and plenty-- or, it may be, war and want-- but we must vote for a man.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
War
Believe
Copy Quote
We have seen that in certain respects operant reinforcement resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Behavior
Mutation
Reinforcement
Copy Quote
Many instructional arrangements seem "contrived," but there is nothing wrong with that. It is the teacher's function to contrive conditions under which students learn. It has always been the task of formal education to set up behavior which would prove useful or enjoyable later in a student's life.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Teacher
Tasks
Teaching
Copy Quote
Behavior used to be reinforced by great deprivation; if people weren't hungry, they wouldn't work. Now we are committed to feeding people whether they work or not. Nor is money as great a reinforcer as it once was. People no longer work for punitive reasons, yet our culture offers no new satisfactions.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Behavior
Committed
Deprivation
Feeding
Hungry
Offers
Used
Work Money Great
Longer
Nor
Punitive
Reasons
Reinforced
Whether
Copy Quote
Better contraceptives will control population only if people will use them. A nuclear holocaust can be prevented only if the conditions under which nations make war can be changed. The environment will continue to deteriorate until pollution practices are abandoned. We need to make vast changes in human behavior.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Art
War
Philosophy
Copy Quote
The evolution of cultures appears to follow the pattern of the evolution of species. The many different forms of culture which arise correspond to the "mutations" of genetic theory. Some forms prove to be effective under prevailing circumstances and others not, and the perpetuation of the culture is determined accordingly.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Culture
Different
Mutation
Copy Quote
The severest trial of oppression is the constant outrage which one suffers at the thought of the oppressor. What Jesus discovered was how to avoid the inner devastations. His technique was to practice the opposite emotion... a man may not get his freedom or possessions back, but he's less miserable. It's a difficult lesson.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Jesus
Men
Opposites
Copy Quote
Any single historical event is too complex to be adequately known by anyone. It transcends all the intellectual capacities of men. Our practice is to wait until a sufficient number of details have been forgotten. Of course things seem simpler then! Our memories work that way; we retain the facts which are easiest to think about.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
Memories
Thinking
Copy Quote
Fame is also won at the expense of others. Even the well-deserved honors of the scientist or man of learning are unfair to many persons of equal achievements who get none. When one man gets a place in the sun, the others are put in a denser shade. From the point of view of the whole group there's no gain whatsoever, and perhaps a loss.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
Loss
Views
Copy Quote
Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack-vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy-a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Teacher
Punishment
School
Copy Quote
In the traditional view, a person is free. He is autonomous in the sense that his behavior is uncaused. He can therefore be held responsible for what he does and justly punished if he offends. That view, together with its associated practices, must be re-examined when a scientific analysis reveals unsuspected controlling relations between behavior and environment.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Practice
Together
Views
Copy Quote
Each of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Running
Powerful
Winning
Copy Quote
I've had only one idea in my life - a true idee fixe. To put it as bluntly as possible - the idea of having my own way. 'Control!' expresses it. The control of human behavior. In my early experimental days it was a frenzied, selfish desire to dominate. I remember the rage I used to feel when a prediction went awry. I could have shouted at the subjects of my experiments, 'Behave, damn you! Behave as you ought!
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Damn You
Ideas
Selfish
Copy Quote
The majority of people don't want to plan. They want to be free of the responsibility of planning. What they ask for is merely some assurance that they will be decently provided for. The rest is a day-to-day enjoyment of life. That's the explanation for your Father Divines; people naturally flock to anyone they can trust for the necessities of life... They are the backbone of a community--solid, trust-worthy, essential.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Father
People
Responsibility
Copy Quote
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. It enslaves him almost before he has tasted freedom. The 'ologies' will tell you how its done Theology calls it building a conscience or developing a spirit of selflessness. Psychology calls it the growth of the superego. Considering how long society has been at it, you'd expect a better job. But the campaigns have been badly planned and the victory has never been secured.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Jobs
Growth
Long
Psychology
Copy Quote
To say that a man is sinful because he sins is to give an operational definition of sin. To say that he sins because he is sinful is to trace his behavior to a supposed inner trait. But whether or not a person engages in the kind of behavior called sinful depends upon circumstances which are not mentioned in either question. The sin assigned as an inner possession (the sin a person "knows") is to be found in a history of reinforcement.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
Definitions
Giving
Copy Quote
No theory changes what it is a theory about. Nothing is changed because we look at it, talk about it, or analyze it in a new way. Keats drank confusion to Newton for analyzing the rainbow, but the rainbow remained as beautiful as ever and became for many even more beautiful. Man has not changed because we look at him, talk about him, and analyze him scientifically. ... What does change is our chance of doing something about the subject of a theory. Newton's analysis of the light in a rainbow was a step in the direction of the laser.
B. F. Skinner / Psychologist
Men
Beautiful
Light
Copy Quote

Related Psychologist Authors

Wolfgang Kohler
Psychologist
Friday, Jan 21, 1887
Sunday, Jun 11, 1967
William Schutz
Psychologist
Saturday, Dec 19, 1925
Saturday, Nov 09, 2002
William R. Miller
Psychologist
Friday, Jun 27, 1947
William Moulton Marston
Psychologist
Tuesday, May 09, 1893
Friday, May 02, 1947
William J. Mcgill
Psychologist
Monday, Feb 27, 1922
Sunday, Oct 19, 1997
William Herbert Sheldon
Psychologist
Saturday, Nov 19, 1898
Saturday, Sep 17, 1977
Wilhelm Wundt
Psychologist
Thursday, Aug 16, 1832
Tuesday, Aug 31, 1920
Wilhelm Stekel
Psychologist
Wednesday, Mar 18, 1868
Tuesday, Jun 25, 1940
Wilhelm Dilthey
Psychologist
Tuesday, Nov 19, 1833
Sunday, Oct 01, 1911
Wendell Johnson
Psychologist
Monday, Apr 16, 1906
Sunday, Aug 29, 1965
Wayne Oates
Psychologist
Sunday, Jun 24, 1917
Thursday, Oct 21, 1999
Walter Mischel
Psychologist
Saturday, Feb 22, 1930
Walter Dill Scott
Psychologist
Saturday, May 01, 1869
Saturday, Sep 24, 1955
Wade Horn
Psychologist
Friday, Dec 03, 1954
Urie Bronfenbrenner
Psychologist
Sunday, Apr 29, 1917
Sunday, Sep 25, 2005

View All Psychologist Quotes

Top Authors

Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Wednesday, Mar 15, 1933
Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Tyler, The Creator
Rapper
Wednesday, Mar 06, 1991
Aristotle
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Ronald Reagan
40Th US President
Monday, Feb 06, 1911
Saturday, Jun 05, 2004
Paulo Coelho
Lyricist
Sunday, Aug 24, 1947
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Albert Camus
Author
Friday, Nov 07, 1913
Monday, Jan 04, 1960
Barack Obama
44Th U.s. President
Friday, Aug 04, 1961
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Henry Ford
Industrialist
Thursday, Jul 30, 1863
Monday, Apr 07, 1947
Edgar Allan Poe
Author
Thursday, Jan 19, 1809
Sunday, Oct 07, 1849
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essayist
Wednesday, May 25, 1803
Thursday, Apr 27, 1882
John F. Kennedy
35Th U.s. President
Tuesday, May 29, 1917
Friday, Nov 22, 1963
Abraham Lincoln
16Th U.S. President
Sunday, Feb 12, 1809
Saturday, Apr 15, 1865

View All Authors

B. F. Skinner Quotes - Page 3

App & Tools

Related Psychologist Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Psychologist Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page