Successive Approximation: The Shaping of Behavior

Conditioning a child or an animal, according to Skinner, to do desired complex responses, in which they would not normally do, is with the use of the method of successive approximations or shaping. The organism, as it goes through this process of shaping, is reinforced as its behavior comes in successive, or consecutive, stages to approximate the final behavior desired. This is called successive approximation. Skinner believed that this is how children learn the complex behavior of speaking. The parents continue to teach and encourage the child by pronouncing words correctly and having the child repeat the corrected word.

Superstitious Behavior

Skinner believed we sometimes are reinforced by accident after we have displayed a behavior. A baseball player who felt he had to wear his cap a certain way in order to hit the ball or having a certain routine that seems to be “lucky” would be called by Skinner as, superstitious behavior. A single reinforcer of this kind may be powerful enough for a person or an animal to repeat the accidentally reinforced behavior more frequently for a while. According to Skinner, in humans, such behaviors may persist throughout life and require only occasional reinforcement to sustain them.

The Self-Control of Behavior
To Skinner, self-control meant the ability to exert control over the variables that determines our behavior. In stimulus-avoidance, we control ourselves by removing our self from something that may be negative for us to do, such as an alcoholic removing liquor from their home to avoid the temptation of drinking. Through the technique of self-administered satiation, we exert control to cure ourselves of bad habits by overdoing the behavior. We may smoke until we get sick of smoking which may help eliminate the negative behavior. The aversive- stimulation technique of self-control involves unpleasant or repugnant consequences. In self-reinforcement, we reward ourselves for displaying good or desirable behaviors. To Skinner, then, the crucial point is that external variables shape and control behavior.