B. F. Skinner's Analysis



B. F. Skinner's Analysis

B. F. Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior

There have been many philosophers that have hoped that their studies will be included in the framework that is provided by the behaviorist psychology. They also hoped for their work to be included in the areas of investigation especially in which the meaning is involved. B. F. Skinner's book is one of the first attempts to include the major areas of linguistic behavior in the framework of behaviorist psychology. He is known for his work in the study of animal behavior (Comsky, 1967).

Comsky published a critique on the work of Skinner in 1959. According to him, verbal behavior is defined as the learning behavior in which the characteristics are passed on or delivered by learning the behavior of others. According to Comsky, the functionalist explanations that restrict the themselves to questions regarding the communicative performance did not take into consideration many important questions (Comsky, 1967).

His book addresses the functional analysis of verbal behavior which is to identify the variables that control the behavior and the specifications regarding their interaction for specific verbal response. These controlling variables should be described as deprivation, reinforcement, stimulation so that they provide a clear meaning in experimenting animals. The main goal of his study was to predict and control the verbal behavior through observation and manipulation of speaker's physical environment. He imposed certain limitations on observing the behaviors. According to S. K. Skinner, the causation behavior will be described by the simple nature of the function. His thesis is that the external factors that consist of the history of reinforcement and present stimulation are very important. In the laboratory studies of these two phenomenons, the general principles were revealed that provided a basis to understand the complexities in the verbal behavior. The ...