Sigmund Freud And B. F. Skinner: An Analysis

Many competing theories have developed over the years in the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis. Two polar opposites are the theories of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner. While Freud believed the optimal way to address psychological issues was through “purging” or talking about past events (Turri, 2015), Skinner believed in doing, i.e. focusing on behavior and its modifications (Goddard, 2014). While both of these men made tremendous impacts on the field, their theories have been reinterpreted many times by critics and practitioners. It may be rare to find a Freudian or Skinnerian purist today, but it would be just as rare to find theorists or therapists who have not been, in one way or another, impacted by the works of

Skinner. Skinner basically believed that there were three components that affect human personality and behavior: the human entity, environment, and how the human responds to his or her environment (Goddard, 2014). As opposed to talking through issues, as advocated by Freud, Skinner believed in behavior modification via a system of rewards (positive reinforcements or negative punishments) and punishments (negative reinforcements or positive punishments) (Goddard, 2012). Briefly put, these concepts can be defined as followed: rewards can include giving something pleasant (positive) upon correct response or withholding something unpleasant upon correct response, while punishments include imposing something unpleasant or withholding something pleasant upon incorrect response. In this sense, Skinner’s work resembled the noted behavior training done by Pavlov, who conditioned dogs to salivate upon hearing the ringing of a bell (McNeil, 2015). Skinner himself worked mainly with positive reinforcement as a learning tool, and developed a box that would dispense rewards to condition pupils to expect favorable treatment at small intervals of learning, thus motivating them to learn more (McNeil). Skinner, who taught for years at Harvard, is famous for trying out his methods on not only his subjects, but his own

Freud’s more well-known followers included his own daughter, who stayed fairly true to her father’s conventions, as well as Jung, Adler, and others, who imposed their own ideas upon Freud’s initial constructs, thus departing from his work. Nevertheless, much of Freud’s work has influenced other branches of therapy, including cognitive therapies that involve redefining unpleasant issues from the past to help conquer emotional problems. Skinner, on the other hand, although viewed as radical, has had a large impact upon methods of education. The concept of incremental learning, with rewards at each step, has been embraced by many educational theorists (McNeil, 2015). Although Skinner himself may have been disappointed with the impact of his work, it has survived in classrooms throughout the nation, in modified