Science and Human Behavior

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis, provides a striking contrast to Skinner’s behaviorism. Freud’s work emphasized the inner life of the mind—unconscious drives, repressed desires, and symbolic processes—as the central determinants of human behavior. His theories of the id, ego, and superego and his account of psychosexual development shaped much of 20th-century thought about psychology, literature, and culture. In Science and Human Behavior, Skinner frequently critiques Freud’s influence, particularly the tendency of psychoanalysis to rely on what he calls “explanatory fictions.” To Skinner, attributing behavior to hidden unconscious forces amounted to avoiding the real work of scientific analysis: Identifying the observable environmental contingencies that sustain behavior.

Despite these disagreements, Freud’s presence looms large in Skinner’s project. Psychoanalysis had dominated Western psychology for decades, and Skinner positioned behaviorism as both an alternative and a corrective. Where Freud emphasized therapy through self-insight and interpretation, Skinner emphasized behavioral engineering—modifying environments to produce desired outcomes. The contrast between their approaches continues to illustrate a larger divide in psychology over whether human behavior should be explained by reference to inner causes or external conditions.

Freud remains a critical figure for understanding Skinner’s work, not because the two shared common ground, but because Freud served as a powerful intellectual foil. In positioning himself against psychoanalysis, Skinner clarified and sharpened his own behaviorist commitments.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), the Russian physiologist, is best known for his pioneering work on classical conditioning. His experiments with dogs, in which he demonstrated that neutral stimuli (like a bell) could come to elicit salivation when paired with food, laid a foundation for understanding learning as an association between stimuli. Pavlov’s work won him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904, and it deeply influenced psychology in the early 20th century.

For Skinner, Pavlov’s achievement was essential but limited. In Science and Human Behavior, Skinner acknowledges Pavlov’s groundbreaking contributions, noting that his “discovery was not of neural processes, but of important quantitative relationships which permit us, regardless of neurological hypotheses, to give a direct account of behavior” (54). Skinner extended Pavlov’s insights by shifting the focus from reflexive responses to operant conditioning—a process in which voluntary actions are shaped and maintained by their consequences. While Pavlov demonstrated how behavior could be elicited through antecedent stimuli, Skinner emphasized how behavior could be strengthened, weakened, or extinguished through reinforcement and punishment.

Pavlov’s place in Skinner’s intellectual framework is therefore that of a precursor. His experimental rigor and emphasis on observable, measurable behavior helped clear the way for behaviorism’s rise. Skinner transformed Pavlov’s narrow paradigm into a more comprehensive system for analyzing and engineering human behavior, making Pavlov both an inspiration and a steppingstone in the development of behavioral science.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was an American psychologist and one of the founders of humanistic psychology, a school of thought that emphasized individual freedom, personal growth, and the innate drive toward self-actualization. Unlike behaviorists, Rogers believed that people have an inherent capacity for self-direction and that therapeutic progress comes through unconditional positive regard, empathy, and authenticity in the client-therapist relationship. His influential works include Client-Centered Therapy (1951) and On Becoming a Person (1961), both of which shaped psychotherapy and education in the mid-20th century (McLeod, Saul Ph.D. “Carl Rogers Humanistic Theory and Contribution to Psychology.” Simply Psychology, 2025.).

In Science and Human Behavior, Skinner positions Rogers as a counterpoint to behavioral science. Rogers is quoted directly in Skinner’s discussion of psychotherapy, where Rogers warns of the subtle dangers of therapists exercising control over clients. For Rogers, minimizing control was an ethical necessity, as individuals should be allowed to find solutions within themselves. Skinner, however, critiques this approach as illusory, pointing out that even the belief in “non-directive therapy” masks the fact that behavior is always influenced by environmental variables. In his view, leaving individuals supposedly “free” simply means they remain under the control of other, often less visible, forces.

Rogers’s prominence in the text highlights a central philosophical clash: Humanism’s faith in inner autonomy versus behaviorism’s insistence on external determination. While Skinner saw Rogers’s emphasis on free will as incompatible with scientific rigor, their dialogue reflects broader 20th-century debates about what it means to help people change—and whether genuine freedom is even possible.

Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) was an American psychologist best known for formulating the “law of effect,” which stated that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences are more likely to recur, while those followed by discomfort are less likely to be repeated. Through his experiments with cats in puzzle boxes, Thorndike demonstrated that learning occurs gradually through trial and error rather than sudden insight. This principle provided an empirical foundation for the study of learning and directly influenced Skinner’s development of operant conditioning (McLeod, Saul. Ph.D. “Edward Thorndike: The Law of Effect.” Simply Psychology, 2024.).

Skinner himself acknowledged Thorndike’s achievement in identifying “quantitative relationships” that allowed behavior to be studied without recourse to neurological hypotheses. While Thorndike’s work was less philosophically radical than Watson’s and less systematic than Skinner’s, it established a bridge between animal learning and broader applications in education and social practice. Thorndike’s emphasis on measurable outcomes and functional explanations resonated deeply with Skinner’s project in Science and Human Behavior, making him a crucial link in the intellectual lineage of behaviorism.