One of the most influential positions regarding the nature of psychology and how it can be applied to education is exemplified by the work of B. F. Skinner. Skinner's system probably represents the most complete and systematic statement of the associationist, behaviorist, environmentalist, determinist position in psychology today.

Because of his preoccupation with strict scientific controls, Skinner has performed most of his experiment with lower animals, principally the pigeon and the white rat. He developed what has become known as the "Skinner box" as a suitable device for animal study. Typically, a rat is placed in a closed box which contains only a lever and a food dispenser. When the rat presses the lever under the conditions established by the experimenter, a food pellet drops into the food tray, thus rewarding the rat. Once the rat has acquired this response, the experimenter can bring the rat's behavior under the control of a variety of stimulus conditions. Furthermore, behavior can be gradually modified or shaped until new responses, not ordinarily in the rat's behavioral repertory, appear. Success in these endeavors has led Skinner to believe that the laws of learning apply to all organisms. In schools the behavior of pupils may be shaped by careful sequencing of materials and by the presentation of appropriate rewards or reinforcers. Programmed learning and teaching machines are the most appropriate means of accomplishing school learning. What is common to man, pigeons, and rats is a world in which certain contingencies of reinforcements prevail.

Skinner established himself as one of the country's leading behaviorists with the publication of his Behavior of Organisms in 1938. Although obviously influenced by Watson's behaviorism, Skinner's system appears to follow primarily from the work of Pavlov and Thorndike. Unlike some other followers of Watson, who studied behavior in order to understand the "workings of the mind," Skinner restricted himself to the study of overt or measurable behavior. Without denying either mental or physiological processes, he finds that a study of behavior does not depend on conclusions about what is going on inside the organism.

Every science, he points out, has looked for causes of action inside the things it has studied. Although the practice has proved useful at times, the problem is that events which are located inside a system are likely to be difficult to observe. We are inclined to provide inner explanations without justification and invent causes without fear of contradiction. It is especially tempting to attribute human behavior to the behavior of some inner agent.

Because we have for so long looked inside the organism for an explanation of behavior, we have neglected the variables which are immediately available for a scientific analysis. These variables lie outside the organism. They are found in its immediate environment or in its environmental history. Many of the variables or stimuli are measurable and controllable and, consequently, they make it possible to explain behavior as other subjects are explained in science.

It is evident that the methods of science have been highly successful. Skinner believes that the methods of science should be applied to the field of human affairs. We are all controlled by the world, part of which is constructed by men. Is this control to occur by accident, by tyrants, or by ourselves? A scientific society should reject accidental manipulation. He asserts that a specific plan is needed to promote fully the development of man and society. We cannot make wise decisions if we continue to pretend that we are not controlled.

As Skinner points out, the possibility of behavioral control is offensive to many people. We have traditionally regarded man as a free agent whose behavior occurs by virtue of spontaneous inner changes. We are reluctant to abandon the internal "will" which makes prediction and control of behavior impossible.