Blackman D E
University of Wales College of Cardiff.
J Exp Anal Behav. 1991 Mar;55(2):251-65. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1991.55-251.
Skinner's contributions to psychology provide a unique bridge between psychology conceptualized as a biological science and psychology conceptualized as a social science. Skinner focused on behavior as a naturally occurring biological phenomenon of interest in its own right, functionally related to surrounding events and, in particular (like phylogenesis), subject to selection by its consequences. This essentially biological orientation was further enhanced by Skinner's emphasis on the empirical foundations provided by laboratory-based experimental analyses of behavior, often with nonhuman subjects. Skinner's theoretical writings, however, also have affinity with the traditions of constructionist social science. The verbal behavior of humans is said to be subject, like other behavior, to functional analyses in terms of its environment, in this case its social context. Verbal behavior in turn makes it possible for us to relate to private events, a process that ultimately allows for the development of consciousness, which is thus said to be a social product. Such ideas make contact with aspects of G. H. Mead's social behaviorism and, perhaps of more contemporary impact in psychology, L. Vygotsky's general genetic law of cultural development. Failure to articulate both the biological and the social science aspects of Skinner's theoretical approach to psychology does a disservice to his unique contribution to a discipline that remains fragmented between two intellectual traditions.
斯金纳对心理学的贡献在被概念化为生物科学的心理学和被概念化为社会科学的心理学之间搭建了一座独特的桥梁。斯金纳将行为视为一种本身就值得关注的自然发生的生物现象，它在功能上与周围事件相关，特别是（就像系统发育一样）会因其后果而受到选择。斯金纳强调基于实验室的行为实验分析所提供的实证基础，这些分析通常以非人类为研究对象，这进一步强化了这种本质上的生物学取向。然而，斯金纳的理论著作也与建构主义社会科学的传统有相似之处。据说人类的言语行为与其他行为一样，根据其环境，在这种情况下即其社会背景，进行功能分析。言语行为反过来又使我们能够与私人事件建立联系，这一过程最终促成了意识的发展，因此意识被认为是一种社会产物。这些观点与G. H. 米德的社会行为主义的某些方面有联系，或许在心理学中更具当代影响力的是L. 维果茨基的文化发展一般发生规律。未能清晰阐述斯金纳心理学理论方法中的生物科学和社会科学两个方面，不利于他对一门仍在两种知识传统之间分裂的学科所做出的独特贡献。
