The Elements of Behavior

Selection by Consequences The Elements of Behavior Module #1

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People's behavior is the product of selection processes at three separate but related levels. Natural selection at a genetic level is the basis for all of this. Imagine that some organisms a lot like people evolve with purple eyes and green hair, and that as a result they are avoided by predators as too horrible to eat. They therefore survive better than we do. The environment, in this case, has "selected" purple eyes and green hair. Some behavior is also selected in this way. Sex (which people do because it feels good) has a strong genetic component. Language, too, because it was not possible until the vocal musculature and neurological structures required had evolved. Traits that improve survival in an environment are said to be selected by that environment (contingencies of survival).

The evolution of operant conditioning, in which behavior is selected during a person's lifetime by its effects on the environment, was a crucial genetic innovation, on which the rest of the behavioral edifice is built. Now behavior could adapt much more quickly to changing conditions, depending on whether it "worked" or not. In other words, behavior is selected if it is reinforced. Behavior that is followed by a positive consequence tends to be emitted more often in the future. Imagine you are walking down the street, you look down, and you discover a $100 bill. The next day, you are walking down the street, and you find two $100 bills on the ground. The next day, nothing, but on the fourth day, you find yet another $100 bill. Chances are good that you will run into other people on the sidewalk quite a lot in the future. . . .

Your behavior of looking down has been shaped--selected--by the consequence of finding $100 bills on a (literally) rich, intermittent schedule, and will probably occur more often. The process looks like this:

This is a simple contingency of reinforcement. Cool.

Skinner defined a culture as "the contingencies of reinforcement maintained by a group." Among groups, some behaviors in which their members engage prove valuable for everyone (like speaking the same language), and networks of mutual reinforcement to support those cultural practices evolve. As a result, the use of the practice increases, and the overall outcome for the group is better. Twins sometimes develop private languages, but the cultural entities in which they participate reinforce the use of a more standard language, say French, and the private language tends to drop out. (Note that a cultural practice is a special case of operant behavior, selected by cultural contingencies.)

You may have noticed one problem that is common at each level; selection produces behavior that is well adapted to the history of the species, organism or group, but does not necessarily prepare for radical changes that may occur in the future. Later modules will consider this problem further.

Limitations of this analysis:
This discussion does not consider the sometimes substantial effects of random chance on selection. Steven Jay Gould suggests that this is a major factor at the genetic level, and similar processes occur, for example, in the development of superstition at both the individual and cultural levels. Also, some (perhaps many) genetic, behavioral and cultural factors are vestigial, having lost current function. Punishment, respondent conditioning, imitation and modeling, and the roles of antecedents, rules, uncertainty and multiple concurrent contingencies, discussed in later modules, also are relevant to understanding human behavior. Please answer the following questions: 1. How are traits selected at a biological level?

2. What selects behavior in operant learning?

3. How are cultural practices maintained?

Please enter information required to complete the following diagrams:

Contingencies of Survival:

Contingencies of Reinforcement:

Cultural Contingencies:

For further information, see:
Skinner, B. F. (1981). Selection by Consequences. Science, 213, 501-504.
Gould, S. J. (1993). Eight little piggies: Reflections in natural history. New York: W. W. Norton.

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