Final answer:
Skinner believed that human behavior and personality are shaped by reinforcements and punishments within an individual's environment, opposing Freud's view of personality being fixed early in life. Personality is dynamic and can change with new experiences, a concept exemplified by Skinner's use of operant conditioning.
Step-by-step explanation:
B.F. Skinner's View on Human Behavior and Personality
B.F. Skinner, an influential American psychologist and a leading proponent of behaviorism, believed that human behavior and personality are shaped primarily by external stimuli through the process of operant conditioning. Skinner posited that individuals develop response tendencies that are governed by reinforcements and punishments they experience in their environment. This means that when a behavior leads to positive outcomes, it tends to be repeated, and when it leads to negative outcomes, it tends to be avoided. Skinner's approach was in direct contrast to Freud's view that personality is fixed in childhood; instead, Skinner believed that personality is malleable and can change over the lifespan as one encounters new circumstances.
Moreover, Skinner was known for using the operant conditioning chamber (Skinner box) to study behavior modification in animals, which further underlined his emphasis on reinforcement and punishment. Nevertheless, other psychologists like Albert Bandura proposed that cognitive factors also play a role in personality development, a belief which spawned the social-cognitive theory, incorporating concepts such as reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and self-efficacy.
Behaviorists like Skinner argue that human actions are the result of physical and environmental factors, including genetic makeup, physical drives, and learned behaviors. According to them, conditioning takes place through patterns of reinforcement which shape not only overt actions but also ideas and feelings, thus laying the foundation for one's personality.