Question

Ryan is a teenager who is feared by all the children in his neighborhood because he routinely threatens to harm them. He has pushed some children off their bikes and scooters, and smashed their toys with a baseball bat. If behaviorist theorist B. F. Skinner were to explain Ryan's highly aggressive behavior, he would suggest that Ryan________.

Answer 1

Answer:

has been reinforced in the past for similar behaviors.

Explanation:

B.F. Skinner was an American psychologist and more often called the father of Behaviorism. Instead, of studying psychology from an internal perspective, he focused on the external factors of the environment which are reward and punishment to shape the behavior of an individual. His theory of Operant Conditioning states that a behavior is repeated by the reinforcement.

As per the question, according to the theory of Operant Conditioning, Ryan's behavior of aggression must have been reinforced in the past by similar behavior.