A Quote by B. F. Skinner

Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences

B. F. Skinner

Quote Topics

Behavior Consequences Maintained Shaped

Quote Author

B. F. Skinner
American - Psychologist
March 20, 1904 - August 18, 1990

What motivates most people to change their behavior is consequences. No consequences? No behavior modification.

Drew Pinsky

The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior.

M. Scott Peck

The thing that has always interested me in the kinds of shows that I do have more to do with the consequences of behavior than the behavior itself. Pulling a trigger and shooting somebody, or dismembering somebody.

Steven Bochco

Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences.

Stephen Covey

What I loved about 'Goodfellas' is that it's a film about bad behavior - but told with great energy and without judgment - but it doesn't actually shy away from the consequences of that behavior in the characters' lives, which I think is similar in 'Keep the Lights On.'

Ira Sachs

Values determine behavior; Principles determine the consequences of behavior.

Stephen Covey

Behavior is determined by its consequences.

B. F. Skinner

Mostly we're motivated to control ourselves in public. Mostly. At home the motivation is much less clear. At home there's a bit of a lab for bad behavior. You can test things out without terrible consequences. Or maybe the consequences are there, but they are deferred, buried, much harder to detect.

Ben Marcus

I saw that there are people who will connive against innovation. They're hostile to it. And that has shaped my behavior ever since.

Robert Metcalfe

There’s a passage that I love in Romans 1. … [I]t talks about homosexuality and it says that they will receive in their bodies the penalties of their behavior. … The Bible [is] right every time … and that’s why AIDS has been something they haven’t discovered a cure for or a vaccine for. … And that goes to what God says, ‘Hey you’re going to bear in your body the consequences of this homosexual behavior.’

David Barton

Do not intervene between a person and the consequences of their own behavior.

B. F. Skinner

In short, my vision of a responsible free society is one in which we discourage evil, but do not prohibit it. We make our children and students aware of the consequences of drug abuse and other forms of irresponsible behavior. But after all our persuading, if they still want to use harmful drugs, that is their privilege. In a free society, individuals must have the right to do right or wrong, as long as they don't threaten or infringe upon the rights or property of others. They must also suffer the consequences of their actions, as it is from consequences that they learn to choose properly

Mark Skousen

To rescue people from the natural consequences of their behavior is to render them powerless.

Henry Cloud

Courage is not an ability one either possess or lacks. Courage is the willingness to engage in a risk-taking behavior regardless of whether the consequences are unknown or possibly adverse. We are capable of courageous behavior provided we are willing to engage in it. Given that life offers few guarantees, all living requires risk-taking.

Alfred Adler

[A] private property regime makes people responsible for their own actions in the realm of material goods. Such a system therefore ensures that people experience the consequences of their own acts. Property sets up fences, but it also surrounds us with mirrors, reflecting back upon us the consequences of our own behavior.