A Behavioral Analysis of Motivation and its Relation to Mand Training

Introduction The field of behavior analysis has a long-standing, but confusing and conflicting treatment of motivation as a source of behavioral control. In many behavioral textbooks motivation is not considered as an independent variable, nor given its own chapter along with the other behavioral principles and major concepts (e.g., reinforcement, extinction, stimulus control, generalization). However, in all of Skinner's early books on behavior analysis motivation was presented as a basic principle of behavior. The primary purpose of the current chapter is to examine the behavioral analysis of motivation and its relation to mand training for persons with language delays. First however, a brief review of the history of a behavioral analysis of motivation will be provided In Behavior of Organisms (1938) Skinner devoted two chapters to the treatment of motivation; Chapter 9 titled " Drive " and Chapter 10 titled " Drive and Conditioning: The Interaction of Two Variables. " In Chapter 9, he presented his arguments against the term " drive " and the treatment of motivation common at that time. " The 'drive' is a hypothetical state interpolated between operation and behavior and is not actually required in a descriptive system " (p. 368). Skinner argued against the common practice of viewing drive as an internal causal variable, and proposed that environmental variables be the focus of the analysis. In the analysis of hunger for example, rather than talking about a " hunger drive " he proposed that the relation between food deprivation and its evocative effect on behavior be the focus of the analysis. Skinner argued, " The degree of hunger developed during the fast is, of course, increased, and the rate at which the rat begins to eat is therefore increased as well " (p. 350). Following his analysis of hunger, Skinner went on to suggest, " The formulation applied to hunger in the preceding pages may be extended to other drives " (p. 358). He also made it clear in the section titled " Drive Not a Stimulus " (pp. 374-376) that the type of antecedent control over behavior that occurs with motivation is not the same as the type of antecedent control exerted by discrimina-tive, unconditioned, or conditioned stimuli. The next significant development in the behavioral treatment of motivation occurred with the publication of Keller and Schoenfeld's book Principles of Psychology (1950). Chapter 9 was titled " Motivation " and contained several refinements of …