Love for Behavioral Psychology – Positive Reinforcement

How does behavioral psychology explain love? In this text, we will explain the concept of positive reinforcement through Skinner’s behavioral psychology and understand the phrase “What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement?”

Hello friends!

Today I would like to talk to you about a sentence by BF Skinner, in which he uses a behavioral psychology concept created by him to define love. Skinner says, “What is Love if not another name for positive reinforcement?”

If we go to the original source, in English, in the book Walden Two, we will read: “What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa”. Therefore, a more adequate translation would be: “What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa”. The difference between the phrase we usually read in Portuguese and this second translation is small and subtle, however, it will be significant for us to better understand the relationship between love and positive reinforcement. To do so, we have to start by understanding what positive reinforcement is, so that we can then understand what love is for behavioral psychology from Skinner.

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What is positive reinforcement?

In 1938, Skinner coined the term operant conditioning, which we can understand as the behavioral change of an organism by the consequences inserted after its behavior.

Thus, when we are going to study the behavioral history of an organism (not just man), we can evaluate the increase or decrease of a given behavior as a consequence of what happened after the behavior was emitted. If after the behavior is emitted we introduce a stimulus that will make the behavior increase in frequency, we have a reinforcement. If we introduce a stimulus that will make the behavior subside, we have a punishment.

We therefore have 4 types of consequences that can occur after a behavior and make it increase or decrease:

1) Positive reinforcement

2) Negative reinforcement

3) Positive punishment

4) Negative punishment

To memorize the distinction between these 4 types, it is simple: Reinforcement is what makes the behavior increase in frequency (the person or organism does more) and punishment is what makes the behavior decrease (the person or organism does less). The positive or negative only concerns whether there is the introduction of a stimulus in the middle or if there is a withdrawal of a stimulus.

For example, when a father wants to increase his son’s studying behavior, he can give him a gift if he gets a good grade. The gift will likely increase studying behavior. Then we have the introduction of a stimulus that will make the child study more, that is, a positive reinforcement.

In negative reinforcement, we have increased behavior with the withdrawal of an aversive stimulus. For example, if I have a headache (aversive stimulus), I can take a medicine to stop the pain. With the withdrawal of pain, we have the probable increase in behavior in a future situation – the increase in taking a headache medicine.

In the book Science and Human Behavior, Skinner explains it this way:

“The events found to be reinforcing are of two kinds. Some reinforcements consist of presentation of stimuli, in adding something, for example, food, water or sexual contact – to the situation. These are called positive reinforcements. Others consist of removal from something, for example from too much noise, too bright a light, from extreme heat or cold or from an electric shock – from the situation. These are called reinforcements. negatives. In both cases the effect of reinforcement is the same: the probability of the response will be increased” (SKINNER, 2003, p. 81).

In positive punishment, we have the introduction of a stimulus that will cause the behavior to decrease. It is punishment because it makes the behavior decrease and it is positive because there is the introduction of a stimulus. If every time a subject says a rant like right, okay or ok he receives a slap in the face, the tendency is for the behavior of saying the rant to decrease (punishment) with the introduction (positive) of a stimulus.

And finally, in negative punishment, we have the withdrawal of a stimulus that causes the behavior to decrease in frequency. If the child gets a bad grade at school, the parent can withdraw a stimulus such as the cell phone, which will cause the behavior of taking bad grades to decrease.

Love as a use of positive reinforcement

We know how difficult it is to define love. If we are going to study historically, we will see definition attempts already in the Banquet, of Plato. This, incidentally, would be an excellent book to start studying the different types of love. Romantic, idealized love, erotic, sexual love, love between friends. But moving from Greek philosophy to behavioral psychology, we can say that love happens and remains as a result of the use of positive reinforcement.

To begin the analysis of Skinner’s phrase “What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa” and, considering what we learned in the topic above, let’s use some examples.

Any attentive observer will see that a small child, 4, 5 years old, is quite interesting. As the world still “revolves around her navel”, she judges who she likes best by what she gets. If we ask her if she likes her maternal or paternal grandmother more, she might say: “I like my paternal grandmother better because she gives me more gifts”. And it’s even interesting to note how many adults continue to maintain this selfish pattern. Anyway, in Skinner’s formulation, we have that love makes use of positive reinforcement. And this is a statement that is simple to understand and simple to observe:

When a couple is starting a relationship, pretty much all there is is positive reinforcement. They give each other gifts, compliments, caresses. They exchange all kinds of contacts that are pleasant. And when does a fight start?

A fight starts when there is no positive reinforcement, either when there is a positive punishment (introduction of an aversive stimulus) or negative punishment (withdrawal of a pleasant stimulus). For example, when there is criticism (positive punishment) instead of praise (positive reinforcement), when there is no response in the Whatsapp (negative punishment) rather than the immediate response (positive reinforcement).

I took the example of a beginning relationship because it becomes clearer that almost everything revolves around positive reinforcement. In addition to observable behaviors, we have to take into account what neuroscience has been describing about the substances of love. When a person falls in love, “love substances” are released, which, of course, will also influence behavior.

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With the gradual decrease of these substances, the passion decreases. But positive reinforcement, for whatever reason, need not diminish. If it doesn’t diminish, we find lasting relationships that, despite time, remain as stimulating as they were in the beginning.

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